Impress your Chinese friends with some Chinese tongue twisters! Below are some of the most well-known tongue twisters in the Chinese language. Practicing tongue twisters is a fun and a rewarding way to improve both your pronunciation and your tones. … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2012
Ten Classic French Proverbs
Proverbs may sometimes feel a little old-fashioned; but their conciseness, wit and wisdom qualities endure nonetheless, thus remaining deeply embedded in the country’s culture. In France, proverbs can occasionally be heard in daily life. Below are ten of the … Continue reading
La fin des Jeux Olympiques
Now that the Olympics are over, we’d like to welcome home and congratulate all athletes that competed in the London 2012 Olympic Games! As a tribute to this year’s official language, let’s take a look back at some of the … Continue reading
Japanese “Obon” Holidays
There are three big holiday seasons in Japan: New Year’s in January, Golden Week in May (check out my blog post on it here), and Obon in August. Obon is August 15. It’s a day to honor the spirits of … Continue reading
Italian Hero Giuseppe Garibaldi to be Exhumed
Giuseppe Garibaldi is the quintessential Italian hero. He is commemorated in statues and street names throughout Italy — you can bet that there is no square in Italy where his statue is not present. Giuseppe Garibaldi, is a 19th Century … Continue reading
Fleur de Sel: A Salt with Mystical Allures
From the coast of Brittany, the Fleur de sel from Guérande is widely considered the most highly-prized of all salts. Since 868, it is harvested by hand, raked from the salty ocean water from the Atlantic. Fleur de sel … Continue reading
Kat Learns Chinese: Getting Started
Living Language Note: Over the next few months, our new friend Kathleen, aka Kat, will be taking a journey with us. She’ll be learning the challenging yet rewarding language of Chinese – and she’ll be blogging about it along the … Continue reading
How to Say the Summer Olympic Sports in Japanese
The London Olympics （ロンドンオリンピック rondon orinpikku are in full swing! How about taking this opportunity to learn how to call some of the summer Olympic sports in Japanese? In fact, many of them are written in Katakana, so it’s just … Continue reading
Translating the London Olympics
Did you know… Le français est la langue officielle des Jeux olympiques de cette année? [For those of you who didn’t know… French is the official language of the Olympics this year!] For the past week, 204 countries have been … Continue reading
