Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture

I found the two week course, Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture, so engaging, so enlightening, so thought-provoking, that I had to take it twice. I wanted to delve deeper into the concepts presented and was fortunate that it was offered just a few months after my first attempt.

Interacting with instructors and fellow students was both delightful and stimulating.

Here are just a few of the fascinating facts:

1. I thought I knew all about onomatopoeia, however words representing "sounds" are different in different languages. In US English a horn goes "beep", in French, "tut, tut"!

2. Learning a language is not just about the words such as duck, goose, penguin - but also about the categories the words fit into like birds, swimmers....

3. The ART of translations is truly a creative art. Imagine the work involved in translating a novel so that you create a high-quality product that does justice to the original text while being accessible and meaningful to the new reader...retaining the original idea and feeling!

4. Idioms...phrases speakers of the same language understand but which might make absolutely no sense to a non-native speaker. For example: In English phrase "When pigs fly." (meaning something that will never happen) in Dutch is "When cows skate." and in Hindi is "One afternoon in your next reincarnation."

TAKE THE COURSE - you won't regret itr.

I found the two week course, Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture, so engaging, so enlightening, so thought-provoking, that I had to take it twice. I wanted to delve deeper into the concepts presented and was fortunate that it was offered just a few months after my first attempt.

Interacting with instructors and fellow students was both delightful and stimulating.

Here are just a few of the fascinating facts:

1. I thought I knew all about onomatopoeia, however words representing "sounds" are different in different languages. In US English a horn goes "beep", in French, "tut, tut"!

2. Learning a language is not just about the words such as duck, goose, penguin - but also about the categories the words fit into like birds, swimmers....

3. The ART of translations is truly a creative art. Imagine the work involved in translating a novel so that you create a high-quality product that does justice to the original text while being accessible and meaningful to the new reader...retaining the original idea and feeling!

4. Idioms...phrases speakers of the same language understand but which might make absolutely no sense to a non-native speaker. For example: In English phrase "When pigs fly." (meaning something that will never happen) in Dutch is "When cows skate." and in Hindi is "One afternoon in your next reincarnation."

TAKE THE COURSE - you won't regret it.