http://www.ajarinitiatives.com en-gb ajarinitiatives.com 2012-1-5T00:00:00Z ajarinitiatives.com http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#109790 Happy New Year to all.We have added a significant amount of teaching resource in the Midlands. Please see our Capabilities... page for details. 2012-1-5 21:05:44 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#105972 We have added the following taster coursesGreater Manchester French and GermanLeamington SpaCoventry GermanOxford and online Russian 2011-11-2 13:07:49 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#105756 We have great pleasure in announcing the addition of teaching resource in the Oxford area for Russian and English as a Foreign language. Russian is also available for online tuition. We are continuing to grow. 2011-10-30 21:54:22 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#105671 We now have the offer of 3hour taster sessions in French and Spanish. This is offered facetoface in the Midlands region and online globally. These are available at 163 59.99 per course. Please contact us to arrange. 2011-10-29 14:24:24 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#105669 Unfortunately we now no longer offer Urdu. Many apologies to any clients wishing to learn this language. 2011-10-29 14:22:45 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#101611 We are pleased to announce the addition of further teaching resources in the Leamington Spa and Warwick area covering Spanish both Business and General with a native speaker. 2011-9-1 21:00:04 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#101289 Congratulations to all of our GCSE students. Excellent results. For those that are not coming back to us we wish you every success in your lives and careers. For those that are returning for extra tuition welcome back 2011-8-27 13:32:01 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#100263 We now offer tailored courses in Business French and Spanish in Birmingham and the surrounding area. Please get in touch for details and we can arrange an appointment at your site. 2011-8-10 21:23:36 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#100262 We now have additional teaching resource in Greater Manchester for German and French. We are now looking forward where we have a presence to enquiries for GCSE and ALevel tuition. 2011-8-10 21:20:37 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#99460 Additional French and German teachers recruited in the WarwickLeamington Spa area. 2011-7-30 14:04:09 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#94924 We now offer intensive German language courses in a beautiful location in Germany where you will also experience the real Germany. Please see the Teaching Capabilities by Areas link for details. 2011-5-28 11:51:49 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#94923 Our language service is growing very well. A big thank you to all of our teachers I receive positive feedback for all of them. A massive thank you also to all of our Clients without you we wouldnt need the teachers. We have been going for more than a year now and are going in the right direction. 2011-5-28 11:47:44 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#70099 2010-7-11 13:24:08 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#70098 Argentina is taken from the Latin argentum remember the French for money is argent so there is a big link there. It is also derived from the old Greek argentinos which means silvery. 2010-7-11 13:24:07 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#69237 Worldwide about 136 million people speak French as a first language about 190 million as a second language and 200 million as an acquired foreign language. 2010-6-30 13:15:43 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#65183 I know its been a few days since I last posted on here. Indigenous languages of the Americas are called Amerindian languages. There were thousands of these spoken before the influence of the Europeans started in the 11th century. 2010-5-13 13:15:49 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#64750 A topical one today think of the similarity in meaning of elect and select then the difference in functions of the words the way they are used. 2010-5-7 10:28:10 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#64653 I am going to waffle a little today. 2 words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings ceiling and sealing. And also there are different meanings for the word seal. I wonder what the origins are...... 2010-5-6 08:04:58 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#64489 There are several hundred individual mother tongues in India. A 1961 census reported 1652. Officially the first language is Hindi while English is second. 2010-5-4 08:56:55 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#64410 English is known to be a difficult language to learn as a second language as it has many irregularities. However think about how easy our verbs are in one way compared to other languages. For example in the present tense we have 2 verb forms for to go Iyouwethey go hesheit goes. In French you have je vais tu vas ilelleon va nous allons vous allez ilselles vont that makes 6 different forms. 2010-5-3 10:38:16 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#64349 Can you imagine a newish foreign learner of the English language who knows the meaning of the word board through classwork. They are talking to a native speaker and that person says heshe is bored. Would you be surprised if the foreign learner looked quizzically at hisher companion By the way in French bored is ennuy233 but be careful to pronounce it correctly as ennuyeux means boring. 