This blog is written from the perspective of an English as a Second Language teacher. It will provide fellow educators with an overview of the fascinating facets of Mongolian culture and language. I hope this blog will be informative, and will benefit not only teachers, but students as well.
- The Mongolian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet similar to Russian - The Mongolian alphabet has 35 letters - The “direction of writing is from left to right in vertical columns running from top to bottom” (www.koreanhistoryproject.org) - Mongolian spelling “is generally simple, because most words are spelled like they sound” (www.koreanhistoryproject.org) - Mongolian vocabulary has “picked up a great many loan words from Old Turkic, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese” (www.transparent.com) - More modern vocabulary has roots in Russian, Chinese and English - New words are often “formed by translating foreign terms into new words formed with Mongolian roots” (www.transparent.com)
-The Mongolian word order is "subject-object-verb." To say, "I am going to the store" in Mongolian would be simply, "I store go” (www.koreanhistoryproject.org) -There are no definite articles and the language “makes very little distinction between nouns and adjectives” (www.wikipedia.org) -There are also no prepositions -Mongolian nouns “have case, meaning that they change form to indicate their role in a sentence” (www.wikipedia.org) -Eight cases exist including “nominative (marks the subject of a verb), genitive (possessive), dative (indicates the noun to whom something is given), accusative(marks the direct object of the transitive verb), ablative (marks motion away from something), instrumental (noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action), comitative ( also called associative, it denotes companionship), and directional (indicates motion to a location)” (www.wikipedia.org) -Mongolian nouns do not have gender -One distinctive aspect of the Mongolian language is called vowel harmony -Vowel harmony is “common in Turkish and Manchurian” (www.linguamongolia.co) -The concept of vowel harmony “means that a word can only contain either back vowels (a, o, u) or front vowels (e, ö, ü), but not both at the same time, with the exception only of a certain limited amount of words” (www.linguamongolia.co) -“I” is neutral and “can therefore occur in both front and back voweled words” (www.linguamongolia.co) -Vowel harmony “affects two sets of letters, γ/q and g/k, with the former being only in back-voweled words and the latter only in front-voweled words” (www.linguamongolia.co) -Mongolian is an agglutinative language where “words are often formed from simple roots combined with suffixes that extend or change the meaning” (www.wikipedia.org)
-The Mongolian language has both long and short vowel sounds, “but long vowel sounds only occur in the first syllable of a word” (www.wikipedia.org) -There are fourteen vowels in the Mongolian language: seven short and seven long -The distinction “ between long and short vowels is critical, since their use is closely tied to the meaning of words: tos is "grease, oil," while toos is "dust” (www.koreanhistoryproject.org) -The letter “r” is never used to begin a word -The letter "f" is used only in foreign loan words and is often changed to "p." -Word pronunciation can be challenging since many Mongolian words are very long,with a lot of vowels -Letter pronunciation “isn't very difficult, since Mongolian uses sounds that are not unfamiliar to speakers of most other languages” (www.wikipedia.org) -One difficult sound is “the "h" in Romanized Mongolian (often Romanized as "kh").In the Cyrillic alphabet, this character is written as x and indicates a sound that does not exist in modern English” (www.koreanhistoryproject.org) -The “kh” sound “survived Old English and in Scottish English ("loch"), and can be found in German, Arabic, Turkish and a number of other modern languages” (www.koreanhistoryproject.org) -It is similar to the “German pronunciation of "ch" in nacht,like the sound you make when gargling or clearing your throat” (www.koreanhistoryproject.org)
LISTEN TO THIS VIDEO TO HEAR THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE MONGOLIAN LANGUAGE
New Years Day - January 1st Tsagaan Tsar (Lunar New Year)- early February depending on phases of the moon International Woman’s Day - March 8th Mother and Child Day – June 1 Naadam (National Games) - July 11th - 13th Independence Day - November 26th
MONGOLIAN BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS
Birthdays in Mongolia are very important when a child turns one. There is always a congratulation banquet held on this special day. After a person’s first birthday all birthday banquets are held on the first day of the first lunar month, along with the Spring Festival. Due to superstition, there are no banquets for one's 13th, 25th, 37th or 49th birthday. Ages 61, 73 and 85 are extra-special birthdays, and traditional holds that when an adult turns this age, their children must send party invitations to family and friends before the big banquet.
MONGOLIAN CELEBRATIONS
Naadam is the most important celebration in Mongolia. It is a three day event and is known as “the three games of men”.The games are Mongolian wrestling, horseracing and archery and are held throughout the country during the summer holidays.
Tsagaan Tsar is a festival where “On the morning of the New Year traditionally the head of the family goes outside and walks in a direction which is prescribed in a book of Buddhist astrology. During New Years day itself, the children honour their senior relatives. They start with their parents and then following the rules of genealogical seniority the other relatives, presenting them an amount of white food or pastry. White and blue scarves, khadag, are presented to the most honoured" (www.wikipedia.com).
