An article bilingue

I came across this post. It's quite funny. See if you can read it! Written by a Quebecois with both English and French in each sentence.

His article starts off with...

Like beaucoup de Montréalais, I’m bilingual.
And j’ai realisé that there were no bilingual publications à Montréal, which means there were never aucun bilingual articles. So j’ai décidé d’écrire the world’s first article bilingue that you could read without stopping to think.

Read more here

How babies learn languages: TED talk

Just came across this fascinating video. I like the last point where she mentions that human interaction is the most important thing for babies to learn a new language and to learn to speak, and tv is pointless. I don't watch tv and really believe that instead of stimulating the brain it numbs it, that's why people fall asleep in front of it, and not in front of a computer/internet.

Whilst the video is really interesting I disagree with anyone who says that 1) babies/kids learn languages faster, or that 2) you can't learn a foreign language after age 7 or age 15 ?!!

and why does the graph drop off at age 39? Are they saying that aged 40 and over it's impossible to learn a foreign language? What a load of crap.  Sure your accent may be crappy but I think something is only impossible if you believe it's impossible and likewise if you believe it's possible, it will be possible.


Watch the video here:

Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies (TED talk)

 http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies?language=en#t-79604

Into the Woods / Promenons-nous dans les bois

Into the Woods / Promenons-nous dans les bois

In France you can watch films in VO (version originale) ie in the original language or VF (version française) ie dubbed in French. I always choose to watch films in VO no matter what the original language is, so I watch French films in French, English films in English, German films in German, etc etc.

and when I watch them in English I like to read the subtitles in French as it helps me learn new vocabulary. These days I don't learn that many new words except slang or colloquial words (words that they don't teach you in class or in textbooks) or words that are technical eg related to a particular job (words that you don't often use in every day life).

So anyway I was watching this new Disney film "Into the woods", called "Promenons-nous dans les bois" in French (Let's walk in the woods) and while reading the subtitles I was like.. Gee... I only know half these words!!!   (I mean the lyrics sung during certain songs).

Then I remembered... that reading kids books can actually be harder than reading adult books (in a foreign language). The reason (IMHO) is that if you are reading an adult fiction or non-fiction book, a magazine, a newspaper or a website you are more than likely somewhat already familiar with the subject matter (and more than likely already read something similar in English or your own language). However, you (ie adults) are not familar with "fairytale language", the language used in this film.

Here you have all sorts of characters, creatures, and a heck of a lot of verbs that I have never learnt and will probably never use.... I was astounded by how few words I knew and yet if you ask a native speaker 8 or 10 year old they probably know all of them.

So if you want to dramatically increase your vocabulary go read some kids' story books! ;)

(sorry this wasn't a movie review but if you want a quick one... I think the first half is quite good but the second half isn't so great IMHO and many reviewers online seem to agree!). I was expecting something like "Oz the great and powerful" or "Maleficent" (also by Disney) but it wasn't up to that calibre, and unlike Frozen the songs aren't that memorable or catchy. My main complaint is that there are too many characters so not enough character development or depth and you can't feel any emotion or sympathy for any of them really).

Speaking of vocabulary, not sure if I've posted this before (I don't think so) but this Youtube video came up while I was searching for something and then I remembered I had seen it before, years ago (when I first started this blog).

I don't know how old this girl is... 2? 3? 4? but she has an incredible vocabulary and listen to all her perfect grammatical structures.. I don't even think I can use that many different tenses in one short story. Incredible.

French cute kid tells a story (Winnie the pooh)

The Top French Youtubers

I am a huge huge fan of YouTube. I don't watch TV, in fact I don't even own a TV so YouTube is my go to place for entertainment. I don't know how I lived without YouTube and I hope it never dies. That's how much I love it :P

I have linked to tons of YouTube videos here on this blog. You can click on the 'youtube' tag below the post to find them all.

When I first started learning French I would watch things like Bob the builder (Bob Le Bricoleur) and Thomas the tank engine (Thomas le train) and Disney songs in French.

Now, since my French is at a fairly decent level I can understand pretty much everything (except when people speak super super fast or use tons of slang like most teenagers do)... and I've found that watching YouTube bloggers AKA vloggers really helps!

I stumbled upon this site and it lists all the Top French Youtube vloggers, by order of number of subscribers. I really enjoy the videos by the top 2, Cyprien and Norman. (I think they are friends now even though they are sort of competitors). However, now that they're both super super famous (with millions of subscribers and millions of views per video!) it seems like they don't have much time to make videos like they used to. Still, go through that list and you may find something (or someone rather) you like! :) It's interesting that all the top vloggers are male. I wonder why this is the case?


