Fun with Idioms

Learning idioms helps you understand the language, gives you insight into the culture, and it’s also a great way to impress your friends! Here are a few fun idioms to get you started:

Tirer à quatre épingles
In English this translates as "to pull with four pins", but in French it is used for "dressed to the nines." Ooh la la!

Antes que te cases mira lo que haces!
English-speakers would say, "Look before you leap!" but in Spanish you would say, "Before you marry look what you do!"

Avoir un chat dans la gorge
A French person never has a frog in their throat. It’s not that they are more eloquent, but that in French, you "have a cat in your throat"!

Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente."The shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current," say Spanish-speakers. Or, as we’d say in English, "You snooze, you lose!"

Coûter les yeux de la tête
If something is very expensive, it may cost you "an arm and a leg" in the US, but in France it costs "the eyes of the head".

Darle un beso a la botella.
In English we’d say "take a swig", but doesn’t "give the bottle a kiss" sound muy fun?

Être simple comme « bonjour »
If something is "as easy as pie" a French person would say it is "as simple as 'hello'". This actually makes a lot of sense – saying hello is much easier than making a pie!

Comer frijoles y repetir pollo
An English-speaker would tell you, "His bark is mightier than his bite," but a Spanish-speaker will say that the person "eats beans and belches chicken."

New Audio Learning Guide

After years of learning English that sounds straight from a textbook, language learners have had enough. They want to speak real English – the language spoken on the street corners and among friends. They want to be authentic.

There’s good news ahead! In March the Go English Essentials range will be releasing a new audio learning guide entitled, appropriately, Authentic English. The one-hour CD and accompanying booklet give you 50 key expressions to use to sound authentic in both American and British English. You’ll hear its pronunciation, an explanation of usage and a short dialogue to understand the expression in its context.

Be the first to know when Authentic English is released. Sign up for the Language Routes newsletter today.

Expolangues

The 27th annual Expolangues, an international language fair, was held January 14th to 17th in Paris. 25,200 visitors attended, representing 20 countries and 60 languages – and Language Routes was right there in the middle of all the action.

Some of the questions people often ask are about the voices on the audio learning guides. Are they native speakers? Do they speak at a normal speed or more slowly?

The answers are yes and both.

In order to have the most accurate and clear pronunciation and intonation, only native speaker voices are used on the audio learning guides. That way what you get is absolutely authentic.

But sometimes you need a warm-up to tune your ear to be able to understand language that is absolutely authentic. For this reason, you’ll find a mix of both slowed down speech in the listen and repeat exercises and normal speech rhythms in the conversational dialogues. It’s the best of both worlds.

Expolangues website: www.expolangues.fr/indexELgb.htm

Spanish Coming Soon

There’s breaking news ahead – or should we say noticias de último minuto? Language Routes will soon be introducing a line of Essentials in Spanish!

Charter Subscription

What if there was a way to jump start your language learning in 2009? A way to pick up new French vocabulary, cultural insights, tips and techniques, travel ideas and to stay up to date on news and events?

The Bien-dire magazine charter subscription was designed with you in mind.

Order a 2-year subscription (12 issues with CDs) and get 6 back issues with CDs as a bonus. This is a savings of over $85 off the publisher's regular subscription price. Full of interesting articles on France and French culture, Bien-dire helps you understand what it is to be French.

Bonne continuation!

Happy New Year

Have you made your resolutions for language learning in 2009? Here’s one to consider: Learn the polite way.

The French, for example, are a very formal people. There are unspoken rules of how to start and end conversations, how to discuss and debate topics and much more. That's where our Bien-Dire Essential La Politesse comes in. La Politesse cracks those codes for you. There are sample dialogues, as always, but our favorite part is the 'Savez-vous que?' tidbits scattered throughout. These enrich your understanding of the dialogues by explaining the 'why' behind each of the codes.

If you want to learn the polite way in English, check out the Go English Essential Polite English. Oh, I mean, "Please, check it out."