International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. Improving the lives of women is very important to me, especially since women continue to be oppressed all over the world – including in my own country. I truly believe education is the key to [...]
Full Story »Beginning French Songs and Videos
I am teaching beginning French this semester and since all of the classrooms are equipped with computers and projectors, I have been delighting my students with weird songs and videos to reinforce the vocabulary they are learning. So for beginning learners of French or other French teachers who want to use videos in class, here [...]
Full Story »Linguistic Semantics: Language Reflects Ways of Living and Thinking
Anna Wierzbicka is a Polish-Australian linguist who has extensively researched intercultural linguistics, semantics and pragmatics. I have been reading many of her books and articles for my PhD research because she is interested in how language reflects ways of living and thinking, and more specifically, how the lexicon or words of a language can provide [...]
Full Story »French Books Giveaway: Win a FREE Autographed Copy of Say it in French or Great French Short Stories of the Twentieth Century
My second book published by Dover Publications, Great French Short Stories of the Twentieth Century: A Dual-Language Book, is now available! The original French stories are on the left page and literal English translations are on the right page. There are 15 stories representing authors and settings from France and other French-speaking areas such as [...]
Full Story »Quebecois Christmas Songs
Some of these are obviously rather comédique rather than folklorique. Enjoy! 23 décembre by Beau Dommage La valse de Noël by Fernand Gignac La toune de Noël by Crampe en Masse C’est Noël, il neige dans ma tête by Paul et Paul Le père noel s’t’un québecois by Les Cowboys Fringants
Full Story »More Christmas Songs in French
More Christmas songs in French! Most of these videos have lyrics so you can learn the words and all of them are French versions of English songs you probably already know. Don’t forget the five songs I posted two years ago: French Christmas Songs La Promenade en Traîneau (Sleigh ride) Le Petit Renne au nez [...]
Full Story »Subject Pronouns in Textbooks: Written vs. Spoken French
Thanks to corpus linguistics, the differences between written and spoken French are easier to describe and analyze. Since I am particularly interested in how textbooks treat both types of French, I was happy to see research comparing corpus linguistics data to textbook representations of the subject pronouns by Waugh and Fonseca-Greber at the University of [...]
Full Story »English and “Correct” Words in French
L’Académie française has once again called for more “defense” of the French language against incorrect use of the language, especially with regards to Anglicisms. I do not agree with l’Académie’s prescriptivist ideas on vocabulary use and trying to force the formal (often written) language onto the spoken form. It is one thing to determine if [...]
Full Story »Say it in French Phrasebook and Swedish Listening Resources Now Available
My Say it in French phrasebook (Dover Publications) is now available through Amazon.com for $5.95! I have recently updated the Listening Resources podcast to include Swedish mp3s. Transcripts, English translations, and an RSS feed are also available. Check out the Swedish Listening Resources page for the first eight mp3s. (The mp3 player is not Flash-based [...]
Full Story »Most Studied Languages in Europe, Australia and the US
Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the European Day of Languages and Eurostat has provided statistics about the most studied languages in the 27 member states of the European Union plus Iceland, Norway, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey (though stats for Portugal are missing). “In the EU27 in 2009, 82% of pupils at primary and lower [...]
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