Linguistics
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Most Topular Stories
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First direct evidence of neuroplastic changes following brainwave training
ScienceDaily: Language Acquisition12 Mar 2010 | 2:00 pm -
New Learning Monitor is Out
Mission to Learn26 Feb 2010 | 6:39 am[tweetmeme] I had already planned to write a post about “curators” today when I noticed that Jeff De Cagna has posted about the “content challenge” over on SmartBlog. He sees “content curation” as one of the most significant innovation opportunities available to organizations. We’re in agreement on that and have spoken together about it before. Here on Mission to Learn, though, I’d like to focus on it as one of the most significant innovation opportunities for individual lifelong learners. —- First things first: What is a Curator? The idea… -
Men, not ladies, first: We're still sexist in writing
ScienceDaily: Language Acquisition12 Mar 2010 | 2:00 amSignificant changes in brain plasticity have been observed following alpha brainwave training. Researchers have discovered the first evidence of neuroplastic changes occurring directly after natural brainwave training. They have demonstrated that half an hour of voluntary control of brain rhythms is sufficient to induce a lasting shift in cortical excitability and intracortical function. -
Zimmer tapped for New York Times post
Language Log11 Mar 2010 | 7:43 pmAt a restaurant recently, a waiter was asked about the difference between two pinot noirs available by the glass, and responded by describing one of them as "more fruit forward", while the other was "more reticent". I'm familiar with fruit forward as a bit of winetalk, but this time it occurred to me to wonder where this particular construction came from, and where it's going. The OED has no examples of fruit-forward, but glosses fashion-forward (under the lemma fashion) as "adj. designating clothing, a person, etc., at the cutting edge of fashion" with a citation from 1948: 1948 Los… -
Research Report: Lajamanu
University of Michigan Linguistics Department22 Feb 2010 | 4:01 pmThis Tuesday, you are invited to one of the LingClub’s infamous Game Nights. What’s the game? You’ll have to show up to find out (hint: if you like moot, you should come). If you’ve never come to a Linguistics Club meeting before, then consider this the perfect opportunity to meet some great people who happen to be interested in the same things you are. As for those of you who have homework, we have one word: fuhgeddaboudit! In this season of midterms, it’s crucial to take a break from your studies and spend time in a fun and healthy environment. To recap: Tuesday, February…
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ScienceDaily: Language Acquisition
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First direct evidence of neuroplastic changes following brainwave training
12 Mar 2010 | 2:00 pmSignificant changes in brain plasticity have been observed following alpha brainwave training. Researchers have discovered the first evidence of neuroplastic changes occurring directly after natural brainwave training. They have demonstrated that half an hour of voluntary control of brain rhythms is sufficient to induce a lasting shift in cortical excitability and intracortical function. -
Men, not ladies, first: We're still sexist in writing
12 Mar 2010 | 2:00 amPutting male names before female names in writing is a remnant of sexist thinking, new research suggests. -
If bonobo Kanzi can point as humans do, what other similarities can rearing reveal?
11 Mar 2010 | 8:00 pmYou may have more in common with Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota, three language-competent bonobos living at Great Ape Trust, than you thought. And those similarities, right at your fingertip, might one day tell scientists more about the effect of culture on neurological disorders that limit human expression. A recently published pointing study supports the assertion that the success of language studies with bonobos is tied to rearing. -
Loss of enzyme reduces neural activity in Angelman syndrome
9 Mar 2010 | 11:00 pmAngelman syndrome (AS) is a debilitating neurological disorder characterized by mental retardation and a high frequency of autism. Researchers have now found that the gene mutation underlying AS appears to affect the ability of neurons to communicate and to properly develop during the first few years of life, a time when brain activity is "rewired" by external stimuli. -
To remember the good times, reach for the sky
8 Mar 2010 | 8:00 amSimple motor actions, like moving marbles upward or downward between two cardboard boxes, may not seem meaningful. But a new study shows that motor actions can partly determine people's emotional memories. Moving marbles upward caused participants to remember more positive life experiences, and moving them downward to remember more negative experiences. ‘Meaningless’ motor actions can make people remember the good times or the bad.
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Lingformant
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Brain Waves Aid Study of Language Impairment
10 Mar 2010 | 11:04 pmBy looking at how the brain responds to different aspects of grammar, specifically nouns and verbs, researchers at the UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders are hoping to provide a better understanding of the nature of language disorders in children. Full article: University of Texas at Dallas -
Decoding the long calls of the orangutan
10 Mar 2010 | 11:02 pmResearch into the long calls of male Orangutans in Borneo has given scientists new insight into how these solitary apes communicate through dense jungle. An acoustic analysis of the calls, published today in Ethology, reveals that the calls not only serve to attract females, but also contain information on the identity and the context of the caller. Full text: EurekAlert -
Music and lyrics: How the brain splits songs
10 Mar 2010 | 11:00 pmYour favourite song comes on the radio. You hum the tune; the lyrics remind you of someone you know. Is your brain processing the words and music separately or as one? It’s a hotly debated question that may finally have an answer. Full article: New Scientist -
Stone Age Engravings Found on Ostrich Shells
4 Mar 2010 | 1:57 amResearchers say a cache of ostrich eggshells engraved with geometric designs demonstrates the existence of a symbolic communication system around 60,000 years ago among African hunter-gatherers. Full article: Wired http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/stone-age-engravings-found-on-ostrich-shells/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29 -
Researchers discover first genes for stuttering
3 Mar 2010 | 10:54 pmStuttering may be the result of a glitch in the day-to-day process by which cellular components in key regions of the brain are broken down and recycled, says a study in the Feb. 10 Online First issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, led by researchers at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, has identified three genes as a source of stuttering in volunteers in Pakistan, the United States, and England. Full article: e! Science News
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English Experts
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Curso de Inglês para Tímidos: Lição 20
12 Mar 2010 | 2:17 amAll right, let’s get a little controversial here today. I just saw on the news that a 17-year-old girl had been beaten up by her 21-year-old husband and was in a coma. My question is, why does this still happen and what could be a feasible solution to this problem? Are women to blame? Are men to blame? Should there be stricter laws against it? We want to hear your position on the violence against women topic. Aguardo as respostas em inglês nos comentários. Good Luck! Pronúncia Confira a pronúncia das palavras (em itálico) apresentadas na lição: [Visite o blog para ouvir o audio] Se… -
Curso de inglês grátis para Jovens Carentes: ProJovem
11 Mar 2010 | 6:02 amOlá pessoal! Disponibilizo aqui um link de um curso de Inglês básico, bom para quem está começando. O curso se baseia em vídeo aulas interativas. O que é muito bom por sinal! Trata-se do projeto ProJovem Urbano, que tem como finalidade proporcionar formação integral aos jovens. O Programa tem como finalidades específicas: a re-inserção dos jovens no processo de escolarização; a identificação de oportunidades potenciais de trabalho e a capacitação dos jovens para o mundo do trabalho; a participação dos jovens em ações coletivas de interesse público; a inclusão digital… -
Uni-duni-duni-te Salame-min-guê em inglês
10 Mar 2010 | 5:35 amO leitor Alisson perguntou no fórum o significado da expressão “Eeny Meeny Miny Moe”. Prontamente os colaboradores Henry, Flávia e Donay esclareceram que na verdade era a versão em inglês de uma brincadeira infantil que muitos vão se lembrar: “Minha mãe mandou eu escolher esse daqui, Mas como eu sou teimoso(a) Vou escolher esse daqui…” Para complementar a Flávia ainda enviou um vídeo que é um verdadeiro achado. Você já viu crianças brincando de esconde-esconde em inglês? E de “Uni-duni-duni-te. Salame-min-guê”? Mate a sua curiosidade no vídeo abaixo:… -
Morar no exterior não é sinônimo de falar inglês fluente
8 Mar 2010 | 3:35 pmPassar um período fora do Brasil para aprender a falar inglês é a escolha de muita gente que precisa se aperfeicoar no idioma. O mito é que basta sair do Brasil e passar alguns meses fora para voltar falando fluentemente. Infelizmente não é tão simples quanto parece. Julio César mora em Londres há 4 meses. Antes, morou por mais de um ano em Portugal – o que explica porque ele diz “casa de banho” no lugar de banheiro. Ele trabalhava como ator dublê no Brasil e sonha em fazer o mesmo pela Europa. Enquanto isso, trabalha na cozinha de um restaurante brasileiro. Tire suas dúvidas… -
Cômodos da casa e Móveis em inglês
7 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pmOlá Pessoal! O lugar em que passamos a maior parte do nosso tempo é com certeza a nossa casa, com isso, ter um bom domínio do vocabulário relacionado pode ajudar bastante na melhoria das habilidades com o idioma. Confira aqui uma lista de cômodos da casa e móveis em inglês com tradução 1. Sala de estar: Living room Ex: They were watching the World Cup final in the living room. (Eles estavam assistindo a final da Copa do Mundo na sala de estar.) 2. Janela: Window Ex: She looked out of the window to see if anythintg was going on. (Ela olhou pela janela para ver se alguma coisa estava…
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The English Blog
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Newsy Video: Is 2010 the Year of the Earthquake?
12 Mar 2010 | 11:02 amCritics say constant media coverage of recent earthquakes gives the false impression that 2010 is the year of the earthquake. Read transcript. -
Video: Darth Google
12 Mar 2010 | 2:07 amTheir motto used to be 'Don't be evil', but has Google now become an evil empire? -
CNN Video: Educating the World on YouTube
11 Mar 2010 | 11:53 pmSalman Khan quit a Silicon Valley job to educate the world through YouTube. CNN's Dan Simon reports. ALSO SEE • Khan Academy• The Khan Academy YouTube Channel COMMENTAlthough math(s) isn't my cup of tea, I do have students preparing for the GMAT, so I was interested to see that Khan Academy has over 100 videos on GMAT problem solving and data sufficiency problems. -
Words in the News: Thief
11 Mar 2010 | 10:56 pmThe Daily Mail devotes its front page to the court appearance of three MPs accused of false accounting of expenses. Full story >> VOCABULARY 1. Thieves is the plural form of thief. A thief is a person who steals something from another person. • Police are on the hunt for the brazen thief who claimed a £500 jackpot won by another player. 2. If you say that someone thinks they are above something, you mean they act as if they are too good or too important for it. • Nobody is above the law, even if they are a powerful person or associated with government leaders. -
Cnn Student News: Friday 12 March
11 Mar 2010 | 10:36 pmHere is the CNN Student News for Friday 12 March. Click on the links to see a transcript. Consider a Missouri school district's controversial budget cut Learn about a pair of milestones on this day in women's history Find out why thousands of U.S. teens are going hungry for 30 hours Weekly Newsquiz
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Mission to Learn
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Self Education: Five Essential Sites
10 Mar 2010 | 7:13 am[tweetmeme] Big lists of free online courses, Web tools, learning games, and other resources for lifelong learners are relatively easy to find, but sites with a serious focus on helping people along the journey of self-education are fewer and farther between. Here are five you may want to bookmark or add to your feed reader. 1. Autodidact Press I mentioned the Autodidact Press in a post I did a while back on the famous self-educated. Its founder, Charles D. Hayes, is one of the Web’s longest standing proponents of lifelong learning and self-education. The resources on the Web site… -
Collaboration and Learning – What Are Your Examples?
4 Mar 2010 | 4:30 amA while back Karen Schweitzer did a guest post here titled 15 Free Online Collaboration Tools and Apps. Karen is skilled at writing popular posts, but even so, I have been surprised at how much traffic this one has attracted. Apparently people are hungry for free online collaboration tools. Meanwhile, on other fronts, an attendee at a recent Webinar I was part of noted that collaborative learning … …should be a particular strength of e-learning from the perspective of technological capabilities. Yet I feel we are still in the early stages of discovering how to move from… -
Who are your curators?
2 Mar 2010 | 6:30 am[tweetmeme] I had already planned to write a post about “curators” today when I noticed that Jeff De Cagna has posted about the “content challenge” over on SmartBlog. He sees “content curation” as one of the most significant innovation opportunities available to organizations. We’re in agreement on that and have spoken together about it before. Here on Mission to Learn, though, I’d like to focus on it as one of the most significant innovation opportunities for individual lifelong learners. —- First things first: What is a Curator? The idea… -
New Learning Monitor is Out
26 Feb 2010 | 6:39 amEarlier this week I pushed “Send” on a new edition of the Learning Monitor, my twice-quarterly round-up of learning links, news and insights. To get this most recent edition, simply subscribe, confirm, and it will be automatically sent to your inbox. Here’s what one reader wrote in after reading the latest edition: I’m just writing to tell you how much I enjoy your newsletters! I don’t even remember how I found your site, but I’m certainly glad that I did. … thank you for all the time and effort you obviously put into your newsletters. …… -
7 Secrets of a 9 Billion Dollar Industry
24 Feb 2010 | 3:51 amWant to know how to change your life, achieve pretty much anything, and make yourself rich to boot? There is a huge “self help” industry out there eager to help you do it. I bump up against this world frequently when researching and writing about lifelong learning, and I have to admit a bit of a love-hate relationship with it. On the one hand, so much of the advice that gets peddled seems hackneyed, poorly written, and derivative of concepts already established hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. On the other hand, there is obviously a deep human need to return again and again to…
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Language Log
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X forward
12 Mar 2010 | 5:32 amAt a restaurant recently, a waiter was asked about the difference between two pinot noirs available by the glass, and responded by describing one of them as "more fruit forward", while the other was "more reticent". I'm familiar with fruit forward as a bit of winetalk, but this time it occurred to me to wonder where this particular construction came from, and where it's going. The OED has no examples of fruit-forward, but glosses fashion-forward (under the lemma fashion) as "adj. designating clothing, a person, etc., at the cutting edge of fashion" with a citation from 1948: 1948 Los… -
Zimmer tapped for New York Times post
11 Mar 2010 | 7:43 pmLate-breaking news: The New York Times Magazine announced today the appointment of linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer as the new "On Language" columnist. Mr. Zimmer succeeds William Safire who was the founding and regular columnist until his death last fall. [alas, a non-restrictive relative clause missing its comma] The column is a fixture in The Times Magazine and features commentary on the many facets – from grammar to usage – of our language. "On Language" will appear bi-weekly beginning March 21. Yes, our very own Ben, who was proud enough to tell the rest of the LLoggers, but too… -
Kids today
11 Mar 2010 | 9:12 amFollowing up on our most recent "kids today" post, I decided to spend a few minutes over lunch searching Google Books for interesting examples of the genre. Thus: Many children today are greatly to be pitied because too much is done for them and dictated to them and they are deprived of the learning processes. We seem to have dropped into an age of entertaining, a breathless going from one sensation to another, whether it be mechanical toys for the five-year-old or moving-picture plays for the sixteen-year-old. It not only destroys their power to think, but also makes happiness,… -
Annals of metonymy
11 Mar 2010 | 4:17 amThere are some nice examples in Leah Rozen, "Hey, Ryan, Talk to the Dress", NYT 2/10/2010: RYAN, Ryan, Ryan. It’s Journalism 101: who, what, when, where and why, as in, “Who are you wearing?” […] Susan Kaufman, editor of People StyleWatch, said she lost it when Mr. Seacrest didn’t immediately quiz an elegant-looking Sandra Bullock — who would later win as Best Actress — about her shimmery frock (by Marchesa). “I’m screaming at the TV: ‘Ask her who’s she wearing!’ ” Ms. Kaufman said. “I was so angry, my husband was laughing at me.” Different versions of the… -
The rhetorical structure of a cable news story
10 Mar 2010 | 4:36 pmMore rhetorical analysis-by-synthesis here.
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GoodWord from alphadictionary.com
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3/12/10 - alacrity
11 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pmWilling promptness in responding, cheerful briskness. -
3/11/10 - comedo
10 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pmTrue to its misleading appearance, today's Good Word is a funny one though completely unrelated to the word 'comedy': a comedo is a zit, a blackhead produced by acne, a dot of blackened keratin and sebum that plugs a hair follicle, often causing infection beneath. -
3/10/10 - leviathan
9 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pm1. A huge sea monster mentioned in the Bible (Old Testament). 2. Anything of monstrous size: ship, whale, government out of control. 3. A titan, a person of gigantic, formidable wealth and power. -
3/9/10 - akimbo
8 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pm(Standing) with the hands resting on the hips, elbows bent and sticking out (as in the photograph). -
3/8/10 - luxuriant
7 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pm1. Abundant, sumptuous, lush, growing thickly and profusely. 2. Extravagant, excessive. 3. Excessively florid or elaborate, prolix (writing style).
