... that probably finds its most outstanding element in the Han language and the proud use of the hanzi as a writing system, the most powerful tool to encompass the nation’s culture and exclude those who are ...
... intentions.
I have a number of internet acquaintances that I have made through language exchange sites and I can boast friendships that have lasted for a good deal of years through regular chats. Most ...
... to the bus station. In Catalonia I know I am in Spain, but in a region with its own language that has become a powerful political weapon in its bid for autonomy. The independence flags that draped many ...
... buy it with my own money, as if owning it was a shameful deed that required confession before doing. I suppose reading in a foreign language set me apart from all my family and the people I knew: I needed ...
... spotted me and came up to talk. Something in his words sounded familiar, but the accent and the approximation of the language couldn’t convince me that he was really addressing me in Italian. After ...
... there is hardly any other means to express oneself. Foreign languages are even trickier because we don’t have a full command of their subtleties. My interest in languages may seem to clash with my reserved ...
... make me progress more than by the simple drive of self-study.
A friend of mine, who teaches in a primary school, directed me to the language classes that some of her ethnic Chinese children attend in ...
... is alien from us?
This anxiety has spurred reflections on my life. Travelling, cultivating international friendships, or learning languages are all devices I adopt to compensate a deficiency and build ...
... already speaks his same native Ewe language. The bike ride through the roadwork and in the wake of a few heavy weight vehicles gave me a pretty powder bath.
As I waited for a trotro to come along, a ...
When he decided to publish in the classified ads online, he was not optimistic. He thought he wouldn’t probably receive the slightest sign of interest. Arabic was a language that had reaped some success ...
When studying a foreign language at an advanced level a lot of stress is put on learning expressions. Idioms encompass the culture of a nation, and mastering them is important not only in order to understand, ...
... for the tutorship. I must confess my willingness to tackle the vagaries of the Chinese language has known ups and downs, but at least since the end of the summer I have been highly motivated. I met foreigners ...
... It wasn’t the language that put me off, but rather technical details that I could hardly comprehend.
Modernist art was also a constant lively presence all along this trip. Coming from an iron-poor country, ...
... glory of an already crumbling empire. In reaction to the prevailing conventional artistic language, the Secessionist artists called for a break from trite traditional art and inaugurated new trends.
When ...
... Chinese characters line the walls. For sure, very few Uyghurs can read them, simply because they cannot speak the language. It is two different worlds living in the same place.
The authorities take no ...
... conversant with the Chinese language, and even Haotian feels a foreigner. I chuckle thinking of yesterday’s scene when he bought some yogurt that was handed to him in a plastic bag. He wanted a cup to ...
... The Hui are an ethnic group who professes Islam and is mostly assimilated to the Han, to the point of not having a distinctive language. My first encounter with them is around the bus station, but in the ...
... complexity of a writing system based on characters. Maybe because I have been dabbling at learning the language, it makes me feel even more powerless in front of seemingly inextricable clots of stokes ...
... easier for he did not need to use a foreign language to communicate.
San Pellegrino is a renowned mineral water brand marketed around the world, but few people know its history or can place the town ...
... spelling of words. But in spite of her fluency she feels insecure of the language and on the kitchen table lies the English-teaching booklet that she’s studying.
After I’ve completed the check-in ...