How's your Yiddish? Probably slightly better than you'd thought, as many words from this Ashkenazi Jewish language have schlepped their way into modern American English. And if you're a fan of classics like Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, or later hits like Unorthodox or Shtisel, then you've probably picked up enough to be a real mensch. Is Yiddish the [...]
From Southern drawl to Midwest normy to California cool, the United States is made all the more colorful by its abundance of local accents. A region's accent can be as emblematic as its cuisine and history, and they give an exciting new flavor to the plain old English we use every day. No matter how formulaic Hollywood has tried [...]
Although most everyone would like to know multiple languages, there's a perfectly good reason most don't ever achieve that goal - learning a new language is exceptionally difficult. Many young people put in years of study as kids and young adults only to later find that whatever basic skills they had once attained in the classroom have evaporated over time. [...]
Do you remember the day you said your first word? Probably not Although the event may mark a special memory for parents, the young speakers themselves later have no recollection of their first words. We don't start forming long-term memories until we're about two or three years old, which is a shame in this case, as our first few [...]
It's Friday night and Eddie and his friends are out to dinner at a renowned steakhouse. Eddie places his order, the waiter says "Very good, sir" with a slight smirk, and all of Eddie's friends have suddenly gone quiet. There's a pregnant pause as his friends look at one another, smiles growing on their faces. Eddie looks around the [...]
As its name suggests, the Suggestopedia foreign language teaching method is all about harnessing the powers of positive suggestion. The methodology believes that a calm, tranquil environment creates a calm, tranquil mind, i.e., one ripe for learning a new language. It aims to give each student's subconscious a nudge towards a determined outcome – language acquisition. Though its intended [...]
English language learners are fortunate these days to have a wealth of resources to turn to, including online blogs and videos, apps, exposure to US movies and music, and an ever-growing number of speakers to practice with worldwide. English has in fact become so prevalent that some projections for the total number of English speakers worldwide indicate a 300% [...]
Unless you were presented by Hollywood as the sultry Latina temptress or the debonair Italian suitor, having a thick foreign accent while speaking English has traditionally been depicted as somewhat of a negative. Common stereotypes and tropes for non-native English speakers were the Mexican laborer who talked like Speedy Gonzalez, the always-angry Asian clerk who screamed at customers, and [...]
As its name suggests, Community Language Learning (CLL) is all about fostering a sense of community within the classroom and providing a low-stress environment in which language students can learn and grow. The learners have a great deal of autonomy and in fact decide what they want to learn in each class, with the teacher serving more as a [...]
Nearly every product that reaches our hands these days has already been on an impressive journey around the world. 97% of our clothes are produced abroad, typically in garment factories like those of H&M in Asia or Nike in Brazil. The automobiles made by American companies like Tesla or GM all have parts that originated in countries like China, [...]
