On January 29, 1845, Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published in the New York Evening Mirror. Try reading it out loud - or watch actor Vincent Price - to hear the creepy, scary rhythms.
Poetry is a good way to practice pronunciation (if the poem rhymes) and the rhythm of the spoken language.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Weekend Fun: Groundhog Day
February 2 is Groundhog Day. This is not a holiday, just a family-friendly fun way to break up the long, cold winter. According to legend, the groundhog comes out of his hole on this day to see if it is spring yet. If he sees his shadow, he will be frightened back into his hole, and we will have six more weeks of winter. If not, we can enjoy an early spring. The most famous groundhog prognosticator is Punxsutawney Phil, in Pennsylvania.
We have had so much snow this year that I hope Monday is cloudy and shadow-free.
Drumlin Farm in Lincoln is having a special Groundhog Celebration on Sunday from 9am-4pm. Activities include crafts, stories, science investigations, and hot cocoa drinking.
We have had so much snow this year that I hope Monday is cloudy and shadow-free.
Drumlin Farm in Lincoln is having a special Groundhog Celebration on Sunday from 9am-4pm. Activities include crafts, stories, science investigations, and hot cocoa drinking.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ghandi & King's Boston Inspiration
Yesterday was India Republic Day, and the Monday before that was Martin Luther King Day. The peaceful non-violence of both Mahatma Ghandi and Dr. King was inspired by On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau's hometown of Concord is an easy drive from Boston; the Concord Chamber of Commerce has good visitor information on their website.
Visit Walden Pond, a short drive away from downtown Concord. This small lake has a beach and is surrounded by a walking trail (easy enough for older kids, but not handicapped accessible). There is also a replica of the tiny cabin Thoreau lived in during the 2 1/2 years that inspired his most famous book, Walden, and a visitor center/gift shop.You will find plenty of parking for a $5 fee (the parking lots occasionally fill up on summer weekends).
The Concord Museum has a special Thoreau collection and exhibits that explain Concord's important role in the American Revolution, literature, and more. You can also visit the homes of several of Thoreau's famous friends: Louisa May Alcott's home, The Orchards; Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Wayside; and Ralph Waldo Emerson's house.
My own favorite place to visit is Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Although winter snow makes parking and walking difficult, it is especially beautiful in the fall when the leaves are turning colors. Author's Ridge is an area with the graves of several famous authors, including Thoreau, Alcott, Hawthorne and Emerson. Thoreau's grave often has apples and other natural gifts left by admirers!
Visit Walden Pond, a short drive away from downtown Concord. This small lake has a beach and is surrounded by a walking trail (easy enough for older kids, but not handicapped accessible). There is also a replica of the tiny cabin Thoreau lived in during the 2 1/2 years that inspired his most famous book, Walden, and a visitor center/gift shop.You will find plenty of parking for a $5 fee (the parking lots occasionally fill up on summer weekends).
The Concord Museum has a special Thoreau collection and exhibits that explain Concord's important role in the American Revolution, literature, and more. You can also visit the homes of several of Thoreau's famous friends: Louisa May Alcott's home, The Orchards; Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Wayside; and Ralph Waldo Emerson's house.
My own favorite place to visit is Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Although winter snow makes parking and walking difficult, it is especially beautiful in the fall when the leaves are turning colors. Author's Ridge is an area with the graves of several famous authors, including Thoreau, Alcott, Hawthorne and Emerson. Thoreau's grave often has apples and other natural gifts left by admirers!
Monday, January 26, 2009
And now for something completely different...
Etc.
English language learners are sometimes confused by the abbreviation "etc." This is actually the Latin phrase et cetera (et = and; cetera = the rest). It means "and other things like that." Even though it is almost always written as an abbreviation, it is pronounced in full: /et 'set er a/
Imagine you have an incomplete list:
apples, bananas, grapes, etc.
That ending tells you that there are other things on the list which aren't written down, and you can read it: "apples, bananas, grapes, and other things like that." What could etc. mean here? Because the listed things are all kinds of fruit, it could mean oranges, peaches, or pears. It could not mean pizza, computers, or horses.
&
The Latin et also gave us the shape of the ampersand, which means "and." Although the ampersand often looks like this:
&
a few fonts make it easier to see the Et letters (here in Trebuchet):
&
Cool, huh?
(This post's title is taken from the name of a Monty Python movie. The Monty Python TV show and movies were from England, so both the accents and the cultural jokes may sometimes seem hard to understand. However, the silliness of their skits is easy to understand without a word of English!)
English language learners are sometimes confused by the abbreviation "etc." This is actually the Latin phrase et cetera (et = and; cetera = the rest). It means "and other things like that." Even though it is almost always written as an abbreviation, it is pronounced in full: /et 'set er a/
Imagine you have an incomplete list:
apples, bananas, grapes, etc.
That ending tells you that there are other things on the list which aren't written down, and you can read it: "apples, bananas, grapes, and other things like that." What could etc. mean here? Because the listed things are all kinds of fruit, it could mean oranges, peaches, or pears. It could not mean pizza, computers, or horses.
&
The Latin et also gave us the shape of the ampersand, which means "and." Although the ampersand often looks like this:
&
a few fonts make it easier to see the Et letters (here in Trebuchet):
&
Cool, huh?
(This post's title is taken from the name of a Monty Python movie. The Monty Python TV show and movies were from England, so both the accents and the cultural jokes may sometimes seem hard to understand. However, the silliness of their skits is easy to understand without a word of English!)
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Happy Birthday, Robot!
English doesn't have many words from the Czech language. Today is a chance to celebrate an important one.
