Schlagwort-Archive: video

Worcestershire Sauce is pronounced how!?!

English / Englisch,

Today’s LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog post aims to tackle one of the greatest pronunciation challenges in the English language. What exactly is the name of the popular sauce in this picture?

Worcestershire Sauce (often shortened to Worcester Sauce) is a complex fermented liquid condiment. It comes from the British town of Worcester, which gives the sauce its name. It was popularized by the company Lea & Perrins. The key ingredients are barley malt vinegar, spirit vinegar, molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies, tamarind extract, onions, and garlic.

None of which helps us with the pronunciation. I’ll give you a clue – „Worcestershire“ has only 3 syllables (the short form „Worcester“ has only 2.) OK, ready? – here we go. Repeat after me. WUS-ter-sher – or /ˌwʊs.təʃə/ for the IPA-literate. And WUS-ter /ˌwʊs.tə/ for the short form. Easy, right? To hear an example, click here.

If you had trouble, take solace from this elderly Italian wearing a fabulously relevant T-shirt.

German Footballers Speaking English

English / Englisch,

The LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog presents a motivational video to get you working hard at you English. It shows top German football players being interviewed live on television in English – and most of them do extremely well in this high-stress situation! If even football players can do it, it should be no problem for anyone else…

I particularly enjoyed the comment below the video from one English fan – „Hummels and Muller speak better English than Gerrard and Rooney.“

Comparing Different Native English Speakers‘ Accents

English / Englisch,

Hello and welcome to the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog. Today we are going to have a look at the different versions of English that exist around the world.

„The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language.“
– George Bernard Shaw

And the difference between British and US English is just the beginning. Add the different regional accents of the US, UK, as well as those from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etc. to the mix and you start to get an idea of the variation that exists within the English language. To see an example of this, have a look at the video below, which compares the accents of young women from the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Do you have a favourite?

Could your language affect your ability to save money?

English / Englisch,

Today the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog is bringing you another short video from the TED series. TED (Technology, Education, Design) is an international and interdisciplinary conference series based around the concept “ideas worth spreading”.

In this video behavioural economist Keith Chen introduces a fascinating idea from his research: that languages without a concept for the future — „It rains tomorrow,“ instead of „It will rain tomorrow“ — correlate strongly with high savings rates.

This video is suitable for a variety of levels. Higher-level English learners should just watch it as it is. Intermediate students – you can turn on the English subtitles on the menu at the  bottom-right of the video. Lower-level learners can go to the video on the TED website (here) and turn on the German (or the language of your choice) subtitles, as well as look at a full transcript of the talk. Enjoy!

You can find an interesting article that expands on ideas from this talk at this link: How Language Can Affect The Way We Think

New Year’s Traditions From Around the World!

English / Englisch,

Happy New Year from the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog! Berlin’s streets are looking a little better again after the annual civil war that erupts every New Year’s Eve. How did you ring in the New Year (Silvester feiern)? A quiet one at home? Or did you paint the town red (richtig einen draufmachen)?

To see some traditional ways that people around the world celebrate the start of the new year, have a look at the video below.
If the language is too fast for you, you can find the text here.

The Linguistic Genius of Babies

English / Englisch,

Today the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog is presenting a 13-minutes video from the TED series. TED (Technology, Education, Design) is an international and interdisciplinary conference series based around the concept „ideas worth spreading“.

Why is it that we adults can invest many years of back-breaking work into learning a language (with often mixed results), while babies and young children seem to learn them effortlessly in months? The TED video below takes a closer look at this great injustice.

This video is suitable for a variety of levels. Higher-level English learners should just watch it as it is. Intermediate students – you can turn on the English subtitles on the menu at the  bottom-right of the video. Lower-level learners can go to the video on the TED website (here) and turn on the German (or the language of your choice) subtitles, as well as look at a full transcript of the talk. Enjoy!

Henning Wehn – German Comedy Ambassador To The UK

English / Englisch

Hello and welcome to the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog. As the temperatures plummet here in Berlin, we are presenting some light comic relief to help you battle the cold.

7154304474_a732c4a656_zHenning Wehn is a German stand-up comedian who lives and works in London. He is also the self-styled German Comedy Ambassador To The UK.

In this series of short videos for the BBC, he introduces the British to some of the quirks of the German language. In the video linked below, he looks at the strange phenomenon of the pseudo-anglicism – English words that Germans use, but don’t mean anything (or something completely different) in English. Click the link to see the video, and then add any other pseudo-anglicism you know in the comments below!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/comedy/pseudo_anglicisms.shtml

BBC’s „Make Me A German“ Documentary

English / Englisch

Today the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog is presenting you with an interesting experiment in the differences between English and German cultures of everyday life.

In 2013, the BBC sent a British family to Germany to live in Nuremberg with two of their children. There, they set out to live, work and socialise in the „average“ German way. You can see the results in the video below. What do you think? Does the documentary find some deeper truths, or is it just a collection of stupid stereotypes? Please post any comments or questions in the comments below. Tell us what you liked or didn’t like, agreed and disagreed with…

Idiom 101 – Flash in the pan

English / Englisch,

Hello and welcome to today’s military-themed idiom from the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule team here in Berlin.

„When our new colleague joined the sales team, everyone was very impressed. His first idea for attracting new customers was very creative and, more importantly, very effective. But since then he has mostly been causing  problems. I’m starting to think that his early form was just a flash in the pan (Eintagesfliege).“

This idiom comes from the days when flintlock muskets (such as the one in the video below) were still in regular use. On top of the musket was a small pan holding gun powder. This style of rifle suffered from a type of misfire in which the gun powder burnt, but no bullet was fired. This was refered to as a „flash in the pan“ –  a dramatic flash and lots of smoke, but no real result. To see an example, have a look at the video below.