Monthly Archives: March 2010

  • Phonetics: The Sounds of English, German and Spanish

    Phonetics lie at the heart of good pronunciation of a language. A top-notch web site from University of Iowa uses Flash in the form of animated articulatory diagrams to show how the consonents and vow...

    READ MORE | 31 Mar 2010

  • Shetland For Wirds: Promoting Shetland Dialect

    Those with an interest in the dialects of the British Isles should check out Shetland For Wirds, an excellent new web site dedicated to promoting and preserving the Scots language of Shetland. As the...

    READ MORE | 30 Mar 2010

  • Grow Story Grow: a storytelling website for learning languages

    Interesting blog post by a primary school teacher about her experiences using Grow Story Grow, a storytelling website for learning languages. This new service uses stories which start off very simply...

    READ MORE | 29 Mar 2010

  • German-dialects-and-migration

    German dialects are still a key indicator of where Germans choose to live in German according to an article in The Economist. As the article points out, when people migrate within Germany, they still...

    READ MORE | 24 Mar 2010

  • The Funniest Foreign Titles of American Films

    Amusing short piece in the Huffington Post on the funniest foreign titles of American films. "Slightly Pregnant", the Peruvian translation of the comedy, "Knocked Up", gets our vote! However, as an ar...

    READ MORE | 23 Mar 2010

  • The Limitations of Google Translate

    Fascinating essay in The New York Times by David Bellos on the limitations of Google Translate. As the article points out, because the service is based on the most probable equivalent phrases as comp...

    READ MORE | 22 Mar 2010

  • Google to add Maya, Nahuatl languages to search engine

    Google is adding two native Central American languages – Maya and Nahuatl – to its universal search service according to AFP. Maya is spoken by 1.5 million people and Nahuatl by more than...

    READ MORE | 19 Mar 2010

  • Accent Speaks Louder Than Race for Finding Friends

    It would appear that children prefer to make friends with those whose speech patterns, rather than skin colour, mimic their own, according to a new study reported on Discovery News. The issue of accen...

    READ MORE | 18 Mar 2010

  • French Café Life Under Threat

    Just as the British pub is feeling the effects of the recession so too, it would appear, is the French café according to a report on the BBC. And it looks like the recession may be no respecter...

    READ MORE | 17 Mar 2010

  • Heart of Louisiana: The Chitimacha's lost language

    Heartwarming story from Louisiana on the recovery and revivial of an extinct Native American language, Chitimacha. The Fox 8 article makes it clear just how profoundly important language is to a sense...

    READ MORE | 16 Mar 2010

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