Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess the language?
In Dutch the word podium [poː.di.(j)ʏm] means stage, and also podium or platform. It comes from Latin word podium (balcony, especially in an amphitheatre, parapet, podium), from the Ancient Greek πόδιον (pódion – base), a diminutive of πούς (poús – foot, leg), from the Proto-Indo-European pṓds (foot) [source].
Some related words include:
The English word podium (a platform on which to stand, as when conducting an orchestra or preaching at a pulpit; any low platform or dais) comes from the same root [source], as does the word pew, via the Middle English pewe, from the Middle French puie (balustrade), from the Latin podia, the plural of podium [source].
Other words from the same Latin root include poggio (hill) and podio (podium) in Italian, puig (hill, peak) in Catalan, and poyo (stone bench) in Spanish [source].
By the way, in English (and Dutch) the plural of podium can be either podiums or podia. Which do you prefer?
The diminutive of podium in Dutch is podiumpje, which means little or imaginary stage – I find Dutch diminutives like this very cute.
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess the language?
I don’t know if this language is always spoken this fast, but this is one of the few recordings I can find in it.
Apparently the game pictured below is known as babyfoot in French. Which is kind of cute.
According to the Belgian magazine, Le Soir illustré, the French inventor Lucien Rosengart (1881–1976) came up with the game of table football in the 1930s when he was looking for things to keep his grandchildren entertained during the cold winter months. He called the game “baby foot”.
The name babyfoot, which is also written baby-foot is used in France, Canada and Switzerland. It is also known as football sur table or football de table in Canada, as kicker in Belgium, foot-foot in Switzerland, and football de table in France.
I would call it table football, which is the usual name for this game in the UK, and was patented by Harold Searles Thornton in 1921.
It was brought to the the USA in the 1950s by Lawrence Patterson, and it is called foosball [ˈfuːzbɔːl], which comes from the German name tischfußball (table football).
In German it is known as Tischfußball (table football), Tischkicker (table kicker) or Kicker.
What do you call it?
Do you know any interesting names for this game in other languages?
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_football
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-foot
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/TischfußFball
If you speak a foreign language, and know the grammar well and have a large vocabulary, but people find it difficult to understand you because you have a strong foreign accent, can we say that you speak it well?
This is something my friends and I were discussing last night. We recognise that there’s nothing wrong with having a non-native accent when speaking a foreign language, and that few people manage to sound like native speakers of languages they have learnt as adults. This is because you tend to carry over elements of pronunciation from your native language, or from other languages you know.
However, if communication is difficult due to your accent, then it might be a idea to try to modify it so that others can understand you more easily. This may difficult, but is worth the effort.
What are you thoughts on this?
If you have a crush on someone or you are infutated with them, in Dutch you might say that je bent verkikkerd op iemand, which could be translated literally as “you are befrogged of someone”.
The word verkikkerd means ‘in love with (someone)’ or to ‘love (someone) very much’ [source]. It comes from kikker [ˈkɪkər] (frog, toad, cleat), from kikken (to croak, sound like a frog; utter, mention), which is onomatopoeic [source].
Some other frog-related words and expressions in Dutch include:
Source: Wiktionary
In English the word frog means:
It comes from the Middle English frogge [ˈfrɔɡ(ə)] (frog, toad, wretch, mushroom), the Old English frocga [ˈfroɡ.ɡɑ] (frog), and the Proto-Germanic *fruþgô (frog), from *fruþ (frog) [source].
Do you know any interesting frog-related expresssions?
A Japanese word I learnt recently that made me smile is 微笑む (ほほえむ) [ho.ho.e.mɯ], which means to smile 😃.
The character 微 (kasu / bi) means delicate, minuteness, insignificance, and 笑 (wara / e / jō) means laugh, laughter, smile or sneer. So 微笑 could be translated literally as a “delicate laugh”.
Some related words include:
The existence of 微笑み返す suggests to me that answering smiles with smiles is a common thing in Japan. That makes me smile. Are there words in other languages that mean something similar?
笑 (wara) [ɰaɺa] on it’s own is apparently used as internet slang to mean LOL (laugh out loud) or haha.
Some related words include:
Source: jisho.org