I started teaching English while living in Poznań in 1999. I only knew two other native speakers there at the time, Peter and Peter, who were both from the East Coast of the US. And sometimes, we simply didn’t understand…
Blog Archives
divided by a common language
Tagged with: American, British, English, false friends, Language, Translation, words
Posted in international, language, President's Day, translation
Posted in international, language, President's Day, translation
more stories, more words
“One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.”— Evelyn Waugh “Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced…
Tagged with: book sculpture, Brazilian Portuguese, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, English, Evelyn Waugh, Fiction, Finnish, Jose Saramago, Justin Rowe, Language, native, Roald Dahl, words
Posted in international, language, literature, words
Posted in international, language, literature, words
one word to begin
New years’ resolutions can be overwhelming, if like me, you make a lengthy list and then struggle to live up to your own ideals, often failing within the first week. So this year I decided to choose one word to guide…
Tagged with: Alice in Wonderland, Bible, English, gift, Illustration, Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Saint John's Bible, Welsh, words
Posted in faith, Illustration, language, literature, words
Posted in faith, Illustration, language, literature, words
silent night
The first time I noticed translation was probably while singing Christmas carols. We learnt to sing Silent Night in something resembling German and Welsh at primary school, and in learning Polish I realised that the fuzzy warm sound of carols I’d heard…
Tagged with: Christmas, Christmas Carols, English, Finnish, Franz Xaver Gruber, German, Joseph Mohr, Polish, Silent Night, Welsh
Posted in Christmas, language, translation
Posted in Christmas, language, translation
O!
‘Would it be of any use, now,’ thought Alice, `to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there’s no harm in trying.’ So she began:…
Tagged with: advent, Alice in Wonderland, Arvo Pärt, Bible, English, German, Language, Latin, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, o antiphons, vocative
Posted in language, translation
Posted in language, translation
twist your tongue around the world
Sometimes your tongue gets in a knot and the words just don’t come out. But if you can untangle it, you will sound fluent as never before. I tell first time visitors to Finland that they can find the lift…
Tagged with: English, Finnish, Hebrew, Language, Latin, Maori, Polish, pronunciation, Tongue-twister, Welsh
Posted in international, language, translation, words
Posted in international, language, translation, words
like two berries
Idioms are great. But they don’t always translate easily. Finnish idioms differ from English ones according to the culture. In the land of forests, you don’t stand around uselessly like a lemon, but sit like a mushroom (“istua kuin tatti”), and…
found in translation 