Technophobe - un court métrage de (a short film by) Cyprien




Ma vie en dessin (Draw my life) by Norman




I also came across this vlogger called Rachel Martino while I was searching for videos about foreigners learning French. She has an English YouTube channel and a French one and her French one is much more popular as her Frenchie fans seem to love her. She seems really sweet and looks like Kate Hudson (to me) and coincidentally, despite being American, she also appears on the list/site I mentioned above.

The Hundred Foot Journey / Les Recettes du bonheur - film review

The Hundred Foot Journey / Les Recettes du bonheur - film review

"Love is the spice of life"

NB: There may be light spoilers in this review, so you don't like spoilers please don't read on.. Just go see it! Trust me, it's that good :)

imdb - The Hundred Foot Journey
premiere.fr - Les recettes du bonheur
wikipedia - Long plot description

This film has been out for some time now... I meant to watch it a while ago but kind of forgot. So last night I finally decided to see it since it's on its last days to be screened.

I don't like to know too much about films before I see them. I've even stopped watching trailers and reading any sort of review. I only read the blurb and see what it's rated on imdb. If it's rated 7 or higher it's more than likely to be good (and this was rated 7.5 at the time of me writing this post).

So the blurb said, "The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery." 

That description was enough to entice my eyes AND my tastebuds! hehe. I love Indian food, I love French food, heck I love almost any sort of food if it's well done and tasty, beautifully presented and made with love.

The film is directed by Lasse Hallström of Chocolat fame. I didn't know who he was till afterwards when I read more about him. When I think about it, there are quite a number of similarities between this film and Chocolat, namely strangers arriving in a small French town, outcasted, but eventually become integrated and welcomed by the locals. I guess that maybe Lasse has a soft spot for films featuring delicious cooking and food imagery and for quaint little French villages.

The film is interestingly produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey (something I didn't know until I read the credits during the end of the film) and Juliet Blake (who is a content producer for TED talks and approached the other two about making this film).

The story is based on a book by Richard C. Morais and was featured in Oprah's bookclub. in 2010


Helen Mirren stars as Madame Mallory, the owner of a 1 star Michelin restaurant, Le Saule Pleureur (The Weeping Willow) who is dying to get her second star. Although she is excellent in this film I can't help but wish they'd chosen a French actress as I can definitely hear her English accent when she speaks French (although I'm sure most English speaking viewers don't care and can't tell the difference). Like Chocolat, it is also odd that everyone in the town speaks fluent English but meh, it's a Hollywood film and I guess they didn't want to make it a foreign film and subject viewers to reading too many subtitles.

Due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances (which I won't go into as you'll see them all in the beginning of the film), the Kadam family ("Papa" (played by the acclaimed actor Om Puri) and his 5 children ranging in age from about 6 to late teens?) end up in this tiny idyllic town, Saint Antonin Noble Val (which is a real place and the film was actually filmed there). It is located about 100km north of Toulouse. It is a 900-1000 year old medieval town with a population of about 2000 (wikipedia).

 I don't know what is more beautiful. The scenes of the village, or the scenes of the food. Both are equally impressive and beautiful but the food and cooking scenes are just exquisite and mouthwatering. If you love food or films featuring food, this is one reason alone to watch this film!

I became fascinated by cooking in general as well as French cooking a few years ago when I started watching Masterchef (blogpost here). And this movie just made me want to go out and cook as well as eat!

So Papa, with his entrepreneurial vision, sets out to buy the restaurant that is now closed and for sale, since the owners moved to Paris. They could not compete with Madame Mallory. He intends to turn the former French restaurant into "Maison Mumbai", introducing French people to the wonders of Indian home-style cooking. Of course Madame Mallory doesn't like this one little bit and sets out to start a 'war'. What ensues is a hilarious battle of securing the best ingredients and showing off the best cooking skills in order to acquire new and more customers.

The plot is not just about the war before the two elders though, there is also another major plotline. Here, we are introduced to relative newcomer and a shining star, Indian American Manish Dayal, who plays the second eldest son Hassan. He discovered old French cookbooks in the former restaurant and sets out not only to improve his Indian cooking skills, but to learn the fine art of traditional French cooking. As well as that, he meets a beautiful young chef named Marguerite (played by Canadian Charlotte Le Bon), who happens to work in Le Saule Pleureur and whom he happened to meet during that first (un)fortunate car accident when the family first arrived in town.