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University of Michigan Linguistics Department
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Want to know what linguists do? Come find out on March 18
11 Mar 2010 | 8:51 am -
New Assistant Professor: Mike Marlo
22 Feb 2010 | 4:05 pmMike Marlo (PhD 2007) has just accepted a tenure track position in phonology from the University of Missouri. He will leave his current job at CASTL, U of Maryland but will likely remain affiliated with CASTL as an adjunct. Congratulations, Mike! -
Linguistics Club Game Night, Tuesday, Feb. 25
22 Feb 2010 | 4:02 pmThis Tuesday, you are invited to one of the LingClub’s infamous Game Nights. What’s the game? You’ll have to show up to find out (hint: if you like moot, you should come). If you’ve never come to a Linguistics Club meeting before, then consider this the perfect opportunity to meet some great people who happen to be interested in the same things you are. As for those of you who have homework, we have one word: fuhgeddaboudit! In this season of midterms, it’s crucial to take a break from your studies and spend time in a fun and healthy environment. To recap: Tuesday, February… -
Research Report: Lajamanu
22 Feb 2010 | 4:01 pmCarmel O’Shannessy is in Lajamanu, Northern Territory, Australia, collecting data on children’s production of Warlpiri and the new mixed language, Light Warlpiri. She’s also working on documentation of traditional Warlpiri love songs. -
Two Rackham Pre-Doctoral Fellowships awarded
15 Feb 2010 | 7:27 amKevin McGowan and Lauren Squires have both received one of the highly competitive Rackham Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Awards. The awards offer 12 mos. of funding for the completion of the dissertation. Congratulations and well-done Kevin and Lauren!
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Paleoglot
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Suspicious IE roots, possibly deserving our scorn or maybe not
9 Mar 2010 | 2:00 pmAfter exploring some alternative etymologies, some disoriented commenters have tried to warp my intent at open brainstorming into some agenda to ignore onus wholesale. Back to reality, we have the right and obligation as intelligent readers to question what we read and to seek out new ideas. Some ideas may fail. And so what? We get back on our feet and think some more. It's worth it to read, -
My sweet honey bee
4 Mar 2010 | 2:00 pmThe Indo-European word for 'honey', I have to confess, has always bothered me. Technically *mélit displays proper form with full-grade in the accented syllable and zero-grade in the unaccented and it also is supported by reflexes in Celtic, Germanic, Latin, Greek and Anatolian languages. Yet...Douglas and Adams inadvertently uncovers a problem with this irreproachable hypothesis at the bottom of -
How many fingers do you see?
2 Mar 2010 | 6:00 amPhoenix recently relayed a story told him by his teacher of Berber which was in turn recounted to him by an aged Morrocan professor about an interesting coincidence between the names Crete, Kos and Samos and the Berber numbers for 'three', 'four', and 'five'. This fun game of telephone may remind one of how Plato got his hands on the whole Atlantis scoop and how things got blown totally out of -
Capua, fields, Indo-Europeanists, etc.
25 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amThe following is a good example of Indo-Europeanists gone mad, methinks. Whenever it comes to European vocabulary, specialists of Indo-European languages are in there like a dirty shirt trying to etymologize it automatically through some concocted Indo-European root. Some roots are valid naturally, but others are suspicious and crave our skepticism.Specialization can sometimes lead to -
The origin of Perugia
23 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pmI don't know about anyone else but I keep on tripping over new questions with apparently no answers and it can be very frustrating when no one else is asking the same questions (or at least not being vocal enough to ask them). Here's an interesting question with no clear answers: What is the etymology of Perugia.Perugia was originally an Etruscan city founded in Umbrian territory. We know that
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Fritinancy
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When a Good Story Isn't Enough
12 Mar 2010 | 2:06 pmLovely typeface. Nice color palette. Well-executed iconography.As for the name:Our unusual name can be traced as far back as the reign of Henry VII. It appeared on maps and other documents of the time as ‘Sandyballas’, which is the description given to the dome-shaped sand and gravel outcrops on our western boundary.Those outcrops were formed millennia ago during the Eocene era. Many of them remain including Good Friday Hill and Giant’s Grave, and it’s for them that Sandy Balls Holiday Centre is named.Yes, this 91-year-old Hampshire (UK) resort has history and etymology on its side. -
Hopeless
11 Mar 2010 | 11:00 amFrom Robert Redford's customer letter on Page 2 of the Spring 2010 Sundance Catalog: Spring. I love Spring. Not only because it springs eternal in the human breast but because it provides a stretch of time to just appreciate the natural beauty of seasons. Sorry, Bob. Spring doesn't spring eternal. Hope does. Hope. Rhymes with Pope. Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blest: The soul uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.—Alexander Pope (1688-1744), "Essay on Man," Epistle I. -
The Loons! The Loons!
10 Mar 2010 | 11:30 amOne more brand sighting from my Minneapolis trip: (Apologies once again for the blur.) Gaviidae Common is a large downtown shopping mall and office complex anchored by Macy's and Neiman Marcus. When it opened in 1989, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune made note of its "off-putting Latin name"*; the St. Paul Pioneer Press said the name had "more vowels than an Italian sonnet." (The Pioneer Press also said the mall, designed by Cesar Pelli, "may be the finest building of the 1980s in the Twin Cities.") Between shopping and fieldwork, I've been in a lot of… -
That Word
9 Mar 2010 | 10:19 amIt does not mean what they think it means: I've seen all kinds of passion, but "unrequited"? That's a new one. And so very sad in so many ways. Poor Mother, the lonely little brand agency. No one's returning your calls?On the bright side: they spelled genealogy right. Not as easy as you might think.Elsewhere in the That Word files: Sophistry.__P.S. Yes, that's a watermark on the stock photo. I'm happy to see that Mother L.A. paid up before launching the website. Their passion, alas, remains unrequited.P.P.S. Where the title of this post comes from. -
On the Brand Trail: Minneapolis
8 Mar 2010 | 12:43 pmI was in Minneapolis last week—my first-ever visit to that city—to speak at a trademark-law seminar about the Mysteries of Naming. (My thanks to Stephen Baird of Duets Blog for graciously hosting my trip.) Although my stay was short, I managed to take note of some interesting local brands. This magnificent sign—often described as "iconic"—looms over Nicollet Island, just north of downtown Minneapolis. I walked over the Hennepin Bridge (built on the site of the first permanent span across the Mississippi River) to get a better view. Grain Belt beer has been brewed in…
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languagehat.com
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ZIMMER AT THE TIMES.
12 Mar 2010 | 7:07 amExcellent news from the NY Times: they've settled on a replacement for the late William Safire as their language columnist, and it's linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer! In making the announcement, Gerald Marzorati, editor of the magazine said, “Ben brings both an academic’s deep knowledge and a maven’s eye, ear and passion to his commentary on the way Americans write and speak now. We welcome him to our roster and know our readers and ‘On Language’ devotees will greatly enjoy his columns.” “It’s an honor and a privilege to be welcomed in the space that William Safire called… -
COMMUTE.
11 Mar 2010 | 12:28 pmDo you know why someone who regularly spends a certain amount of time traveling back and forth between home and work is called a "commuter"? It's because the first people so called were using commutation tickets, what we now call season tickets, that commuted ('changed,' from Latin commutare) a bunch of daily fares into a single payment. (If you check the foreign equivalents linked at the left of the Wikipedia article, you find that a number of languages use a word or phrase meaning 'pendulum migration.') -
SYNONYMS.
10 Mar 2010 | 3:04 pmBack in 2003, Songdog alerted me to a pair of synonyms, gennel and snicket (and the resulting post sparked off almost three years' worth of enjoyable discussion); now he draws my attention to an interesting column by lexicographer Erin McKean (discussed many times on LH, e.g. here and here) about synonyms:Distinguishing between close synonyms (is the ground marshy or boggy?) is a point of pride for the word-minded, and being able to argue whether someone was nonchalant or blasé is a pleasurable parlor game, made all the more fun by there being no “right” answer. We may not agree as to… -
NORSK NOVELISTS IN THE WOODS.
9 Mar 2010 | 2:44 pmSilje Bekeng is a young Norwegian writer/journalist/critic who gives (or once gave) her location as "Brooklyn/Oslo"; she has a funny essay at N1BR ("the book review supplement to n+1 magazine") called Into the Woods, about the peculiar obsessions of Norwegian literature going back to Hamsun. I'm sure she exaggerates for effect, but she provides a great series of "excerpts from the jacket copy of novels published by young(ish) writers in recent years" that certainly seem to illustrate her point, which she states here:One character keeps showing up in our books: the young man having a breakdown… -
KHAMO AND THE LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT SCALE.
8 Mar 2010 | 6:24 amNick at Ἡλληνιστεύκοντος has an informative and amusing post answering a question a reader asked in the comment thread to an earlier post, Generalised use of να in Early Modern Greek (which itself is well worth your while if you're interested in the development of Greek syntax): "My aged relatives also say, or used to say, χάμω [khámo] for 'down' and ολούθε [olúthe] for 'everywhere.' Are these hopelessly rustic?" Nick disposes of the second…
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A Way With Words
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Sailor’s Delight (full episode)
6 Mar 2010 | 4:32 pm“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.” Martha talks about this weather proverb, which has been around in one form or another since ancient times. Grant shares a favorite weather word: slatch. Also this week: Is there a better alternative to the word mentee? What’s pooflapoo pie? Listen here: Download audio file (100308-AWWW-sailors-delight.mp3) Download the MP3 here (23.5 MB). To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program. A Dallas listener and her boss… -
Jan Freeman, Write it Right (minicast)
5 Mar 2010 | 8:09 amOne hundred years ago, American journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce published a curmudgeonly book of writing advice called Write It Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Listen here: Download audio file (100304-Jan-Freeman-write-it-right.mp3) Download the MP3 here (5.5 MB). To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program. In her new book, Boston Globe language columnist Jan Freeman explains where Bierce got his ideas about language, how his grammatical convictions compared with those of his contemporaries,… -
Sufficiently Suffonsified (full episode)
27 Feb 2010 | 8:03 amWhat’s in a pet’s name? Martha and Grant swap stories about how they came up with names for their dogs. Also this week: Have you ever been called a stump-jumper? How about a snicklefritz? And what’s the last word in the dictionary? Depending on which dictionary you consult, it might be zythum, zyzzyva, zyxomma, or zyxt. Listen here: Download audio file (100301-AWWW-sufficiently-suffonsified.mp3) Download the MP3 here (23.5 MB). To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program. Sometimes the process of… -
Spendthrift Snollygosters (full episode)
20 Feb 2010 | 1:34 pmThis week, it’s the language of politics. Martha and Grant discuss two handy terms describing politicians: far center and snollygoster. Also, a presidential word puzzle, false friends, spendthrifts, and a long list of 17th-century insults. So listen up, all you flouting milksops, blockish grutnols, and slubberdegullions! Listen here: Download audio file (100222-AWWW-spendthrift-snollygosters.mp3) Download the MP3 here (23.5 MB). To be automatically notified when audio is available, subscribe to the podcast using iTunes or another podcatching program. Grant explains the meaning of the… -
The Language of Less Than Three (full episode)
13 Feb 2010 | 10:07 amWhoever wrote “The Book of Love” neglected to include the handy emoticon
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The Linguist
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英語はどうやってもっとうまくできるか？あきこさんとの話。
12 Mar 2010 | 12:52 pmDownload now or listen on posterous AngieAkiko.mp3 (10563 KB) あきこさんは英語流暢なひと。熱心に勉強して、それと今は英語も教えています。ここで英語の勉強についていろいろと意見交換しています。これは初めての経験．定期的にあきこさんとこのテマに関して話ししたいと思います．ほかの言葉熱心なひととまた話するつもりです。 --- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now Posted via email from Language world Japan -
Megan, a language enthusiast.
12 Mar 2010 | 8:51 amDownload now or listen on posterous MEGAN.mp3 (13264 KB) Continuing in the series of discussions about how people learn languages, here is my discussion with Megan, where we compare our approaches to our favourite activity. --- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now Posted via email from Lingosteve's place -
Benny the Irish Polyglot and Steve The Linguist square off! Part one!
10 Mar 2010 | 5:05 pmDownload now or listen on posterous Benny1.mp3 (17302 KB) Let two long-winded, loquacious language lovers lock horns, laying out their litany of language learning logic, and there is no limit to the likely length of the palaver, and both linguistic pugilists are left with the lingering loathsome sense of lots left to say. We went on for almost 40 minutes and had to stop or we would still be talking. Here is the podcast. It will be in two installments. Here is part one. --- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now Posted via email from Lingosteve's place -
Benny the Irish Polyglot and Steve The Linguist square off! Part two!
10 Mar 2010 | 5:05 pmDownload now or listen on posterous Benny2.mp3 (18016 KB) Here is part two.--- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it now Posted via email from Lingosteve's place -
Don't be so judgmental!
