Guess who’s a published author now? It’s on Amazon so that makes it official, right? One of my jobs last year was revising and updating Dover Publications’ Say it in French phrasebook. The original was written in the 50′s and included a section on telegrams and cablegrams, so there was a lot I needed to [...]
Full Story »Swearing in French and Degrees of Vulgarity
Swearing is another cultural concept that is difficult to master when learning a language. Exact translations among swear words are hard to come by since a lot of the meaning depends on the situation and tone of voice. What is considered vulgar in one language may not be in another. In French, merde is usually [...]
Full Story »National Foreign Language Week & Promoting Language Learning
This week (March 7-13) is National Foreign Language Week in the US. It was begun in 1957 by the Alpha Mu Gammar Honor Society to help make students aware of how vital foreign language study is. Of course, if you visit my website and read my blog, then you already know how vital it is [...]
Full Story »Knowledge of French popular culture: m’a tuer
An example of French popular culture: the phrase m’a tuer I figured even Voici wouldn’t have made such a glaring grammatical mistake on their cover (it “should” be Twitter m’a tueé, using the past participle and agreeing with the preceding direct object) so I asked David what it referred to. He told me about the [...]
Full Story »International Mother Language Day & Recent Foreign Language News
February 21 is UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day, which “has been celebrated since 2000 to promote all the languages of the world. This Day represents an effective mobilization opportunity for linguistic diversity and multilingualism.” Spread the language love! If you don’t already know why being multilingual makes your life better: Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer’s and [...]
Full Story »Review of Mango Passport & On the Go and Free Product Giveaway for Twitter Users
Last fall, I included Mango Languages for Libraries in my review of language learning websites. If you do not have access to Mango through your library or would like your own personal copy of the program that is not dependent on an internet connection, Mango Languages now offers Passport software and On the Go mp3 [...]
Full Story »More French Cultural Vocabulary: Proprietary or Brand Names
Proprietary or brand names are also a cultural aspect of learning languages. Many times people aren’t even aware that a word they use for a certain object is in fact a brand name and not the generic name. In English, we have several brand names that have become more common than the original terms, such [...]
Full Story »Culturally Relevant Photos of French Objects: Learning the Cultural Significance of Words
Following up on my recent post about cultural differences in photos, I have begun taking pictures of culturally relevant objects in France as an extension to my realia project that originally included written objects in French, such as signs, brochures, menus, receipts, etc. Now I want to add realia pertaining to visual differences among cultures and [...]
Full Story »Brainscape Flashcards: Website and Mobile Apps
Brainscape is a website that offers flashcards on a variety of topics – more than just foreign language vocabulary – using graduated intervals for maximum repetition and reinforcement of least-known items. This learning technique goes by many names (spaced repetition seems to be the most common among language learning sites) and it is indeed based [...]
Full Story »Cultural Differences in Photos: USA and France
In my English classes I taught at the university, we used flashcards with a photo of an object and the English word written out to teach and/or reinforce vocabulary. For most objects, there were no problems with the images provided but every once in a while, my students didn’t quite understand the connection between the [...]
Full Story »
