Adventures with languages
Glasses in different languages “Lunettes” in French can be traced back to the 13th century, when the suffix -ette was added to lune to make a diminutive noun meaning any object shaped like the moon. “Brille” in German can be traced back to around 1300, when the lenses for monks’ glasses were cut…
Bilingual dictionaries can be dangerous things, we were told at school – especially if you’re still at beginner level in one of the languages and you haven’t yet developed a “feel” for it. On the other hand if you know the languages well, dictionaries can be useful and interesting. If I look up a word…
If you look back to your childhood and teenage years, can you see where your interests, passions or even your career, started? We’re always hearing stories about people like Andy Murray and how they started playing tennis aged three, so it’s interesting to think about yourself and what you liked to do then. I thought…
Lindisfarne, a tidal island The Holy Island of Lindisfarne is a “tidal” island off the north east coast of England – it’s only an island when the tide is in. The rest of the time you can reach it by ...
This is a guest post by my 15 year-old daughter. She’s written about an exciting train journey to the highest railway station in Europe, the Jungfraujoch, advertised in Switzerland as the Top of ...
What is Kaiserschmarrn? Kaiserschmarrn is a pancake with a difference. It's a traditional Austrian and Bavarian dessert served in most cafes and mountain huts (Almhütten). It originated as a ...
Eating out in Austria If you’re planning a trip to Austria, it’s useful to know the special names of a few foods and traditional dishes you’ll find in Austrian cuisine. On my own first visit, I ...
Our relationship with the QWERTY keyboard has changed a lot since the 1980s. In that decade huge progress was made with typing machines: manual and electric typewriters gave way to word processors and then PCs. Kids nowadays are good at typing but would probably not recognize a typewriter. Not unless they’ve read this…
“Es zieht” and other graphic German words Literally, “Es zieht” means “It’s pulling.” Air is being pulled from outside the building or vehicle and causing a draught. There are so many graphic words in German, especially the compound nouns. Think of “Staubsauger” (vacuum cleaner; literally, dust sucker), or “Handschuhe” (gloves; literally, hand shoes). They’re easy…
