Visit Peas in a Pod this week for an excellent guided tour around Switzerland, Austria and Liechenstein.
Learn some Romansch by clicking on the video. (Shall we count yodelling, too?)
Thank you Peas in a Pod!
Monday, 30 January 2012
Monday, 23 January 2012
Accent and dialect
Visit this British Library site and click around to read information on accents and dialects. Let's talk about the variations we hear.
I grew up in a community that encouraged me to think of local accents as socially inferior, and that the best thing to do with a Nott'mshire way of talking was to drop it, as quick as possible. If you wanted to impress anyone out of your clan you should never greet them with ey up me duck.
RP, on the other hand, was presented as the most desirable or aspirational sound that automatically was associated with higher social class, prestige, power, and the right to rule.
I think the social hold RP might have had in our culture has declined over the last decades. Now I hear people readily refer to local accents as if they are precious and lovely sounds to hear.
What do you think?
(I laughed, but he misses out East Anglia.)
I grew up in a community that encouraged me to think of local accents as socially inferior, and that the best thing to do with a Nott'mshire way of talking was to drop it, as quick as possible. If you wanted to impress anyone out of your clan you should never greet them with ey up me duck.
RP, on the other hand, was presented as the most desirable or aspirational sound that automatically was associated with higher social class, prestige, power, and the right to rule.
I think the social hold RP might have had in our culture has declined over the last decades. Now I hear people readily refer to local accents as if they are precious and lovely sounds to hear.
What do you think?
(I laughed, but he misses out East Anglia.)
Monday, 16 January 2012
British Sign Language
Learn basic phrases here on Youtube; question words; the alphabet.
Can you learn how to say hello and sign your name?
Can you learn how to say hello and sign your name?
Monday, 9 January 2012
Hindi
Interesting findings...
1. Hindi is related to English.
2. Proto Indo European was an 'ancestral language group' devised in the 18thC to try and explain the similarities found between English and Hindi.
3. Words in English from Hindi origin listed on Wiki. Which ones do you already know?
4. Find out where the 'Hindi belt' is. Ask your father.
5. It's political. Modern Hindi was created as a national language after Indian independence (1947). But many people in India don't speak it, and there have been active campaigns in the South against its imposition.
6. The mixing of English and Hindi has given rise to Hinglish. (Linguists seem to like naming those.)
Listen to the Hindi alphabet on Youtube.
Visit this site and scroll around; it has some interesting links. I particularly liked this reminder of how absurd can be reality.
Find something from the site that helps you find out about Hindi or India, and share it with me.
Has anyone found out how to say hello?
1. Hindi is related to English.
2. Proto Indo European was an 'ancestral language group' devised in the 18thC to try and explain the similarities found between English and Hindi.
3. Words in English from Hindi origin listed on Wiki. Which ones do you already know?
4. Find out where the 'Hindi belt' is. Ask your father.
5. It's political. Modern Hindi was created as a national language after Indian independence (1947). But many people in India don't speak it, and there have been active campaigns in the South against its imposition.
6. The mixing of English and Hindi has given rise to Hinglish. (Linguists seem to like naming those.)
Listen to the Hindi alphabet on Youtube.
Visit this site and scroll around; it has some interesting links. I particularly liked this reminder of how absurd can be reality.
Find something from the site that helps you find out about Hindi or India, and share it with me.
Has anyone found out how to say hello?
Monday, 2 January 2012
Latvian
A great excuse to find out about Latvia. Like we brave home educators need any excuse to find out about anything.
Okay, the recipes didn't wow me, apart from fruit and cream on rye bread.
But you can still find out where it is, discover something to tell papa about the Latvian language, and learn how to say hello. Download the BBC Quick fix language files, listen, and have a go.
Okay, the recipes didn't wow me, apart from fruit and cream on rye bread.
But you can still find out where it is, discover something to tell papa about the Latvian language, and learn how to say hello. Download the BBC Quick fix language files, listen, and have a go.
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