So you can guess what happens as it is a Hollywood film and therefore quite predictable in parts and I predicated many things in the film. However, there were also many unpredictable parts and twists which was nice. I don't want to say too much more without giving it all away.

The other 4 kids don't feature widely in the film and basically have no storyline but I imagine that they will also be up and coming stars.

I spelt the first half laughing my head off or having a big cheesy grin on my face. It was just so funny and feelgood. I related to many themes in the film such as being a stranger in a strange land, culture shock and differences, missing family/home... In some of those scenes where those themes are brought up (particularly towards the end) I almost felt a tear come to my eye. I could relate to the lead character Hassan a lot. Everything seems to have a trade off in life and you have to make the best choice for YOU, and do what makes you happy. If I could take away anything from this film that as the message I got. That, and family and food are the most important things. And food is memories. Family memories. And indeed, even before seeing this film, family and food are always the top two things I miss most while I'm living in Europe. I got goosebumps many times during several scenes of the film.

So I haven't talked a lot about the plot but I hope I've given you enough information and incentive to see this film. As it's probably not out in the cinemas anymore where you live, please go check it out once it's released on DVD.

It's just such a beautiful and heartwarming film. I will watch it again and again! :)

I enjoyed the film a LOT. SO much that I would rate it 10/10. I know that's a big score but that's how I felt. I can't wait to read the book too now!

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On another note about the music, the soundtrack (played during the credits) is composed by A. R. Rahman, of Slumdog Millionaire fame. My favourite is 'My mind is a stranger without you'  (at 45:57) - a beautiful bilingual song in both French and Hindi (I think?)



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On a linguistic note, most English film titles are always kind of cryptic and allow you to use your imagination where as in other languages the title is far more literal.

The English title is The Hundred-Foot Journey (Foot as in distance). I didn't really think about the title and how it fitted to the film till I arrived home but the more I thought about it the more it made sense and the more I liked the title!
The French title is Les Recettes du bonheur (The recipes of happiness) - which describes the film more aptly, I guess
The German title is Madame Mallory und der Duft von Curry (Madame Mallory and the smell of curry) - kind of funny when you think about it! There's no way they'd name it that in English.
The Spanish title is Un viaje de diez metros (A journey of ten metres)
The Italian title is Amore, cucina e curry (Love, cooking and curry)
The Portuguese title is A viagem dos cem passos (The journey of a hundred steps)
The French Canadian title is Le voyage de cent pas (The journey of a hundred steps)
The Swedish title is 100 steg från Bombay till Paris (A hundred steps from Mumbai to Paris)
The Chinese Mandarin (China) title is 米其林情缘 (Michelin destiny)
The Chinese Mandarin (Taiwan) title is 美味不設限 (There are no limits to delicious flavours)

The Chinese Cantonese (Hong Kong) title is 米芝蓮摘星奇緣 (Michelin stardom destiny)

The Japanese title is マダム・マロリーと魔法のスパイス (Madame Mallory and the magical spices)
The Korean title is 로맨틱 레시피 (Romantic recipe)
The Russian title is Пряности и страсти (Spices and passion)
The Hebrew title is מסע של מאה צעדים (A journey of a hundred paces)
The Arabic title is رحلة المائة قدم (A journey of a hundred feet)
(list of some more foreign titles here)

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Pre-order the DVD (due out December 2 in the US)



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English film trailer

 French film trailer - Les recettes du bonheur Bande Annonce Version Française

NORMAN fait des videos - French videos on YouTube

I was introduced to Norman's channel by a French friend. He's very entertaining, funny and talented and it's great French listening practice.

He has one of the most popular Youtube channels in France, with over 5 million subscribers.

Check out his YT channel here :)

and here is his most recent video « 10 choses que les femmes font mieux que les hommes » ("10 things that women do better than men")

What English sounds like to foreigners

Just came across this... it's quite amusing!

What English sounds like to foreigners,  by Italian Adriano Celentano

Bilingualism fights dementia and improves brain function

There are LOTS of articles like this online, this is by no means the best one but it is just one example of how learning multiple languages strengthens brain functions and cognitive thinking skills and fights off alzheimers and dementia..

Article here

French: To vous or to tu?

You might have seen this chart already, it's from the LA Times. Somebody made this useful (and funny) flowchart to help you figure out whether to 'tu' or to 'vous' someone.

