Somewhat Daily Poster of the Day – Languages of The World

‘Somewhat Misleading’
Daily 🤣 Poster of the Day

Languages of The World

So, how many countries are there in the world? There are 195 countries in the world today, at least according to WorldoMeter. They also seem to have a running count of a variety of metrics for the world too, here. Very cool!

And how many languages are there in the world? According to Ethnologue – Languages of the World, there are 7,117 languages in the world! That is just a WOW kind of number! Just the list of ‘A’ languages, in alphabetical order takes a full page! WOW!

And you can see the Language of the Day too! At one language per day, and 7117 languages, you are now set for 19.49 YEARS (including weekends!) of daily language information! MORE WOW! Now THAT is a homework assignment!

Yup, feeling a bit overwhelmed right about now! Douglas Adams, author of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘ had the best solution, WAY ahead of the Internet and Google Translate ….

And a cool infographic about distribution of the major languages of the World!

 

TTFN!

Language Poster of the Day – Japanese Words You Absolutely Positively Probably Might Need to Know

Language Poster of the Day

(But not necessarily Daily!)

Japanese Words
You Absolutely Positively Probably
Might Need to Know

I am bringing back my Language Poster of the Day! Even though I might not do it every day! LOL! There are so many words in different languages that have absolutely NO translation to English, and that is a great loss for speakers of English. Fortunately virtually every single culture and language HAS fascinating words, INCREDIBLE words,BEAUTIFUL words that describe something that cannot expressed in English! 

Today, a poster of Japanese words that have no real translation in English! And don’t think that there aren’t any ENGLISH ONLY words that have no other translations! Take for instance ….. Serendipity!

And that will be a subject for a future post!

My favourite word below is …. YUGEN! Which one is YOUR favourite?

TTFN!

Funny Language-Learning Scenes

The Funniest Language-Learning
Scenes of All Time!

Learning a new language should be fun! Challenging – CHECK! Different – CHECK! Exciting – CHECK! FUN – DOUBLE CHECK!

 Full Disclosure –  I once won a French scholarship out of Grade 12 and spent about 6 weeks in July-August of 1975, in a full French Immersion program! Outside of travelling for 3 months in Europe in 1979, it was my best summer ever! And my roommates were from Chicoutimi and the first day together, we spent teaching each other swear words! LOL! Yeah, okay .. Grade 12! So, yeah, FUN! I can neither confirm, nor deny … I remember them all!

 DOUBLE Full Disclosure – I am nowhere near as good in French NOW, as I was … THEN! LOL! I like to describe my French now as ‘Corn Flakes French‘! What?

On every box of Corn Flakes, each side panel has English and the corresponding ‘translated’ French on the other side! So if you throw away the ‘little words’ on each side .. YOU HAVE A PERFECT TRANSLATION TOOL! Who needs Google Translate anyways! Which will most certainly be another Bog Blog one day! LOL!

Now go and …… HAVE SOME FUN!

 

Top 10 Funniest Language Scenes


3 Funny Language Learning Commercials


Learning English Really Might be Helpful

TTFN!

The Funniest Languages in the World

The Funniest Languages
in the World

So the easiest and toughest languages were discussed in yesterday’s post. But learning should be fun and learning a new language SHOULD BE THE MOST FUN! And, as Haruki Murakami ponders, there IS another person inside of you:

What Is The Funniest Language?
Stephen Fry’s Planet World

Shakespeare’s Words that Failed to Catch On

And for me …..
The FUNNIEST English Language Skit
OF ALL TIME!


TTFN!

NEW CALL FACILITY FURNITURE !

! NEW !
The CALL Facility Furniture
HAS ARRIVED!
! NEW !

All the new furniture has arrived in CALL! Many thanks to Marcus and Adam for arranging all of this! Adam was up on campus yesterday, social/physical distancing of course, putting the new furniture into CALL, and taking these photos too! 

The students will certainly be in for a nice surprise when we are all back at UVic and their favourite lab now has spiffy furniture! We will work on the best layout and with wheels on the upright stations, students can move things around to suit their needs! I can hardly wait to get back to UVIC … for even more reasons than just new furniture! 

Thanks everyone who helped out on spiffing up The CALL Facility for students so they can colllaborate and thrive in their studies even MORE!! And a comfy chair suits the bill!

THANKS TO ALL
WHO HAVE HELPED!

GET – THE COMFY CHAIR!!!


TTFN!

 

Easy and Hard Hard and Easy – Which Languages are … Easy and Hard to Learn!

Easy and Hard … Hard and Easy
Which Languages are … Easy and Hard to Learn!

A few of my MUCH earlier posts will have expired links, expired videos or expired information! So I will be updating them, combining them and hopefully IMPROVING them for my daily Bog Blog!

 

Ten Easiest Languages to Learn

 

Top 10 Difficult Languages to Learn

 

TTFN!

Top 10 ZOHO Links – The World According to Greg

The Top 10 ZOHO Links – According to Greg

NOTE: Unfortunately, I recently discovered that ZOHO is no longer free, at least for the purposes that The CALL Facility used it for. I still have access as an Admin, but I am researching how I might be able to continue to provide the same resources in perhaps a slightly different format. Options such as a website, pdf, Word, Excel or other kind of document, but so far, they are not as easy to use, create, support and maintain. But I am hopeful and optimistic!

