Like most languages, the French love their slang, or argot. French slang is great because even when it doesn’t make sense at first glance, like the title of this post, once you know the rules it gets pretty fun. The…
When I was in elementary school I went to a Spanish immersion school. And when I was in first grade, an obsession rippled through our school. The obsession was a song (with some amazingly choreographed dance moves) called “Asereje” by…
My happy place is sitting by the sea at a plastic table with a red and white checkered tablecloth. The wind is salted and warm, and I’m on an island in Greece. In front of me there’s a big Greek…
In German, “tongue twister” is translated as Zungenbrecher, or “tongue crusher,” whereas the Italians translate it as scioglilingua, or “tongue melter.” In French its virelangue, or “tongue turner,” and in Spanish its trabalenguas, or “tangled-up tongues.” Each of these languages…
Earlier this afternoon I was standing oog in oog met (face to face with) Van Gogh in Amsterdam. There he was with his green eyes and red beard wearing a blue smock telling me goedemiddag (good afternoon). And all of…
Human connectivity is everything right now. I was excited to use Rosetta Stone’s Live Tutoring because that meant being able to talk to someone like me who’s stuck at home. I will say that I didn’t expect to get schooled the way I did in these sessions!
Our modern day calendar hasn’t changed much since the first 12-month calendar was invented thousands of years ago, but there was a 12-year period in French history where the calendar we know today, the Gregorian calendar, was replaced with a…
I tutor a French middle schooler, and he speaks almost perfect English. We’ll talk for 30 minutes and he’ll make one, two or sometimes zero mistakes. I also tutor a few French friends who are in their 20s. Some of…
As I write this I’m sitting on the couch looking out my window in Rouen, France, a mid-size town an hour and half north of Paris. I’ve been here for the last two years as a high school English teaching…
Even in times of self-imposed isolation, we can still become proficient in a language. I fooled myself into believing that my environment had a direct impact on whether or not I could speak a language. The key to learning a language is effort. Here are some ways to think outside the box when it comes to not just learning a language but learning a different culture as well.
Jeremy joined us on a French-immersion tour of Arnaudville, Louisiana and opened up a little about his family history, Cajun French culture, and his appreciation for French’s versatility worldwide.
St. Patrick’s Day won’t be the same this year, since parades from Dublin to New York have been canceled, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from reminiscing about years past or preparing for the years ahead. If you plan on traveling…
