my virtual notebook

Monday, August 20, 2007: New textbook for German 301: Project365: #296

New textbook for German301: Project365: #296
Originally uploaded by cathie.

Now, as I write this blog entry in December 2008, this textbook is not so new, except we are now going to use it for the fourth and fifth semesters: so I get to teach the exact same chapters back to back, since last Fall I taught 301 with it and now in the Spring I'll teach 202 with the same chapters.  And then next Fall the 301 class will get taught the second half of the book. I might have to slow it down a bit for 202 this time.

Friday, 04/27/07: Pinker faculty breakfast: Project 365: #180

Friday, 04/27/07: Project 365: #180 
Originally uploaded by cathie.

This was fun - Pinker really was a great guest speaker! His talk the night before was all about the psychology of swear words and of course he did mention a lot of them, but he didn't "use" them...i.e. he didn't swear. It was quite entertaining and interesting.  And the next day the participants in the faculty coterie got to have breakfast with him. He was gracious and answered all our questions very well. (and signed our books and let us take his picture).

Spanish cultural event at the I-House project 365 #17

Taken on Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Here at Albion every semester one of the languages (German, French, Spanish) puts on a "cultural event" for the students.  The Spanish T.A.s (from Mexico and Columbia) really went all out decorating the International House this semester.  The International House is the dorm where all our language students live along with the Native Speaker Teaching Assistants.

Can you talk turkey or Tacheles?

While doing some class prep today I came across the German/yiddish saying "Tacheles reden", which I thought sounded funny.  The english for it is "to talk turkey" and the link will take you to a page with some interesting theories on that saying's origins.

tacheles is a funny and fun sounding word.  I did a tiny bit of research to see if its related to the word tackle as in "to tackle something" , since the term is derived from the hebrew word taklî  for "goal or purpose" , but it doesn't seem to be.  Sometimes I just love words..they make me smile.

Word of the day

This morning on NPR's "Morning Edition" Nina Totenberg used a word I had never heard before. She was describing what the nomination hearings would be like  if Bush decided to go ahead and nominate Clarence Thomas to be the next  Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: she said there would be a "donnybrook"....

It sounded irish and like it meant something like "brouhaha" - Bill said "kerfuffel" -- all of which are great words. 

Anyway here's a link explaining the term in great detail. 

And I added "radio" as a category, since I don't  watch television: DVD's of TV shows, yes, but we don't have cable, so no TV.  (I've probably mentioned this here before).  The only show I vaguely miss is The Daily Show, which I could watch on the computer if I really wanted to.

Now I must go prepare a yummy Indian dinner!  (prepackaged meals, but they're pretty good and we have Garlic Naan to go with them and I'll make some rice).

and just because I like the word here's a link to:

a wikipedia article about Schimmelpilz, or mold/mould.  I love how the english language wiki article is lighter on the text than the German but has great pictures of moldy bread and cream cheese! Yum!

Now back to work...which, by the way is reading "Der Schimmelreiter",which means of course "The Moldy Horse Rider"....(actually dappled grey, but the German word refers to mold).

Update

very interesting thread about "concepts that do not exist in english" I got here thanks to Andrea.

I'll come back to it when I have more time. I'm seriously considering enrolling in a beginning chinese class that Albion will offer in the Spring, precisely to get a glimpse into a very different culture and world view. Of course it is the kind of thing I should probably wait to do until after I have tenure, but I just think it would be really cool and interesting...I'll have to think about it!

I'm also very interested in Japanese. I would love to go to Japan one day.

We're entering the final prep stages for the trip to Germany: everything is falling into place. Unfortunately the weather looks rainy for next week in our destinations...which means we'll just have to spend a lot of time in museums, coffee shops and restaurants! Shouldn't be too much of a problem!