| Video clips with linguistics concepts |
[May. 17th, 2013|08:24 am]
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Hi!
I'm going to be teaching an introductory linguistics class this summer, and I'd like to introduce class sessions with short video clips illustrating various concepts. These should not be pedagogical, but rather cases of linguistics in action. For example, in the last season of the West Wing, there's a conversation between Leo McGarry and his very short publicity assistant about how to pronounce Matt Santos's last name: [sɑntos] or [sæntos], complete with a discussion of the implications of saying it wrong. This can introduce both a class on vowel transcription, and also a class on sociolinguistics. There's also that great scene from Pirates of Penzance where the entire humor rests in the fact that, in British English, "orphan" and "often" (here, starting at about 1:30: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiXSR3PQQPE) are homophonous which can introduce a discussion of mergers (also use vs. mention). And, of course, practically any scene from My Fair Lady is good for phonetics (and sociolinguistics). Do you have any scenes from films or TV shows (ideally three minutes or less) that made you think, "Golly, what a great example of [syntactic ambiguity/Gricean conversational implicature/imperfect synonyms/morphological productivity]?" It's good if they're on youtube, but I can also get them through my school's library, so don't hold back!
Thanks! |
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| 100 лет со дня рождения Шарля Трене! Café Chantant |
[May. 17th, 2013|12:14 pm]
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В истории нет сослагательного наклонения, трудно представить что происходило бы в мире французского шансона, если бы сто лет назад на его небосклоне не взошло солнце по имени Шарль Трене.
Да-да, его называли королем-солнце французского шансона, отцом французского шансона, поющим безумцем. "Без него мы все бы стали простыми бухгалтерами" - сказал Жак Брель. "О нем не говорят, о нем почтительно молчат" - сказала Далида...
После долгого перерыва Роман Киселев, один из основателей проекта Café Chantant, выступающий теперь чаще за границей, чем в России, порадует нас новой программой "Je сhante", посвященной столетию великого Шарля Трене.
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| RP, posh accent |
[May. 11th, 2013|10:37 pm]
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Hello again!
In my previous post (here) I asked your opinions on my accent. Thanks everyone for your answers! But because of some comments I'm a little bit confused. (
My teacher of English spoke RP. He was not a native speaker but he visited UK many, many times, so I trusted that man! (. He claimed RP to be the most 'neutral' accent of all the English accents. And he also said that RP would be the best choice for a foreigner, because it is not assosiated with any specific area\region\etc. So I do try to imitate RP when I speak English. And until now I have thought that RP does not equal a 'posh accent'.
My questions are:
if RP is considered to be 'posh' and somewhat associated with upper-classes, what accent would you call 'neutral' (which has no negative or positive connotations)?
What accent would you expect a foreigner to speak with?
Thank you!
Ah, and most of you were right about where I cme from. I'm Ukrainian, so my native languages are Ukrainian and Russian respectively.
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| European Spanish |
[May. 11th, 2013|01:31 am]
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| [ | ずるずる |
| |  curious | ] |
Hello fellow linguaphiles!
Could anyone please tell me where I could find a good cost-free source for pronunciation and listening practice for European Spanish online?
Or any site that focuses on, or at least gives an equal amount of time, to the European Spanish way of writing and speaking?
Everything I come across seems to be more focused on South American accents/dialects.
Thanks so much! |
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| Will vs. Shall |
[May. 10th, 2013|12:57 pm]
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It often seems to me that "will" and "shall" can be used interchangeably, with only a tiny bit difference in tone. However, a friend sent me the following quote and asked about "will" vs. "shall" in it.
What warm, unspoken secrets will we learn? Beyond the point of no return.
I told him:
I think that "shall" implies that it will definitely happen.
"what shall we learn beyond the point of no return?"
"what will we learn beyond the point of no return?"
The best way I can explain this is that in the second one, with "will", he is holding out his hand to someone, implying "if you come with me". In the first one, the listener has taken his hand, and it implies "when you come with me."
What do the rest of you think of using "will" or "shall" in this quote? Would the meaning or flavor change? Also, if I'm totally wrong about the use of "shall" please let me know. Thanks! |
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| how to write classroom rules for students in Japanese. |
[May. 11th, 2013|02:00 am]
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( note - xposted to linguaphiles )
Okay, I think if I can do this correctly and have students understand, I'll meet with better experiences as I'm teaching.
I'd so appreciate the correct way to write this - I think these kids know all hiragana, katakana and tons of kanji, but perhaps hiragana is the best for them to read quickly and understand the concept? I'm not sure if at times, kanji is better because it may indicate a clearer definition or meaning for some message that a foreigner is trying to give them.
1. I want to make a sign for students indicating ' BOOKBAGS HERE. ' or ' PERSONAL ITEMS HERE.' like this includes all bookbags, jackets, water bottles / juice bottles, snacks. Something should be added maybe, like 'Bags / etc MUST stay here '
2. NO CELL PHONES IN CLASS - TURN OFF AND USE AFTER CLASS or maybe that last part isn't necessary
3. PICK UP YOUR TRASH
4. DO NOT UNLOCK THE DOOR
5. DO NOT GO OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM WITHOUT ASKING YOUR TEACHER
Do you guys think any of this is too hard to get the msg across to the students, who range from 5 yrs - 15??
I wonder if I should post all of it on a big paper saying ' Classroom Rules ' and go over it every day. It sounds so...I forget the word, something like presumptuous or pretentious, maybe it will make the kids feel like they are being be-littled BUT they need that discipline and classroom rules aren't even up anywhere in this classroom at least the one I taught this week. Maybe and hopefully it will be more in order when I go to my different school next week.
I can't blame my Japanese teacher for any of this, she's also fairly new ( just been here for 4 months ) and it's a new term so she has to learn the new students and their mannerisms, as well. |
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