Gadling

Earlier today I took a little time to polish my silver jewelry (a chore I truly dislike doing) and couldn't help admiring an old piece of amber I'd gotten in San Francisco's China Town. It was my first real piece of amber and who would have guessed that piece would have inspired me to consider travel to the Baltic, where amber can be found in droves? At least that is what I'm told. The more I began looking at the different kinds of amber;green, yellow and brown and discovering how unique each one was I couldn't  help thinking what it must be like shopping for it in Europe.

Today's word is a Latvian word used in Latvia:

dzintars - amber

I'm not certain how Latvia ranks in finding extremely unique pieces of dzintars or amber, but a day spent shopping for jewelry in Latvia has got to be quite different than the time I spent in China Town.

To learn Latvian online for free you'll need to be resourceful. Start with this Latvian Institute website full of info on the country and a short page dedicated to the lang and some common words which include axe, broom, pea, and beard. The Latvian tourism site has few, but far more useful in terms of greetings. If you're more about face-to-face language practice head to the American Latvian Association's annual meeting this coming April. As always find out who on My Language Exchange would be willing to help.

Past Latvian words: cirvis

Filed under: Learning, Europe, Latvia