Watch Your Language Blog

Multilingual Dog Training

Someone please add this to the list of, umm, bizarre ways to learn commands in a foreign language. If Finnish, Hebrew, Polish, and Hungarian aren’t enough, you can also train your dog in Icelandic. (ELHAM)


June 28, 2007

 

My Travel Words and Phrases: French Food

Part II in Shaina’s installment of essential French words and phrases covers the best part of traveling to Paris: food.... More


June 26, 2007

 

Mick Jagger speaks Catalan

Well, “better than average” anyway. Here’s a YouTube clip of his effort in Catalan. Mick, you know what the next step is; you have to start singing in Catalan. (ELHAM)


June 22, 2007

 

Vorsprung durch Technik

Of the many things the internet is good for, listing German expressions used in English is not the first thing we’d think of, but, well, wow. See also: List of Spanish words of Germanic origin. (SUZANNE)


June 20, 2007

 

Ni hao, Khartoum

Sudanese students are increasingly choosing Chinese as their preferred second language. (via The Morning News)... More


June 19, 2007

 

Newsy Links

There’s a lot of buzz in the news today about endangered languages, online language learning and what not, so we thought compiling a short post of “LLinks” would be appropriate:... More


June 18, 2007

 

Croatia on the Map

Croatia has been put on the map. I just love this English expression because it acknowledges so well what great scholars and writers took tomes to explain (Said and Pamuk are two very great examples)—that our very existence, so plain and obvious to us, is actually a matter of debate and perspective. We don’t “exist” until the influential and powerful say that we do. And then, like the Ancient Egyptians, we continue to exist only in profile and not at all en face or all around, because that is the only view they could assume, or cared to assume. ... More


June 12, 2007

 

Tony Soprano’s Shish Kebab

This might very well be the only post on the internet right now about “The Sopranos” that has nothing to do with the ending. ... More


June 11, 2007

 

Spelling Bees in Japan?

Slate published an article about how Spelling Bees are a distinctly American and British phenomenon, and other countries with nonalphabetic languages seem to lay more emphasis on recognizing and identifying characters and their meanings. If the idea of a Spelling Bee in Japan brings up images of interesting Japanese game shows, never fear, Kanken promises to be a fascinating (and pretty difficult) version of the Spelling Bee:... More


June 9, 2007

 

My Travel Words and Phrases: Parisian Transportation

I am fortunate enough to have traveled to Paris a good amount over the years. I therefore like to think of myself as only semi-lost there and perhaps able to impart something like wisdom. And so, on that expert basis, I offer you semi-regular installments of French words and phrases that I think will come in handy in the one of the most visited cities in the world. ... More


June 7, 2007

 

Reading the World

Two of my favorite things: languages and literature. But if you’ve ever been a beginner in any language, you know the frustrations of learning everything you need to know to get around Moscow, but still not being anywhere near the level you need to be in order to read War and Peace in the original Russian. ... More


June 5, 2007

 

Wir Sind Helden covers “When Your Heart Stops Beating” in German

iTunes Store is introducing the new “Foreign Exchange” program, where bands can translate, cover, and sell songs from different countries in their native languages. +44 will also be covering Wir Sind Helden’s “Guten Tag”. More importantly, this should lead to all sorts of interesting musicians covering each other’s songs. Like Melt Banana covering Jennifer Lopez. (On second thought, probably not a good idea.) (ELHAM)


June 4, 2007

 

oh hai, i has parsed ur sentencez

A linguistic appreciation of LOLcode, inspired by the LOLcat phenomenon. (via Language Log) (SUZANNE)


June 1, 2007