{"id":7280,"date":"2020-07-14T15:14:11","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T15:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/?p=7280"},"modified":"2021-02-02T13:46:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T13:46:36","slug":"how-to-say-hai-to-a-shark-this-shark-awareness-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/how-to-say-hai-to-a-shark-this-shark-awareness-day\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Say \u2018Hai\u2019 to a Shark This Shark Awareness Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-511992494.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-511992494.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-511992494-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-511992494-700x467.jpg 700w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-511992494-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-511992494-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/GettyImages-511992494-120x80.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Today is Shark Awareness Day, a chance to raise the profile of a type of fish vital to our ecosystem that has, in some form or another, been roaming this planet for over 400 million years. (That\u2019s before dinosaurs even existed, in case you were wondering!) But what do sharks have to do with language learning? Well, as part of the natural world they have long been part of various different cultures \u2013 whether loved or hated \u2013 and as we all know, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/2020\/03\/27\/what-does-the-loch-ness-monster-have-to-do-with-language-learning\/\"><em>culture and language go hand in hand<\/em><\/a><em>. Read our latest post to find out who likes sharks the most and how they can help you learn a new language!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<style>\n.videoWrapper {\n  position: relative;\n  padding-bottom: 56.25%; \/* 16:9 *\/\n  height: 0;\n}\n.videoWrapper iframe {\n  position: absolute;\n  top: 0;\n  left: 0;\n  width: 100%;\n  height: 100%;\n}\n\nh2 {\nfont-weight: bold;\n}\n\n<\/style>\n\n\n\n<style>\n#toc_container {\nbackground: #f9f9f9 none repeat scroll 0 0;\nborder: 1px solid #aaa;\ndisplay: table;\nfont-size: 125%;\nmargin: 2em 0 2em 0;\npadding: 20px;\nwidth: auto;\n}\n.toc_title {\nfont-weight: 700;\ntext-align: center;\nfont-size: 150%;\ncolor: #300d62;\n}\n#toc_container li, #toc_container ul, #toc_container ul li{\nlist-style: outside none none !important;\n} <\/style>\n\n<div id=\"toc_container\">\n<p class=\"toc_title\">Contents<\/p>\n<ul class=\"toc_list\">\n<li><a href=\"#question_1\">Sharks around the world<\/a>\n<li><a href=\"#question_2\">Where does the word &#8216;shark&#8217; come from?<\/a>\n<li><a href=\"#question_3\">How can sharks help you learn languages?<\/a>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Although they looked little like the fish we know today, sharks have been swimming through our oceans for around 420 million years. Nowadays, your first feeling on seeing one might be that of fear \u2013 but this hasn\u2019t always been the case and certainly isn\u2019t a global experience.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"padding: 1em 0em 1em 0em;\"><h2 id=\"question_1\">Sharks around the world<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Admittedly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seeker.com\/shark-culture-how-do-we-connect-with-sharks-1765377112.html\">the Ancient Greeks did write about Ketea<\/a>, a shark-like creature which embodied insatiable, ravenous hunger; Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer, named them \u2018dogfish\u2019 and described their attacks on pearl divers. Hawaiians, however, have had a very different historical relationship with sharks, both using them as a food and material resource, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaiimagazine.com\/content\/cultural-significance-sharks-hawaii\">as well as holding them in reverence as aumakua<\/a> \u2013 ancestors reincarnated as animals to become family guardians. Not all sharks are aumakua, of course; most Hawaiians consider just one species to be their family guardian.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This multifaceted view of sharks is also shared by a large number of Aboriginal Australians. