220 matches
Why Do People Learn Languages?
Human language is our primary form of communication throughout the world. Most of us learn what becomes our native language from our parents and the people around us so that we can communicate easily. However, for some, knowing just one language is...
January / February 2015
At the Cinema - Chinese Puzzle
The film Chinese Puzzle is the third film in a romance comedy trilogy. The first was L'auberge Espagnole, which is one of my favourite films [reviewed in Parrot Time #1], in which we meet our main character, a Frenchmen named Xavier, and follow his...
January / February 2015
Words in Your Mouth - Cheese
Topping this month's article off with a slice of cheese.
A counter of a cheese market with several types of cheese on display.
So far, we have discussed some basic foods that are common to most cultures: sausage, bread, and milk. This time we are...
January / February 2015
Book Look
When opening a book about languages, I tend to immediately put them into one of two categories: a reference guide or a general overview. "The Power of Babel" falls into the latter of these categories. It is not about any particular language, nor is...
January / February 2015
Letter From The Editor - Breaking with Tradition
When we study a language and a culture, we learn about new customs and traditions. These can be very strange but also very interesting.
For example, every year in Buñol, Spain, there is "La Tomatina", which is a tomato throwing festival.
Meanwhile,...
March / April 2015
Chatting in Languages Online - Part 2: Voice Chats
Young girl using a voice chat to talk to someone online
Last issue, I wrote about how text chats can be utilized on the internet to help language learners interact with each other for practise. While communicating in real-time through typing can really...
March / April 2015
The Digital Language Collective
Competition. It drives people to do better. In sports, we want to beat the other team. In business, we want more people buying our products or services. Online, we want more people visiting our web sites and blogs. Competition makes everyone else your...
March / April 2015
At the Cinema - Viva La Libertà
You don't need to understand the world of Italian politics to appreciate the film Viva La Libertà (Long Live Freedom). Enrico Oliveri is an experienced politician, working as a senator and party leader of the center-left. Things are not going well,...
March / April 2015
Words in Your Mouth - Rice
The etymology of rice is rather clear, but its origins are a little grainy.
The Britannica definition of rice is "an edible starchy cereal grain and the annual grass that produces it." Its scientific name is oryza sativa, family Poaceae, or Gramineae....
March / April 2015
Book Look
The Berlitz Phrasebooks have been around for decades, and are often described as the "world's best phrasebooks." I have a few dozen myself. These small books are normally around 10 x 14.5cm (4" x 5.75") in size, making them ideal for tucking into...
March / April 2015
Letter From The Editor - Sounds Like
A short time ago, I was spending some time practising my pronunciation of some basic Italian phrases. I was using a simple app on my kindle that showed me the phrase, then I could click on the icon to hear it spoken by a native speaker.
Now, I know...
May / June 2015
How Do You Say It? - A look at sound notation systems
When you learn another language, everything about it is new and fresh. You need to learn an entirely different set of words for everything there is. The grammar is foreign, literally, and even the writing system might pose a challenge.
But perhaps...
May / June 2015
Of Pidgins and Creoles - A look at how some languages are born
There are several thousand living languages in the world, most of which have evolved over long periods of time rather naturally. Some of these became isolated and developed very differently from their related languages. Other were influenced by the...
May / June 2015
At the Cinema - Dil Chahta Hai
This month, I am reviewing the 2001 Bollywood film Dil Chahta Hai. It is about three inseparable friends who all approach, and find, love in their own ways.
I can start by saying this is one of my favourite films of all time. I first saw it somewhere...
May / June 2015
Words in Your Mouth - Egg
Like eggs, etymologies can also be scrambled sometimes.
When I started asking for translations of this month's word "egg", I was asked what kind I was referring to. Most of the time in English, we use "egg" to refer to a chicken, using other words...
May / June 2015
Most Popular