2010-5-2 11:16:51 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#64096 I wrote a few days ago about the development of the English alphabet and the addition of the letter j as a result of the introduction of French words into the English language. Despite this we do not pronounce it the same as in French. If you consider the 2 alphabets and how we read through them the French j and g both have a soft consonant sound zh and then j ee and g ay. This is the opposite of English which has a harder consonant and the g is followed by ee. French jambon and fromage ham and cheese the j and the g are both pronounced the same. English imagine and jet j and g both pronounced the same but harder. So whereas we have introduced the letter j due to French I need to think of some French words in our language where we pronounce a soft j. Leave that with me 2010-4-29 08:47:46 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63948 In English we have the verb to want to. This is followed by a verb. In French Spanish German and Italian the foreign languages with which I am most familiar we retain the verb to want but use the infinitive of the verb form. For example I want to watch television Eng. I want towatchtelevision Fr. Sp. It. Grm. I wantto watchtelevision. Somewhere along the evolution line of the English language we formed the verb to want to plus verb whilst these other languages still say to want. 2010-4-27 08:06:01 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63832 One for Mondays. The word work is a good one. French travailler and Spanish trabajar are very similar. German arbeiten but they do have the word werk in their dictionary which shows the Saxon roots of the English. Italian lavorare is very similar to the Latin and that is where we get the word labour from. 2010-4-26 08:03:16 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63831 2010-4-26 07:54:01 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63759 The word station is interesting. We use it for eg. trainbus station. In French they say gare for that context. The word stationner means to park in French so there is some similarity in meaning. They also say station service for petrol station so that is a little more like the English. 2010-4-25 09:50:41 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63629 Is a flowerbed where flowers go to sleep 2010-4-23 09:01:30 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63577 I like the word cupboard a board of cups The French say placard or armoire. 2010-4-22 12:26:58 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63515 An indication of the German influence on the English language water Wasser in German. Spanish and Italian follow the Latin agua and aqua respectively. French is eau which leans towards the Latin also. 2010-4-21 16:12:53 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63394 One of my favourite English words is carpet. To a foreign learner trying to identify the meaning of the word he or she would logically be trying to relate the word car with the word pet. Just proves how useful dictionaries are 2010-4-20 10:02:14 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63393 2010-4-20 10:02:13 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63308 Everybody has their own individual group of words and phrases. This develops over our lives and is influenced by where we live our families the people that we talk with... the list goes on. The technical word for this individual language is the idiolect. Everybody has one and everyones is unique. 2010-4-19 10:49:53 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63232 The letter w entered the English alphabet by the year 1600 between 1300 and 1600 we used uu instead. 2010-4-18 09:54:00 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63191 In French the pronunciation of the word green vert is the same as those for glass verre and worm vers. 2010-4-17 09:22:55 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63124 In Spanish there are two verbs for to be ser and estar. 2010-4-16 09:19:03 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#63072 The word table originates from the Latin tabula meaning board plank or table but originally meaning small flat slab or piece.The actual word table was first seen in the West Germanic languages of the 11th Century including English it meant board plank writing table or picture. The sense of table in the form we know it today dates from around 1300 in the Latin mensa which is very similar to the Spanish mesa. 2010-4-15 09:45:15 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62995 There are many false friends in French for example the word for coach is car. 2010-4-14 08:57:33 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62895 In French the same word is used for language and tongue. The word is langue and this explains a little the saying to speak in many tongues. 2010-4-13 09:39:47 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62819 The letter J was introduced into the English language in the 1630s in words borrowed from French. Of course as language has evolved our J is pronounced harder than the French. 2010-4-12 10:21:10 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62753 Ways of pronouncing plurals differ across languages and can cause difficulties when learning a new language. For example when French people speak English they often do not pronounce the s at the end of the word. My theory for this is that although the French use s at the end of the majority of their plurals they do not pronounce it. Some examples Eng houses Fr maisons Eng cars Fr voitures. To my knowledge English speakers do not have the same problem in reverse when learning French except for new learners. 2010-4-11 11:13:06 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62679 The English alphabet to cut a very long story short originated in its current from around 1000 AD. It is a mixture of German runes and Latin brought by Christian missionaries. The letters J U and W were not in the alphabet. Three German runes represented different sounds in the language. The alphabet in its current 26letter form dates from 1820 at the latest. Maybe Ill give you detail about the entry of J U and W in the near future. 