Listen & Learn Blog

A new study has looked into the question of whether our perception of emotions depends on the language we speak.

The researchers concluded that “you don’t need to have words for emotions to understand them”, a conclusion that supports the view of emotions being biological mechanisms. Both anthropological and psycholinguistic researchers were involved in the study, which compared German speakers to speakers of Yucatec Maya, a language spoken in Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. Yucatec Mayan speakers have no word for disgust, and identified the emotion as anger, whilst German speakers distinguished between the two. A further test involved participants identifying mixed emotions on digitally manipulated faces.

“Our results show that understanding emotional signals is not based on the words you have in your language to describe emotions,” Sauter says. “Instead, our findings support the view that emotions have evolved as a set of basic human mechanisms, with emotion categories like anger and disgust existing regardless of whether we have words for those feelings.” (Source: Science Direct)

What a fascinating study, particularly for language learners. Visual cues are an excellent way of identifying how well your language attempts are being received!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my holiday to Croatia, and how I was slightly intimidated by the language.

I need not have feared as English appears to be very widely spoken in Croatia! Whilst my friend and I both made an effort to speak Croatian, most people would respond to us in English. Even greeting people in the street with dobar dan (good day) was often met with a hello.

The prevalence of English is, I suppose, not surprising given that tourism is one of their main industries. German also seems to be widely spoken as a second language, possibly due to the number of German visitors.

Apart from dobar dan, the other words that came in helpful were hvala (thank you) and molim (please). Oh, and pivo (beer) of course! These words we learned from a phrasebook and by asking helpful waiters, shop assistants and guesthouse workers to repeat themselves until we could correctly pronounce the word they were saying. Mostly people were happy (if a little bemused) to help us with words, so I will be using this technique when I next go on holiday!

How do you learn new words and phrases on holiday?

Bivio, a village in Switzerland, is one of Europe’s great linguistic curiosities.

The population numbers less than 200, but three languages and numerous dialects are spoken by the inhabitants. Switzerland has 4 official languages – Italian, German, French and Romansch – with the majority of Bivio residents speaking some variety of German. Language barriers are not an issue in Bivio – everyone speaks in their mother tongue, and it seems everyone understands each other.

At the grocer’s, everyone speaks their mother tongue, and everyone gets the right change.

They’re well-trained. At the kindergarten, they speak Italian on Tuesday and Surmiran, a Romansch dialect, on Thursday. The rest of the week, the kids alternate between the two, but in the playground, the German dialect Bündnerdeutsch rules. On Sundays, they may attend the Catholic church, where the priest preaches in Schwyzerdütsch, or the Protestant one, where High German is the order of the day.

Bivio means bifurcation or parting of the ways. It was here that Roman legions rested their horses between two great alpine passes, the Julier and the Septimer. At an altitude of 1,932m, Bivio has always been a meeting place, and it has always been isolated. That could explain why it’s a relic of a multilingualism that linguists consider was the norm for most of human history. But its days of relichood may be numbered. The proportion of Swiss German speakers in the village is creeping up, and starting in 2012, English will be taught in the primary school. So if you’re curious about how we used to be, now’s the time to go. (Source: The Guardian)

What an incredible place – can you imagine American or British children being taught two languages at school and speaking another in the playground? I wonder if the children eventually favour one language over the others?

I know a few people who have iPhones, and they seem to be massively addictive, and almost an extension of their arm for many.

A new app from the airline Emirates could make the phone an extension of their mouth instead!

The free app, iLingual, provides you with useful travel-related phrases in French, Arabic and German – and lets you use your own mouth to say them.

To use the app, you first take a picture of your mouth and adjust it to fit the screen. You can also personalise it with a male or female voice and alter the pitch to make it higher or deeper. Then you select a phrase and hold the phone in front of your mouth to make it look like you’re speaking in the chosen language.

The app is available in ‘lite’ (6Mb) or full size (80Mb+) versions, with the full version containing 400 phrases – a pretty decent size. You may look a little silly using it, but laughter is a great way to break down communication barriers!

To download the apps, follow the links on the Emirates page, or try the iTunes store.

Here’s a link to a fun video of a guy testing out the app in Paris. Has anyone else tried it out? What did you think?

With an estimated 6000+ languages spoken worldwide, how do you choose the right one for you to learn?

Many of us take language classes at school, based on the options that are offered –  this is mostly a choice between Spanish, French and German, although more options are becoming available. And many of us forget most of the language they have learned once they no longer are required to take classes.

So the first thing to consider is – what language(s) are you interested in?

You may choose Spanish because you enjoy Mexican telenovelas, or French because you’ve always dreamed of living in Paris – the most important thing is to have an interest in the language. If you don’t, then you will quickly lose motivation and have difficulty getting past the basics.

Consider also what language will be of use to you, both now and in the future. If you’re going on a long backpacking trip to South America, Spanish is a must. For a two week holiday in France, speaking some of the language is useful, but will perhaps not benefit you greatly in the long-term if you don’t plan to visit again. A long-term goal to emigrate to France, however, means that knowing the language is vital!

Linked to this is the availability of resources to learn your chosen language. Classes are a great way to kick-start your learning, so check if they’re available in your area. If you want to learn a more obscure language like Icelandic, then check to see what resources are available to you and if they’re going to be enough to get you started and continue your learning. Also see if there are native speakers in your area – talking to a real person is a great way to learn.

Whichever language you choose, enjoy it! With a new language comes opportunity to communicate and connect with more people.

Google has recently launched a cool new extension to their Goggles app which is very useful for language learners and travellers.

Previously you could take a picture with your cell phone’s built in camera and Goggle would recognise it and bring up relevant search results. So, for example, if you were in London and not quite sure which palace or castle you were looking at, you could take a picture of it and Goggle would identify it as say, Buckingham Palace.

Now the app goes one step further and can help translate text also. Looking at a menu and not quite sure what it says? Point your phone at it, press the shutter button and you’ll be given options to translate… if Goggles recognises the language, that is.

The catch is that the app can only recognise English, French, Italian, German and Spanish so far, although it can translate it to many other languages. Other Latin-based languages are in the works, and Google aims to eventually read non-Latin languages such as Chinese and Arabic also.

And the extra exciting bit? The app is totally free, downloadable onto your Android phone as long as it’s running Android 1.6 or higher. Can’t wait to give it a go!

Hello, and welcome to the all-new, super-shiny Listen & Learn blog!

My name is Michelle and I will be bringing you a heady mix of news, tips, reviews and general language miscellany.

Having tried my hand at a few different languages over the years, from French and German at school to Maori (when I lived in New Zealand), I’m currently working on improving my very basic Spanish skills.

My aim is always to post about language-related things I am interested in, and I hope you will find them interesting too! I particularly enjoy discovering the links between language, culture and history.

If you would like me to post about anything in particular, please feel free to make a suggestion in the comments section. I’m always happy to hear from readers – don’t hesitate to tell me what you do and don’t like about the blog!