What language do Mongolians speak?

[question from Sam, Julia and Tonicha]

Mongolians have their very own language - Mongolian! The Mongolian language is quite difficult, as it is very different to most European languages. However, there are a few words that are similar – for example, “komputer” (computer). I’ve found the language quite tough to learn, but am improving every day. Here are a few useful phrases that I’ve learnt so far:

Sain bain uu? – Hello, how are you?
Tim – Yes
Ogui – No
Ootchlarei! – Sorry!
Saihan amrarei – Have a good rest
Gal dzuu! – Crazy! (especially useful when a car almost runs you over)

The Cyrillic Alphabet

Mongolians use a different alphabet to the one we use – the “Cyrillic Alphabet”. Many countries in the world use the Cyrillic Alphabet, perhaps the best known country is Russia. You can see how Cyrillic works in the picture below (the Cyrillic alphabet is in the grey column, and our own Latin alphabet is in the white columns):

Here’s a challenge for all of you - see if you can work out what this sentence means:

ßeЛЛ ДOНe, ЙОУ КАН РeАД СЙРИЛЛИК!

To see the answer, just hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse over the next line:
Well done, you can read Cyrillic!