Folium: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave … and Languages!

… Folium: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave … and Languages! … This one requires some explanation… Please stick with us here. Read this first. Allegory of the Cave – http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm So. How did that go? Here’s a YouTube video that may help clear things up! … … Here it is in a nutshell. We think that we […]

Folium: Why Studying Abroad Is Worth the Expense via Lifehacker.com

Folium: Why Studying Abroad Is Worth the Expense! Here at Finger Lakes Community College we are in the process of changing the language of our current “travel courses” to instead say “study abroad” courses. The idea behind this shift being that study abroad courses should be expressed as just that. There’s a big difference between […]

Folium: BBC News – Digital tools ‘to save languages’

Folium: Digital Tools To Save Languages Languages are living things. They live, they adapt, and they change at a constant pace. Languages also die, and the danger in letting languages die is the perspective that dies with it. I’ve mentioned how language is a perspective on life and how our words shape how we shape […]

Folium: From Apron Hunters to Matricide – Idioms from Around the World via IO9.com

Folium: From Apron Hunters to Matricide – Idioms from Around the World Idioms are a great example of the use of metaphor in modern language, and English isn’t the only language that utilizes metaphor to express ideas! IO9 gives us a few great examples of how idioms are used across the world. Many of these […]

Folium: Tipping Etiquette Around the World – via the Mint Blog

Folium: Tipping Etiquette Around the World – via the Mint Blog Tipping is a concept that is natural for most US/Canadian citizens, however you’ll find that this practice is not the same around the world. For many countries, tipping is either a new concept entirely or is just automatically built into the price of the […]

Folium: How to say “I love you” in 100 languages

Folium: How to say “I love you” in 100 languages Just a bit of random cuteness today. 100 different languages and they all convey the same message. Makes you wonder if some things are truly universal. How many can you identify, and do you think the meaning-impact-effect changes at all among languages? How to say […]

Folium: Hearing Bilingual – How Babies Sort Out Language via NYTimes

Folium: Hearing Bilingual – How Babies Sort Out Language While this article doesn’t exactly address this issue, I’m amazed at the standpoint that teaching bilingualism somehow confuses our children. Isn’t it the case that children all over the world can live in multilingual environments and yet somehow turn out successful. I dream of the time […]

Folium: Verbling Pairs You with Native Speakers So You Can Practice Speaking New Languages

Folium: Verbling Pairs You with Native Speakers So You Can Practice Speaking New Languages This sounds like a great way to speak with native speakers of a language! I remember several years ago wondering about how I was going to engage my students in “real” speaking tasks utilizing the target language. I tend to believe […]

Folium: Movies Help You Learn Languages via Lifehacker

Folium: Movies Help You Learn Languages via Lifehacker Yes! It really does help! Take a closer look at the article to see the finer points in defense of watching movies in different languages. I constantly remind my students to be active in the watching process, since these films can provide more than just entertainment! http://lifehacker.com/5881696/how-actively-watching-movies-helped-me-learn-spanish

Folium: The World Has Changed – Languages Make a Huge Difference!

Folium: The World Has Changed: Languages Make a Huge Difference! This is another argument towards a global mindset in these new economic times. Knowing more than one language prepares you to go anywhere and do anything! Reading things like this also makes me think … If we know so many jobs are going global, why […]