10 Mar 2010 | 8:04 amI often wonder what is meant by not being "judgmental"? Is it not normal to be judgmental? We are constantly making judgments about situations and about people. In particular in a debate or discussion, it is hard too avoid judging the opinion of someone you are debating with. To me this aversion to being "judgmental" reminds of the politically correct people who propose "dialoguing" as an alternative to debating. Most of those people get quite aggressive when you disagree with their received truths. I prefer to judge things for myself and state my opinions. --- @ WiseStamp Signature. Get it…
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Sinosplice
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The Value of a Master’s in Chinese Economics
11 Mar 2010 | 8:04 pmIn a recent post entitled Why China for Grad School? I opined: Aside from reduced cost, there is one main reason a westerner might choose to go to grad school in China over a western country: because one’s object of study is inherently Chinese. This includes Chinese history, Chinese art, Chinese language, etc. There are definitely foreigners in Shanghai that have elected to earn their advanced degrees in China, but in fields other than those mentioned above. Curious about how they see their education, I’ve decided to interview a few. The following is an interview with American Zachary… -
Project A Update
8 Mar 2010 | 9:10 pmI recently asked my readers to email me if they were interested in participating in a project focused on learning Chinese in Shanghai. The response was quite good, and I’d like to thank all of you that generously offered to participate. I’m actually a bit reluctant to deactivate the email address, because the responses are still trickling in. Some of the details of the project are taking longer than expected to crystallize, however, so it’s not yet time to start. You’ll be hearing from me soon. This means that there’s still time to email me if you’d like to… -
The Singularity and the Chinese History of Chess
6 Mar 2010 | 10:50 pmWhile reading up on one of my favorite topics, the technological singularity, I recently came across this interesting passage in an article by renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil entitled The Law of Accelerating Returns: To appreciate the nature and significance of the coming “singularity,” it is important to ponder the nature of exponential growth. Toward this end, I am fond of telling the tale of the inventor of chess and his patron, the emperor of China. In response to the emperor’s offer of a reward for his new beloved game, the inventor asked for a single grain of rice on… -
Creative English with Chinese Characteristics
3 Mar 2010 | 4:53 pmJust in case you missed these English language Chinese coinages, here’s a sample: Smilence 笑而不语 vi. When you are expecting some answers from your Chinese audience, you may just get a mysterious smile and their silence only. The rest of the list is here, but here’s a taste of what you’ll find: Democrazy Togayther Freedamn Shitizen Divoice Animale Amerryca Innernet Yakshit Departyment Suihide Don’train Corpspend Jokarlist Vegeteal Sexretary Canclensor Carass Harmany Smilence is definitely the best one. It’s interesting how some of them don’t work very… -
Chinese New Year Line Dance
1 Mar 2010 | 4:46 pmOverheard near Jing’an Temple, a conversation between a Chinese woman and an American woman: Chinese woman: It is Chinese New Year, time for line dance. American woman: Really, line dances? You do line dances for Chinese New Year? Chinese woman: Yes, line dance. American woman: What kind of line dance? Chinese woman: You know, Chinese line. Like that stone line. American woman: Oh, lion dance! OK, I see. I don’t mean to make fun of anyone’s pronunciation, but the idea of a “Chinese New Year Line Dance” was just too good. (Maybe for next year’s craptacular?)…
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babelhut.com
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I am starting to learn Japanese, not for fluency, but for travel.
10 Mar 2010 | 9:18 pmWithin the last few months, I decided that I am finally going to get some international travel under my belt. I’m going to save my money, and I’m going to Japan. The actual trip probably won’t happen until next year, but it’s going to happen, and I’ve already made good progress in saving up for the trip. Why Japan? Mostly because Thomas, my friend and fellow Babelhut.com writer, lives there with his wife and child. What better way to travel internationally than to get someone you know to show you around? Because of this decision, my girlfriend and I have decided… -
Spanish Verb Highlight: Oír
12 Jan 2010 | 10:27 amWelcome to the first post of a new series at Babelhut.com, Spanish Verb Highlight. This series will highlight a different Spanish verb in every post, and provide several example sentences showing how the verb is used in different tenses. The first verb highlighted is oír, which means to hear, or to listen to. Oír is an irregular verb, and one that I personally have trouble remembering how to conjugate. You have probably seen or heard oír in the form of ¡oye!, which is used to get someone’s attention in the same way that we would say “hey!” in English. Let’s look at… -
Language Learning Tip #3: Learn To Cook
9 Jan 2010 | 7:28 amHere’s a language learning tip that has worked really well for me: learn to cook. And when you do, use recipes in your target language. Great way to learn language. Here’s why: Recipes are short – most recipes fit on one piece of paper, and that’s including a big picture of the end result. Recipes are easy – recipes all follow pretty much the same format: picture, ingredient list, instructions. The ingredient list itself will provide you with half of the information you need to read the instructions. And the instructions are short, logical and sequential: Cut… -
¡Muchas gracias, Time Warner Cable! How did you know I am studying Spanish?
16 Dec 2009 | 8:51 pmToday I received yet another envelope from Time Warner Cable addressed to “Peter Carroll or Current Resident,” which was seconds from being thrown in the trash can when I decided to open it. This is what was inside: Click to enlarge Click to enlarge I was surprised to receive the advertisement in Spanish. I don’t think the neighborhood I live in has a high concentration of Hispanic people, though I could be wrong about that. All my previous dealing with TWC has been in English. Still, it was nice to read it before I threw it away, and realize I understood most of it without… -
Barra de Español 1.2 is now available!
20 Nov 2009 | 9:51 amThe latest version of Barra de Español is now available from addons.mozilla.org! Those of you who already have an older version installed should see an update notification in Firefox soon, if you haven’t already. What’s new in 1.2? The biggest new feature is the ability to find pronunciations of Spanish words. You can select a word on any web page, right-click on it, and choose “Pronunciar,” or you may type in the word into the toolbar’s search box and select “Pronunciar” from the dropdown to the right. The pronunciations are found on forvo.com.
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Slang O The Day
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ute
17 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm... Get the definition to today's term at Slang O' The Day. -
lackadermis
16 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm... Get the definition to today's term at Slang O' The Day. -
ego surf
15 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm... Get the definition to today's term at Slang O' The Day. -
the drill
14 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm... Get the definition to today's term at Slang O' The Day. -
hard yakka
11 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm... Get the definition to today's term at Slang O' The Day.
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All Japanese All The Time
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[Movie Transcript] ID4/Independence Day President’s Speech in Chinese!
10 Mar 2010 | 7:00 pmGather round, children, gather round. As the title suggests, the good folk at Amazon.cn sold me a copy of “Independence Day”, DVDed up and Mandarin-dubbed, for the sum of approximately $3 (I LOVE Amazon.cn). And you know what happens when I get a copy of the President’s speech in “Independence Day”. Anyway, enjoy. Audio here. 早上好。 再過一小時， 這裡的飛機將與世界各地的盟友並肩戰鬥。 你們將參與人類歷史上最大的空戰。 人類。這個詞今天對於我們所有人將有新的意義。… -
My First Japanese Storybook: A Modern Classic
7 Mar 2010 | 6:59 amIt’s here. And it can be yours to fall in love with right now. Today. It’s a member of the illustrious line of AJATT products, and it’s called My First Japanese Storybook. Or, as we Japanese like to call it: マイファースト初めてのジャパニーズ絵本。 Manipulatively-Worded Promise “My First Japanese Storybook” might make you thin, pretty, happy, safe and popular insofar as there is a nonzero hypothetical probability that…OK, no it won’t. But…in theory, what if it did? No? No… What the…? OK, seriously though —… -
Great Quote About Learning Cantonese
6 Mar 2010 | 7:00 pm“Romanization is almost worthless, and slowed-down tapes aren’t much better. The best thing to do is to actually hear the word or phrase you want spoken naturally. Try to think less in terms of numbers or lines or whatever your preferred system uses and more in terms of what it actually SOUNDS like.” Share and Enjoy: -
AJATT Twitter Tweets for Week Of 2010-03-06
5 Mar 2010 | 11:30 amAnything you can do is good enough. Anything is better than nothing. Everything has to start somewhere. # ドラゴン桜 (テレビドラマ) – Wikipedia http://bit.ly/cVaM1B # 「人生でもっとも大切なことは利益を活用することではない。それならバカにだってできる。真に重要なことは、損失から利益を生み出すことだ。」 レモンを手に入れたらレモネードをつくれ 「道は開ける(D・カーネギー)」17章 # Many of us don't value small actions, small choices, small games. Yet we wonder how big results come… -
SRS Precedence Rules
3 Mar 2010 | 7:00 pmIn arithmetic, whenever we have an expression, we don’t just go left-to-right, and we don’t just run our calculations all willy-nilly. There is what is called the standard order of operations. These are the rules of engagement, the sine qua non, what the French call the without which not, of doing arithmetic. One acronym for these rules is PEMDAS: parentheses, exponentiation, multiplication/division, addition/subtraction. You’ve been doing arithmetic a long time, but you’ve probably only started SRSing relatively recently, SRS being a more recent invention than…
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Speaking English Podcast
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Episode #132 - bread vs. breath vs. breadth
5 Mar 2010 | 5:17 amIn this episode we discuss what happens when you try to put a 'd' in front of a 'th'. Also, the cat makes an appearance. What do you think? -
Episode #131 - stuff vs. staff
28 Feb 2010 | 9:04 amCheck out the categories at speakingenglishpodcast.com, join us on Facebook and Twitter or send your comments to speakingenglishpodcast@gmail.com -
Episode #87 - loaf vs. love
24 Feb 2010 | 4:53 amSearch for key words and in categories on speakingenglishpodcast.com. -
Episode #86 - rowed vs. road vs. rode vs. wrote
24 Feb 2010 | 4:32 amDid he ride or write? Hard to tell apart. Find categories and key words at speakingenglishpodcast.com. -
Episode #69 - version vs. virgin
24 Feb 2010 | 3:48 amFind more episodes online at speakingenglishpodcast.com
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Tower of Confusion
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Google’s Babel Fish
23 Feb 2010 | 5:13 amHere is my latest fish-joke. It was Chinese New Year last week. My colleague of Mexican origin instant-messaged me: ‘新年好’ (good New-Year). Obviously, he had been playing around with Google Translate. So I challenged him that, with the help of Google Translate, he should not have any more excuse not to chat with me in [...] -
Language Cascades
6 Nov 2009 | 8:14 amAbout 3 weeks ago, I accompanied my 4-year-old to play in a public play area. Watching her running around, I suddenly heard a mother beside me yelling at her kids, “¡Ven acá!” (come here). My first impression was – ok, the Latino population has indeed increased in my area. My second thought was – what is [...] -
What is Natrual Approach really?
29 Aug 2009 | 12:16 pmKeith commented on my previous post, questioning on how SRS can fit into the “natural language learning” model. After all, it is not natural. It seems to be me that different “language naturists” have different degrees of “naturalness” in their approaches. By all means, I am in favour of the “natural approach” as opposed to the [...] -
SRS and the Natural Approach
13 Aug 2009 | 7:17 amThe other day Kev posted an excellent question in my previous post. He asked: If you spend progressively more and more of your time on reading and listening (as you should), wouldn’t the amount of time you spend on feeding/reviewing an SRS fade to zero? Therefore, is it worth spending any time at all on an [...] -
SRS Best Practices
3 Mar 2009 | 6:50 amThe key to language acquisition is vocabulary-building. The best way to build your vocabulary is through comprehensive input (i.e., reading and listening). An efficient way to maintain your vocabulary is to use an Spaced Repetition System (SRS). There is no doubt about it. Look around and you will see everybody in the language-learning circle talks [...]
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separated by a common language
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Separated by a Common Twitter: competition results!
6 Mar 2010 | 2:32 pmThanks to Twitter-followers who re-tweeted to me their nominations for 'most impenetrable to cross-ponder' tweet. We have a winner, Transblawg (Margaret Marks) who sent two--one that I declare the winner, and one that I declare a runner-up. First, the winner (I'm deleting the identities of the original tweeters, since they didn't ask to be here...): KP v.lucky to wring that lbw decision out of Enamul Haque: that was missing off-stump by a mile! Bangladesh 163-5 and in trouble Of course, anything with personal initials/names is going to be hard for anyone to read, but with a… -
Separated by a Common Twitter competition
3 Mar 2010 | 8:46 amI've just announced (in several <140 character parts) a competition over on the Twitter feed. Here's what I tweeted (with added linkage for you blog-based readers): ----------------- Competition: RT to me a tweet (not by u) that is (unintentionally) so full of Americanisms or Briticisms that it would flummox a UKer/USer. The prize: I'll send you a packet of whatever cookies/biscuits you most miss from UK or US. My entry to competition: RT @Nancy4Brighton...the Speaker has interrupted PMQs to ask MPs to stop 'barracking' - it puts the public off... Competition deadline: midnight Greenwich… -
Happy SbaCL Day!
28 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pmFrom: Thanks! -
nimrods and other idiots
26 Feb 2010 | 1:52 amTim L wrote (a long time ago) to ask about nimrod: Have you stumbled across the difference in meanings of the word "nimrod" in American and other Englishes? It was a surprise to me to learn that it meant something other than dimwit, and a bigger surprise to learn that it meant dimwit only in American English. The history is mysterious http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nimrod though the Bugs Bunny explanation is widely touted on the 'net.Nimrod, as you may know, is the name of a character in Genesis--Noah's great-grandson, and based on that it can be used to… -
conformity and date-writing
16 Feb 2010 | 2:39 pmHere's a guest post from my lovely friend, psychologist Julie Coultas, who's been seen on this blog before in the guise of 'Maverick'. I hope you enjoy it too! Vive la différence! As a research psychologist, I welcome the difference between BrE and AmE. Here is one of the reasons why. An American student from the University California at Santa Barbara (SB from now on) came over to work with me last year, as she wanted to extend some conformity research that I had been doing. I run experiments to find out when and how people copy each other. Why people copy each other is another matter!
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Mr. Verb
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Not a LINGUIST list choice: Lexicography
11 Mar 2010 | 8:24 pmActually, if I could have, I would have voted for lexicography as my favorite, but it wasn't an option in the challenge. There isn't much opportunity to study it in the U.S. There is a course here and there - e.g. Univ. of Georgia, Univ. of South Dakota - and England has some courses, in a degree program or just as training. But there are organizations and societies. Check out the Dictionary Society of North America, meeting next year in Montreal. Euralex is meeting this year in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, July 6-10. And the Fifth International Conference on Historical Lexicography and… -
LINGUIST list challenge
11 Mar 2010 | 7:57 pmHey, Joe, I love language change, too -- that's why my support would have to be behind sociolinguistics.And speaking of that, check out the following (from the ACLS website):The American Council of Learned Societies is pleased to announce the publication of the 2009 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture by William Labov. Entitled “A Life of Learning: Six People I Have Learned From,” the lecture is distinctive in both form and content. Dr. Labov, professor of linguistics and director of the Linguistics Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, presents the voices and stories of six… -
LINGUIST list challenge ... help historical linguistics!
