Cockney ATM Machines

As I was browsing some pictures online the other day, I came across these snapshots taken by a Facebook friend who is currently studying in London. The pictures are of an ATM machine’s screen, but when you get to the point where you have to decide which language option to use, don’t bother choosing boring, [...]

Idioms — 吃醋 (To Feel Jealous)

As I had previously posted, I would like to write articles every so often that outline various idioms and sayings that are used in the languages that I am studying. I feel that this will help me to maintain and also improve my writing skills and will hopefully also teach these sayings to other language [...]

How to Translate Foreign Ideas into Chinese

As a follow up to my post on the History and Formation of Chinese Characters, I thought I would include some information on the ways in which these characters can be used to express ideas that didn’t originate within the language itself. There are several interesting methods, including one that I think could rival English [...]

Learn to Read Korean in 15 Minutes

A friend today forwarded me this interesting comic from 9GAG on how to learn the Korean alphabet in only 15 minutes. Since I had previously written an article about the advantages of knowing how to read foreign languages, and in my case, it was specifically the advantages of knowing how to read Korean while I [...]

The Problem with French Language Education in (Western) Canada

After reading a post recently by Steve Kaufmann on his blog The Linguist on Language about the apparently poor French immersion programs in Canada, I would like to add to it my own experiences with the also poor French-as-a-second-language education that is available to elementary and high school students. This is not full immersion as [...]

A Short Introduction to the History and Formation of Chinese Characters

If you have been reading this blog now and again, you have probably gathered by now that I’m pretty obsessed with learning Chinese. But it came to my attention that not necessarily all of the readers here may know something about Mandarin or Chinese writing, so I thought that I would include a post on [...]

Shakespeare: Original Pronunciation

I came across a great video today by David Crystal, Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, and his son, Ben Crystal, an actor, where they explain some of the interesting differences between Modern English and the “Early Modern English” used in plays written by Shakespeare. Among other things, they discuss how many [...]

Idioms – Parler comme une vache espagnole (To speak like a Spanish cow)

In order to take advantage of an additional writing practice opportunity, I thought that I would start creating weekly (or perhaps bi-weekly) posts to explain interesting idioms that I find in either French or Chinese. I will write firstly in one of these two languages and then translate the passage into English below it. If [...]

Geniuses, Hard Work, and Language Learning

Several weeks ago when different news stations started reporting on Timothy Doner, a 16-year-old New Yorker who speaks 23 languages, I came across an MSNBC interview where three journalists questioned him on his linguistic abilities and how he came to be acquainted with so many languages. Tim seems to be a person who devotes countless [...]

Should Dying Languages Be Saved?

I have been thinking recently about whether efforts to save dying languages are worth the time spent trying to preserve them. Is there a point to investing time, energy, and money into such a huge endevor, especially if the language will obviously disappear regardless of a researcher’s work (for example, if there are only a [...]