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mesa.edu.au\/seaweek2005\/pdf_senior\/is08.pdf\">Those who lived along the coast have also been, historically, more exposed to sharks and are more familiar with them<\/a>. One belief was that sharks (and rays, which are related to sharks) were placed in the world by ancestors to feed their descendants and this link between ancestors, food species, and living humans was shown through the landscape. When certain plants bloomed, Aboriginal hunters knew that the sharks and stingrays were ready to harvest, the flowers being a sign from their ancestors that food was ready for another season. As well as being a food species, sharks were viewed with reverence, their strength and values being used as models for human behaviour.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These examples \u2013 just two of many \u2013 show a much more nuanced view of sharks from communities who were very familiar with them. It is understandable, too, why <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipsos.com\/en-us\/sharks-half-51-americans-are-absolutely-terrified-them-and-many-38-scared-swim-ocean-because-them\">half of all Americans are scared of sharks<\/a>, with pop culture being a breeding ground for a negative image of the animals. This has impacted sharks, too \u2013 one example is that population numbers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/magazine-33049099\">dropped 50% along the eastern seaboard of North America in years following the release of the film <em>Jaws<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em>&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Considering the important role sharks play in ocean ecosystems (as apex predators, they keep prey population numbers under control), now it is more important than ever to reflect on our view of sharks \u2013 after all, <a href=\"https:\/\/healthebay.org\/vending-machines-more-hazardous-than-sharks\/\">you\u2019re twice as likely to be killed by a vending machine than in a shark attack<\/a>!<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"padding: 1em 0em 1em 0em;\"><h2 id=\"question_2\">Where does the word &#8216;shark&#8217; come from?<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The short answer is: no one knows. Well, not for sure \u2013 but that\u2019s the case an awful lot of the time when it comes to the origin of words.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.deepseanews.com\/2012\/01\/whats-in-a-name-origins-of-the-word-shark\/\">first mention of \u2018shark\u2019 in a dictionary comes from 1689 to mean a \u2018shifting knave\u2019<\/a>, like how we\u2019d use it in the term \u2018card shark\u2019, someone who cheats at card games. Bailey\u2019s Dictionary, from 1724, lists \u2018scearan\u2019 as the origin of the word, which is a Saxon term that means \u2018cut to pieces\u2019.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That seems a little closer to a European impression of sharks, especially at the time.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.oup.com\/2012\/05\/word-origin-shark\/\">the modern-day Oxford English Dictionary says the word \u2018shark\u2019 is of unknown origin<\/a>. What\u2019s also interesting to note is that the word for a shark varies across even European languages \u2013 French is requin, German is Hai, Spanish is tibur\u00f3n, Italian is squalo\u2026 No one seems to have agreed.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mesoweb.com\/pari\/publications\/RT07\/Xoc-OCR.pdf\">An interesting theory is that the word \u2018shark\u2019 actually comes from the Yucatec Maya language, where sharks are called xoc<\/a> (\u2018x\u2019, here, being pronounced like English \u2018sh\u2019). This would make it the only Mayan loanword in the English language. The story behind this is that John Hawkins, on an expedition from England to the Caribbean in the late 1560s, got into a battle with some Spanish ships off the coast of the Yucatan (colonial Mexico). Several ships were destroyed and there were heavy losses; the English sailors gathered together, eventually, on a single ship and turned to head home.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the linked article, Jones suggests that there would likely have been a shark feeding frenzy after the battle and that this would have been enough to leave a devastating impression on the survivors. Whether or not this is how \u2018shark\u2019 entered the English language still remains to be seen.