Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

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Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby DaveAgain » Wed Apr 28, 2021 3:22 pm

Rose Namajunas (UFC straw-weight champion) is a US citizen, but her parents are Lithuanian.

In a recent interview she mentioned that she makes a deliberate effort to practise her Lithuanian, translating mantras and diary entries, as other than conversations with her family members she has no opportunity to use it.

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On another thread Lawyer and Mom mentioned that immigrants' languages tend to disappear by the third generation.

EDIT
In another video Ms Namajunas speaks a little about her family/language background.
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby jmar257 » Thu Apr 29, 2021 1:47 pm

This is interesting, as someone who likes both languages and UFC. I knew Rose knew some Lithuanian but had not seen this (btw, her head kick knockout was great this past weekend). I always find it interesting to see which fighters are confident enough in their English to do the interviews afterwards, some rely on translators wholly, some do the interview fine, some do the interview via translator then say something in English at the end (showing they know some, but don't want to speak extemporaneously--can't blame them, they just went through a fight!). A moment this past weekend that caught me off-guard was Valentina Shevchenko speaking Spanish at the end of her post-fight interview, I missed most of it because I wasn't expecting it, but her Spanish seemed pretty good. As it turns out, she's been living in Peru since 2008.

Khabib is also known for knowing several languages--Avar, Russian, English, Turkish, and Arabic according to Wikipedia. His English, while not perfect, is definitely fluent, which makes sense given he's done a bunch of fight camps in the US.
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby Herschel » Sat May 01, 2021 1:51 pm

UFC and languages - I am not alone!

:lol:
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby rdearman » Sat May 01, 2021 3:49 pm

UFC ??? So for those of us who don't know what a straw person from UFC is???

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None, can't guess. OH! Is UFC a place?
United Federation of Causeways?

Nope, can't find it on the map.
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby Querneus » Sun May 02, 2021 2:27 am

rdearman wrote:UFC ??? So for those of us who don't know what a straw person from UFC is???

I am offended that you don't know Ultimate Fighting Championship!!
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby jmar257 » Sun May 02, 2021 11:03 pm

There was a moment this weekend that reminded me of this thread. Jiří Procházka has quickly become of one my favorite fighters* and went through an incredible fight with an amazing knockout this weekend. He is clearly still learning English but manages, but there's a funny clip of him not understanding what the word 'crowd' means at first (includes a swear word, so NSFW). After the fight he had just gone through, it's understandable to not be on top of your game in a foreign language.

*One of the others, Izzy Adesanya, is a native Yoruba speaker who will use it occasionally
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby rdearman » Mon May 03, 2021 9:19 am

Querneus wrote:
rdearman wrote:UFC ??? So for those of us who don't know what a straw person from UFC is???

I am offended that you don't know Ultimate Fighting Championship!!

Well I never heard of them. Pity I didn't get to see them before they stopped. Have they been banned or outlawed? Why is this the last one? I would have thought if they were that popular they would do more of them.
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby Fortheo » Mon May 03, 2021 12:47 pm

rdearman wrote:
Querneus wrote:
rdearman wrote:UFC ??? So for those of us who don't know what a straw person from UFC is???

I am offended that you don't know Ultimate Fighting Championship!!

Well I never heard of them. Pity I didn't get to see them before they stopped. Have they been banned or outlawed? Why is this the last one? I would have thought if they were that popular they would do more of them.


I'm not sure of you're feigning ignorance or not, but the UFC is a fighting promotion for mixed martial arts. It is actually interesting within the scope of this forum due to the fact that many of these fighters come from various parts of the world, and often times they come to the UFC only speaking their native language. As they gain fame, though, a lot of them start to pick up English and it's pretty interesting to watch how their language skills develop through time. The viewer also often gets to hear fighters speak multiple Languages in their post fight interviews.

On the other hand, the non English speaking fighters who don't learn English are often criticized by "hardcore fans" for not trying hard enough to market themselves. It's an unfortunate reality that the vast majority of the biggest stars in this sport speak English, so I understand where these fans are coming from, but it just sits wrong with me.

I digress. I'm just saying that there's a plethora of Interesting linguistic topics that could be brought up in regards to the UFC.
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby rdearman » Mon May 03, 2021 4:59 pm

Fortheo wrote:I'm not sure of you're feigning ignorance or not,

Not feigning ignorance, I have honestly never heard of it, probably just a USA thing. Although I was joking in reference to the word "Ultimate" whose first definition is:
happening at the end of a process; final.


I realise there are two definitions. Jokes you have to explain aren't funny. *sigh*
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Re: Rose Namajunas on practising Lithuanian

Postby jmar257 » Mon May 03, 2021 5:11 pm

rdearman wrote:
Fortheo wrote:I'm not sure of you're feigning ignorance or not,

Not feigning ignorance, I have honestly never heard of it, probably just a USA thing.

It's worldwide (in terms of events and athletes) although I'm not sure how big the following is in certain countries, it's pretty big in Brazil from what I understand. That said, I'm kind of shocked you haven't heard of it given there's been several British fighters, and also a mildly famous Irishman who has fought in the promotion.


Fortheo wrote:non English speaking fighters who don't learn English are often criticized by "hardcore fans" for not trying hard enough to market themselves. It's an unfortunate reality that the vast majority of the biggest stars in this sport speak English, so I understand where these fans are coming from, but it just sits wrong with me.
This is true that it happens, but it's not unique to those guys (and girls)--Stipe Miocic avoids publicity like the plague and people criticize him for it, and he's American. That said, I imagine for fighters from countries where the UFC isn't as popular (or the countries themselves just aren't big) they are foregoing some marketing by not learning English, but I imagine in the case of say, Brazilians, it doesn't matter as much since their country has a sizeable population.
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