11 Mar 2010 | 2:30 pmIf you read this blog, you almost surely use the LINGUIST list too. They are celebrating their 20th anniversary of serving our field — and anybody with internet access who has any vague or passing interest in language.More immediately, they've embarked on a big fund drive to support their operations. This year, they're doing a Linguistic Subfield Challenge. Here's the current subfield snaphot:Me, I'm a historical guy, and therefore deeply disturbed to see that we're lagging behind both syntax (now in the lead) and language acquisition. If you love language change, or reconstruction or dead… -
Why do accents trump skin color?
11 Mar 2010 | 7:59 amScientific American has published a piece on work by Katherine Kinzler and colleagues showing evidence that kids, when presented with pictures/voices of other kids, identify the ones they would like to be friends with more by accent / language (namely, speaking English 'with a native accent') than by 'race'. That's not very surprising, I'd say.A cliche has developed around here about articles in places like Nature, Science and PNAS — a view forged by people who haven't published in any of those places, I think — that the deal is that you have to do serious (or serious-looking) science up… -
A brood of literarians
10 Mar 2010 | 6:39 amA contributor reported yesterday that they'd heard someone referring to literary scholars as 'literarians'. I know the word only as a term for people who are wildly enthusiastic about reading literary texts, as is presumably the intention with this blog title. (And if you click there, be sure to check out the peevology on unfriend as the Oxford UP WOTY.) That kind of love of reading is a trait that tragically few professors of literature seem to share. The exceptions are a joy, though.But I went to OED Online to see if there was something cooler about the word. The def is just "one engaged in…
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Learning the Language
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Hakuta: Common Standards Are 'Silent' on Some ELL Issues
12 Mar 2010 | 6:02 amFor the common standards to work for English-language learners, states will have to supplement them with English-language-proficiency standards aligned with them and provide professional development and materials geared toward helping ELLs attain them, says Kenji Hakuta, an education professor at Stanford University. He writes in comments that he submitted to the California Department of Education, and also sent to me in an e-mail, that while the common standards document released this week includes an introductory statement on how to apply the standards to ELLs, it is "silent" on how such… -
Education Week Wins Multimedia 1st Prize for ELL Profiles
11 Mar 2010 | 9:20 amIt's a good feeling to have been part of a team here at Education Week that was just awarded first prize in the multimedia category by the Education Writers Association for a set of online profiles of English-language learners. My contribution to the package, published as part of Quality Counts 2009: Portrait of a Population, was to identify some of the ELLs profiled and tell their stories in print. But the students' stories really came alive with the addition of audio interviews and photo portraits by Christopher Powers, the associate director of photography for Education Week. Last year,… -
On Day 2 of Better Enforcing Civil Rights Laws ...
10 Mar 2010 | 5:39 amOn the day after U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave a speech saying the Obama administration was going to step up enforcement of civil rights laws in schools, federal education officials announced they were pursuing action on civil rights in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Both the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press published stories yesterday saying the Education Department's office for civil rights is investigating whether English-language learners in that school system are receiving a fair education. The AP story mentions a recent study by the Tomas Rivera Policy… -
NAEP Will Test ELLs Who Have Been in U.S. for a Year
9 Mar 2010 | 7:50 amAfter much deliberation, the governing board for the National Assessment of Educational Progress has approved a policy saying that states should include ELLs in testing who have been in the United States for one year. Under the new policy, states and school districts should aim to include 85 percent of ELLs and students with disabilities in their testing samples, reports my colleague Stephen Sawchuk in a story published at edweek.org today. Stephen also reports that the policy says states and school districts must include 95 percent of all students in NAEP testing. Regulations for the No… -
Set to Come: Federal Guidance on ELLs With Disabilities
9 Mar 2010 | 7:05 amThe U.S. Department of Education expects to put out guidance soon on the civil rights of English-language learners who have disabilities and also those who are gifted. In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Russlynn Ali, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, said the federal government will put out guidance in 17 areas, including some that touch on the education of ELLs. The conference call was a preview to a speech on civil rights that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave in Selma, Ala., yesterday. Duncan mentioned ELLs both in the conference…
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Blogging Translator
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Tips for a smooth home office move
9 Mar 2010 | 1:24 amImage courtesy of ehow.com Hello blog, it’s been a while! The main reason for my woeful silence is that I recently moved home and office, and have been focusing on the practicalities of setting up and running my business from a new location. I know, I know, excuses, excuses! I thought I’d share with you some tips for ensuring a home office move goes as smoothly as possible while juggling translation deadlines, so that you can get up and running again in no time. 1) Planning ahead early: this might sound obvious, but when you know you’re moving make a list of all the… -
My review of the 9th Portsmouth Translation Conference
2 Dec 2009 | 1:18 amPortsmouth Spinnaker Tower, courtesy of virtualtourist.com Last month I spent a Saturday down in Portsmouth at the university’s Ninth Translation Conference, entitled ‘The Translator as Writer’. It’s incredible that I’ve never made it to the event before now, as I’ve always noticed the high calibre of speakers every year (a combination of practitioners and academics), and I’m pleased to say that having finally made it this year, the event lived up to my expectations. It seemed to me that the event had a very similar theme to other translation… -
Getting into translation part 2
3 Nov 2009 | 9:37 amThis is another post aimed at those considering a career in translation, following my recent similar post. A few months back I was asked to write a case study for 50:50 Magazine, about what it was like being a freelance translator. It’s hard to pin down what a typical day would be like for me, but the case study I wrote describes some of the tasks my working day generally involves*. I’ve written a replica of that case study for my blog: Job title: Freelance Translator Languages: French, Spanish and Portuguese (into English) Company/location: My cosy home office in London! -
Getting into translation
22 Oct 2009 | 6:53 amLast Saturday I gave a talk at a Chartered Instituted of Linguists event on getting started in translation. I had one hour to give a rough overview of the skills you need to be successful as a translator, the type of work you might do, a ‘typical’ day, networking, how to approach potential clients, and how to then grow your business. I’ll also be running the presentation as a webinar in February 2010, for anyone who couldn’t make it to London last Saturday. Attendees of the event who are new to my blog may be interested in reading a little more about how I got into… -
Guest post: an introduction to SEO
23 Sep 2009 | 1:18 amToday I’m publishing this guest post by Rob Hammond, Account Director for SEO at OMD, who gives some basic pointers on Search Engine Optimisation for translators. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) deals with optimising websites for people who use search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. If you’re wondering what this has to do with translation, read on… What is SEO? SEO is centred around the ‘natural’ (or ‘organic’) search listings shown in a search engine results page. This is distinct from ’sponsored’ results (coloured red below) also…
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Learn French with Daily Podcast
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867 – Le nez (Nose)
11 Mar 2010 | 6:47 pmLearning Guide | PDF Transcript Découverte: les nez peuvent être une solution bien meilleure d’identification que l’iris ou les empreintes… Learn French now ! Listen to today’s lesson : -
866 – Real Life French: Toujours malade
11 Mar 2010 | 6:19 pmReal life French Guide Welcome to your lesson of Real Life French. Each lesson we take a simple situation you may encounter in everyday life in France. Learn French now ! Listen to today’s lesson : -
865 – Nus à Sydney (Naked in Sydney)
9 Mar 2010 | 11:46 pmLearning Guide | PDF Transcript Plus de 5000 personnes se sont déshabillées pour un photographe à l’Opéra de Sydney pour montrer la société… Learn French now ! Listen to today’s lesson : -
864 – Tempêtes (Storms)
9 Mar 2010 | 6:03 pmLearning Guide | PDF Transcript Le premier ministre français décrète un désastre national après le passage des tempêtes ayant entraîné la mort et… Learn French now ! Listen to today’s lesson : -
Video Vocabulary #111
9 Mar 2010 | 5:48 pm
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Learn Languages Now
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Are You Ready to Speak German?
9 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pmIf you’re reading this, you’re probably looking for a quick, easy way to learn German. We recommend you choose one of the following German learning options. You could take a university class; you could buy a CD/book package at your local bookstore – or you could use a comprehensive online learning course to learn German. Read on and discover why we recommend you learn to speak and understand German with a interactive online software course. First, though, let’s take a look at your other options one by one. Will you really learn to speak German with a native like accent… -
Learn To Speak French Even Better With These Secrets
23 Feb 2010 | 1:41 pmLearning to speak in French can be a daunting task. Many people find learning a new language difficult, especially for those that are growing older. A good thing is, today you can easily learn French. It can be very beneficial to you take offline or online French lessons. Learning how to speak french challenges the mind and makes you a more desirable employee. It can daunting to figu, here are some helpful secrets to allow you to speak better French more quickly. First of all, you need to dedicate some time to learning to speak French. Don’t think that you’ll learn French language… -
The Answer to Learning German
26 Jan 2010 | 1:46 amUsing this incredibly effective Rocket Languages German course to learn the tongue is your best method possible. This downloadable German program employs the latest modern digital technology that allows users to take advantage of the speed and efficiency available toward learning. Plus, using a Rocket Languages learning course provides a great deal of fun while helping you speak just like a native. It is one of the best of its kind in making people learn the German language extremely quick which is mainly due to the high importance given to its conversational techniques making the users… -
Best Learn Spanish In A Short Time
5 Dec 2009 | 11:28 amHow would like to become an expert in communicating in one of the world’s oldest language; Spanish? Learning Spanish had been a very tedious process by exercising the ears, vocals and brain to be able to listen and try to reproduce what had been heard. But now with the highly demanded ‘Rocket Spanish‘ course online, you can become an expert in talking and writing in Spanish not in many months or years but in weeks time. We all have a need to communicate with the people around us and in this case it is the Hispanics, who in majority do not know how to read, write or even… -
Using Learn Spanish CDs For Travel Abroad
27 Nov 2009 | 10:30 amWhen you are looking to take that trip abroad, one of the first considerations is how you are going to communicate with the people who live in the country. The simple answer is to learn their language. While many will shake their head, you can use learn Spanish CDs to lean enough Spanish and enjoy your vacation without the worries of not being able to communicate. Instead of going to the classroom and absorbing huge tuition costs, many individuals have turned to language CDs as a way to learn a second language. Tools like Rocket Spanish are wonderful and have you communicating in a second…
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Learn Italian Language
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more Italian language expressions to have fun
7 Mar 2010 | 8:10 amIf you need an experienced Italian language teacher email me! I’m available for Italian tuition in Rome. Today you can find out 4 new Italian language expressions to improve your Italian easy and fun: Cacio Prezzemolo Baccalà Pane Complete these sentences with the words above: Mi ha colto di sorpresa e così non ho saputo che dirgli: sono rimasta lì a bocca aperta, immobile come un __________ Quando ho una difficoltà vado da Luca: è veramente un pezzo di ___________: è il ragazzo più buono e generoso che io conosca! Non ne posso più! Ogni volta che vado da qualche parte lo… -
a new Italian song to learn Italian
5 Mar 2010 | 7:39 amThis song is one of the most downloaded Italian songs on iTune. Enjoy Italian music! or better: -
Do you need to learn Italian?
28 Feb 2010 | 8:02 amAre you planning to go to Italy? Do you like to learn Italian in Rome? Or do you love learning Italian overseas, but unfortunately you don’t have the opportunity to spend an amount of time abroad? Maybe I can help you! If you really love to learn Italian, you have to know the main thing: you need an Italian teacher with “know how” and experience. I teach on line, but unfortunately I know that on line lessons are no substitute for someone to talk and listen to you, because you need to speak with a native speaker in a natural way. As you probably know, I teach in an Italian language… -
Some Italian expressions to learn Italian
21 Feb 2010 | 2:29 amSome new Italian expressions to learn Italian easy, quickly and fun, teach by an experienced Italian language teacher. Complete the sentences with one of the pics: pasta frolla spaghetti rapa zucca pera - Luca è impazzito: è totalmente fuori di ________ ! - Oggi Laura ha i capelli dritti come ______ : non glieli ho mai visti così lisci! - Quell’uomo è una testa di _________ : non capisce niente! -Paolo ha le mani di __________ : tutto quello che prende in mano gli cade! -Quel bambino è veramente brutto: poverino, non mai visto un bambino con una testa a _________ così! [Per le… -
Have a nice Sunday! – in Italian: Buona domenica!