I usually wait for the other person to see what they call me and I use the same word back. If they don't use either as it hasn't come up in the conversation yet, I would tend to use 'vous' UNLESS we are of a similar age or they are younger than me. I've met people younger than me who wanted to 'vous' me and I asked them to 'tu' me and they still 'vous'ed me!  I dunno... for me it's kind of like being called Madame instead of Mademoiselle. It makes me feel old!

I had also read that online, people tend to 'tu' each other.

Another interesting thing to do is to watch French films and see whether the characters use vous or tu depending on their relationship with each other.

tutoyer - the act of calling the other person 'tu' (informal 'you')
vousvoyer - the act of calling the other person 'vous' (formal 'you')
tutoiement / vouvoiement - the manner of addressing the ther person

Have fun! ;)

Most common languages spoken in the US after English

You might have seen this article already, it originated on Slate.

Ben Blatt has created a cool series of maps showing what second languages are spoken in the various states of the USA.

Check out the whole article here. I originally read it on Gizmodo, and if you go to that page and read the comments it's quite interesting... many people debating about how common German really is in the US. I, for one, had no idea it was that common. I also had no idea that Tagalog was so common in California...

And so, here are the maps (there are more on the site).

Second most commonly spoken language in the USA after English, by state

Third most commonly spoken language in the USA other than English or Spanish, by state

The Great Language Quiz

Note this is not a test on any one particular language or how well you know the vocabulary, but a test on how well you can distinguish between languages or family of languages...

Language Quiz 1

I scored 8/14. Eesh.

Then I did a better and longer test and scored 250. However, I think I got very difficult one as the second time I did it I scored 650.

The Great Language Game

Have fun! :)

French slang words you need to know

Check out this link here and learn some new French vocab! :)

Car: la voiture -> la bagnole
Money: l'argent -> le fric
Children: les enfants -> les gosses/les gamin(e)s
Criminal: le criminel -> la racaille
Police officers: les policiers -> les flics
Work: le travail -> le boulot
Food: le nourriture -> la bouffe (see my French food and cooking vocabulary list here)
Boyfriend: le petit ami -> le copain
Girlfriend: la petite amie -> la copine
Brother: frère -> frangin
Sister: soeur -> frangine
A drink: un verre
Sleep: sommeil -> dodo ("metro, boulot, dodo")
University: le fac
Clothes: les vêtements -> les fringues, les habits (see my French fashion and sewing vocabulary list here)
Cigarettes: les cigarettes ->les clopes

Check out my previous post on French slang where you can also find a list of books to buy from Amazon to help you.

PS J'en ai marre means... I've had enough! I'm fed up! I'm sick of this! etc...

Benny Lewis' new language learning book Fluent in 3 months

For those of you who have been following my blog for a long time you would know that I started this blog because I wanted to have a diary to keep track of my French learning.

I started my blog in mid 2009 (that's nearly 5 years! Yay!) and around the same time somebody else also started a language learning blog to keep track of their progress.

That person was Benny Lewis, who is now known as the "Irish Polyglot". I've been following him on/off the last few years and even left a few comments on his blog. He doesn't know me, and we've never met, but in a way I feel like I 'know' him and I'm super proud of how far he has come.

He's not only an inspiration for languages learners worldwide, but to me he is also an inspiration by proving that you really can make a living doing what you love, as long as you put all your effort, time, love and passion into it.

He has had amazing success in a short amount of time and made tons of friends worldwide. He has heaps of useful and funny videos on Youtube. (one of my favourites is "Skype me maybe" sung to the tune of "Call me maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, in 30+ languages! It is such a great, feel good happy video).




Obviously at the end of the day everybody has to make a living and Benny does so with the language learning courses and e-books he sells, but the same time he also has tons and tons of free content on his blog/site.

I was so happy and excited for him when I read the other day that he scored a book publishing deal with the huge publishing house Harper Collins.

Anyway, if you need some encouragement and advice for foreign language learning and haven't read it yet (where have you been?) go read his blog or go get his new book Fluent in 3 months. As I said earlier, he doesn't know who I am and did not tell me to write this. I just wanted to help promote his book because he seems like such an awesome guy and deserves all the success in the world. :)

 
(image from Benny's blog)

Sara Smoukahontas Finnish girl speaks 14 'languages' with gibberish

I just came across this video which has been doing the rounds on the internet. As of 3 March (4 days ago) I see that it has had an incredible 3,617,209 views already! That's almost 1 million views per DAY.

by Sara "smoukahontas", a 19 year old Finnish girl that speaks Finnish, Swedish and English.

I do remember coming across a similar video a while ago on YouTube but I think hers is better.

