I’ve been using Babbel to study French every day for the last few months, having taken advantage of one of their Yuletide specials to get a Lifetime membership. Tuesday morning, I received notice of a new press release from them. Babbel…
TotD: Why is English spelling so odd?
From David Crystal’s book The Fight for English: How language pundits ate, shot, and left, by way of Delancey Place. In spelling, the [English] language was assimilating the consequences of having a civil service of French scribes, who paid little…
Geography is colorful — and a whole lot more
National Geograhic is leading the My Wonderful World campaign. There are suggestions for parents, kids, teens, and educators. I wanna be a teen. I want to get a passport and a nifty little GPS unit and go geocaching and explore…
Needed: Hebrew Speaker With a Good Singing Voice for Recording Project
A dear friend is recording a CD of original music and needs a singer. Someone in the Pacific Northwest (US) would be good, but my friend is willing to travel for this project. This person needs to be “willing to…
Translating the Untranslatable
In Other Words: A Language Lover’s Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World Linguist Christopher J. Moore has made a career of searching out some of the world’s most “untranslatable” expressions—words from around the globe that defy an easy…
Skookum
I subscribe to several different “word of the day” lists. Some are technical, like the whatis.com list. One is from Buzzwhack. Several are just “normal” lists. Every time there’s actually a new-to-me word on one of them, I get all excited.…
Friday Fun
shadowkatt left her purse at the martial arts studio last night, so I cruelly forced her out of bed to go with me when sambear went to the bus. We’re about halfway to the studio there, so I didn’t want…
Homeschooling Stuff
Current Mood: 😐okay