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Denglish – Destroying our planet
Throughout history, languages have borrowed words from other languages to enrich their vocabulary. English itself is not as “pure” as say French or German, which have a clear, direct Latin and Germanic heritage respectively. Whilst English is considered a Germanic language, it is
Des aventures toulousaines – Part 3: Des aventures polonaises
A mere three or four weeks into the job at Saint Exupéry, I was informed that I was going to Poland. I didn’t know quite how to react to this at first because it came very abruptly and I had
Who vs. whom
“Learning a foreign language helps open your eyes to how your own language works.” This is one of those marketing hooks that we hear all the time from language teachers to encourage people to branch out linguistically – but it is actually true. If I
Des aventures toulousaines – Part 2: Une ville des arts
I went to the school beforehand to meet the teachers and some of the students. Blagnac was a leafy suburb with houses slightly bigger than other areas of the Toulouse and many had pools -an immense contrast in working in
Des aventures toulousaines – Part 1: La ville rose
Never had my gut feeling been so wrong. I remember the night when the phrase “butterflies in my stomach” didn’t even come close to how I felt. It was 2 a.m. on a September morning in 2009. The car was
Why is it so hard to get the name of a country right?
A new TV reality singing show starts tonight called The Voice. Now, I thought this competition sounded familiar, and it was because I had heard of the original show, The Voice of Holland. But wait…don’t they mean The Voice of
Dutch: The lost culture
Learning another language also enables one to dispel any stereotypes previously held. The French do not wear stripy tops, wear berets and carry baguettes around all day long. Equally, the Germans are not all blonde, tubby, moustached Bratwurst-munchers. The Dutch,
Bilingualism in Wales – is it just for show?
There have been a fair number of stories in recent years about the English and Welsh on road signs not quite matching up. The latest one is at a Tesco with the arrow for “Exit” pointing right, and “Allanfa” (Welsh for exit)