With my computer problems lately I was able to organize my I-POD. A few days ago I finally was able to load all of my Chinese Living Language Lessons onto my IPOD. I take the boys to the library every week for story time. It is a good forty minute walk. While pushing the double stroller, getting much needed exercise, I listened to the Lessons. The beginning was just nuts and bolts, words, and phrases.
I went through six full Chinese lessons in Pimsleur. Pimsleur requires repetition, and anticipation of answers. The method is slightly different from Living Language. What made me very happy was when I started to recognize words. It felt like it was coming together and sentences were starting to roll from my mind with a certain, ease, or naturalness that I have not experienced in awhile. Of course, I am still in the nuts and bolts rudimentary stages of Chinese. I must admit that trying this language was a great decision. I am glad I did it.
I will keep you posted on my progress.
Welcome! Everything teachers need to teach evolution, culture, language and archeology to middle and high school students.
Grandparents -
Swedish Mormor and Morfar ( maternal grandmother and maternal grandfather)
Farmor and Farfar (paternal grandmother and paternal grandfather)
Yesterday while walking with the boys, I started listening to Living Language Mandarin Chinese. I moved from Pimsleur to Living Language this week. So I started at the very beginning. They went over many words that I already knew, and then added some words that I do not know. (Remember that I always recommend using more than one language program.) I learned that the Chinese do the same thing as the Swedes. They make a distinction between paternal and maternal grandparents.
Chinese
祖父 gong gong (informal) father´s father, paternal grandfather
奶奶 | nǎi nai |
|
It is a delicious idea, - some cultures find it necessary to make these distinctions while others do not. Some cultures find it necessary to be specific while others do not. If you would like to know how your target language addresses grandparents, check out this blog Name Nerds.
Russian Maps
One thing I have always loved doing is looking at maps. Today I made a collection of different maps of Russia. I looked at physical, political, ethnic and many more Russian maps. They are linked below for your viewing pleasure.
How to learn French
Since the inception of this blog I have written about languages that I have never studied, like Armenian, Polish and Hungarian. I write about the philosophy and science of language learning. I have also given some great pointers about how to effectively take notes and study. Today, I decided to share with you how I came to learn French.
First, let me just say that I did not want to learn French in high school. My school only offered French and Spanish - I was interested in neither. I wanted to learn Italian. I thought Italian was much cooler and sexier than French or Spanish. Being the impractical person that I was, I chose French because it was more exotic than Spanish. I thought speaking Spanish did not make me ´special´enough. Yeah, I know what you must be thinking. How vain! I have to admit that you are right. I was mostly concerned with being unique and different than being practical. The only redeeming thing I can say about that, is that I was true to myself. I did not do things just because others did it. I followed what made me happy.
First, let me just say that I did not want to learn French in high school. My school only offered French and Spanish - I was interested in neither. I wanted to learn Italian. I thought Italian was much cooler and sexier than French or Spanish. Being the impractical person that I was, I chose French because it was more exotic than Spanish. I thought speaking Spanish did not make me ´special´enough. Yeah, I know what you must be thinking. How vain! I have to admit that you are right. I was mostly concerned with being unique and different than being practical. The only redeeming thing I can say about that, is that I was true to myself. I did not do things just because others did it. I followed what made me happy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Anthropoligist In Heels Top Posts
-
The most common Chinese keyboard are Hanyu pinyin -based, representing the pronunciation of characters using Latin letters. First, decid...
-
Do not let the Cyrillic Alphabet scare you! Let's start with a little history. The Cyrillic Alphabet was invented by two brot...
-
Let the game begin with this image. It contains several alphabets, most of them ancient. You are looking at their numerical system only. (1...
-
As educators, we are always on the lookout for innovative ways to teach cultural diversity and foster creativity in our classrooms. One ...
-
Today I spent some time looking at the University of Washington Class schedules for Spanish and French . I have to admit, this University ...