15 Monday Oct 2012
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw5Re7k1KBA&feature=related[/youtube]
In this casual interview, discover some differences between the language spoken in Quebec and that spoken in Paris.
18 Tuesday Sep 2012
The new quarterback for Standford University, John Nunes, speaks French. In this ESPN interview, he’s asked how he’s holding up following in the footsteps of Andrew Luck, the decorated player who graduated last season. Catch the interview here (the French part begins at 1:25): French quaterbacking.
23 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Language
From the Seattle Times: It’s 9:30 a.m. and the drinking and dancing are raging at Fred’s Lounge, amid a mix of Cajun French music, waltzes and two-steps, with cans of Miller Lite the breakfast of choice.
The Saturday-morning party from the windowless, 66-year-old bar is broadcast live throughout the South Louisiana prairie on 1050 AM out of Ville Platte, and the music has been credited with helping to sustain the Cajun French culture since just after World War II.
Fred’s manager, Sue Vasseur, known as Tante Sue de Mamou, worries about the survival of the Louisiana French culture. The current generation, she said, isn’t picking up the French language, which is part of the soul of the Acadian people who settled in Louisiana in the mid-1700s, when they were expelled from the present-day Canadian province of Nova Scotia after refusing to swear their allegiance to the British crown.
“I’m hoping it’s going to continue. They are teaching French in our schools here now in Mamou and Evangeline Parish. So I think possibly some of it will rub off on our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren,” said Vasseur, 81, wearing a pistol holster of cinnamon schnapps on her hip as dancers whirled to a 10-button accordion and a singer belting out a love song in French.
There’s a major effort in Louisiana, a state named for French King Louis XIV, to restore the French language. It’s part of a resurgence in cultural pride, and there are signs the decline in French speakers has slowed. Continuez.
23 Monday Jul 2012
From the Council on Foreign Relations: Americans are lousy at learning foreign languages. We all know the historical reasons – the United States was long a big, largely monolingual country with a fairly self-sufficient economy. U.S. economic and military might (and that of the British Empire before) spread the English language across the world, so that English became the global second language and the de facto language of international business.
But in the latest Renewing America Policy Innovation Memorandum, A Languages For Jobs Initiative, scholars from the Center for Applied Linguistics argue that Americans in the future are unlikely to get by so well on English alone. Nearly 30 percent of the U.S. economy is now wrapped up in international trade, and half of U.S. growth since the official end of the recession in 2009 has come from exports. The fastest-growing economies in the world are not English speaking. And as Brad Jensen of Georgetown University has shown, the most promising export sector for the United States is business services, which often requires face-to-face interactions with foreign customers. As the authors write: “[F]uture U.S. growth will increasingly depend on selling U.S. goods and services to foreign consumers who do not necessarily speak English.” Continuez ici.
20 Wednesday Jun 2012
From EF: Here’s a beautiful short story all in French, complete with phonetic transcriptions.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_QO8LoGNpc&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Very%20Short%20List%20-%20Daily&utm_campaign=VSL%2005%2F23[/youtube]
20 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in Language
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While any language will be useful for some jobs or for some regions, French is a language that is useful throughout the world as well as in the U.S. French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English. The International Organization of Francophonie has 56 member states and governments. Of these, 28 countries have French as an official language. French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents.
When deciding on a second language for work or school, consider that French is a language that will give you plenty of choices later on in your studies or your career.
Continue reading at Language Magazine.
17 Thursday May 2012
17 Thursday May 2012
Posted in Language
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To judge a risk more clearly, it may help to consider it in a foreign language.
A series of experiments on more than 300 people from the U.S. and Korea found that thinking in a second language reduced deep-seated, misleading biases that unduly influence how risks and benefits are perceived.
“Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue?” asked psychologists led by Boaz Keysar of the University of Chicago in an April 18 Psychological Science study.
“It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic. We discovered, however, that the opposite is true: Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases,” wrote Keysar’s team.
Psychologists say human reasoning is shaped by two distinct modes of thought: one that’s systematic, analytical and cognition-intensive, and another that’s fast, unconscious and emotionally charged.
In light of this, it’s plausible that the cognitive demands of thinking in a non-native, non-automatic language would leave people with little leftover mental horsepower, ultimately increasing their reliance on quick-and-dirty cogitation.
Equally plausible, however, is that communicating in a learned language forces people to be deliberate, reducing the role of potentially unreliable instinct. Research also shows that immediate emotional reactions to emotively charged words are muted in non-native languages, further hinting at deliberation.
16 Wednesday May 2012
Posted in Language
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The ability to speak two languages can make bilingual people better able to pay attention than those who can only speak one language, a new study suggests.
Scientists have long suspected that some enhanced mental abilities might be tied to structural differences in brain networks shaped by learning more than one language, just as a musician’s brain can be altered by the long hours of practice needed to master an instrument. More here from Robert Hotz at the Wall Street Journal.
16 Wednesday May 2012
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Learning a foreign language is never easy, but you will get out what you put in. Here’s a piece with some good advice for new language students. A good start: Take an active approach to learning. You will not absorb new vocabulary by showing up to class and daydreaming for an hour. Set aside time to practice daily. Listen and read the language every day. Read more tips here.
