It’s the final countdown…(insert Rocky theme song here) Last call for Teaching Assistant applications for the Spring 2013 semester. Applicants for all languages are welcome.
No prior teaching experience is necessary.
The application deadline is December 2nd, 2012, so don’t procrastinate!
It takes about 1,000 memorized words to hit the ground running with a new language, says Joshua Foer in The Guardian. But even then, there’s plenty that could be lost in translation. Foer talks about his experience with Bosco Mongousso, an Mbendjele pygmy in the Republic of Congo:
“I don’t know. It’s far away,” he told me finally, through a translator. According to Oxford anthropologist Jerome Lewis, the Mbendjele believe that the spirit world is inhabited by people with white skin. For them, the afterlife and Europe go by the same word, putu. “Amu dua putu” is a common euphemism for death – literally, “He’s gone to Europe.” For me to have come all the way to the Ndoki forest was a journey of potentially metaphysical dimensions.
“Have you ever heard of the United States of America?” I asked Mongousso.
He shook his head. “No.”
I didn’t know where to begin. “Well, the United States is like a really big village on the other side of the ocean,” I told him. The translator conveyed my explanation, and then had a back-and-forth exchange with Mongousso.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He wanted to know, ‘What’s the ocean?'”
Makes us wonder about the concepts we never consider as a result of the languages we think in.
Have you studied or lived abroad and want to help others learn a language? Did you grow up learning a language and want to share your linguistic and cultural knowledge with others?
Then you’re in luck! The GLN is accepting Teaching Associate applications for the Spring 2013 semester! We will be offering a plethora of languages–chances are if you’re fluent in a language, we’ll likely be offering it! (If we aren’t, we are always looking for new languages to add!) Check out the application here. Deadline to apply is December 2nd.
An interesting insight about the connection between Chinese language and its culture. Jessica Kuach and Leon Chow are classical Chinese dancers and members of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Company which performs classical Chinese dance around the world. As professional dancers, they train for fourteen hours every day, learning acrobatics, technique, acting, and choreography. And though they both live in New York City, they spend their days speaking in Chinese.
(Recorded on January 31, 2011 at the first GLN Language Spotlight event at Chinatown Garden Restaurant.)
We’ve seen this word. But we’d use it a lot more had we known it involves sandwiches.
Photo Courtesy: A Dash of Cinnamon
The chicken is not Moroccan, but the recipe is. We’d say this dish closely resembles Indian curry and naan, but the cinnamon and apricot gives it a distinctly Mediterranean flavor. Keep this handy when you break out your crockpot for the cold weather!