Hey language learners! It’s time on your month-to-month dose of language and tradition information on this newest version of What’s the Phrase?. As we speak, we’re listening to a few TikTok pattern that can both consolation you or trigger your newest existential disaster… We’ll additionally learn the way bilingual brains work, the that means behind a summertime saying, and a few enjoyable info about all people’s favorite musical exercise: karaoke!
And talking of karaoke, we’re asserting a brilliant thrilling giveaway to rejoice the launch of Memrise Music: our sequence of lyric-based language classes. Learn to the top to search out out about learn how to enter and, most significantly, the prizes you could possibly win…
We’re all simply hanging out on a floating rock 🌍
TikTok followers amongst us could also be conversant in a comforting new pattern sweeping throughout the app in the meanwhile! The intention of the ‘floating rock’ pattern is to remind folks to not dwell an excessive amount of on the small issues in life. These movies begin with somebody describing an nervousness or fear they’ve, after which the video begins to zoom additional and additional out, till it reveals planet Earth floating in area. It’s arduous to not acquire some perspective on what actually issues whenever you keep in mind how tiny we truly are within the grand scheme of issues!
This pattern acquired us fascinated with a number of the commonest worries that language learners share, the largest one being a concern of constructing errors when talking. Each language learner has in all probability encountered this block in some unspecified time in the future, however it’s essential to recollect how insignificant it truly is. In reality, studying from errors is a brilliant efficient strategy to advance in a language! What’s your largest fear with regards to studying a language? Do you assume this pattern might show you how to let go of it? Be at liberty to create a TikTok and tag @memriseapp in order that we are able to see your video!
How bilingual and multilingual brains work
We’ve all been there. You’re making an attempt to talk the language you’ve been studying, it’s going properly, however you then strive to consider a easy phrase and your thoughts goes clean. Identical to the title of this weblog sequence, you ask your self ‘what’s the phrase?’. Then, completely unhelpfully, your mind tells you that it is aware of the phrase you’re searching for, however in a distinct language! What’s all that about?!
Learners of a number of languages shall be very conversant in sentences like ‘I can’t keep in mind the phrase in French, however I do know it in Korean!’, which results in artistic vocab options like this. Effectively, due to this cool analysis, we now know what goes on in our brains throughout these conditions. Apparently when multilingual folks converse, each language they know could be activated directly of their mind, even the one(s) they don’t must entry at that second. Thanks quite a bit, mind! On prime of this, the extra you’re immersed in a brand new language, the extra you possibly can are inclined to neglect phrases in your native language too! This explains why unintentional phrases in Spanglish, Franglais or different funky language combos can slip out. However that is all a part of the fantastic thing about being within the non-monolingual membership (the perfect membership), and we wouldn’t have it another approach!
Goodbye to the Canine Days of Summer time
We’ve been baking in a protracted heatwave over the previous month within the U.Okay. As a nation of people that love to debate the climate, we’ve had quite a bit to speak about! Everybody appears to have robust opinions on summer season, whichever aspect of the talk they’re on. Whereas a few of us spend 3 months of the 12 months lurking about within the shade, lathered in issue 50 suncream, others panic on the very sight of a brown leaf.
So what are the Canine Days, and when are they over (because the well-known Florence + the Machine music goes)? The Canine Days of summer season are the very hottest days of the 12 months, between early July and early August. It’s logical to imagine that this expression comes from the truth that it’s too scorching for canine to be outdoors right now of 12 months, however there’s truly an astrological that means behind it! Throughout the Canine Days of summer season, the intense ‘Canine Star’, Sirius, seems to rise with the solar. Due to this, the Romans thought that the star added to the solar’s warmth right now of 12 months, and they also coined the phrase “diēs caniculārēs”, or “canine days”!
The true that means of Karaoke
What’s your go-to-karaoke music? Do you get the gang going with an upbeat banger or go for a dramatic rendition of an 80s energy ballad? No matter your model, we wager you don’t know what number of karaoke bars there are in China, or the place the Karaoke World Championship first happened… This text solutions these questions and extra! Our favorite karaoke truth is concerning the that means of the phrase itself. In Japanese, ‘kara’ means ‘empty’ whereas ‘oke’ interprets as ‘orchestra’, giving us the unimaginable translation of ‘empty orchestra’.
Anyway, the true purpose we’re speaking about karaoke this month is as a result of we’re working an thrilling Cultural Karaoke giveaway to rejoice the launch of Memrise Music: our new music-based language classes in Spanish, French and Italian. Karaoke has had an internet revival with the rise of TikTok duets and ‘sing with me’ movies, and we would like you to become involved. Just by filming a TikTok video miming or singing alongside to a overseas language music, you could possibly be in with the prospect of successful an iPad mini or perhaps a journey overseas!
All the small print it’s essential enter could be discovered proper right here. Better of luck!
And that’s all for this version of What’s the Phrase? Each month we spherical up a number of the coolest issues which are occurring all over the world and share them with you within the hope they’ll quench your language and basic knowledge-seeking thirst just a bit bit. Catch you subsequent time!