On January 25, 1921, Rossum's Universal Robots, a play by Karel Capek, premiered in Prague. Although the play is now mostly forgotten, it brought the word "robot" into the English language when the play premiered in New York in 1922 and published in an English translation in 1923. Capek's brother Josef Capek actually coined the term. He drew it from the Czech "roboti," meaning "labor."
The word "automaton" (plural: automata) has been used for centuries to describe machines built to move like living beings. These were generally designed for entertainment.
On January 25, 1921, Rossum's Universal Robots, a play by Karel Capek, premiered in Prague. Although the play is now mostly forgotten, it brought the word "robot" into the English language when the play premiered in New York in 1922 and published in an English translation in 1923. Capek's brother Josef Capek actually coined the term. He drew it from the Czech "roboti," meaning "labor."
The word "automaton" (plural: automata) has been used for centuries to describe machines built to move like living beings. These were generally designed for entertainment.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Boston Symphony Orchestra
To-do this Saturday: listen to a live broadcast of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The BSO has great resources online and on the radio:
- Podcasts of previews, interviews, and more are available on the BSO website.
- Program notes are available from the podcast page, including this weekend's concert.
- WGBH, 89.7 FM, broadcasts the live concerts Fridays at 1 pm.
- WCRB, 99.5 FM, broadcasts the live concerts Saturdays at 8pm.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Weekend Fun: Harvard Square
The weather is temporarily warming up, a nice opportunity to see Harvard Square, where limited parking means you'll have to walk. One favorite winter Saturday includes these three activities:
• Ice skating at the Charles River Hotel - a small outdoor rink
• Hot chocolate at L.A. Burdick - the richest drink you've ever encountered
• Glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History - lifelike and wonderful
If kids still have energy after that, finish with a visit to the Curious George bookstore.
The museum recommends public transportation. The hotel has an underground garage, which is easy but expensive. On-street metered parking is hard to find and limited to one or two hours.
However you get there, it's a fun plan for a winter weekend!
• Ice skating at the Charles River Hotel - a small outdoor rink
• Hot chocolate at L.A. Burdick - the richest drink you've ever encountered
• Glass flowers at the Harvard Museum of Natural History - lifelike and wonderful
If kids still have energy after that, finish with a visit to the Curious George bookstore.
The museum recommends public transportation. The hotel has an underground garage, which is easy but expensive. On-street metered parking is hard to find and limited to one or two hours.
However you get there, it's a fun plan for a winter weekend!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Word of the Week: Inaugurate
There were two inaugurations yesterday: President Barack Obama, and with much less fanfare, Beanpot Polyglot. The word inaugurate has the kind of strange history that makes English fun to study, so it's a good way to begin BPPG.
Can you believe that "inaugurate" probably comes from the Latin word for bird? In ancient Rome, an augur was someone who predicted the future by reading the entrails or (less messily) the flight patterns of birds [avis = bird; gerere = do, perform]. The augurs would predict the future before someone was took office. Over time, the action of office-taking became the verb inaugurare.
Today the word has lost all of its meanings of birds and predictions, keeping only the idea of a formal celebration of a new beginning, especially the beginning of a new office.
Can you believe that "inaugurate" probably comes from the Latin word for bird? In ancient Rome, an augur was someone who predicted the future by reading the entrails or (less messily) the flight patterns of birds [avis = bird; gerere = do, perform]. The augurs would predict the future before someone was took office. Over time, the action of office-taking became the verb inaugurare.
Today the word has lost all of its meanings of birds and predictions, keeping only the idea of a formal celebration of a new beginning, especially the beginning of a new office.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Welcome!
I write this welcome sitting in a coffee shop, listening to one conversation in French and another in Korean. On my right are a woman and girl studying a third language I cannot identify. On my left, a woman is telling her friend about a recent visit to her family in Egypt. Boston, like the rest of the world, is now multicultural and polyglot. New residents move here from all over the world, some permanently, some for only a year or two. I have moved often enough to know how hard it is to learn about a new city, to find fun activities for the weekend or learn where the best shopping is. I can't imagine the added difficulty of doing it in another language!
I am an English as a Second Language tutor, and for several years my students have been asking me questions about American culture, my favorite books, and other things about life in Boston. "Why do people ask me 'How are you?' but then keep walking away?" "Which children's books have good grammar?" "How do I ask a stranger for directions?" Beanpot Polyglot is a place for these questions.
This will also be a place to learn a little bit about English. I love learning and teaching English, but it is a hard language - every rule has exceptions, every word has synonyms! Instead of the big, basic lessons you learn in a class or from a book, this blog will talk about some of the weird parts of the language, its history, and some tricks I have found to help understand English better. By learning the story of English I hope you will find the rules and exceptions easier to understand.
Welcome - to Boston, to English, and to Beanpot Polyglot!
I am an English as a Second Language tutor, and for several years my students have been asking me questions about American culture, my favorite books, and other things about life in Boston. "Why do people ask me 'How are you?' but then keep walking away?" "Which children's books have good grammar?" "How do I ask a stranger for directions?" Beanpot Polyglot is a place for these questions.
This will also be a place to learn a little bit about English. I love learning and teaching English, but it is a hard language - every rule has exceptions, every word has synonyms! Instead of the big, basic lessons you learn in a class or from a book, this blog will talk about some of the weird parts of the language, its history, and some tricks I have found to help understand English better. By learning the story of English I hope you will find the rules and exceptions easier to understand.
Welcome - to Boston, to English, and to Beanpot Polyglot!
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