Language Learning Blog

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, [...]

Curry Is the Spice of Life: Which Is the Right One for You?

Pimsleur Approach • April 24, 2012 • Food & Wine, Language Learning • Comments (0)

If there’s one dish guaranteed to reinvigorate your taste buds, warm your cockles and perform all manner of other heating-up effects on your body, it’s a tasty plate of curry. India is of course the home of curry (the name itself hailing from the Tamil word ‘kari’, meaning ‘sauce’), and the Eastern cuisine has also found a [...]

Folk Tales of Russia

Pimsleur Approach • April 23, 2012 • Entertainment, Foreign Literature, Language Learning, Russian, Traditions • Comments (0)

So important were folk tales to Russian culture for centuries, that when the tales began to appear in print in the 16th century, they were taken as historical fact. Until the end of the 18thcentury, people of all levels of Russian life enjoyed hearing folk tales. Though later viewed as mere entertainment for the lower [...]

Theme Parks That Probably Weren’t On Your To-Do List

Pimsleur Approach • April 20, 2012 • Entertainment, Global, Travel tips • Comments (0)

Whether you’re sick of Disneyland or you can’t raise the cash to get to King’s Island, we’ve located for your delectation the globe’s strangest, most unlikely, and in some cases, rather distasteful theme parks. Buckle up – things are about to get weird. Literary theme parks A franchise worth an estimated $15billion, it’s no wonder [...]

Teaching Wisdom, Ethics and Nature: The Folk Tales of India

Pimsleur Approach • April 18, 2012 • Foreign Literature, Language Learning, Traditions • Comments (0)

For many centuries in India, folk tales passed down individual and community values, morality, wisdom, devotional practices, local legend and myth. The tradition extends into sacred texts, such as the great ancient epic, the “Mahabharata”, a revered Hindu text that contains the world renowned “Bhagavad Gita”. Print collections of Indian folk tales have long been treasured by [...]