Mongolian food generally consists of meat and dairy products. The cooking process is usually very simple, without many spices, flavourings, or sauces. The most common meats are mutton, camel, and horse. Mongolian barbecue is very popular at festivals and consists of stir-frying meats and vegetables over a large round griddle. This style of cooking originates from Taiwan.
Buuz are large meat-filled dumplings that are popular Mongolian cuisine because of their simplicity. They are traditionally steamed in large batches, and filled with minced mutton and a little garlic seasoning.
The Mongolian drink of choice is called "airag". This beverage is made from fermented mare's milk and has an acidic taste. It is a great thirst quencher, and is always present as festivals and parties.
MONGOLIAN CLOTHING/FASHION
Traditional Mongolian clothing was made for nomadic life in the mountains. The del is the traditional garment for workdays and special occasions. It is a long tunic with a sash tied at the waist, that wraps around on the right side.
Mongolia is also famous for traditional headwear worn for protection and the designation of rank or status. This headwear includes conical hats, broad brimmed and upturned brim hats, bonnets, and hoods made from a variety of materials. Mongolian hats are often lined with fur. Since wrestling is an important part of Mongolian culture, wrestlers' costumes are very dynamic.Wrestlers traditionally wear a “short-sleeved jacket that exposes the breast, very full trousers, embroidered leggings, a loincloth of embellished silk, and leather boots with upturned toes”.
HOME ROUTINES IN MONGOLIA
Gender roles in Mongolia are often very traditional with men working outdoors, and women looking after the house and children. It is common for several generations of families to live together in a nomadic camp known as a khot ail ("group of tents") and share herding tasks.
FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT
Many people go to Ulaanbaatar to ski in the winter. Wrestling, archery, and horse racing are the three most popular sports.Many people who live in the capital visit Ulaanbaatar's State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the State Drama Theatre or the Folk Song and Dance Ensemble for a night on the town. Shopping is popular and there is a famous black market in Ulaanbaatar that is a huge flea market.
Music is an important part of traditional Mongolian entertainment. Throat singing is part of Mongolian culture and occurs by “tensing vocal chords and pressing air through them with great force” (www.wikipedia.com). Listen to this example of Mongolian throat singing:
The mouth harp is also a traditional Mongolian instrument that is still very popular.
Many Mongolians do not value their complex extended families. The more intimate intermediate family, however, is considered sacred, and is valued greatly. Nomadic families share a close bond because they always travel together, and live in the same yurt, with children sleeping on one side, and the parents on the other. There is a high birthrate in Mongolia, and families tend to have many children.
Check out this video! You will see how a traditional Mongolian home (Yurt) is made. You will also get a tour of the inside, and see just how close Mongolian families live together! Notice the traditional music at the beginning of the video. ENJOY!
VIEWS ABOUT SUCCESS
Mongolians are generally very superstitious and believe that success comes from good omens. They also believe that success can be taken away at any moment by pointing a cigarette at someone else while smoking, spilling a glass of sacred milk, and by stepping on the threshold of someone else's yurt. Many Mongolians hold the simplistic and beautiful view that success is owning land, having a garden, raising horses, and being self-sufficient while living off the land.
VIEWS ABOUT FRIENDSHIP/HOSPITALITY
Mongolians are often quiet, introspective people with only a few family friends. They are extremely hospitable and welcome guests into their yurt at any time. Since visitors often travel far distances, Mongolians treat their guests like royalty, and traditionally serve lots of vodka and beef filled dumplings called buuz when they arrive. It is also tradition to slaughter the family's best livestock in honour of the guests.
MONGOLIAN EDUCATION
In the early 20th century, education was controlled by Buddhist monasteries, and was a priviledge that was limited to monks. As a result of this, many Mongolian elders are illiterate with no education. There are also many people who live nomadic lifestyles who have never been to school becuase of transportation or farming challenges. In the late 20th century, the Mongolian government made a lot of changes to their educational mandates and declared that all children must complete eight years of schooling, and that English must be taught at all schools. Mongolia has one university located in its capital Ulaanbaatar where men and women can study science, English, math and other subjects.
THE MONGOLIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
RELIGION IN MONGOLIA
Around 50% of Mongolia's population is Lamast Buddhist, also known as Tibetan Buddhism. Approximately 6% of Mongolia's population is Shamanist and Christian, 4% are Muslim (mostly Kazakhs living in the west), and a staggering 40% of Mongolians declare themselves as not religious. Mongolians tend to be proud of their buddhist heritage and the Dalai Lama is one of their most beloved heroes.
Today, there are still many Mongolian Lamas who are similar to shamans in that they predict the future and fall into trances.
Hello and welcome to my blog! I hope that this information will help fellow ESL teachers gain insight into Mongolian culture and language. It is my ultimate goal to encourage educators to celebrate students' heritages and to embrace the unique perspective Mongolian ELLs bring to our classrooms.