14 Feb 2010 | 2:42 amItalian language teacher with many years of experience here for your one to one Italian lessons An old Italian song to say you “Buona domenica” = Have a nice/good Sunday Buona Domenica di Antonello Venditti Buona domenica, passata in casa ad aspettare, tanto il telefono non squilla più e il tuo ragazzo ha preso il volo. Buona domenica, tanto tua madre non capisce, continua a dirti “Ma non esci mai? Perché non provi a divertirti?” Buona domenica, quando misuri la tua stanza, finestra, letto e la tua radio che continua a dirti che è domenica. Ciao, ciao domenica,…
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Brave New Words
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Food Allergy Resources
10 Mar 2010 | 4:08 pmSomeone sent me the link to a website that offers “a new language tool dedicated to travelers with food allergies.” This site is not only useful to those who suffer from food allergies, but could potentially be helpful to translators who are working on culinary or medical texts. -
Learning Chinese
5 Mar 2010 | 4:07 pmI like information on how to learn various languages, so here is an article with resources for learning Chinese. -
A Round-Up of Articles
28 Feb 2010 | 4:05 pmTime for another round-up of interesting articles:The first one is on one of the oldest dialects dying out.Next is an article on Open Letter Books, which publishes translations.The third is a discussion of European literature.Then a piece on the professionalization of translators.Finally, an article on the global novel. -
Another Prize Announcement
24 Feb 2010 | 4:07 pmI thought I would also tell you about the Stephen Spender Competition. For this competition, you are to “translate a poem from any language, classical or modern, into English,” and there are three categories for entries: “open, 18-and-under and 14-and-under.” -
Some Job Announcements
19 Feb 2010 | 4:02 pmHere are a couple of interesting job announcements.1. TWO LINES SENIOR EDITOR & LITERARY PROGRAMS MANAGER The Center for the Art of Translation is a San Francisco-based non profit promoting international literature and translation through programs in publishing, education, and public events. The Center is currently seeking an experienced Senior Editor & Literary Programs Manager for our Two Lines publications program, which includes the annual Two Lines World Writing in Translation anthology and the World Library series of regional anthologies. The Two Lines Senior Editor & Literary Programs…
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Learn a Language
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Remembering a language from your childhood
18 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amWere you every exposed to a language when you were young, however, have thought that you have forgotten it? The reality is, your brain has some foundation already set. The purpose of this post is to convey some recent experiences I have had on my trip to the USA regarding language learning and the brain which will illustrate how, learning a language is like riding a bike. Remembering a language from your childhood My mother is almost 80 years old and she spoke Ukrainian as a child. Now she has not used the language for most of her life. For the last 30 years she claims she has forgotten… -
Ukrainian an official language of Russia
12 Feb 2010 | 9:35 amI think Ukrainian needs to be an official language in Russia. Why? I have had some Russians who are writing Russian should be an official language of Ukraine, because there are Russian speakers that live in Ukraine. Russian as the official language everywhere there are Russians Basically people should speak whatever language they want to speak at home or work. I believe in freedom, but to make a foreign language an official language of your country is a huge stretch. Lets look at some examples: If this is the case, Polish should be the official language of the UK. Why not? Why not German… -
Why and how I learned a language – Interview
7 Feb 2010 | 3:20 amI have interviewed a friend of mine. I think you will find this post quite interesting. He is not just any friend. He has mastered the Polish language. Here are his ideas: How I learned a language interview. He like me is an American that moved to Europe, learned a language and got dual citizenship. Many Americans want to pick up and EU citizenship and learn a language with no work. I tell them you have to know how, and have motivation. I have a great life now that I did a little bit of work. I am dual citizen and almost bilingual. I also travel the world. Anyone can do this. Just read… -
Foreign language accent reduction
1 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pmHow to reduce your accent in a foreign language If you want to reduce your accent in a foreign language, this is what you have to do. You have to take a sample of a foreign language native speaker in your target language and listened to it. The sample should be reasonable in size and word variation. The next thing you need to do is basically memorize. I know this sounds hard but you need to learn the language anyway and memorizing some useful passages will not hurt you. The next step is to record your own voice speaking your target foreign language – not reading this passage. If… -
Voice to text – Digital recorder speech recognition experiment
31 Jan 2010 | 7:24 amMark’s voice to text – digital voice recorder speech recognition experiment – failure. I detailed my productivity breakthrough I achieved with a voice to text program that comes with Windows -> Speech recognition. It is basically an automatic transcription program that comes with Windows that frees you from typing. You can just speak to your computer. With Microsoft SAPI I trained it now to 99% accuracy. It takes a little patience because when you start you will be at 80% accuracy. You must train it. Just to not try it and say this does not work. It does work. I was…
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Fun English Lessons
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126 - Beach Life
6 Mar 2010 | 1:30 amWe just got back from a trip to Thailand and we wanted to share some great vocabulary and phrases for life on the beach. We have a lesson here with some terms and phrases that we found were used often on our trip by many native English speakers. Have a listen and let us know what you think! -
125 - Business Secrets Part 1
30 Nov 2009 | 6:10 amThis ESL podcast is about learning new business ideas and improving your life. -
124 - Getting a Job
5 Oct 2009 | 4:51 amIn this ESL podcast we talk about getting a job and networking. Learn English vocabulary for daily life and the workplace -
123 - Down Low
31 Aug 2009 | 6:26 pmThis ESL podcast is about keeping a conversation private. Learn great phrases for your daily English conversations! -
122 - Giving a Presentation
17 Jul 2009 | 1:05 amThis ESL podcast is about giving a presentation and how to relax while giving one.
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Naked Translations
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Comma splice
1 Mar 2010 | 12:19 amI’m sure you’ve been there too: you’ve had a hard day at work followed by a strenuous workout at the gym and all you want is a nice, relaxing bath. You get in and start enjoying a bit of peace and quiet when the phone rings. You ignore it. It rings again, so you decide to get out and pick it up. This happens not twice, but three times, which leads to the following text conversation: Me: CAN I ENJOY MY BATH WITHOUT HAVING TO GET OUT EVERY TWO MINUTES??? Bath-ruiner: You’re in the bath??!! Me: Well I was, I got out as people are clearly intent on ruining it. Bath-ruiner: Tee hee. (Awful… -
Upper and lower case
18 Feb 2010 | 12:22 amHave you ever wondered where “upper case” and “lower case” come from? I hadn’t until I came across an explanation as I was trying to work out whether it should be Beaux-Arts or beaux-arts. The “case” (from Latin cassa, “box”) refers to the type cases used by printers to keep their movable type. Capital letters (from Latin caput “head”, as these were used at the beginning of a sentence or a word) were put at the top of the case, while minuscules were at the bottom of the case, hence upper case and lower case letters. Typewriter photo by Marcin Wichary. -
The White Ribbon
8 Feb 2010 | 1:01 pmThis entry has nothing to do with English, French or translation. I just really want to share a film that I saw at the weekend. Once again, it’s directed by Michael Haneke, who is fast becoming my favorite director. After Caché, a powerful portrayal of France’s colonial guilt, The White Ribbon (Das Weiße Band) (2009) is an amazing study of the decomposition of a repressive, hypocritical society where power is concentrated in a few hands. Visually, it’s incredible. In these times dominated by multi-million pound computer generated effects with bright colours and supernatural… -
Nut roast
1 Feb 2010 | 12:48 amI spent last Monday interpreting in East Sussex. After a busy day, we all ended up in a lovely pub with an interesting history in Lewes to have dinner and talk about forthcoming projects. Little did I know that a major incident had only just been averted thanks to the keen eye of the British lead partner. A few days earlier, a menu had been sent to the French partners so they could make their choice for dinner. For the main course, one of the options was “nut roast”, which was translated as rôti de noix. The problem was that, in French minds, rôti is almost inevitably associated with… -
Fanlation
20 Jan 2010 | 1:01 amFanlation is a term that I've come across very recently, and I came across it again when I received Jost Zetzsche's Tool Kit newsletter: I had just suggested that we use a new term for the kind of crowdsourced translation that the likes of Twitter and Facebook do when they engage hordes of enthused users to translate their products: fanlation. When I wrote my post about crowdsourcing, this is exactly the process I had in mind, but actually, it's not necessarily how crowdsourcing work. What I was talking about was "fanlation", only this term didn't exist yet. These new translation concepts are…
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Cognition and Language Lab
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Class Notes: Why linguistic judgments are fuzzy
8 Mar 2010 | 6:00 amBuried towards the end of a 1991 paper by Fisher, Gleitman & Gleitman is a strikingly useful -- and I think, correct -- observation on the limits of grammaticality studies. In the context of a broader argument that people learn the meanings of verbs partly from the syntactic frames the verbs appear in ("syntactic bootstrapping"), they argue that exactly this "feature" of verb learning makes it sometimes hard to decide if a particular verb is grammatical in a certain context. Consider the present progressive in English. Classically, the present progressive can only be used for ongoing… -
Class Notes: This field confuses the hell out of me. I want to start from scratch.
1 Mar 2010 | 5:30 amI have now read 44 papers in the course of this semester's Language Acquisition seminar. The only firm conclusion I have come to is that language is so complicated that nobody could ever possibly learn one. --- (The title of this post comes from the caption of a doodle of a mid-century Harvard psychologist, now enshrined in a display case on the 9th floor of William James Hall. Based on the time period, I think the doodler was either George Miller or Roger Brown, but I can't recall for sure.)Read the blog: http://gameswithwords.fieldofscience.com/ Do the research: http://coglanglab.org -
Adoption and Language Development
26 Feb 2010 | 10:52 amI just heard that the Boston Globe recently ran an article on my advisor's work. If you haven't already read it, here's my discussion of the same work in Scientific American Mind.Read the blog: http://gameswithwords.fieldofscience.com/ Do the research: http://coglanglab.org -
Class Notes: A Developmental Paradox
24 Feb 2010 | 7:00 amOne thing that keeps coming up in artificial grammar studies (in which people are taught bits of made-up languages) is that adults are much better at learning them than kids. Yet we know that if you wait 20 years, people who started learning a real language as a kid do much better than those who started as adults. This might mean the artificial grammar studies aren't ecologically valid, but I think it's also the case that in real-life second-language acquisition, adults start out ahead of kids. Whatever makes kids better language learners seems to be something that happens after the first few… -
Web Experiment Tutorial: Chapter 3, Basic Flash Programming
23 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pmSeveral years ago, I wrote a tutorial for my previous lab on how to create Web-based experiments in Flash. Over the next number of months, I'll be posting that tutorial chapter by chapter. This and the following two chapters will go over how to produce a basic change-detection experiment. Necessary materials and the finished example are included. 1. How is a Flash program structured? If you have ever done any programming, you will find the layout of a Flash program rather odd. This is because it is designed for animations. A Flash program is structured around frames. Frames are what they…
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Ryan's Linguistics Blog
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Movement
6 Mar 2010 | 1:04 pmI was watching an old episode of Seinfeld the other night, and a line of dialogue caught my attention: "That's the guy I told where the elevator was." It's not ungrammatical for me, but it's marked in some way that made my analytical skills perk up. According to current syntactic theory, this type of sentence is created by movement from one original, underlying position to a different surface position. You don't have to take this literally as movement; many syntacticians take "movement" as a relation rather than an actual move from one position to another. But the key is that a clause like… -
deep-end/depend
27 Feb 2010 | 6:34 pmWhile perusing Not Always Right the other day, I came across a post entitled The Rule Deep-Ends On How Cute You Are. I was nonplussed; deep-ends? Certainly I'm familiar with the deep end of a pool, but as a verb? It took me the entire reading of the post to realize they were playing on the (in my opinion, mostly orthographic) similarity of "deep end" to "depend".I think the main reason for my confusion is that I always, even in careful speech, pronounce "depend" as dǝ.ˈpʰɛnd, rather than di.ˈpʰɛnd. "deep end", on the other hand, is… -
Lather, rinse, repeat
20 Feb 2010 | 7:44 amThere was recently quite a bit of interesting discussion about a Language Log post on the semantics of "this page intentionally left blank". Levi Montgomery posted that it reminded him of "the instructions to 'Lather, rinse, and repeat,' apparently ad infinitum." I was struck by this comment, because historically and upon careful thought, I don't find anything recursive about this statement.Levi apparenty interprets this injunction as being of the form (A --> B --> return to A). This would indeed lead to infinite hair washing, with the user lathering and rinsing until the eschaton. But I… -
Enamored
13 Feb 2010 | 12:14 pmI was musing the other day about the PP (prepositional phrase) complement to "enamored". My intuition is that "enamored with" is more common in modern times, but that "enamored of" is the original and prescriptively "correct" usage. Checking with the OED more or less confirms this, though the original usage, unbeknownst to me, is "enamored (up)on". "Enamored of" was the next oldest usage, and "enamored with", though listed as a possibility, didn't have any examples.Now to check modern frequency:enamored upon: 833 ghitsenamored on: 6380 ghitsenamored of: 644,000 ghitsenamored with: 667,000… -
Vowels and consonants
6 Feb 2010 | 12:59 pmI'm constantly struck by how many people seemingly refuse to believe in syllabic consonants. For instance, in my dialect (Standard American, or very close to it) there is absolutely no hint of a vowel in words like "word" or "bird". Yet many phonologists transcribe these words either as having a sequence of schwa plus /r/, or as the "r-colored schwa". I see no reason to posit any difference between the /r/ in the nucleus of "bird" and the /r/ in the onset of "rib". There surely must be a slight phonetic difference, but this is to be expected, because one is in onset position, while the other…
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English, Jack
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Negating must and have to
6 Mar 2010 | 6:32 pmIn most ESL grammars, you find claims that must and have to result in different meanings when negated even though their affirmative meanings are essentially the same. That is, negate must and you end up with a prohibition. Negate have to, on the other hand, and you get a lack of obligation.It just occurred to me that this has less to do with must and have to and more to do with the scope of negation. I'm not claiming this as a new discovery. I've probably read or heard it before and simply forgotten, but it just struck me now and I don't think I'll forget again.With must, negation… -
The shifting ground of backshifting
27 Feb 2010 | 9:47 amRecently, a correspondent asked about fall in Aristotle said that heavy things fall quicker than lighter things. Should fall be fell, he wondered. I responded that the simple present tense is fine here, even preferred. I went on to say that backshifting is rarely obligatory and that, generally speaking, backshifting seems to be more common when talking about discrete events than general facts or states. But then another participant in the discussion brought up the sentence People thought the earth was flat. In this sentence, the present tense of be just doesn't work. So what's the… -
Owning the podium (or not)
25 Feb 2010 | 1:45 pmFor any hard-up Canadian headline writers thinking the unthinkable about the Canadian men's Olympic hockey team, I offer the following:Pwned! The odium! -
The power of you and me
24 Feb 2010 | 3:44 pmThe Canadian Press is responsible for publishing the following foolishness:"'For some reason, polite Canadians do not seem to think that "me" is acceptable,' says Joanne Buckley, a professor at the Centre for Student Development at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and one of the country's pre-eminent grammarians."'Of course, we grammarians know that the words should be "believe in the power of you and me" since "of" is a preposition and takes an object.'"For some reason, Joanne Buckley seems to be an incurious, self-agrandizing pedant who has memorized some rules of thumb about grammar… -
OK doing
4 Feb 2010 | 11:16 amA few years ago, I wrote about allowed doing. The other day, I heard for the first time (I think), "It's OK playing Wii." This was not an evaluative comment on the relative enjoyment of playing Wii but rather a claim that they were permitted to play Wii. My corpus searches have turned up almost no relevant examples, and as I've said, I don't think I've heard it before, but I'll keep my ears tuned.
