Goal: Discuss social change.
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Now hear it and say it
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Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keepNomin and her grandmother disagree
Dulmaa has come down from Arkhangai for a week to see a doctor at Saraa's hospital. At dinner the talk turned into a real debate between grandmother and granddaughter.
Dulmaa thinks the countryside is emptying because the young all want to live in the city. Nomin thinks young people simply go where the schools and the jobs are.
I listened and kept quiet for a long time. In the end I said what I really thought: both of them were right.
| Mongolian | English |
|---|---|
| залуус | young people |
| ахмад | elder, senior (ахмадууд: the elders) |
| үе | generation (залуу үе, ахмад үе) |
| хотжих | to become urban, to urbanise |
| хотжилт | urbanisation |
| өөрчлөлт | change |
| орчин үеийн | modern |
| уламжлал | tradition |
| маллах | to herd, to look after livestock |
| үлдэх | to stay, to remain |
| өөрөөр бодох | to think differently |
| хоёулаа | both, the two of us (or you) |
| улам | more and more, even more |
| зах | collar |
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| залуу | young; a young person |
| залуус | young people, the young (as a group) |
| ахмад | elder, senior; ахмадууд, the elders |
| залуу үе / ахмад үе | the younger / the older generation |
| орчин үе | modern times; орчин үеийн, modern |
залуус is a plural of залуу in –с, and it is the usual word for "the young" in a debate or a newspaper. ахмад is respectful: it means older people as people who deserve respect, never just "old".
Add –жих to хот (city) and you get a verb, хотжих, "to become city-like, to urbanise". Add –лт, the suffix of lesson 153, and you have the name of the process: хотжилт, urbanisation.
Lesson 159 gave you –даг байсан, "used to": a habit that belongs to the past. Its partner is –даг болсон, "have come to do": a habit that is new. Put the two side by side and you can describe almost any social change.
The only change is the last word: байсан says the habit is over, болсон says the habit has begun.
улам in front of an adjective or a verb of change means "more and more, even more".
With an elder, never say that they are wrong. Say that you see it differently: Би өөрөөр бодож байна, or the more formal Би тантай санал нийлэхгүй байна (lesson 142), and keep та and эмээ. Nomin disagrees with her grandmother all evening and never once loses that tone.
Go deeper in the grammar guide: The four Mongolian pasts · How Mongolian builds new words
Today almost half of all Mongolians live in Ulaanbaatar. Many families moved to the city after hard winters (зуд, lesson 162) killed their herds, and settled in the ger districts around it.
Dulmaa's proverb, Хүн ахтай, дээл захтай, says that just as every deel has a collar, every person has elders to respect. You will hear it whenever the young and the old disagree, usually said by the old.
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Lesson done? Train your ear
This written course teaches you to read and write. The LIMBA audio course makes you speak: 24 lessons of 12 to 15 minutes, recorded with a native speaker. You listen, you repeat, you answer — the perfect partner for these pages.
Download the Mongolian audio course24 audio lessons · MP3 · yours to keep