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Vietnamese (4): Flipping the flashcards, fixing the accents
In just under four months of – ideally – daily practice, I’ve mastered some 300 Vietnamese words. Or have I? When I see them on my flashcards, there’s a fair chance that I recognise them and can tell...
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TEDx Talk: Grow Up, Learn Another Language
You may never have heard of Venlo, a medium-sized city in the southeast of the Netherlands, on the German border. The people of Venlo tend to be multilingual, speaking Dutch, German and English as well...
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Pilar
Humans only get away with puns that are brilliant, but when reality tries its hand at them, we’re more indulgent. I am shown around the office of my Spanish publisher in Madrid, and my hostess...
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Is half the world economy ours?
English is often called the world language, and not without reason, yet outside the Anglosphere and parts of Europe, it’s only spoken by an elite. Which makes me wonder: what proportion of world GDP...
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Vietnamese (7): How one language can help another
I discovered something amazing during last night’s lesson with Huyền, my Vietnamese teacher. We were discussing my pronunciation of the sound written as ư, which I’m not familiar with from other...
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Vietnamese (8): My first micro conversation
Victories, however minor, are good for the morale. So I was very pleased this morning when I found I fully understood the short message sent to me by Huyền, my Vietnamese teacher (not in picture). That...
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Vietnamese (9): Back from Hanoi
Turtle Tower (Tháp Rùa) in Hoàn Kiếm Lake, central Hanoi For three wonderful weeks, I’ve explored a few neighbourhoods of Hanoi, tasted local cuisine, enjoyed the balmy weather, met several lovely...
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Vietnamese (10): No such thing as Britain
I wonder what it’s called in Vietnamese. The difference between England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and the British Isles is one of the great semantic challenges of – what shall I even call it?...
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Who’s that language (for you)?
In my life, languages are characters, with different roles and personalities. I’m sure that this reflects my particular experiences with each of them more than anything else, but it is how I perceive...
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Who’s that language? (2)
Here are some responses. I’ll add more as they come in. To me, English is my grandparent, French is my tutor, Korean is my hero, Japanese is a good friend, and Chinese is a kindly elder. Felicity Parry...
View ArticleBetween you and I
“Regarding pronouns, we do not quite see” – the grammar pedant stated – “eye to me.”
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Around the world in eight publishers (and counting)
I haven’t blogged for a while. First, I was too busy finishing my book, Babel. Then, exhausted, I took a few weeks off (one of which I spent polishing up my French). Meanwhile, good news kept coming...
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5+1 on both sides of the Channel
English verbs are strange, for a European language. In the present tense, nearly all forms are the same: I see, you see, we see, you (guys) see and they see. But just when you start thinking that the...
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‘English’, „German”, « French » and «Spanish»
I’m not a big fan of the adjective ‘jaw-dropping’, but I actually caught my mandible falling just now. So there: here is a jaw-dropping map by Jakub Marian. European languages are of course widely,...
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Vietnamese (11): fear of viết (writing)
Nearly every conversation with Huyền, my former (and, who knows, future) online Vietnamese teacher, throws up new linguistic surprises. The other day, I asked her if she would mind translating a...
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Dialects, a fossil and nothing in between
In yesterday’s blogpost about Vietnamese, I wrote that the abyss between the formal written language and the informal spoken language is particularly wide, and that I had heard this claimed also about...
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Table – Around the World in 20 Cuisines
Two days ago, without much fanfare or fireworks, my new book came out: Babel – Around the World in Twenty Languages. To celebrate, my wife and I will have a few friends over tomorrow for a theme...
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The Table of Babel
Click to view slideshow. I’m much more comfortable writing than cooking. But a new book being released calls for a celebration, and that implies food. When Lingo came out, my wife organised a...
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Around the world in ten publishers (and counting)
The good news keeps coming in! An Italian publisher, Garzanti of Milan, has acquired the translation rights of BABEL – as well as those of LINGO! And a few weeks ago, the Cracow-based publishing house...
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