MANY THANKS to everyone who supported The CALL Facility (& me!) in offering this very unique resource over the past many years, probably dating back about 15 years or more! ZOHO came about as a response to needing a quick way to access Language bookmarks in CALL! Way back when, and this is BEFORE GOOGLE, I would email an attached bookmark file for specific browsers such as Explorer (Mac!), Safari and even Netscape Navigator! Good times, good times!

ALL the bookmarks are  still ‘at’ ZOHO, and I can access them, and export them into a simple .pdf document if anyone wants them. I can subsort, or include them all in one document. Please let me know! But for now, I won’t be updating ZOHO on a regular basis while I research other, if any, similar resources for Instructors and students.

In the meantime, probably the best strategy, for Instructors, would be to Copy/Paste website inks directly into  Brightspace for students. Yeah, cludgy and inelegant, but … sometimes old school works! The first shift I had in the CALL Facility – was bulk erasing and then making copies of Spanish lessons .. on cassette tapes! Good times, good times!

AND, if you DO CLICK HERE or on the icon of a PDF to the left, then you can view and download a .PDF version of ALL of The CALL Facility ZOHO Bookmarks in alphabetical order. Yeah, not ideal, but … at least they are all in one document.

And many thanks to Mark vH who helped me set it up so very long ago!


As of this morning, there are 896 language related links at ZOHO! WHOA! So many!

So I will be editing them one day in the future, removing and/or updating many of them. Often, the links disappear, they become commercial, have too many pop-ups, are re-routed elsewhere, so they need to be attended to.

So I bring to you, the Hall of Fame ZOHO bookmarks that are the Top Ten of All Time! At least, in my opinion!

You turn to Youtube! I have had to update some of the videos as they have disappeared from Youtube for some reason! But found a few more! Needed an update anyways, from way back in about 2014!

#10 – Klingon Language Institute
Just for fun and I have been kidding about including Klingon as a language in The CALL Facility for … years! And there IS a connection to UVIC too! Just click … here

#9 – Tex’s French Grammar
Who would know that one of the best French websites is … deep in the heart of … TEXAS! And true love springs between Tex & Tammy – ARMADILLOS!

#8 – I’m Yan (Yan and the Japanese People)
THE most popular video series in CALL HISTORY! An original resource on VHS, no less, follow the adventures of Yan, a foreigner living and working in Japan! VHS? So not available anymore in CALL? Say it ain’t so … well … IT AIN’T SO! I have all 26 episodes digitized on a single DL-DVD! There is even a Wikipedia Page!

#7 News and Media Sites such as CBC, BBC and CNN. There is also a single link for World Newspapers too! Many offer transcripts on a daily basis too.

#6CBC Digital Archives  are an excellent source for Canadian History with articles, texts, videos, etc.

#5DICTIONARY sites – all kinds of them! Merriam-Webster and Cambridge and even more here.

#4ThoughtCo. Lifelong Learning – once known as About, all kinds of language links and others too! 

#3 – Utilities – Another Filter where you can discover keyboard layouts, fonts, foreign characters, graphics, media conversions, Google Translate and even World CALL Language Links! One stop shopping for that hard to find font for the designer who has everything!

#2TED Talks! Bet you didn’t know there were Language based Ted Talks! Now …. you do!

#1UVIC SITES! Each Department has their own website with resources, links, tests, Instructor contacts and more! You might not need ZOHO for any of these, but they will be your single best resource for all the languages you are studying! Oh, and you can also download my CALL Orientation .pdf there too – which has all the Department links in it too!

TTFN!

Throwback Thursday – Language Learning Videos!

Welcome to Throwback Thursday here at Bog Blog!

What happens if you can’t find anyone to speak to you in …. German?

You turn to Youtube! I have had to update some of the videos as they have disappeared from Youtube for some reason! But found a few more! Needed an update anyways, from way back in about 2014!

How German Sounds to Other Languages

How to Speak Canadian

 A bit of Fry and Laurie

How to Speak with an Irish Accent (Complete)

Top 10 Oldest Languages in the World

What is the Funniest Language? Stephen Fry’s Planet Word – BBC

The CALL Facility … and other Mysteries of UVIC – Updated JANUARY 2020

So, what exactly IS …
The CALL Facility at UVic?
Well, here goes!

 

Just download the orientation .pdf below and you will get a good idea!

This post has been updated to JANUARY 2020!


CALL Facility Orientation
Fall January 2020 Version
Now!

  ⬇️ CALL A025 ORIENTATION JANUARY 2020 ⬇️

You could also watch the “Director’s Cut” version, as a movie, too, at YouTube below (this one is for January 2020):

 

 

 

 

The CALL Facility … and other Mysteries of UVIC – Updated September 2019

So, what exactly IS …
The CALL Facility at UVic?
Well, here goes!

 

Just download the orientation .pdf below and you will get a good idea!

This post has been updated to September, 2019!


CALL Facility Orientation
Fall September 2019 Version
Now!

 

  ⬇️ CALL A025 ORIENTATION September 2019 ⬇️

 

 

You could also watch the “Director’s Cut” version, as a movie, too, at YouTube below: