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Categories
- Did you know? (30)
- Essays (17)
- Foreign exchanges (13)
- News (69)
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- Tips on language learning (21)
The hardest language
It’s common to hear people arguing over which language is “the hardest” to learn. The answer is: all of them - and none of them. People are often scared to learn a language that is vastly different from their own, and this makes certain languages seem more difficult than others. You may fear learning Chinese simply because it has few sounds similar to our own, and because it has such a different writing system to the English alphabet. But did you know that, in Chinese, you don’t have to worry about plurals or verb conjugation?... More
Tags: Chinese, grammar, newsletter
March 24, 2008
Translating “personal space”
I came to this country as, I thought, a fairly proficient speaker of English, but, naturally, I soon realized there was much more for me to learn. What I did know was vocabulary and grammar, but I was rather ignorant about the rules of everyday conversation.... More
Tags: Croatia, culture shock, customs, newsletter
March 24, 2008
Pronouncing Arabic
As with most languages, one of the most challenging aspects of learning Arabic is sounding like a native speaker, or developing the skills to reproduce specific sounds. Everyone faces this issue, but it is even more difficult if you’re learning a language (like Arabic) that doesn’t have the same linguistic roots as your native language. For example, it is difficult for Arabic speakers to perfect the sound “p” in English, since the letter doesn’t exist in Arabic. Similarly, for native English speakers, the Arabic letter Haa is often very challenging since it has no English counterpart. (Pretending to clear your throat with an “ahem” would get you close to producing the sound.)... More
Tags: Arabic, audio, newsletter, pronunciation
March 24, 2008
The Attraction and Compulsion of Language in Schools
Voice of America checks in with American public schools and their foreign language programs, and finds that they’re growing in popularity. Great Britain, meanwhile, is in the midst of large-scale language reform in their educational system, which, starting in 2010, will make foreign language study compulsory for all children aged 7 to 14, as The Guardian reports. (SUZANNE)
Tags: foreign language education
March 21, 2008
Monkey Syntax
Scientists have discovered that monkeys have a richer vocabulary than previously thought. “Hack hack hack pyow hack hack” might not mean much to human ears, but to a putty-nosed monkey it means, “I’m adult male X; I have just seen an eagle; I will now move away,” according to a new study showing that primates can combine individual calls to express different meanings. So there’s monkey syntax; does this means that there are also monkey misunderstandings and simian slips? (SUZANNE)
March 11, 2008
We’re Talking About Language
I sometimes fear that when we get started talking about language, this is what we sound like to our co-workers.
(SUZANNE)
Tags: linguistics
March 10, 2008
Marion Cotillard Breaks the Language Boundary
Okay, so I know I’m a week late on this, but there’s been much ado made over the fact that the top four acting prizes went to non-Americans. That’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about — what’s amazing to me, rather — was Marion Cotillard’s win for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Môme, or, as it was titled here, La Vie En Rose.... More
Tags: American Sign Language, French
March 3, 2008