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Becomng a Better EFL Teacher
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9 Fundamental Aspects of Education
10 Mar 2010 | 1:30 pmFundamental Aspects of Education Untold volumes have been spoken and written on the true value and purpose of education. What aspects however, can we as educators really offer to those whose mental, psychological and physical development have been charged to us? In my personal opinion, here are nine fundamental aspects of a basic education and the contribution that we as educators can potentially make in each. 1. Self – confidence Development of self – confidence in one’s self and one’s abilities is fundamental to human nature. Our value to ourselves and to others stems from our own… -
English Phonetics - Pronunciation Video
8 Mar 2010 | 1:34 pm -
Teaching English as a Foreign Language with Social Responsibility
3 Mar 2010 | 2:06 pmTeaching English as a Foreign Language Are you conserving and recycling water? As EFL, ESL or foreign language teaching professionals we ultimately have a responsibility to our learners, our adopted communities and ourselves as a form of social responsibility. We can quite easily, quickly and responsibly incorporate global, regional and local social issues into our class sessions to provide our language learners with an outlet for their English as a foreign language or other foreign language communicative skills. Pollution, crime, the environment, global warming and terrorism are all… -
How to Play Chicken with Waves that Can Kill You
1 Mar 2010 | 12:24 pmHow to Play Chicken with Pacific Ocean Waves that Can Kill YouMonday Jurubida, Choco Playing Chicken with Pacific Ocean Waves For awhile I watched from the beach as Doris played “chicken” with the waves. When there was a lull in the heavy waves, I slipped out of my cap, shoes and T-shirt to slide into the water myself. It was surprising how warm the water was. I have taken many baths in water that was a lot cooler than this and I don’t take cold water baths by a long shot. “The water is really warm”, I said to Doris. “Yeah, isn’t it great?” I couldn’t believe how warm two… -
Teach English in Colombia: They Accidently Got Out
24 Feb 2010 | 12:37 pmA Jurubida, Colombia Salt Water Fishing Day The Still Sleeping Fishing Village of JurubidaDawn broke about 530 am. For the first time in days, it wasn’t pouring rain, unusual for the Choco, the wettest region in the world. Instead a lazy pink glow began growing in the eastern sky above the rainforest behind the still sleeping fishing village of Jurubida on Colombia’s Pacific coast. Almost all the fishermen had long since braved the waves of the incoming tide and headed out into the arms of the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes fishermen like Heriberto, didn’t come back, locked in the sea’s…
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Thoughts on Translation
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SFT presentation links
10 Mar 2010 | 12:45 pmEve Bodeux and I will be giving two presentations (Marketing your translation services to clients in the United States and Web 2.0 for translators) for the Société Française des Traducteurs this week. Following are the links to some of the sites I will be mentioning in my sections of these presentations. Marketing your translation services to clients in the United States Payment Practices The American Translators Association French-American Chamber of Commerce in New York French-American Chamber of Commerce in Philadelphia The World Trade Centers Association Google AdWords Sales Caffeine… -
Translating official documents: continued
7 Mar 2010 | 7:14 pmLast month, I ran a post on translating official documents which generated a lot of reader interest and comments. I’m back with a correction and an addition to that post: The correction: In the original post I advised translators of official documents to “Use a screenshot or graphics program to enhance your translations.” For example, I have often copied logos, seals, etc. onto the translation as .jpg images. After reading the comments on the original post and talking off-blog to a translator who was accused of fraud for copying images onto translations, I now recommend that… -
Some thoughts on business cards
5 Mar 2010 | 8:38 amDespite the explosion in online and offline marketing techniques, the lowly business card remains one of the most cost-effective and widely used marketing materials in a freelance translator’s arsenal. Small, inexpensive, customizable, easy to distribute… business cards have a lot of advantages, so it’s worth looking at what makes a good (and bad) business card. I currently have three sets of business cards: plain, fancy and bilingual: I use each of these cards for different purposes. The plain cards (on top) are inexpensive (about $50 for 500) to produce and they have my… -
A few LinkedIn tips
24 Feb 2010 | 9:52 amOn Monday evening, Eve Bodeux, Riccardo Schiaffino and I presented a professional development session on “Social Media: Web 2.0 for Translators” for the Colorado Translators Association. I covered LinkedIn and Facebook, Riccardo handled Blogging 101 (you can download Riccardo’s excellent presentation from his website link above) and Eve wrapped things up with Twitter. Given that we covered all of this in an hour and a half, it was a very brief introduction to these topics. However, as one attendee commented, “I feel like for now I can get away without using these… -
A freelance best practices checklist
22 Feb 2010 | 1:12 pmI’ll be honest; I love self-evaluation tools. When I presented a seminar on “Beyond the Basics of Freelancing” for the Northern California Translators Association last summer, I decided to create a self-evaluation tool for the attendees and we also used this checklist at a meeting of the Colorado Translators Association. People seemed to find this tool useful and helpful, so I decided to post it here as well; of course some of the associations (ATA, CTA, etc.) don’t apply if you don’t live in the US or Colorado, so feel free to substitute a professional…
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Global Watchtower
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How Google Translate will Increase Demand for Human Translation
9 Mar 2010 | 10:54 amJournalists writing about machine translation always lean on the proposition that MT will one day put professional translators out of business. Just as likely, ubiquitous availability of “good enough” translation will do the opposite. Here is why.vantin without prescription cheap lortab without prescription drugs Viagra Tel-Drug 500 x 120 mg superloss multi caps out rx purchase viramune no or pick not sites purchase xanax cod business, prescription doctors multiple sclerosis lipitor Philadelphia-area licensed no rx mobic from if site tramadol for sale easier to adopted The 30mg… -
SDL Acknowledges Longstanding Demand for Affordable TM and Open Systems
3 Mar 2010 | 9:32 amSDL today announced an update to Trados Studio, a new edition for freelancers, and an open application programming interface (API) for Trados. The freelancer version and API respond to longstanding demands in the marketplace for lower-priced translation memory (TM) software and a more open global information management (GIM) ecosystem. (more…) -
Telephone Interpreting Firms Compete for U.S. Federal Dollars
3 Mar 2010 | 6:58 amThis morning, California-based Language Line Services announced that the company was chosen to provide nationwide interpreting services for asylum proceedings — both in person and via telephone — for the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. While the total potential award amount was not disclosed, the asylum contract is just one of a string of federal contracts that is attracting the attention of telephone interpreting vendors at the moment. (more…) -
New Online Tools Move Translation into the Cloud
1 Mar 2010 | 4:00 amWhile established players Lingotek, Lionbridge, Sajan, SDL, and Welocalize continue to make noise about crowd-in-the-cloud translation management, upstart entrepreneurs are jumping into the fray with innovative technologies modeling new approaches to crowd and cloud-based translation systems. Most are web-resident applications (metaphorically “in the cloud”) but several go further, deploying literally in cloud-computing architectures such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). (more…) -
Where to Find More Military Interpreters? Do Tell.
18 Feb 2010 | 8:55 amThis month, U.S. President Barack Obama called for an end to the 16-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The top two defense officials, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, followed suit. How will this change affect the U.S. military’s ability to staff languages of limited demand and critical need? (more…)
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Global by Design
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Is Google the best machine translation engine? It depends…
11 Mar 2010 | 7:01 amTwo weeks ago, I introduced Ethan Shen and his project to analyze the three major free machine translation (MT) engines — Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Babelfish — by relying on translator reviews. Ethan has provided me with a mid-point summary of results, which I’ve included below. I was surprised to find that Microsoft and Babelfish are beating Google on some languages pairs, as well as on shorter text strings. Although Google is emerging the overall winner — and receiving some much-deserved attention from the media — it’s nice to see some healthy… -
The best global automotive web site: Volkswagen
9 Mar 2010 | 7:37 amWe included 12 automotive brands in the 2010 Web Globalization Report Card. And of the 12, Volkswagen emerged on top. Volkswagen is one of the more globally consistent automotive web sites. In general, automotive sites are behind the curve in global consistency, so it was nice to see so many country sites leveraging the same global design template. Shown below are VW’s Italian and Finnish web sites: Volkswagen also leads the category in global navigation, with a global gateway that is visually engaging, albeit a bit over-engineered, shown below. Volkswagen also began supporting… -
Where is China’s fast-track IDN?
8 Mar 2010 | 8:11 amIn January of this year, ICANN announced that four fast-track IDNs had made it through linguistic approval — effectively clearing the way for commercialization. Oddly missing from that list was China’s IDN. One of the reasons ICANN initiated a fast-track process — if not the reason — was China. China began putting pressure on ICANN a few years back by registering second-level IDNs and hinting that it would offer full-length IDNs if ICANN didn’t get moving. China’s Internet is essentially an intranet after all, so there is no reason the country… -
Web Globalization 2010: How Many Languages is Enough?
5 Mar 2010 | 10:03 amLanguages are a means to an end, and in web globalization, languages help you expand your global reach. And global reach doesn’t always mean expanding beyond borders, it could also mean expanding within borders — consider Spanish for the US (a trend that continues to tick upward). That said, any executive with global aspirations is sure to wonder at one point or another: How many languages is enough? It must seem that every year, the definition of “enough” inches upward. The Web Globalization Report Card proves this to be true. In 2003, when we began the Report Card,… -
What if your company didn’t make the top 25 list?
3 Mar 2010 | 10:06 amWe reviewed 225 web sites for the Report Card, which means 200 sites didn’t make the “cut.” If your company is in this list of 200 and you want to know where you ranked, please contact me at jyunker (at) bytelevel (dot) com and I’ll provide that information. I don’t want companies to buy this report simply to find out where they ranked. The goal of the report is to help companies get better — no matter what their score. This report even provided advice for Google to improve its score — and it ranked #1.
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Web-Translations Buzz
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Web-Translations joins the ATC
4 Mar 2010 | 2:25 amWe’re proud to announce that Web-Translations has become a member of the Association of Translation Companies. As one of the oldest and most respected professional bodies in the translation industry, members of the ATC are carefully vetted before admission into membership, adhere to a strict code of professional conduct, are subject to the rulings of a [...] -
London Eye vs London Zoo
3 Mar 2010 | 6:05 amOh dear! If ever there was an example of how not to translate a website it must be the London Eye website. It would seem that the Merlin Group clearly don’t care about their international visitors… Looking at the German website: http://www.londoneye.com/de/ (or any language for that matter), notice: It’s pot luck if the link you click [...] -
New Windows 7 fonts give more scope to non-Roman languages
16 Dec 2009 | 2:00 amWindows 7 includes over 40 new fonts which expand the script and language support the system can offer. Far from simply being a means of displaying text, different fonts can change the way we read text, and even how we feel about what we are reading. For example: As well as allowing much more versatility for people [...] -
Click4translation Beta testing - we need you!
10 Dec 2009 | 2:49 amThe latest version of Click4Translation is now online, and we’re inviting you to test it - please sign up at www.click4translation.com and get a quote for any translation project by uploading your documents, or submitting a website URL - it’s as simple as that! Click4translation makes it quick and easy to get a quote for your [...] -
Could the ‘Tele Scouter’ revolutionise the world of translation?
1 Dec 2009 | 7:03 amThe ‘Tele Scouter’, a recent invention from NEC due to launch in 2010, is a pair of glasses attached to a headset and mouthpiece, with a small projector that can transmit messages onto the retina of the user. It is intended for use in a customer service environment, allowing employees access to information regarding the [...]
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Women Learning Thai
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The Red Shirts are in Bangkok. Again.
12 Mar 2010 | 2:15 amThere be Red Shirts… Thursday afternoon I tried to focus on a Friday post. Sigh. But I could not, would not settle. Because with everything going on this weekend, there was too much on my mind. The closer the Red Shirt rallies came, the more alarming the news. Protesters plan to paralyse Bangkok: city could burn Thailand braces for massive political protests Petrol sales and deliveries in Bangkok suspended Expats started phoning one another asking, ‘what do we stock up on?’ The only thing everyone agreed on was wine. Oh, and water. Giving up on my intended Friday post, I called… -
Traditional Thai Puppet Theater: Joe Louis
9 Mar 2010 | 2:00 amWhen googling goes wrong… Before I head out into Thailand, I learn what I can about my target subject. It usually works a charm, but this time my googling ended with a FAIL. You see, finding outdated(?) information about the Joe Louis Thai Puppet Theatre set my heart on a traditional puppet show with… well… why don’t I just tell you what happened… The Joe Louis Thai puppet theatre in Suan Lum Night Bazaar… After visiting the workplace and home of a Thai puppeteer (post still to come), I started researching live puppet shows. It didn’t take long to… -
Seven Tips for Learning the Thai Language
7 Mar 2010 | 5:00 pmTip Number 1: Take your time, enjoy your studies… “Why does it have to be sooooooo hard?” “Why does it have to take sooooooo long?” Maybe we need a little attitude adjustment…? Maybe we need to listen more carefully…? Most of us do have nearly excellent hearing skills for normal conversational volume… BUT, most of us have very POOR LISTENING SKILLS for normal conversations… Just think of the last time you “nodded” your way through a conversation with a friend… But do we actually practice LISTENING??? Listening is the “hardest” part. Get used to it. Enjoy it. LOVE… -
Thai Language Thai Culture: Telephone Thai
4 Mar 2010 | 5:00 pmTalking Thai on the telephone… It probably took me ten years before I could understand anything anyone said on the telephone here in Thailand. It’s not the language. My wife had the same problem in English when she got to America. It is just really hard dealing with a disembodied voice and not seeing the person who is talking. We quickly realize how important body posture, facial expressions, and mouth movements are when we are talking to someone on the phone, especially in a foreign language. One way to make things easier is to be able to use telephone-specific speech correctly. -
Learn Thai with Benjawan Poomsan Becker
2 Mar 2010 | 5:00 pmLearning the Thai language with Benjawan… It is an undisputed fact that Benjawan Poomsan Becker of Paiboon Publishing is the top producer of Thai language products. With that jewel in mind… while I was working on the Benjawan Poomsan Becker Interview, I came up with a way to show just how proliferate she is. Not only would I list each of her language courses, but I would share the details of each product. Most important? The table of contents and vocabulary count. Vocabulary count is a popular way of keeping score. I don’t do it, but many language learners do. And when I…
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Russian Blog
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Soviet Classics: Hedgehog in the Fog
12 Mar 2010 | 2:00 amThere’s a rumor that Russian is much more difficult to learn than English. «Чепух, господ!» [Nonsense, ladies and gentlemen!] For one, you can learn to read Russian in less than a day since it is a very phonetic language. слшится, пшется!» [The way it sounds is the way it spells.] Admittedly, we do have our own issues, as with unstressed vowels, when « sounds like sounds like and such. Still, the only difference between корва» [cow] and карва» [misspelled cow] is in a grade you get on your Russian language test. Really once you have all 33 of… -
Top Ten Things to Do in Russia
10 Mar 2010 | 4:00 amWe’ve studied the language for years, we’ve almost mastered the grammar, we’ve stopped pronouncing half of the words in any given sentence all wrong, we’ve read every single great novel by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, we’ve recited Pushkin’s poetry by heart out loud – what next? What else should one do when in Russia? Because a foreigner cannot – and should not! – spend every day of their visit in Russia hunched over their desk learning grammar or trying to read “Fathers and Sons” in the original. This country has so much more to offer! It is filled with amazing experiences… -
Top Ten Russian Phrases
8 Mar 2010 | 4:00 amSo you’ve made it to Russia – now what?! Don’t feel discouraged by not having mastered Russian language fully yet. Life is long and there’s still plenty of time ahead for you to get a grip on all of those cases and to understand why so often the letter sounds like the letter when pronounced. Even if you’re not fluent in the language (or even far from it), you can still very much enjoy a visit to the great Eastern Motherland! But knowing a word or two before crossing the border might help you to get a little bit more out of your visit. And that’s what today’s post is intended on… -
«Это вы всё-таки ждали…»: Answers to the Russian Poetry Quiz!