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it does fill in an important gap: Spain conquered Mexico in 1521 and therefore had much more contact with the Mayans, so it would seem more probable that they would have picked up this Mayan word, \u2018xoc\u2019 and borrowed it into Spanish. Instead, the Spanish have their own word, \u2018tibur\u00f3n\u2019, which is also of unknown origin, though you are much more likely to see a shark along the Spanish coast than the English one!&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the English word: English explorers still had limited contact with Mayan people and it may just be that this one dramatic event was enough to make the word \u2018xoc\u2019 stick. Linguists are still divided, of course \u2013 so perhaps \u2018shark\u2019 will always just be a mystery.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"padding: 1em 0em 1em 0em;\"><h2 id=\"question_3\">How can sharks help you learn languages?<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously, sharks don\u2019t communicate the same way humans do \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sharks-world.com\/shark_communication\/\">they tend to rely on body language, or their incredible sense of smell<\/a> \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t be useful when it comes to learning a language!&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you happen to have kids and (somehow!) aren\u2019t completely done with the Baby Shark song, there are plenty of multilingual versions available on YouTube. This one has 17 different languages, including Portuguese, Korean, and even Navajo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"videoWrapper\">\n  <!-- Copy & Pasted from YouTube -->\n  <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/a7os7nf8Sk0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<br>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to learn more about sharks <em>and <\/em>work on your reading skills? <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shark\">The Wikipedia page for sharks is available in over 125 languages<\/a> \u2013 surely you\u2019re learning one of those?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, if you just want to know how to say the word \u2018shark\u2019 in more than 120 languages, then hit the button below to get a random translation!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"quoteDisplay\" align=\"center\" style=\"font-size: 2em; font-family: circular, helvetica, sans-serif;\" padding=\"1em 0em 0em 1em;\">\n\t<!-- Quotes will display here -->\n<\/div><br \/><br \/>\n<center>\n<button onclick=\"newQuote()\" style=\"font-size: 2em; padding: 10px;\">Get a shark! \ud83e\udd88<\/button><\/center>\n\n\n<script>\nvar quotes = [\n'shark - English',\n'le requin - French',\n'der Hai - German',\n'el tibur\u00f3n - Spanish',\n'lo squalo - Italian',\n'\u0430\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - ak\u00fala, Russian',\n'de haai - Dutch',\n'o tubar\u00e3o - Portuguese',\n'en haj - Swedish',\n'en hai - Norwegian',\n'en haj - Danish',\n'hai - Finnish',\n'c\u00e1pa - Hungarian',\n'\u03bf \u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 - o karkhar\u00edas, Greek',\n'k\u00f6pek bal\u0131\u011f\u0131 - Turkish',\n'\u9ca8\u9c7c - sh\u0101 y\u00fa, Mandarin Chinese',\n\t'\u30b5\u30e1 - same, Japanese',\n\t'siarc - Welsh',\n\t'kelb il-ba\u0127ar - Maltese',\n\t'\u017eralok - Czech',\n\t'\u017eralok - Slovak',\n\t'morski pas - Croatian',\n\t'\u0430\u0458\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - ajkula, Serbian',\n\t'\u0430\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - akula, Bulgarian',\n\t'rekin - Polish',\n\t'rechinul - Romanian',\n\t'\u0936\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0915 - shark, Hindi',\n\t'ushaka - Zulu',\n\t'papa - Swahili',\n\t'leruarua - Tswana',\n\t'h\u00e1karl - Icelandic',\n\t'haai - Afrikaans',\n\t'jerung - Malay',\n\t'hiu - Indonesian',\n\t'\u0e1b\u0e25\u0e32\u0e09\u0e25\u0e32\u0e21 - bhla-chlarm, Thai',\n\t'c\u00e1 m\u1eadp - Vietnamese',\n\t'\uc0c1\uc5b4 - sang-uh, Korean',\n\t'sak - Tok Pisin',\n\t'an siorc - Irish',\n\t'ukrebe - Xhosa',\n\t'peshkaqen - Albanian',\n\t'\u9bca\u9b5a - saa jyu - Cantonese',\n\t'\u09b9\u09be\u0999\u09b0 - hangor, Bengali',\n\t'\u0a36\u0a3e\u0a30\u0a15 \u0a2e\u0a71\u0a1b\u0a40 - sharak