2014 World Cup of Languages: Quarter-Final Results Posted by meaghan on Jul 7, 2014 in Archived Posts
And so another round of the 2014 World Cup of Languages is behind us. In the last four days, we watched four great match-ups, but alas, that also means we can only have four winners! Esperanto vs. Japanese: An unlikely winner from the Round of 16, Esperanto played well, scoring 266 points, but was simply no…
Fighting Expat’s Unease: Don’t Sweat the Vocab Posted by Malachi Rempen on Jul 7, 2014 in Archived Posts
I have a certain psychological condition I like to call Expat’s Unease: I wish I could pass as a local, and it bothers me when I don’t. I wish I could just blend in with the crowd and speak like the locals speak. I wish I could enter into conversation with random people on the…
2014 World Cup of Languages: Round of 16 Results Posted by meaghan on Jul 2, 2014 in Archived Posts
Behold, the results from the Round of 16 in our 2014 World Cup of Languages! Verbs were conjugated, nouns were declined, victories were celebrated, and, with any great sporting event, hearts were broken. (Clearly, I’m still reeling from the U.S. loss last night.) Check out the bracket below to see your team’s fate. Don’t forget…
3 New Languages in Transparent Language Online: Tamil, Khmer, and Somali Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 30, 2014 in For Educators, For Learners, For Libraries, Learning Material Updates
We are very excited to announce that we have added three new languages to Transparent Language Online: Cambodian (Khmer), Somali, and Tamil! Cambodian, known commonly as Khmer, is spoken by more than 16 million people across Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Differing from a traditional alphabet, Khmer uses an abugida, a segmental writing system in which combinations of…
Bilingualism: Laying the Groundwork for Future Language Learning Posted by mtaulier on Jun 25, 2014 in Archived Posts
The title of this post may confuse you. How can being bilingual help you learn a foreign language? You’re probably thinking, “I’m still struggling to learn my first foreign language!” Let me relate a personal anecdote you might find helpful. Many years ago, I moved to France with my parents. We did not live in…
English: That Irritating, Ubiquitous Language Posted by Malachi Rempen on Jun 23, 2014 in Archived Posts
These days, if you’re a native English speaker, or even halfway competent in English, you can travel just about anywhere in the world and get by. This is admittedly a broad generalization, but when’s the last time you returned from a trip without having once met someone who spoke even a single word of English?…
Does “use it or lose it” apply to foreign languages? Posted by meaghan on Jun 18, 2014 in Archived Posts
Did you grow up in a bilingual household without ever really learning the second language? Maybe your parents spoke to you in another language while you were little, but you switched over to English at some point and never looked back. You probably think you have absolutely no memory of that language now, and maybe…