7 Mar 2010 | 8:56 amRemember the post here on March 2nd – «Вот неожданно»: Russian Poetry Quiz! – which disappeared for a while (but now it is back up on the blog, which the working link is living proof of). If you missed it the first time, feel free to have a look at it before reading the correct answers! «Ндо свесть имть вс-так» [one must have a conscience after all]! But if you read it the first time and couldn’t guess any of the Russian poets, let alone figure out which lines from their poetry that had been so «бессвестно» [conscienceless, unconscionable,… -
How To Prepare Russian Mimosa Salad
5 Mar 2010 | 2:00 amAs you can imagine, after long winter Russians eagerly anticipate прихд весн» [advent of spring]. Every sign points to it – [a thaw] that leaves протлины» [patches of thawed out ground] in the retreating snow and causes капль» [melting icicles] to drip-drip-drip tiny droplets of clear cold water on the ground and on occasional passerby who forgets the basic Russian spring safety rule – сосльками ходть» [don’t walk under the icicles]. (Do you know that, apparently, in Sweden it is no longer legal to walk under the roof overhangs because of…
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Polish Blog
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Vacationing po polsku
10 Mar 2010 | 6:00 amAdam writes: I am away on vacation, so the topic is close to my heart at the moment. And as this is the middle of winter – so it’s a good time to plan your summer holidays. Planning in advance is something that people in Pomerania, Silesia, Greater and Lesser Poland would be more likely to do. People in Central and Eastern parts of the country are said to be more into deciding on an impulse. If you live there, read this in June Poland has a multitude of all types of vacation options, resorts, holiday establishments, and standards of accommodation. In this post I’ll go through them… -
Conversations with Poles – What Not to Mention
7 Mar 2010 | 1:52 amOne thing that becomes immediately apparent from Adam’s post is that an unprepared foreigner should avoid talking politics with a Pole whenever possible, because the experience may turn out to be less than pleasant. But don’t worry, even if you get two Poles discussing politics, chances are the conversation may become very heated. How does the saying go? “Two Poles, three different opinions”? Yep, that’s us! However, it’s only politics that should be avoided. The uninitiated and unprepared for what may transpire should also steer clear from a wide variety of topics, such as:… -
Politics? Oh no!
3 Mar 2010 | 3:22 pmToday we have another guest post from Adam. And brace yourselves, it’s about polityka – politics. Before I started writing for Polish Blog, Anna instructed me to never ever mention politics in my posts. I understand how this topic might be problematic and even uncomfortable. People have different views, and we wouldn’t want to discourage or offend anyone. But this is so blerry difficult. First, politics is a very Polish topic. And second, in my opinion, everything is political, especially in Poland. Politics is probably the most popular topic for any conversation in Poland,… -
Documentary Film About Wisława Szymborska
28 Feb 2010 | 8:16 pmHave you heard about his new documentary about Wisława Szymborska? I haven’t had a chance to watch it, so I can’t give you a proper review, but from what I’m hearing and reading about it, it certainly sounds very interesting. It’s titled – “Sometimes Life is Bearable”, directed by Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska. Now, I’ll be the first one to admit, I am not a fan of poetry, and as tragic as it may seem to my fellow Poles, I haven’t read any of Szymborska’s poems. It’s just not my thing. But she is famous and she got the Nobel Prize in literature in 1996. I am… -
Two Ears and Two Eyes
24 Feb 2010 | 8:57 pmI was writing something yesterday, in Polish, as it happens, and I almost had a nervous breakdown. Why? Plural forms of “number + noun” combinations are enough to drive anyone insane, even a native Pole. And it all looked so simple! I was talking about body parts, more specifically, those body parts that come in twos. There was little problem with hands and legs: dwie ręce – two hands dwie nogi – two legs What was enough for a trip to an insane asylum was when I got to those body parts that are neuter in gender (when singular). You know, stuff like eyes and ears. In English, it’s…
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Thai 101
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Bureaucracy Insanity: Chair Envy
9 Mar 2010 | 6:58 pmHere's an amusing item making the rounds. It is a letter that hails from Sri Prachan District, Suphanburi Province, a few hours northwest of Bangkok. An unfortunate employee of the local revenue office there who suffers from back pain was told she cannot use her own chair at work, because it makes her look like the boss. Click on the image to enlarge and read the Thai for yourself, but I've provided an English translation below. Translation:14 January 2010 Re: Request for clarification regarding bringing a personal chair to a government office To: Sri Prachan… -
Thai 101 Learner's Series Rides Again
3 Mar 2010 | 9:51 amIt's been a while since Women Learning Thai finished re-serializing my Thai 101 Learner's Series, which first ran as a biweekly column in the Phuket Gazette during 2008. The ever-patient Catherine of WLT managed to coax another installment from me, which went live last week. Have a look. [Thai 101 Learner's Series: A Trusted Native Speaker is Essential] -
Japanese Blogosphere Reacts to Doraemon's Death
11 Feb 2010 | 4:35 amLast week I wrote about a full Buddhist funeral held for a Doraemon doll in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Japanese bloggers, amused at the news of the beloved robotic cat's apparent death, are responding the way they know best: with lots of Doraemon ASCII art. Check out some of the link love. Being able to read Japanese is helpful (but Google Translate also allows you to get the gist): Digimaga.net, Vistanamidame, Karapaia, tokyo.txt-nifty.com, Gakuburu, uiam.at.webry.info, Terrafor. Nice to be noticed. If only we didn't have to lose poor Doraemon to make this possible. If you just can't get enough of… -
Alas, poor Doraemon! I knew him, Nobita.
5 Feb 2010 | 7:30 pmBizarre news from Thailand: this week a lady in Ayutthaya province held a funeral for her Doraemon doll. The story has been widely reported in the Thai language press, and even picked up by the National News Bureau: ความคืบหน้ากรณีนางพลับพลึง นามเจริญ จัดงานศพให้กับตุ๊กตา โดเรมอน ที่มีชื่อว่า จิเหว่ย นาคทอง ที่วัดมหาโลก จังหวัดพระนครศรีอยุธยานั้น… -
Podcast: Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of 2009
27 Jan 2010 | 6:57 pmI got together with Passakorn (Hong) and Wise Kwai again this week for another episode of Changkhui in English. Last time we talked about Wise Kwai's top 10 Thai films of the decade. This time we looked at the year 2009 in film. You can read Wise Kwai's original top 10 of 2009 post on his Thai Film Journal.Other topics we touched on include the new film rating system enacted last year, censorship, the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project, and more. All in all the episode is 90 minutes. We did tend to ramble on a bit, but so be it.You can get the episode from the Changkhui in English page, or…
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Learn Thai Podcast
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Phrase Lesson 4: Time and Making an appointment (Video)
4 Mar 2010 | 8:48 amIn this lesson you will learn some more useful phrases. -
Phrase Lesson 4: Time and Making an appointment (Audio)
3 Mar 2010 | 8:48 amIn this lesson you will learn some more useful phrases. -
Phrase Lesson 3: General answers (Audio)
15 Jul 2009 | 11:22 amIn this lesson you will learn some useful phrases. Click here to download the transcript of this lesson. -
Phrase Lesson 3: General answers (Video)
15 Jul 2009 | 11:22 amIn this lesson you will learn some useful phrases. -
Phrase Lesson 2: General questions (Audio)
11 Jul 2009 | 8:02 amIn this lesson you will learn some useful phrases. Click here to download the transcript of this lesson.
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Helping You Learn English
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Mar 12, Hello Diana
11 Mar 2010 | 11:21 pmI am Antonio Linares. Your favourite student of you last one-student class Your web site is suprising! I will use it to improve my English Best Regards -
Mar 10, Contact me Page
10 Mar 2010 | 11:45 amAn easy way to contact me regarding my newsletter, collaborative efforts and advertizing. -
Mar 10, The Bigger World Beyond the Window.
10 Mar 2010 | 12:55 amI'm so surprised to read the Rebecca's story! She is almost the same as me. I came Malaysia last month with my husband. The first few days, I was full -
Mar 7, The sound of phonetic symbol upsidedown of - e
6 Mar 2010 | 4:39 pmCould you tell me what the sound of the phonetic symbol that looks like upside-down of the letter-e? How should I pronounce this symbol when I get it. -
Feb 18, Business English Pod
18 Feb 2010 | 1:13 amHave you seen advertisements for Business English Pod? Recently I have noticed their ads on many popular ESL websites so I wanted to check out what they are all about. Wow! You are in for a surprise! If you are interested in improving your English for your job or in a more professional setting then Business English Pod is for you. Why? Well...because they provide so much free content that you will be amazed. In the same way that I provide free resources they too give you free audio, readings, video tutorials and much more. They also provide some amazing products and services for purchase. I…
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LexiBlog
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Language Confidence
6 Mar 2010 | 6:36 pmEvery language-learner longs for the moment when they feel totally confident in their second language. I have personally yet to reach that point in Spanish or Arabic, but I took an informal poll of some of my friends that are fluent in their languages. Those that learned English as a second language mentioned that they had begun learning at a very young age and felt confident by their first or second year in school. They would often go to Kindergarten and first grade and speak English in the classroom and then come home to their family and speak their native language. Maddie, whose second… -
In Celebration of Vancouver
25 Feb 2010 | 11:18 amAs the Vancouver 2010 Olympics wrap up this weekend it is worth wondering what the role of the official Olympic language, French, should be in the future games. Although the Olympics are supposed to bring countries together in friendly athletic competition, politics are not far from the mind of many observers. This year is no exception, as many Quebec Canadians feel that their French language has been underused in this year's games. Take a look at this article by Dene Moore of The Canadian Press on balancing the use of English and French at the Olympics and decide for yourself! -
Learning Language The Classic Way
16 Feb 2010 | 9:40 amTo start, I love the idea of being fluent in a language.Unfortunately, I am not nearly the linguist I am in my distant dreams.I am not bilingual.I am not a polyglot.I am fluent in exactly one language: English.After twelve years of frustration trying to learn Spanish, I went to college and decided I needed a major change of pace and began studying Arabic.To some people this might seem crazy.I ask myself every time I’m studying for a test, why did I decide to give up a romance language? There are millions of people who have a challenging time learning a second language, let alone a third or… -
Venture Capital: Funding Business Ideas
8 Feb 2010 | 6:24 pmStarting a BusinessIf you're a starting a business, whether its an incubator business or a startup, your number one goal is to see your business succeed.We have had some ups and downs in the process of starting Leximo, and we decided to reach out to venture capitalists (VCs) for some advice. We figured we aren't the only ones with unanswered questions.The problem is people are quick to tell you whats wrong but don't know how you should fix it. With that being said, we teamed up with other fellow entrepreneurs and created a list of 7 Startup Questions That Venture Capitalists Should… -
Happy Holidays in 18 Different Languages!
23 Dec 2009 | 1:03 pmHappy Holidays from Leximo!This year we've evolved, refined, learned, and improved—all thanks to you. We just want to express our gratitude for the awesome support you've given us throughout 2009.But we're not gloomy to see it go. 2010 is set to be the year of the shark, and we'll be making tons of moves very soon.In the meantime, have a great end of year—and enjoy:How to Say “Happy Holidays!” in 18 different languages. Happy Holidays! In French: Joyeuses Fêtes!Happy Holidays! In Spanish: Felices Fiestas!Happy Holidays! In Swedish: Trevlig Helg!Happy Holidays! In Portuguese: Boas…
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WeboWord - Vocabulary Visually!
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Recede – To go back or down from a certain point; To become less
11 Mar 2010 | 9:01 pmNote: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as Ree + Seed (emphasized) {Listen to it here} Comes from Latin Recedere which means to go back. It is based on the Latin cedere meaning to give way, which is the root for: Cede – Surrender something Concede – Grant rights to Precede – To come before Excess – More than enough How many other words do you think are based on the root ‘cede‘? Situational Uses / Sentences: Fish became stranded in the hull of the vessel during receding tides. The most common cause… -
Euphemism – A less offensive synonym
10 Mar 2010 | 8:50 pmNote: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Euphemism is pronounced as U (as You) [emphasized] + F or Ph (from Phone) + Mism {Listen to it here} It is derived from Greek Euphemismos [ = Eu (good) + Pheme (speech)] meaning to speak with pleasing words. Situational Uses: In his effort to be extremely polite, he chose to be euphemistic too. The phrase “collateral damage” is a euphemism for injury to civilians during a military operation. Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @… -
Satiate – Satisfy hunger or desire
9 Mar 2010 | 8:39 pmNote: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as Say (emphasized) + Shee + Ate{Listen to it here} Based on the Latin root Satis meaning enough which is also the root for Satisfy. Situational Uses / Sentences: She satiated herself at dinner. “The novel left him well satiated for the night. Tomorrow shall be another day.” Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @ http://www.weboword.com/express and give your vocab building a boost! -
Trepidation – Apprehension; Trembling
8 Mar 2010 | 8:37 pmNote: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as Trep + Uh + Day (emphasized) + Shun {Listen to it here} Origin: Latin root Trepidare meaning to startle or to be agitated. Situational Uses / Sentences: The students are looking forward to the experiment with great excitement and trepidation. WeboWord helps eliminate the trepidation that one associates with building their vocab. Hope you agree! Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @ http://www.weboword.com/express and give your vocab… -
Dissent – To disagree or withhold approval
7 Mar 2010 | 8:35 pmNote: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as Dis + Sent (emphasized) {Listen to it here} It comes from Latin Dissentire meaning to feel differently. Dissentire = Dis + Sentire (to feel) Situational Uses / Sentences: The crowd displayed their dissent before the law enforcers by openly flouting rules. Chinese government censors are scouring the internet for signs of dissent. Source: The Economist Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @ http://www.weboword.com/express and give your vocab…
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Ingls na Ponta da Lngua
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O que significa "make a point of"?
11 Mar 2010 | 7:00 pmNa dica anterior a esta eu falei sobre como dizer 'fazer questão de' em inglês. No post falei sobre o uso do verbo 'insist' para expressar a ideia da expressão em português. Lembro-me de ter encerrado dizendo que "há outras expressões que transmitem a ideia de 'fazer questão' [em inglês]; no entanto, o modo como são usadas merece posts a parte aqui no blog."Creio que muitas pessoas não chegaram a ler o post anterior até o final e então me encheram de emails ao longo do dia ressaltando que havia outra expressão. Perguntavam ainda se eu a havia esquecido. Na verdade, não esqueci! -
Como é que se diz "fazer questão" em inglês?
11 Mar 2010 | 4:00 amO contexto no qual me perguntaram como dizer "fazer questão" em inglês é aquele semelhante a "insistir em fazer algo". Por exemplo,Eu faço questão de ajudar você.Eu faço questão de devolver o dinheiro a ele.Eu faço questão de conversar com meu advogado antes.Eu faço questão que você venha até a minha casa hoje a noite.Veja que em todas as sentenças acima nós podemos trocar a expressão "eu faço questão" por "eu insisto". Ou seja, "eu faço questão de ajudar você" pode virar "eu insisto em ajudar você".Em inglês você pode usar a palavra "insist" mesmo nestes casos. -
Como é que se diz "não dar valor" em inglês?