Here are the 'languages' that she speaks in the video using gibberish words.

• Finnish
• Swedish
• Estonian
• Russian/Slavic
• French
• Pizza (Italian)
• Portuguese
• UK English
• Japanese
• Spanish
• USA English
• Hindi/Tamil
• Arabic
• East Asian

The video is funny and I thought she did most of them pretty well except Japanese and Arabic. Also I admit I have absolutely no idea what Estonian is supposed to sound like.

She 'cheated' in many languages as I could easily hear real words in French, Italian and UK English. Oh well. It was all for a bit of fun I suppose. I bet she never expected so many views and worldwide fame to come from it!! :D

Haha. This second video she made is even funnier! and there are more languages! But I don't think the Australian one is that good. It's very hard to fake a good Australian accent ;)


 

Here are the list of languages:

• Polish
• Russian
• Japanese (better!)
• Something African
• Something exotic - sounds like Hindi?
• Jamaican with Aspergers
• Brazilian?
• Hebrew
• Arabic
• Australian English (sounds American)
• Scottish
• Irish (hilarious)
• Chinese
• Turkish
• German

Then she talks about loving all the languages of the world... except Dutch. Funny girl.

French: Worst learners of English in Europe

Interesting article on thelocal here:

A global study of English language proficiency in 60 nations revealed that the ability of the French to master the language of Shakespeare is actually declining. The company behind the study tells The Local that France’s fear of losing its culture is to blame... 

The third EF English Proficiency Index by the international education company, ranked France 35th out of 60 countries where English is not the main language, putting it behind China, Taiwan and Italy and just ahead of the United Arab Emirates in the “low proficiency” grouping.
Most notably it was ranked last out of the European nations studied, falling behind the likes of Germany (14th) and Spain (23rd).
Perhaps unsurprisingly Sweden topped the league table ahead of Norway and the Netherlands.

Read the rest of the article on the site. What do you think about this?

Anything sounds better in a foreign language...

Just came across this article in designtaxi. It's really funny. Apparently, if a woman is attractive and sexy, it doesn't matter what she says... it sounds great (if you don't know her language).

 

Kind of reminds me of people who tattoo Chinese or Japanese characters on their bodies without having the faintest clue what it really says, or people who use Google Translate claiming to know the language... Better to learn it and really know it rather than fake it IMHO.

Native speakers pronouncing their own words incorrectly

There's a funny thing that's happened to me a few times, where a native speaker of a certain language (not English) will pronounce their own words incorrectly because they are speaking to ME and they are Anglicizing it.

Examples - French people pronouncing ballet not ba-lay but ba-llette
and the funniest one I got the other day was a native German speaker talking about a "children's garden"... I laughed (when I figured out what he meant) and said, "We call it a kindergarten too!"

How good is autocorrect?

... not very by the looks of things. Check this out.

It compares Cordial, Antidote, Pro Lexis and Word which are apparently all software which correct grammar and spelling. I haven't heard of any of them except Word, must be some French thing. But there is even a mistake in the last column (Word one) that the writers of the article did not pick up and highlight ;)

... just goes to show you that noone's perfect! :P

Also goes to show you that my French must not be good enough as I don't know what "entraider mutuellement" even means. I find the spelling mistakes very easy to pick up, the grammar less so.


(Image from ladictee.fr Facebook page)

Learning a foreign language: Surround yourself with the people, culture and context

I came across this interesting article and agree with what it says.
Basically they're saying that not being surrounded by the context and culture of the language you're learning affects how fluently you speak the language.. pretty much common sense really! ;)

Pertinent quotes

• The findings could help explain why cultural immersion is the most effective way to learn a foreign tongue and why immigrants who settle within an ethnic enclave acculturate more slowly than those who surround themselves with friends from their new country
• Previous studies have shown that cultural icons such as landmarks and celebrities act like "magnets of meaning," instantly activating a web of cultural associations in the mind and influencing our judgments and behavior

Check it out!

Picking up patterns in languages

Interesting article..

linky

Some research suggests that learning a second language draws on capacities that are language-specific, while other research suggests that it reflects a more general capacity for learning patterns. According to psychological scientist and lead researcher Ram Frost of Hebrew University, the data from the new study clearly point to the latter:

"These new results suggest that learning a second language is determined to a large extent by an 

individual ability that is not at all linguistic," says Frost.

In the study, Frost and colleagues used three different tasks to measure how well American students in an overseas program picked up on the structure of words and sounds in Hebrew. The students were tested once in the first semester and again in the second semester. ...