Blog
Spring Awakening
In which my thoughts turn to studying Chinese, Arabic, and Russian.
Last week I thought to myself, it would be cool to learn some Chinese characters right around now. Even though I spent a little time on Chinese some years back, I focused on spoken skills and pinyin and never learned…
Reviews
Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Vocabulary
Italian, Books, Vocabulary
McGraw-Hill offers Practice Makes Perfect vocabulary books for multiple languages. I have found them odd in ways, with silly sentences providing awkward transitions between groups of thematically linked words. But I like them nonetheless, and I…
Intermediate Chinese with Audio CD
Mandarin, Books, Multimedia
Intermediate Chinese with Audio CD by Yong Ho is the successor to Beginner’s Chinese with 2 Audio CDs, which I liked. This intermediate book looks good, too, but I can’t evaluate it, because I…
Chinatown on the Lower East Side, Manhattan
Mandarin, Neighborhoods
The most well-known Chinatown by far in New York City (there are several) embraces areas that were once inhabited by Italian, Irish, Eastern European, and other immigrant groups. Historical residues are everywhere. You can get there on multiple subway lines;…
AFFOI
French, Organizations
AFFOI, short for Assemblée des francophones fonctionnaires des organisations internationales, seeks to safeguard the linguistic diversity of international organizations. On its website, AFFOI asserts, “La diversité linguistique, culturelle et conceptuelle est une condition sine qua non…
The Oxford New Italian Dictionary
Italian,
This dictionary from Berkley Publishing Group was the perfect size and had the perfect binding and layout for my needs. As you can see from the photo, it got thoroughly thumbed—a sign of love. And usability! To clarify what…