I noticed recently that when a webpage crashes in the Google Chrome browser, you get an error message beginning with “Aw, Snap!”, which always amuses me. It’s not an expression I’ve ever used, and seeing it got me wondering whether it is in common use in other English-speaking countries. If you don’t use this expression, what others might you use in similar circumstances?
I’d probably say something like “Oops!” or “Oh dear!”.
What are equivalents of these expressions in other languages?
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
I came across this TED talk yesterday in which Chris Lonsdale, a psychologist from New Zealand who runs a company in Hong Kong, talks about language learning. He believes that anybody can learn a language in six months if they follow the five principles and seven actions that he has formulated after assessing all the research available on language learning.
The bit about principles and actions starts 8 minutes into the video.
There are articles and materials about language learning available on his website.
The five principles are:
1. Focus on language content that is relevant to you.
2. Use your language as a tool to communicate from day 1.
3. When you understand the message you will acquire the language unconsciously, i.e comprehensible input (Krashen, et al)
4. Language is not about accumulating a lot of knowledge but is rather a type of physiological training.
5. Psycho-physiological state matters – you need to be happy, relaxed, and most importantly, you need to be tolerant of ambiguity. Don’t try to understand every detail as it will drive you crazy.
The seven actions are:
1. Listen a lot – it doesn’t matter if you understand or not. Listen to rhythms and patterns.
2. Focus on getting the meaning first, before the words. Body language and facial expressions can help.
3. Start mixing, get creative, and use what you’re learning
4. Focus on the core – the most commonly-used words, and use the language to learn more (What is this/that? How do you say ? etc.)
5. Get a language parent – someone who is fluent in the language and who will do their best to understand what you mean; who will not correct your mistakes; who will feedback their understanding of what you’re saying using correct language, and uses words that you know.
6. Copy the face – watch native speakers and observe who their face, and particular their mouth, moves when they’re speaking
7. “Direct connect” to the target language – find ways to connect words directly with images and other internal representations.
The other day I was talking with a lad from Hong Kong. We were speaking mainly in Mandarin, with odd bits of Cantonese thrown in from time to time – I speak Mandarin fluently, but only know a little Cantonese. I asked him how he had learned Mandarin, and he said that he had just picked it up through listening and speaking, and that it wasn’t too difficult. I’ve heard similar stories from other people from Hong Kong and Macau, and suspect that it is easier for Cantonese speakers to pick up Mandarin than it is for Mandarin speakers to pick up Cantonese or other varieties of Chinese. This is partly because Mandarin is phonetically and grammatically somewhat simpler than the other varieties, and also because there are far more Mandarin speakers, and media in Mandarin is far more common.
Have you experience of the relative difficult/ease of learning different varieties of Chinese?
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| diriger | to run (a business; department; country) | rhedeg | dirijañ; sturiadañ |
| tenir | to run (a shop; hotel; house) | rhedeg; cadw | tiegiñ |
| la piste | runway | rhedfa | riboul |
| le vestiaire | changing room; cloakroom | ystafell newid | gwiskva |
| la cape | cloak | mantell; clogyn; clog | kap |
| l’accordeur de piano(s) | piano tuner | dyn tiwnio pianos | songeider piano |
| accorder | to tune (an instrument) | tiwnio; cyweirio; tonyddu | toniañ |
I discovered an interesting French idiom today – prendre la mouche – which means literally ‘to take the fly’ and is the equivalent of ‘to go off in a huff’. Huff refers to ‘a passing mood of anger or pique’ A French equivalent of ‘to be in a huff’ is être vexé. Are there similar expressions in other languages?
La mouche means fly, button or patch comes from the Latin mŭsca (fly)
Here are some other expressions featuring this word:
– bateau-mouche = pleasure boat (on the Seine)
– fine mouche = sharp customer
– oiseau-mouche = hummingbird (‘fly bird’)
– pattes de mouche = spidery scrawl (‘fly paws’)
– poids mouche = flyweight
– papier tue-mouche = flypaper
– mouche du coche = back-seat driver (‘coach fly’)
– mouche à miel = honey bee (‘honey fly’)
– faire mouche = bull’s-eye
Source: http://dictionary.reverso.net/
According to reports I have read this week a form of English is emerging in London. It combines elements from Cockney, Jamaican and other Caribbean Englishes, and from South Asian varieties of English. It is known as Jafaican (pseudo-Jamaican) by some, but researchers from Lancaster University believe that it is not white kids trying to sound like black kids, but rather young people who are exposed to different varieties of English as they grow up and who incorporate different influences into their speech.
Linguists call it Multicultural London English (MLE) and have found that it is used increasingly in southern England and is replacing Cockney and other dialects. Apparently multicultural Englishes with similar characteristics are emerging in other large UK cities.
Some phonetic characteristics of MLE include a shift of some vowels towards the back of the mouth, the pronunciation of /h/, which isn’t pronounced in Cockney, and th fronting (/θ/ becomes /f/).
Inevitably some reports attract negative and ignorant comments like:
“It’s a ridiculous accent, so fake. All the kids are speaking in it now, I think it sounds so stupid, makes them sound thick along with their non-words like peak and peng. It’s only used by kids who are trying to be gangsters.”
and
“Personally I think the folk that talk in that faux caribbean patois sound like they’re thick. And I’m a Geordie!!! :-)”
and even
“This accent also comes with the lack of understanding of the use of the words your, you’re, there, their and they’re.”
A lack of understanding of the difference between written and spoken language there, perhaps :).
Some reports are more sensible and balanced though:
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
I discovered today that the French word for thumb, pouce, also means inch, which makes sense as the length of the inch is apparently based on the width of a man’s thumb.
Related expressions include:
– se tourner les pouces, se rouler les pouces = to twiddle one’s thumbs
– manger sur le pouce = to grab a quick bite to eat (“to eat on the thumb”)
– déjeuner/dîner sur le pouce = to have a quick lunch/dinner (“to lunch/dine on the thumb”)
– donner un coup de pouce à quelqu’un = to help someone out (“to give a blow of the thumb to sb”)
– mettre les pouces = to throw in the towel; to give in; to give up (“to put the thumbs”)
The word inch comes from the Latin word uncia (a twelfth; ouce; inch), as does the word ounce, which is a twelfth of a troy pound [source]
The word for inch is the same as the word for thumb in Italian (pollice), Dutch and Afrikaans (duim), and Czech and Slovak (palec). How about in other languages?