Watch Your Language Blog

Announcing the Winners

We’re pleased to announce the winners of our Celebrate Italian Heritage Contest. ... More

Tags: Italian Heritage Month
November 18, 2009

 

Social Networks and Language Learning

A little while ago, we blogged about how internet terms are being translated into other languages. I recently changed my Facebook language setting to Arabic, hoping to acquire some technical Arabic. You just never know when you might need to use words like ﺇﻋﺩﺍﺩﺍﺖ ﺍﻠﺷﺑﻛﺎﺕ (network settings) and المطوّرون (developers)! ... More

Tags: facebook, language learning, Twitter
November 17, 2009

 

What English Sounds Like To Foreigners

This feels appropriate for Friday the 13th… We just came across this video in which some innovative (and groovy) Italians mimic the phonemic inventory and intonational contours of English with a bunch of gibberish. If you think you can pick out words and phrases from the string, just remember that it’s imagined, but it proves that he’s done a good job. (Alternate title: “What Bob Dylan Sounds Like To Everyone.”)

Tags: English, Italian
November 13, 2009

 

Email by Any Other Name …

Something to think about while you’re buying an iPhone™, Kindle™, laptop, or other internet-related gadget for the holidays—with so many new internet terms popping up in English these days, how are those terms being translated into other languages?... More

Tags: email, French, internet, purism, vocabulary
November 10, 2009

 

Do Newborns Cry in Different Languages?

According to one study, yes. ... More


November 6, 2009

 

Becoming Italian: At a Cafe, Online, and In Conversation

Dianne Hales closed out October with some great advice for using your Italian in different situations, from the caffè to the internet. A sampling after the jump…... More

Tags: Italian, Italian Heritage Month
November 3, 2009

 

Essential Italian: At Home

Here are some of the most important words you’ll need to talk about your home.... More

Tags: Italian, Italian Heritage Month
October 30, 2009

 

Would You Like to Participate in a Language Learning Group?

We’ve done a good deal of research on how to create a successful language course, and now we want to learn more about how our customers put it to use. To do this, we’re forming Language Learning Groups in Spanish and French, and we’re looking for twenty qualified participants for each language.... More

Tags: Complete Basic Course, French, language learning, language learning methods, Spanish
October 29, 2009

 

Are There “Happy Languages?”

In this interesting blog post, Olivia Judson asks whether certain languages predispose their speakers toward happiness more than other languages do.... More


October 28, 2009

 

Language Superlearners Survey

Michael Erard, author of Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean, is working on a new book about language superlearners and is looking for language speakers of any level to take part in a brief survey on language learning. Pitch in! If you speak six or more languages, click here. (Wow! Good for you.) If you do not have much experience with a language other than your mother tongue, click here. (This second category includes people who may have studied a language in high school or college, but wouldn’t consider themselves bilingual or multilingual.) More information on the book can be found here. We’ll be interested in seeing the results; goodness knows we love a good popular science language book.

Tags: bilingualism, multilingualism
October 28, 2009