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We saw Volver last night, with our Spanish evening class (and a lot of other Spanish evening class groups, as the cinema was running a special evening class session). We really enjoyed it – see the summary here, to find out what it’s about. You don’t get any choice by the way – as . . . → Read More: Volver What connotations does “drop” have for you? As far as I’m concerned, they are negative – you drop a bad idea, for example. Or you might drop your drawers if you have to reveal that you have been caught out. Sales drop off, if a product isn’t successful. If you drop a glass, it . . . → Read More: Just drop it The Economist, not for the first time, has an article where fuel consumption is quoted in miles per gallon (mpg) and km per liter (km/l). In Germany, and as far as I know, in all other European countries fuel comsumption is measured in liters per 100 km, the same in Australia. I’m not . . . → Read More: Where do people use “km/liter” for fuel consumption? The Merriam-Webster dictionary has added the verb “to google” to the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary which is being published later this year. Which means Google joins the list of brand names that have become nouns or verbs replacing traditional words like “hoover” (vacuum-clean), “kleenex” (tissue) – or of course in Germany . . . → Read More: Google is now a verb …(otherwise known as www.tashian.com/multibabel) is an interesting web site if you want to try repeatedly translating a phase or sentence back and forth between English and a series of other languages. The result is much like you got if you used to play Chinese Whispers when you were younger. For example, after ten . . . → Read More: Lost in translation… Take this Implicit Association Test (being run by Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and University of Washington) and find out. Some background information on Implicit Association Tests from the participating universities: Psychologists understand that people may not say what’s on their minds either because they are unwilling or because they are unable to . . . → Read More: Do you favour Microsoft or Open Source software? The Independent reports that English is approaching the million-word milestone. Now, the largest edition of Duden (the authoritive German language dictionary) contains about 200 000 words, and in French there are between 25 000 and 100 000 words, depending on who you listen to. The million word total comes from an American consultancy called . . . → Read More: Misoverestimated? The German language is horribly polluted with “denglisch” – English words (some of which aren’t, even if you think they might be, such as “handy” (mobile phone)) every which way you look. You can do your bit to help save the language by enrolling to become “godfather” for a word. There are (at . . . → Read More: Protect the German language I must admit that I am not the world’s best speller by a long margin. And English is worse than most other languages, because many words have friends, who sound identical but mean something completely different. For example, bear and bare. And which is that gland, that older men sometimes have problems with – . . . → Read More: Are you sure you know what you mean? |
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