Comments on: Words As a Way to Understand Other Traditions and Cultures

By: Online trading Demo

Online trading Demo — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 13:21:11 +0000

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The world hopes for even more passionate writers like
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By: Jose

Jose — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:14:01 +0000

Hello!
It’s interesting because some people maintain that languages, in their origin, weren’t made up of words but an unbroken run of sounds. Some teachers even say we shouldn’t learn a language by ‘isolating’ its words.
However as you prove here in this article, words are something very important in languages.
A word, a simple word can say a lot.
Talking about the word ‘globero’, I couldn’t help doing some ‘research’ on the term ‘globero’ which you talk about. Because it turns out that I’ve never used this word to mean ‘ballons vendor’.
I think the word ‘globero’ has a different meaning depending on the country, on the Spanish-speaking country. And we use different words to mean ‘ballon vendor’.
I am from Spain and I have always used ‘vendedor de globos’ to mean ‘ballon vendor’ (so it’s even longer than in English!).
I have heard (not used, yet) the word ‘globero’ to mean something related to cycling (it sounds strange even for me, i must say).
And I think ‘globero’ means ‘lier’ in some Latin American countries.
But as you know for sure, there are some differences in the use of a language among the areas of a country. So I can’t be completely sure whether ‘globero’ is used to mean ‘ballon vendor’ in some areas of Spain (not in the most, for sure).
Anyway, ‘globero’ may be the most appropiate (or the easiest!) word to mean ‘vendedor de globos’ and I guess from what you say that it’s used in many Latin American countries.

Thank you for this charming article. I think you are not only enriching kids’ vocabulary, but also their imagination!
Greetings

By: Hanny

Hanny — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:47:44 +0000

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog post. The author has a wonderful ability to engage children’s (and adult’s!) imagination through her writings. This makes the stories fun and enjoyable which is so essential to stimulate language learning. Like the children at Hart Elementary I found myself taking an imaginary stroll through the zócalo on a Sunday afternoon just by reading this post!

By: Meche

Meche — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:53:41 +0000

Very interesting and fascinating article. I never really stopped to think about the weight that words themselves have on the way we think about certain things, like our culture. The simple fact that one has a word that the other one doesn’t says a lot about what people do, what their values are, what their customs are, or even just what people enjoy. And also the fact that a kid was the one who pointed out the missing word in the English language is a very good sign that these readings will get them thinking about language and therefore culture in a different way!

By: HANNAH

HANNAH — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:45:13 +0000

As a Spanish tutor for young children, I’ve found Heritage Language’s Books incredibly helpful and a real joy to teach with! Their beautifully crafted characters are an excellent medium to engage young kids to read and learn a new language. The kids I teach absolutely love Pedro and Margarita and are already picking up words in Spanish. It’s such a blessing to have such useful, informative, and flat-out-fun books to teach kids! It makes teaching so enjoyable and worthwhile.

By: Susana

Susana — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:36:15 +0000

Such a pleasure to come across the books from Heritage Language. They are a delightful “Spanish-and-Culture” lesson for my kids. As a mother of four, raising bilingual kids, I value the importance of teaching them the common phrases, grammar and vocabulary through fun stories exploring our heritage. At first I thought the older ones (10 and 7) were the ones who would benefit the most by practicing their reading in both languages, but I’ve seen also the benefit on my toddlers by exposing them to the letter blends that are only available in Spanish, in order for them to learn to talk in both English and Spanish with no “funny” accents.