We need to make a detour through Japanese to put words on the complex one feels when speaking a foreign language. Yet, we know how the French doubt their abilities to speak in another language: fear of sounding ridiculous, fear not to be good enough, fear of pronounciation, intonation or agreement errors. This stress is …
In the cinema dialect, we often talk about the “missing picture” to give credit to an artistic project aiming at showing on big screens minorities until then invisible or not visible enough. A lot of books thrive on bookstores’ shelves to unveal words that we would be missing. I tend to think that those nonexistent …
The author tries and alters the set imagination we have about languages. We have crafted a whole system of language frontiers. First, there is the nation-state language divides whereby there is a sole language per nation that thus needs surrounding borders. We can imagine a clear line where on one side people speak German and …
They are the first words a pupil on exchange will learn: swear words! No matter the language, it will be the first topic of discussion with the following justifications: being cool when back in the playground of the school or to understand when insulted, “just in case”. French and English swear words are all linked, …
The following words are in Swahili, a language that adopted many English words. This language doesn’t like having 2 consonants following one another and words always end with a vowel even if it didn’t in the original word! Here is an example: skirt > s-i-k-e-t-i. An “i” to separate the “s” and the “k”, the …
The choice of words give away a whole culture, and in particular the way verbes are built. A concept such as owning something is translated in most European languages the same way: to have, avoir, tener, … A European possesses things, the thing is owned. Conversely, other cultures focus rather on the relationship between two …
I used to think all languages had opted for a similar way to accept or decline, to confirm or deny. 2 little words, short to be as efficient as possible. yes – nooui – non sí – noja – neinда / da – нет / niet The first language to alter my viewpoint was the …
Little brass signs set in every step of the staircase, a guessing game for the line-14 commuter. I am talking about the 19 steps leading outside the BNF metro station written in 19 languages. Here are a few illustrators of the languages chosen by the architect Antoine Grumbach: When you next cross the station, look …
We oppose in vain reality and fiction, this is what I will remember from Nancy Huston’s book. Any human group invents stories that imply actions from that given group. We are driven by stories, social background, country, religion, family story and so on. Stories have an effectiveness in our reality as they push people to …
Each great space power crafted its own word to design a space traveler. It was a conscious choice, showing a geopolitical positioning. First the Americans send astronauts (1928), that is to say, star sailors. The USSR forges its own word in 1961, космонавт or cosmonauts, the universe sailor. The Europeans in 1962 are space sailors. …
French children are taught to say “vous“, “monsieur” or “madame” to seniors. It is a way to show respect to elderly people. One should absolutely not remind them of their age, in the Western world old age is often perceived as a weakness to run away from. On the contrary, children who speak Swahili will …
When I learned the languages of neighbors, close or far, from Spain to Russia or Turkey, the words referring to family members are quite similar to English. On the other hand, the relationships between family mmbers seem different when one goes south. In Swahili, the paternal uncle is referred to as the elder father (baba mkubwa) …
The little book of interviews with Michel Pastoureau is quick dive into each color through which colors appear as ever evolving social constructs linked to how they are created. I have read it again to write this article and there are too many amasing anecdotes for me to pick one over the others! I will …
A same geographic place, the Baltic sea in English, but multiple designations. The Latvian and the Lithuanian people say Baltic sea (in Latvian baltijas jūra, in Lithuanian baltijos jūra). On the other hand, the Estonian people talk about the western sea, Läänemeri, when they sea the Baltic. On the opposite bank, they say the Eastern …
A little logo on the wheels across the world. We press it without a thought. Yet each culture adopts its own klaxonish music. A new language to learn at each border crossing. In France, the horn is the last resort according to the highway code and must signal imminent danger. More often than not, impatient …
3 years ago in San Francisco, I decided to gain some knowledge on non-violent conflict resolution. As I sit in a room crowded with a San Francisco diverse audience, the organizer asks that we introduce ourselves: state your name, your organization and the pronoun you wish to be addressed with. “Julia*, National Center for Lesbian …
This is a thought experience. In Cambodia all or nearly all is written both in Khmer and English so that the tourists are not too lost. Let’s imagine a moment that the roles are reversed, that the Khmers have conquered the world a few centuries ago and everything is dubbed in the Khmer alphabet. How would we feel in a country …
It is always revealing when a language has more than one word to describe a concept that just has one in your own. The Russian language has two to talk about truth: pravda (пра́вда) and istina (истина). Some* analysed that specificity with today’s political goggles. A Russian friend of mine explained to me that pravda, also the name of the …
How to best enjoy the show of people dancing on a stage? This question has been with me for quite some time now. Here are a few thoughts. TV vs theater Of course seeing a ballet in an opera house is ideal. But is it still worth it when one’s seat is all the way at the …
If you answer yes to the following questions, you are probably French. Have you ever decided against going to the movies because it was sunny outside? Have you ever said on a rainy day that it was a movie-going type of weather? This type of reasoning deeply affects the box office of films, in particular …
Animation is celebrated each year by the lake in the French city of Annecy. Each edition is invigorating. So many passion driven individuals should they be newcomers or patrons, meet during a summery week in June. There are a variety of ways to experience the festival: as a volunteer (with the benefit of enjoying free access to …
The “sketchbook project” is an invitation sent out to anyone willing to contribute drawings to a universal library of sketchbook gathered by the organisation bearing the same name. How does it work? The participant after registering online will receive an empty sketchbook on which to draw. He/She will then send it back to the organisation …
3D was seen in the 2010s as the new way to recreate an experience worth an outing. Since, the trend has faded away as the perceived value does not match the ticket prices. According to the British Film Institute (BFI), the percentage of people who chose 3D over 2D dropped from 71% in 2010 to …
