My top three films for adults and kids to watch together Our family favourite is: Le Petit Nicolas (2012, certificate PG, 89 mins), based on the first book in a very funny series written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé. I think of Nicolas as a sort of French precursor to the Wimpy…
Language
Graphic novels: stories told in words and pictures
What do you “see” in your mind when you’re engrossed in a story? It’s amazing how black marks on paper can transport you to another world. I love reading and getting immersed in a story, and I think I build a hazy picture in my head of what the people and places look like, but…
The Bilingual Child – a talk by specialist linguist Barbara Abdelah-Bauer
I’d heard of Barbara Abdelah-Bauer before – she’s a psycho-sociologist specializing in bilingualism, and she’s brought up her own children to be multilingual. Last month I went along to an interesting talk which she gave in French at the Institut Francais London. She was talking about the conclusions which have been drawn from the latest…
The Basque Language
When I was writing my blog post about Biarritz I was reminded of spending some happy months in that same area of southwest France as a student and being fascinated by the culture of the “Pays Basque” or Basque country, a beautiful area which lies to the north and south of the Pyrenees, within both…
Fingerspelling: how to sign the alphabet onto your hand
You might have seen a sign interpreter on TV fingerspelling a place name, and been amazed at the speed and daunted at the thought of trying to learn it. But if you look at the pictures above, can you see how the handshapes for British Sign Language fingerspelling look like the written letters? It doesn’t…
“La Page” – French bookshop in South Kensington
I wanted to have a look for some French books in London. I knew I could buy them online any time, but I wanted to be able to browse and rummage, and to be able to ask advice from a proper bookseller. I remembered “La Page” from a few years ago and went back there…
Sign Language Part 2: Why did the chicken cross the road?
I’m carrying on from my post on 31 July, where I talked about British Sign Language and other sign languages, and showed photos of some random signs. This time I’m showing a joke in BSL. It’s the sort of joke that makes everyone groan, but it shows how the most important thing you’re signing about…
English on the ‘phone
We Brits are well known for being indirect – “I’m sorry…” “I’m afraid…” “On this occasion you have not been successful” “It seems that….” “It looks like…” and so on. We try to “soften the blow” even more on the ‘phone because the other person has only our voice to go on. We say “I’m…
Sign Language Part 1
On my travels on trains and on station platforms I sometimes see deaf people signing to each other. I’ve been a teacher of deaf children and used to sign all day every day, so although I’m a bit rusty I try to understand what the people are saying to each other. I find it fascinating…
How to sneeze in French or German
Do you know how to sneeze in anything other than your native language? I don’t mean the equivalent of “bless you”, I mean the actual noise you make when you sneeze. It’s different in every language. There are other sounds we make, too, which mean something although we don’t consider them to be actual words. …
