If you have trouble reading this email, go to http://www.randomhouse.com/livinglanguage/newsletter |
 |
||
 |
 |
|
 |
||
 |
Fan us on Facebook |  |
Follow us on Twitter |
 |
|||
 |
When a French word isn't quite what it seems ...In the April newsletter, you saw that many, many French terms pop up on American English menus. However, sometimes they can be deceptive—just because the terms come from French doesn't mean they also have the same meaning in the modern French language.For example, if you thought that the English word entrée, commonly used to mean main course in American English, came from French, you would be right! However, did you know that in French, entrée doesn't mean main course but rather appetizer or starter? Kind of a big difference, isn't it? Read more >> |
||
 |
|||
|
Signor Domani Mattina When I arrived in Italy for the first time in 1983 I knew only one Italian sentence: "Mi dispiace, ma non parlo italiano" ("I'm sorry, but I don't speak Italian"). In my first minutes in the country, I repeated it half a dozen times, with ever-mounting panic in my voice, interspersed with pleas of "Stop this train!" Other passengers responded with concerned looks and torrents of incomprehensible Italian. Only the weary conductor followed my gaze as I pointed to my forlorn black suitcase, which the porter had left behind on the platform in Domodossola.
|
||
|
|||
 |
|||
GadgetryBy now you probably know that you can get little doses of a language you're studying through online services like Twitter. For example, as you saw in last month's newsletter, Living Language does two Twitter feeds, Spanish and French, with more languages likely to follow.... Another online tool that could be made useful to the language learner, with just a little upfront prep work, is a calendar like the one offered by Yahoo! or Google. Read more >> |
|||
 |
|||
 |
Star Trek and xenolinguisticsAnyone with a passion for languages knows that it's nearly impossible to leave that passion at home. You hear a language on the street, you try to discern what it could be. You hear a word that might be derived from a language you know, and spend a few minutes tracing the route it might have taken to get there. Even sitting in a movie theater with an overpriced bucket of popcorn in your lap watching the most recent Star Trek film will give you something to ponder about language, as I discovered this past Sunday.Read more >> Also on the blog: Essential phrases. A sneak peek at our Spoken World series, with free audio! On speaking English in Bombay. The subtleties of communication in India. Go to the blog homepage |
||
 |
|||
|
|||
  |
|||
 |
|||
You have received this message because you have subscribed to the Living Language list. To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to unsub_news@info.livinglanguage.com. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to sub_news@info.livinglanguage.com. Copyright © 2009 Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Random House, Inc., 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 |