babelhut.com » Language Fun

What’s on your playlist?

Peter — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:51:41 +0000

Listening and understanding Spanish is a big weakness for me. I can read Spanish much better than I can listen to it. So, to get better at it I’ve been spending more time listening to Spanish music and podcasts. Since I last wrote about finding music you like in your language of study, I have discovered Pandora. Pandora is great because you start with an artist or multiple artists you like, and it starts playing similar artists. As you listen, you can give thumbs up or down to each song, and Pandora will adjust what it plays next based on your choices, essentially learning what you will probably like to hear. Another great thing about Pandora is that it will often play artists in your target language that are difficult to find in your home country, even stuff that I’ve found difficult to find on Amazon.

In English I listen primarily to metal and hard rock, but in Spanish I’ve noticed that while I still like some metal, I’ve been leaning more towards rap, even though I can’t stand most rap in English. I’m not entirely sure why this is yet, I’m still getting a feel for what’s out there. I’ve also been listening to a couple of podcasts, these are also to practice listening to Spanish.

Here are some of the things I’ve been listening to:

Definitely check out Pandora for yourself. (Update: Thomas tells me that Pandora only works within the US. It may be possible to get around this using a proxy.)

What have you been listening to in your target language? Tell us in the comments!

Find music you acutally like in the language you are learning

What The Hell Is An Advertisement?

thomas — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:04:37 +0000

Rikker at Thai101 has published a fascinating post about Thailand’s first printing press. The owner published a newspaper called the Bangkok Recorder, and advertisements seemed to confuse some of the readers. Here’s an excerpt:

I, the owner of this newspaper, have heard that those who purchase the Bangkok Recorder wonder, “Why are so many things reprinted? Like the article about the new dock, it’s run 2 or 3 times already. There are many other items which have been reprinted many times. What is the reason for this? Can’t they find new material?”

They wonder and complain ramblingly like this, because they don’t know the customs of newspapers. Those items which are reprinted are a type of article, the owner of which wants everyone to read and remember. Like with the story about the new dock, they pay for it to be printed every time, paying 2 dollars per time. An article that is repeated like this, in English is called ‘advertisement’.

A type of article meant to be read and remembered. What an interesting way to look at advertisements! :)

There’s a lot more, so be sure to read the full article over at Thai101.

How Many Days In Each Month: The Thai Way

Multibabel – Computer Translation Fun

thomas — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:33:07 +0000

Rikker over at Language Scraps has made a great find: Multibabel. Just type in an english sentence and it will translate it back and forth between several languages and English until you end up with a machine-translated mess! Here’s my entry:

Original English Text:
I want to eat apple pie.

Translated to French:
Je veux manger le pâté en croûte de pomme.

Translated back to English:
I want to eat meat pie of apple.

Translated to German:
Ich möchte Fleischtorte des Apfels essen.

Translated back to English:
I would like to eat meat cake of the apple.

Translated to Italian:
Vorrei mangiare la torta della carne della mela.

Translated back to English:
I would want to eat the cake of the meat of the apple.

Translated to Portuguese:
Eu quereria comer o bolo da carne da maçã.

Translated back to English:
I would want to eat the cake of the meat of the apple.

Translated to Spanish:
Desearía comer la torta de la carne de la manzana.

Translated back to English:
It would wish to eat the cake of the meat of the apple.

Would it now?

Give it a try and post your funny results in the comments! Multibabel

Language Learning Tip #1: Start A Translation Project