2010-4-10 10:25:36 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62613 Heres a French one for you je suis can mean I am or I follow. Jessuie means I wipe dry a wet object. 2010-4-9 09:49:05 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62507 Every language has its little intricacies but English has many of them. For example imagine if you were learning the word light. How many different meanings are there for this word meanings that are nothing like each other Things are complicated further by the word alight. Listeners hear a word or passage of speech and need to apply the correct meaning to it. We do it naturally when we learn our first language but second language learners look for a word in their own mother tongue that they can associate it to. In some cases there is no direct equivalent even more fun 2010-4-8 09:26:03 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62381 Why do we have the expression in English To raise a toast to someone when toast is grilled bread If anyone can answer that please can you do so via the Forum. 2010-4-7 08:48:51 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62298 Lets play some word games now My mind works in funny ways sometimes and I think about some very obscure things. You will see what I mean over the next few daysweeks.If you reorder the letters in the word REPUBLIC you can find a PUB RELIC. 2010-4-6 10:27:03 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62219 The smallest form of the English language is called a morpheme. 2010-4-5 10:51:37 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62163 I find it interesting to look at the relationships of words in different languages.For example why do we say Sunday How many Sundays are sunny The German language has the same Sonntag which shows again the influence of German Saxons on English. 2010-4-4 10:35:04 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62117 A little bit of a departure from our usual today but we are keeping with the Easter theme.The egg is seen as a symbol of the rebirth of the Earth in spring. Early Christians adopted it as a symbol of the resurrection. The egg symbolises new life and evidence of this has been found going back 2500 years. 2010-4-3 10:07:25 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62003 There are a number of theories for the origin of the word Easter.One of these takes us back to the 5th Century and the Germans that moved to Rome and created the Frankish Church. Their celebration of the resurrection of Christ included the word alba which means both white latin and sunrise. When sunrise was translated into German it brought the word ostern. The Saxons settled in the South East of England after the Romans left and so German heavily influenced the English language during AngloSaxon times. This is only one theory.Happy Easter. 2010-4-2 10:00:03 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#62002 2010-4-2 09:54:43 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61922 Scandinavian languages are otherwise known as North Germanic languages or Nordic languages and around 20 million people in Nordic countries have a Scandinavian language as their mother tongue. They are split into East Scandinavian languages Danish and Swedish and West Scandinavian languages Norwegian Faroese and Icelandic. 2010-4-1 10:41:51 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61829 Safari is a Swahili word. It originates from the Arabic word safar which means to make a journey. 2010-3-31 09:03:16 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61736 The modern Turkish alphabet was created by Kemal Ataturk in 1928. 2010-3-30 09:28:30 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61660 The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Languages states that there are between 3000 and 10000 living languages in the world. Other sources claim a total of 20000 languages. So we could perhaps say there is no right answer. The fact is that the number is always changing and by definition would you classify a language spoken in the Brazilian rainforest as a language or a dialect of Portuguese 2010-3-29 10:28:03 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61590 The international distress call Mayday originates from the French expression Maidez Help me. 2010-3-28 10:30:13 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61540 Linguists generally agree that there are 44 sounds in the English language. These sounds are called phonemes. The most common sound is called the schwa which accounts for 1012 of the sounds of the language for example about Japan typical. Try pronouncing these words and see how you pronounce the highlighted vowels. This is the schwa. 2010-3-27 12:49:53 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61448 The Russian language is the most widely spoken native language in Europe 164 million people use Russian as their first language. It is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet tradition holds that this alphabet was developed by two Greek brothers. One of the brothers was known as Saint Cyril and his students in the Bulgarian Empire developed Cyrillic from Greek in the 890s AD. 2010-3-26 09:27:38 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61361 The 5 mostspoken languages in the world relating to the speakers first language are Mandarin Chinese 13.22 Spanish 4.88 English 4.68 Arabic 3.12 Hindi 2.74 2010-3-25 09:02:12 http://www.ajarinitiatives.com/page2.htm#61250 Every day I will add either a short statement or anecdote relating to language.We will start with a nice oneLinguistics is the scientific study of language. 2010-3-24 09:04:48