Language Learning Blog

Yiddish Words and Expressions Adopted Into English

Pimsleur Approach • May 10, 2012 • Foreign Language, German, Hebrew, Language History, Language Learning • Comments (1)

Image via amazon.com Think English is the only language you know? If you’ve ever eaten a bagel, done something with schmaltz, or referred to someone’s schnoz (nose), it turns out you speak a little bit of Yiddish. Yiddish is a language that is a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic influences spoken [...]

Words We Wish Existed in English

Pimsleur Approach • May 7, 2012 • Entertainment, Foreign Language, Language Learning, Traditions • Comments (1)

It’s well-known that English boasts more distinct words than any other language (academics claim it has anywhere between 250,000 and 750,000), and yet there are still many thoughts that the world’s most widely-spoken tongue can’t adequately express. For those times that English isn’t quite up to the job, it helps to be able to fill [...]

Going, Going…Saved: Four Successful Language Revivals

Pimsleur Approach • April 25, 2012 • Foreign Language, Foreign Literature, Global, Language History, Language Learning • Comments (0)

It is a statistic that has linguists and linguaphiles alike wringing their hands and furrowing their brows. Almost half the world’s 7000 languages are likely to disappear in the 21st century. Shockingly, a language dies out about once every two weeks. But does it matter? Surely, with the increasing dominance of English, Spanish and Chinese, [...]

Using Spanish Slang

Pimsleur Approach • April 17, 2012 • Foreign Language, Language Learning, Spanish, Travel tips • Comments (0)

Spanish, like any language, has its formal words and the words that people use every day on the street. In fact it’s common for a Spanish person to ask if you learned your Spanish in school or ‘de la calle,’ meaning from the street. Depending on the region you go to in Spain, you’ll here different languages, [...]

The Language of Color

Pimsleur Approach • March 29, 2012 • Foreign Language, Language Learning, Style, Traditions • Comments (0)

In this multimedia world of ours, we communicate through every medium we can: Words, sounds, design, texture, scent, taste and, yes, color. In marketing, the choices made regarding visual, auditory and literary media are always driven by the message you are trying to communicate to the minds of your audience. In our personal choices, we [...]