9 Mar 2010 | 7:00 pmVocê mora em São Paulo [capital]? então que tal participar hoje de um evento gratuito na FNAC Pinheiros? Ligue para [11] 3081 3549 e confirme sua presença! Desta vez falaremos sobre pronúncia [connected speech, reduced sounds, etc], collocations, complete sentences, gramática e muito mais.Em português há vários sinônimos para a expressão 'não dar valor'. Entre os mais comuns temos: 'não dar importância', e 'não valorizar'. Sem contar que geralmente dizemos 'não dar o menor valor', 'não dar o devido valor', 'não dar a menor importância' ou 'não dar a devida importância'. -
Texto em Inglês com Phrasal Verbs
8 Mar 2010 | 7:00 pmNão perca a oportunidade de receber gratuitamente o material 'Speak English Like an American'; para saber mais a respeito desta oferta leia o post 'Adquira 3 ebooks e ganhe material bônus'.Abaixo você lerá um texto contendo alguns phrasal verbs e as palavras que combinam com eles. O objetivo é que você veja como é possível aprender phrasal verbs através do contexto. Ou seja, sem a necessidade de ficar decorando listas e mais listas de phrasal verbs. Antes, porém, você poderá se interessar pelos seguintes posts:O que são phasal verbs?O Problema das Listas de Phrasal VerbsPhrasal… -
Evento em São Paulo é quarta-feira [10 de março]!
8 Mar 2010 | 3:00 amE aí, você já se inscreveu para participar do evento "Estratégias para Ficar com o Inglês na Ponta da Língua", organizado pela inFlux English School e Livraria FNAC. Lembre que este EVENTO É GRATUITO.>> PARA PARTICIPAR:As vagas são limitadas. Logo, aconselho você a se apressar. Garanta sua participação e a dos amigos também, ligando para [11] 3081 3549". Deixe seu nome, telefone e email para que assim possamos manter você informado de tudo.>> ONDE e QUANDO VAI SER?O evento será na Loja da FNAC Pinheiros situada na Praça dos Omaguás, 34 - Pinheiros - São Paulo [SP]. Clique…
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OneHourTranslation Blog
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What is African American Vernacular English (Ebonics)?
12 Mar 2010 | 9:26 amTo begin with, calling African American Vernacular English synonymous with Ebonics is rather controversial. Professional translation experts and linguists might try to distinguish between them, but for purposes of this article, they are the same. Ebonics refers to the dialect or ethnolect associated with African Americans in the United States. It is a combination of words and grammatical forms from American English and from various tribal dialects brought over by captured slaves. Though often considered a spoken language, it does sometimes appear in literature by or about African… -
Global marketplace trends and translation
11 Mar 2010 | 8:30 amThe global market is gradually shifting its axis from developed countries like U.S.A., Europe to countries in Asia and Africa. The trend is very pronounced in industries like medical and pharmaceuticals where the focus is rapidly moving to Asia and experts believe that the latter would become the largest market for medicines in the near future. MNCs are increasingly inclined to set up more research and development facilities and conduct more clinical trials in certain Asia countries according to a survey by PwC. Africa is a sleeping giant at present and business growth is expected come in… -
Translation services versus Interpretation services
10 Mar 2010 | 8:26 amThough translation services and interpretation are commonly used words found in all dictionaries, there are several misconceptions about the skills required and the nature of the job. Often they are loosely used interchangeably to mean one and the same thing while in practice they are quite different. This article tries to clarify the two terms for the layman. The basic difference between translation and interpretation is that the former is a written task while the latter is an oral task. Translation involves changing a written text from a source language to a target language. Interpretation… -
One Hour Translation translation services welcome video
9 Mar 2010 | 8:17 am -
In-house translator or outsource translator?
8 Mar 2010 | 7:56 amProfessional translation is increasingly becoming a concern for businesses that want to go global, particularly with the rise of e-commerce. Many companies and entrepreneurs do not want to limit their clientele to people who only speak, say, English. Using human translation is imperative. Even sophisticated non-human translators can make very simple mistakes. This is to say nothing of idiomatic expressions, or slogans whose sense of meaning and catchy sound would be difficult to render in another language. You must use some type of human translation. However, the question then…
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BeatBabel - The Art of Localization
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Happy Birthday BeatBabel!
24 Feb 2010 | 6:33 pmToday is our birthday... Well it is hard to pinpoint the exact date so let's just say we are “One Year Old” This Week! And what better excuse to write a blog entry than our Year 1 anniversary! In reality, the company started many years ago with a few people spending hours planning, planning, and planning. And then taking the leap of faith!So let's look at last year and sum it up with some numbers. What have we achieved in 1 year?Website: 1Mac: 1Social Networking sites: 4Blog posts: 6 - obviously room for improvement here!Workdays in a typical BeatBabel week: 7Languages currently spoken in… -
Lost in Translation?
11 Sep 2009 | 12:20 amSome of the gurus in our industry and some of my coworkers might object but localization remains a fairly new industry. The reason I say this is because most people, let me rephrase, 95% of the people out there just have no clue about what we do. When I introduce our business to people and talk about localization whether at networking events, meetings or parties, I usually get a blank stare full of questions marks. And it happened again, as recently as last night! Usually people try to be polite: "So what is that you do?" This is when I try to tell them about translation. And then usually I… -
Tea in the Sahara, and elsewhere. Or why I hate German "Frühstücksbretter"...
23 Aug 2009 | 10:35 amThe other afternoon, we were talking about cultural differences over a cup of tea and we came to talking about what we have for breakfast in our countries. Some were shocked to hear that our Chinese, Korean and Japanese counter parts never have tea or coffee or anything sweet in the morning... They enjoyed starting the day with a nice bowl of soup, rice, sea weed and a bit of salmon if available! In turn, most of our Asian managers were shocked to hear that I enjoy a dark coffee and a sweet croissant... Yet another proof that cultural differences encompass much more than languages...This… -
22 Aug 2009 | 10:25 pm
22 Aug 2009 | 10:25 pmEnjoyed reading some good articles about translation and the benefits of being multilingual! So now we have scientific proof that translations are good for people and languages are good for you. It might even make polyglots live longer... Good to hear!http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215111433.htm -
18 Jul 2009 | 5:44 pm
18 Jul 2009 | 5:44 pmadded new features to our client and vendor management portal. It even has a new name... BABEL! Go figure ;-)
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Babel's Dawn
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Apes are Shrewd Listeners
7 Mar 2010 | 8:45 pmA baboon can make only a few calls, but its can learn many things by listening shrewdly.Download PDF of postForget syntax and semantics for a moment; how far did people have to come to master the physical acts of speaking and listening.?I had a short post the other day (here) in which zebra finches appeared to be alert to phonetic categories. I’ve been wondering how apes fit into this story. A new volume, Primate Ethology, includes a chapter by Robert M. Seyfarth and Dorothy L Cheney titled “Primate Vocal Communication” and apparently the whole chapter is available on Google books (here… -
Babel's Dawn Wins Oscar
7 Mar 2010 | 8:20 pmHere I am with my Oscar for having the best fantasy life. -
Summer Institute
4 Mar 2010 | 1:56 pmThe Cognitive Science Institute of the Université du Québec (Montréal) is holding a summer program to study the origins of language. Interested? Check it out at http://www.summer10.isc.uqam.ca/page/intro.php June 21st to June 30th. -
A Writer Asks for Help (Part Two)
1 Mar 2010 | 9:13 pmI'm glad people feel that deep time can be inspiring and impressive. But I'm still wondering how to tell the story so that readers feel their lives are part of a process not just an insignificant line of sand on a two-thousand foot wall. I'm looking for a metaphor that can express the dependence of all generations on the ones that came before. Any suggestions? Anything in Dante? The Bhagavad Gita? -
Thinking About Deep Time: A Writer Asks for Help
28 Feb 2010 | 8:45 pmGeologic Time is on display in the Grand Canyon. Does it depress you or fill you with awe to realize that your life's span is, at best, shown by the red line on the right?Instead of making a long post and giving everybody a week to chew and comment, I'm offering a brief post. After I get some feedback from readers, I'll make another post—and so on throughout the week. The topic for the week is my Babel’s Dawn book, subtitled a natural history of the origins of speech. I’m making progress and have a first draft of Part One, which begins six million years ago with the last common ancestor…
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Langalot Blog
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Mac Os X Change Language For Immersion
Do you want to improve your immersion environment for the language you are learning? Well, clearly you use a computer, and if you’re reading a blog post, that probably means you use a computer a lot. In two minutes, you can change your computer’s environment so that you are being exposed to the language you want to learn whenver you are on your computer. Just change the language your operations system communicates with you. This has been suggested before by AJATT (see #5), among others. But in case you don’t know how to do it, here are some instructions for a Mac running OS… -
Learn a Language with Foreign Service Institute Courses
The same courses that were used by The Foreign Service Institute to teach foreign languages to diplomats and the State Department are available for free on langalot: FSI Learn German Courses FSI Learn French Courses FSI Learn Spanish Courses FSI Learn Italian Courses Some companies sell these courses (see Mastering German: with 15 Compact Discs, for example), but they are free on langalot for all users. You can listen to the first lesson of each course as a guest without an account. The vocabulary can be a little odd (you’ll never forget how to say “Where is the embassy?”),… -
Fast Online Foreign Language Dictionary
It’s very new, but Langalot now starts with an incredibly fast online foreign language dictionary. We wanted the site to be immediately useful to anybody on the web. No sign up is required, just start typing a word in in any language and it will simultaneously search five dictionaries for matches. And it’s fast. Very fast. The current dictionaries are German, Spanish, Italian, French, and English. It will search translations based on your browser language preferences. There is no need to tell it which direction to search (e.g. English to Spanish, German to French). While searching… -
German Grammar Reminds Me of Reverse Polish Notation Calculators
In high school, I had an HP-28S scientific calculator. It was a great calculator: you could graph functions, solve equations, store formulas, and write little programs for it. The way you did all the operations on the calculator was called ”Reverse Polish Notation”. It has nothing to do with the Polish language, just a Polish mathematician. If you’ve studied computer science, it is also called “postfix”. The basic idea is that the operator comes after the the operands. So to do three times nine, you would enter “3”, “9”, then… -
5 Online Language Games
Looking for a fun language game? Here are five to choose from: translation zilla A translation game where you have sixty seconds to translate as many words as possible. The languages you can choose from are english, german, french, spanish, italian, and simplified chinese. How Many Languages Can You Recognize? Given the phrase “I can eat glass and it doesn’t hurt me”, how many translations of this can you recognize? There are 33 languages represented. Full disclosure: this is the first game we developed at langalot.com. Etymologic Billed as “The Toughest Word Game on…
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Successful Garden Design
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Inspirational Gardens part 2 (sort of!)
9 Mar 2010 | 2:09 amCambridge University Botanic Garden Best laid plans Don’t you just love it when you have a really good idea, one that will undoubtedly be helpful and inspiring for people but there’s a small technical glitch that throws a spanner in the works? Well, I’ve discovered a bit of a glitch with this particular monthly feature on inspirational gardens and the people behind them. The first one I choose, the wonderful Veddw garden in South Wales, was an easy choice; great garden, lots of accessible photographs and it proved to be very popular. During my interview with Anne Wareham, I… -
BIG ideas for roof gardens [part 2]
3 Mar 2010 | 1:59 amIn last week’s blog post we looked at how to tackle a tiny courtyard garden for reader Rachel Scott. This week we are going to look at the second part of Rachel’s question – what to do with a small roof terrace. Plus look out for the special announcement at the bottom of the page… Most of the design tips below will also be applicable for small town gardens and walled courtyard gardens, not just roof terraces. Photograph courtesy of Simon Leonard Well, the first thing you need to think about with any roof terrace is the structural integrity. And if you require… -
What makes a great garden?
1 Mar 2010 | 3:00 amWhat makes for good garden design? It’s such a subjective topic…although one should not ignore strong technical elements. Consumer garden needs are always changing which means that the ‘design sands are always shifting’. Here are just a few thoughts on what is needed to make a good garden great….writes guest blogger Philip Voice. I am not too sure that any single aspect of a garden’s design makes any particular garden great. Sure, there are elements that a garden designer should be keen to retain, manipulate or work with when fashioning any space to suit… -
BIG ideas for tiny gardens [part 1]
23 Feb 2010 | 2:23 amAfter all the excitement of last week’s Great Garden Challenge, this week we are coming back to looking at the more practical aspects of garden (yard) landscaping. There is always a lot written about how to tackle small gardens but what do you do if you have a really small garden? This was a question posed to me by one of our readers, Rachel Scott. Rachel lives in Sydney, Australia and has two tiny outside spaces she wants to landscape; a very small courtyard on the ground floor and a small deck on the second floor. A good discipline You could almost say that a tiny garden is like… -
Does it take a carrot or a stick to produce a great garden?
15 Feb 2010 | 5:38 amSomeone kindly (?) referred to this website as “porn for garden lovers.” As much as l laughed at that, it has made me think; are people just ogling and not actually doing? I want this to be a useful resource where you can come and get the tuition you need (move on from the porn analogy, if you haven’t already). I thought if I did this website, offered free advice, people would get ideas and they would go off and make their garden* great. But it doesn’t seem like that’s happening. Why isn’t it working? It’s too passive. As much as people are reporting…
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Macmillan Dictionary Blog
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Language and words in the news – 12 March, 2010
12 Mar 2010 | 4:46 amThis post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like [...] [This is a content excerpt only. Visit our blog for the full post]. -
All units: what am I on about?
10 Mar 2010 | 1:00 amOK, I’ve got a bit of a quiz for you. I freely admit that I watch too much television, and like many people, I watch quite a few ‘cop shows’, though these days, ‘cop shows’ can involve anything from genius mathematicians to lip reading FBI agents to forensic anthropologists! Whatever the spin of the particular programme [...] [This is a content excerpt only. Visit our blog for the full post]. -
Japanese English: Your stories …
9 Mar 2010 | 1:46 amIn this post, we collect your thoughts and stories about English in Japan. Have you got similar stories to tell? Share it with us by posting a comment! __________ Tony writes … I don’t know whether or not you are aware of this, but there are hundreds – probably thousands – of frequently used loanwords (gairaigo) from [...] [This is a content excerpt only. Visit our blog for the full post]. -
Is there such a thing as ‘Japanese English’?
8 Mar 2010 | 12:00 amJim Breen, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Clayton School of IT, Monash University, Australia, has sent us this guest post on ‘Japanese English’. _______ The question of whether there is a ‘Japanese English’, that is a form of English spoken in Japan by the locals, is an occasional topic of discussion in the... [This is a content excerpt only. Visit our blog for the full post]. -
Language and words in the news – 6 March, 2010
6 Mar 2010 | 3:51 amThis post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like [...] [This is a content excerpt only. Visit our blog for the full post].
