Foreign Language Fun » Arabic

Say Thank You in Many Languages This Thanksgiving

Diane — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:44:13 +0000

When I think of Thanksgiving, my mind goes to turkey and pumpkin pie, parades and football. Of course, the real reason is to give thanks to God for all that He has given us. On this special holiday, I’d like to say Thank You in as many ways and as many languages as I can. I’m sure to leave out many languages, so please comment with additional ones and continue the list of thanks!

Dankie (Afrikaans)

Shukran (Arabic)

Dekuji (Czech)

Tak (Danish)

Dank u wel (Dutch)

Dankon (Esperanto)

Kiitos (Finnish)

Merci (French)

Danke (German)

Mahalo (Hawaiian)

Toda (Hebrew)

Shukriya (Hindi)

Takk (Icelandic)

Grazie (Italian)

Arigato (Japanese)

Grazzi (Maltese)

Xie xie (Mandarin Chinese)

Dziekuje (Polish)

Multumesc (Romanian)

Spasibo (Russian)

Gracias (Spanish)

Ahsante (Swahili)

Tack (Swedish)

Photo Credit: by cidinha28 at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/772189

Learning Languages with The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Diane — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:30:41 +0000

For years and years, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been one of my favorite books for teaching languages to kids. This children’s book has got it all: life cycle of a butterfly, days of the week, a little weather, some counting, lots of foods, simple descriptions, active verbs, and colors. It’s the total contextualized package for thematic teaching and learning.

Some of my fellow language bloggers extraordinaire also enjoy using The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Check out Karen’s post on La oruga muy hambrienta at her Teaching and Learning Spanish blog, and don’t miss Sarah’s post on using The Very Hungry Caterpillar to teach French at Bringing Up Baby Biligual.

A little while back, I wrote an article describing some of the language learning activities I do with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I had French and Spanish in mind, but the books are also readily available in German and Arabic. You can follow this link to read it:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: A Children’s Book for Learning French, Spanish, and ESL

Yup, I know this book so well I can recite it from memory. I really can. Then just when I thought I had my “Hungry Caterpillar” unit down pat, I stumbled on an effective new way to teach the story. Here’s how it happened . . .

I have this adorable little puppet named Jacques that I have used since 1990. He was packed in my teaching bag, all ready to go to preschool today to help me teach fruits from the story. But I forgot that my 3 year-old adopted my trusty teaching assistant to be one of his new “babies.” So, I’m teaching away when I make the shocking discovery that Jacques is at home snug in his baby blanket and diaper. I needed a Plan B, and I needed one fast.

I looked down at the carpeting and noticed colorful little dots. We reviewed colors and the children picked out their favorite dot. We pretended to pick one up and put it in our hands. Referring to The Very Hungry Caterpillar book, we learned the word for “egg”. We listened for it to hatch. We said “Bonjour” to our “petite chenilles” (caterpillars.) Luckily, Jacques only takes a bottle, so my son had left me the plastic fruits that correspond to the story: apple, pear, plum, strawberry and orange. We passed each fruit around the circle so that the children could hold it up to their caterpillar and tell it “Eat the orange” or “Eat the strawberry.” Then we’d lean close to hear a little “Merci.” After feeding our little caterpillars, we saw that they had become big and fat. At this point, my son declared that he had eaten his. (Yes, he’s a character. He also insists that his name is Benny Coconut. But I digress . . .) We gently closed our hands together to make a cocoon. Finally, we opened our hands and spread them wide into butterfly wings. We imagined all of the beautiful colors we saw on the wings, and then we set our butterflies free.

The power of imagination. What a simple immersion lesson. Simple, simple, simple. Why didn’t I think of this years ago?

What are your favorite Hungry Caterpillar activities? Have you ever taught something off the top of your head that was better than what you had planned? Feel free to comment!

Amazon sells Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar in English, French, Spanish, German, and Arabic.

National Holidays Around the World: July

Diane — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:39:07 +0000

Francophile that I am, it’s going to be an effort not be too France-centered in this blog. So, oui, July 14 is Bastille Day–France’s Independence Day. But there are other countries celebrating national holidays besides the American 4th and le quatorze juillet. I got this list of national holidays in July from the U.S. Department of State website. I added the languages spoken in each country from infoplease.com. I pledge to learn a new word or two in honor of some holidays. Are you in?

July 1: Burundi (Kirundi, French, Swahili)

July 1: Canada (French, English)

July 1: Rwanda (Kinyarwanda, French, English, Kiswahili)

July 3: Belarus (Belorussian/White Russian, Russian)

July 5: Cape Verde (Portuguese, Criuolo)

July 5: Venezuela (Spanish, et al)

July 6: Comoros (Arabic, French, Shikomoro–Swahili/Arabic blend)

July 6: Malawi (Chichewa, Chinyanja, Chiyao, Chitumbuka, Chisena, Chilomwe, Chitonga) All new to me!

July 7: Solomon Islands (1-2% English–official language!?, Melanesian pidgin, 120 indigenous languages)

July 10: Bahamas (English, Creole)

July 11: Mongolia (Mongolian, Turkish, Russian)

July 14: France (French)

July 20: Colombia (Spanish)

July 21: Belgium (Dutch/Flemish, French, German less than 1% but still one of official languages)

July 23: Egypt (Arabic official, French and English widely spoken)

July 26: Liberia (20% English–official language, 20 ethnic-group languages)

July 28: Peru (Spanish, Quéchua (both official); Aymara; many minor Amazonian languages)

Photo Credit: Kevin Rosseel http://morguefile.com/archive/?display=207440&