Words, Woords, Woorden
In this video David Crystal, a linguist with great authority on the English language, discusses his favorite words in the English language.
Lately I’ve been thinking about my favorite words. I don’t necessarily think I have chosen any favorite words consciously, but I think I subconsciously choose to use certain words and certain constructions of words without realizing it.
This phenomenon is even more interesting to me when I think about it in the context of learning a second or third language.
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How to trick a Belgian
One of the things I reveled in when I first moved to Ghent was the often-underrated ability to blend in. I had just spent a year living and studying in Spain and often found myself an anomaly in that culture; it was always obvious to Spanish people that I was from somewhere else. It was such a relief to venture out in Ghent and mix in seamlessly with the rest of the crowd. In fact, I seem to have perfected the art of blending in so well that I’m quite often stopped on the street and asked for directions.
My idea for this post came to me a couple of weeks ago, when I was trudging around Ghent, impeded by construction on the tram route, trying to reach a rather out-of-the-way copy shop in which I could purchase a course manual. I had just come from an English literature lecture in which the Belgian girl sitting next to me asked me a question in Dutch about the lecture.
Read MoreHonest Boats
3 weeks since classes started at the University. My brain is still intact but there is no definite amount of time to say how long it might remain so. I sometimes bike to my lectures (that is, if I deem the Belgian skies trustworthy) and about half-way through my ride to the city I encounter two lovely murals. They are painted on the sides of the building just at the base of the pedestrian bridge that crosses the water. It really must be one of my favorite spots in Ghent. I love how in this place nature and art seem to blend with industrialism.
Read MoreTechnological Let Down
To make a comparison between the technology that we have presently and the technology that existed when I was a child often leaves me in pure astonishment. I remember the first mobile phone that my family owned. In fact, it probably shouldn’t have really been called ‘mobile’ because it still had a spiral cord connecting it to its fashionable leather case complete with velcro flap. I also remember when we added the first computer to our home. It was a noisy monster that took up a large portion of the desk, but MS Paint was the best thing I had come across in all my 7 years. A couple years down the line I was waiting away hours of my pre-adolescent life for the dial-up internet connection to connect so that I could check my Hotmail account. Hotmail changed to Myspace, Myspace changed to Facebook, Tweets started flying about, and now you can let someone know where you are and what you’re doing via check-ins, Instagram photos, or video chat just about anytime and anywhere you want.
Read MoreMijn Belgische Verjaardag
It’s hard to fathom that I’ve been living in Belgium for a year now, but it’s true. The year has gone unbelievably quickly and yet so many important things have happened in its course. Before we moved to Belgium, I envisioned myself writing many more blog entries to help create concrete memories of all the experiences. As I discovered, life takes up way more time. I feel that this one year mark in Belgium is a sort of milestone and it’s nice to look back and see all of the accomplishments that comprise the last year.
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