Quelle Semaine!

What a week it has been! My mother was in hospital on Monday (discharged on Tuesday, thank God), I spent 3 hours travelling home on Tuesday, work was insanely chaotic on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and yesterday a pleasant evening with some friends was cut short when their cat started hissing and running around their house as if possessed. I do hope their cat is alright as I have two of my own and would be worried sick if they started acting like their’s did…

So needless to say, there was little time left in the day to devote to language study or updating this blog! Hopefully things will be back to normal this coming week.

I’m taking a month’s break from my “One Foreign-Language Book a Month” challenge as I need to work on an essay for the archaeology course I’m taking (the current module focuses on classical archaeology).  Lately, reading time seems to be limited to the two hours I spend commuting to and from work each day so I think it makes sense for me to spend that time doing the necessary background reading for my course and essay. I’ll find other ways to fit in some language practice into my busy work days…

I have a few links to blogs, websites and news articles that might be of interest to fellow language learners :

• Button Gaffe Embarrasses Clinton - An example of how a mistranslation could lead to a potential political catastrophe. I wonder if anyone proofread the gift before it was given to Hillary.
• Les Tribulations d’une Caissière - I stumbled upon this blog via an article on the TimesOnline website. The blog’s author, Anna Sam, is a French university graduate who has recently published a book about her experiences as an undervalued and frustrated supermarket clerk. The blog is written in French but you can read a translation of an extract from her book by clicking on the TimesOnline link above (it can be found towards the end of the article). I’m sure there are many university graduates – in France and elsewhere – who can sympathise with her situation.
• Chinese Cultural Heritage Net - Entirely in Chinese but a great source of reading material for those who are interested in China’s cultural heritage and archaeological sites.
• Kanji Clinic – A fantastic resource for anyone struggling with Japanese kanji and vocabulary. Most of the articles are centred around a particular theme (e.g. colours, animals, medical terms) and include mini quizzes at the end of most articles to test your knowledge of the kanji discussed. Many of the articles explain Japanese cultural and social issues, such as the origins of Japanese festivals and the meanings behind some of the most common Japanese surnames.

That’s all from me for now. I have a few “word-building” posts in the pipeline and may have a few more language learning interviews to share with you all in the very near future.

それでは、じゃまたね！