machhi, Indian Punjabi',\n\t'\u0936\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0915 - shark, Marathi',\n\t'\u09b9\u09be\u0999\u09f0 - haangor, Assamese',\n\t'\u0cb7\u0cbe\u0cb0\u0ccd\u0c95\u0ccd - shark, Kannada',\n\t'\u0ab6\u0abe\u0ab0\u0acd\u0a95 - shark, Gujarati',\n\t'\u0d38\u0d4d\u0d30\u0d3e\u0d35\u0d4d - sraavu, Malayalam',\n\t'\u0c38\u0c4a\u0c30 \u0c1a\u0c47\u0c2a - sora chepa, Telugu',\n\t'\u0b9a\u0bc1\u0bb1\u0bbe - suraa, Tamil',\n\t'selachus - Latin',\n\t'morski pes - Slovenian',\n\t'\u0f49\u0f0b\u0f46\u0f7a\u0f53\u0f0b\u0f64\u0f71\u0f62\u0f90\u0f0d - ngya chhen shark - Tibetan',\n\t'su pischecane - Sardinian',\n\t'el taur\u00f3 - Catalan',\n\t'marrazoa - Basque',\n\t'an cearban - Scottish Gaelic',\n\t'hai - Estonian',\n\t'haizivs - Latvian',\n\t'ryklys - Lithuanian',\n\t'\u123b\u122d\u12ad - shark, Amharic',\n\t'reken - Haitian Creole',\n\t'ak\u1ee5m - Igbo',\n\t'eja akurakuda - Yoruba',\n\t'\u178f\u17d2\u179a\u17b8\u1786\u17d2\u179b\u17b6\u1798 - trey chhlam',\n\t'\u0e9b\u0eb2\u0eaa\u0eb0\u0eab\u0ebc\u0eb2\u0ea1 - pa-sa-laam',\n\t'pating - Tagalog',\n\t'\u0430\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - akula, Ukranian',\n\t'sharkagh - Manx',\n\t'\u0936\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0915 - shark, Nepali',\n\t'dr Hei - Swiss German',\n\t'libaax-badeed - Somali',\n\t'mako - M\u0101ori',\n\t'\u1004\u102b\u1038\u1019\u1014\u103a\u1038 - na man, Burmese',\n\t'den Hai - Luxembourgish',\n\t'shak - Hausa',\n\t'\u10d6\u10d5\u10d8\u10d2\u10d4\u10dc\u10d8 - zvigeni, Georgian',\n\t'\u0430\u0458\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - ajkula, Macedonian',\n\t'\u0577\u0576\u0561\u0571\u0578\u0582\u056f - shnadzuk, Armenian',\n\t'\u0430\u0432\u0430\u0440\u0433\u0430 \u0437\u0430\u0433\u0430\u0441 - avarag zagas, Mongolian',\n\t'hove huru - Shona',\n\t'antsantsa - Malagasy',\n\t'eqalussuaq - Greenlandic',\n\t'semas\u00ee - Kurmanji Kurdish',\n\t'\u0db8\u0ddd\u0dbb\u0dcf - mooraa, Sinhala',\n\t'\u0430\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - ak\u016bla, Kazakh',\n\t'k\u00f6p\u0259k bal\u0131\u011f\u0131 - Azerbaijani',\n\t'\u0430\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - akula, Belarusian',\n\t'\u0430\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - ak\u016bla, Uzbek',\n\t'\u0430\u043a\u0443\u043b\u0430 - akula, Kyrgyz',\n\t'\u043d\u0430\u04b3\u0430\u043d\u0433 - nahang, Tajiki',\n\t'akula - Turkmen',\n\t'nsomba ya shaki - Chichewa',\n\t'malie - Samoan',\n\t'\u0ab6\u0abe\u0ab0\u0acd\u0a95 - shark, Kachchi',\n\t'shark - Tumbuka',\n\t'lukwata - Luganda',\n\t'a quenlla - Galician',\n\t'\u12a8\u120d\u1262 \u12d3\u1233 - kelbi a\\'asa, Tigrinya',\n\t'requin - Lingala',\n\t'iho - Cebuano',\n\t'ajkula - Bosnian',\n\t'icisabi icakulisha - Chibemba',\n\t'\u0f64\u0f71\u0f42\u0f0b - shark, Dzongkha',\n\t'\u015darko - Esperanto',\n\t'qio - Fijian',\n\t'de haai - Flemish',\n\t'pating - Ilocano',\n\t'hiu - Javanese',\n\t'ifi nini - Kinyarwanda',\n\t'\u0b36\u0b3e\u0b30\u0b4d\u0b15\u0b4d - shark, Oriya',\n\t'gaynde geej - Wolof',\n\t'\u1f41 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u1f77\u1fb1\u03c2 - ho karkhar\u00ed\u0101s, Ancient Greek',\n\t'\\'o squalo - Neapolitan',\n\t'u squalu - Sicilian',\n\t'shairk - Scots',\n\t'hajje - Southern Saami',\n\t'\u9ca8\u9c7c - s\u016b \u0113n, Shanghainese',\n\t'shark - Nigerian Pidgin',\n\t'shaarkii - Oromo',\n\t'el tiburon - Ladino'\n]\n\nfunction newQuote() {\nvar randomNumber = Math.floor(Math.random() * (quotes.length));\ndocument.getElementById('quoteDisplay').innerHTML = quotes[randomNumber];\n}\n<\/script>\n<br>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy Shark Awareness Day!<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is Shark Awareness Day, a chance to raise the profile of a type of fish vital to our ecosystem that has, in some form or another, been roaming this planet for over 400 million years. (That\u2019s before dinosaurs even existed, in case you were wondering!) But what do sharks have to do with language &#8230; <a title=\"How to Say \u2018Hai\u2019 to a Shark This Shark Awareness Day\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/how-to-say-hai-to-a-shark-this-shark-awareness-day\/\" aria-label=\"More on How to Say \u2018Hai\u2019 to a Shark This Shark Awareness Day\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[46,52,1836],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}