Centre de langues HORIZONS

PANDEMIC BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE

3/7/2021

Someone once said that everything is perception - and perception is everything.
For a year now, our lives have changed, in many ways. Some of us have just moved to a home office, saving time and money, looking for investments and spending more time with family.. Some are struggling with lost jobs in the service and entertainment industries, making drastic changes in their plans, maybe going back to school, maybe waiting for the arenas to fill up again and the restaurants to open their dining rooms again... Some are keeping afloat but not at full capacity, taking it one day at a time... And then there are the front-line workers at grocery stores and hospitals who never got a chance to relax and take it easy during the lazy months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The one thing most of us have in common is MORE TIME. Did you learn to bake? Did you start learning how to play a musical instrument? Did you watch all the seasons of Friends again?

Here is an investment that takes time: learning or improving a language.
You can't buy it on Amazon and have it two days later. You can't wrap it to go. You can't load it in your car and take it home to enjoy. It takes time and commitment: you build, practice, learn, revise, play (on our online platform), forget some, practice some more - and month after month, you get more and more confident in your communication with the others.

Our ultimate goal is to lose you as a client: when we do, our work is done and you are ready to face your work, business trip, vacation, promotion, conversation - without our help! Fly solo. We will miss you - but that's what happens with baby birds leaving the nest, with grown-up children moving on with their lives, and with students who have become self-sufficient.

We have had the time to lazy around, to do more with our kids, to pause and re-evaluate what's important in life. Make that step. Commit to that language course. It has fun parts and hard work parts, ups and downs, takes time - a little every day, rather than two hours on Saturday - but it's all worth it in the end.

Get that new job. Talk to everyone you want to talk to. Watch movies in the original voices. Sing along with those hits. The pandemic gave you that time. Use it wisely.
More comfortable online? No problem: have your class the same way, with the same teacher, with more flexibility and less driving. Craving human contact and that face-to-face atmosphere? Come and have it while respecting a safe distance, having your coffee and making some new friends.

Remember: perception is everything - and everything is perception. Make the most of your time, now that you have it.

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Grandes ouvertes...We Welcome You - Always

10/12/2018

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Did You Know...?

9/2/2018

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Canada is more bilingual now than it has ever been...
...and Quebec has the highest number of bilingual people out of every province.
Research shows that it’s best to start learning a language at a young age, the best being 7 years old.
However, research also shows that this is due to perception, not biology. With the right approach, an adult can learn a language as effectively as a child!
Learning a language makes your brain physically grow! Brain scans show a greater density of grey matter in areas of the brain associated with language in people who speak two or more languages.
There are 46 different alphabets used worldwide.
Learning a second language helps prevent the mind from aging and delays the onset of conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s by as much as a decade.
The most widely spoken in the world is not English… it’s Mandarin/Chinese!
Interestingly, Mandarin is also the most difficult language to learn.
The easiest language to learn is Spanish.
The dot above an “i” or a “j” is called a tittle.
Bilingual people have a better memory.
Bilingual people do better academically, too!
The first alphabet was called the Phoenician alphabet, created sometime around 1200 BC.
89% of employers agree that being multilingual adds value to an employee.
43% of the world’s population speaks two languages fluently… 13% speaks three.
English is the most common second language. In fact, people who speak English fluently as a second language outnumber native speakers!
Almost half of languages have no written form.
Knowing more than one language makes it easier to learn additional languages. (You knew that one, didn’t you?)
The most common reason for wanting to learn a second language is to communicate better when travelling.
The most widely translated books after The Bible are The Little Prince and Pinocchio.
There are roughly 6500 languages spoken in the world today; however, 2000 of these languages have fewer than 1000 speakers; in fact, one language becomes extinct every 14 days.
The most linguistically diverse country is Papua New Guinea, where around 840 languages are spoken.
There are more Spanish speakers in the US than in Spain.
In Chinese, dogs go 'wang wang'... in Spanish they go 'guau guau'... and in Swedish they go 'voff voff’.
- Some cool celebrity facts (about language, of course): ✓ Arnold Schwarzenegger was told that he cannot voice his own character in a movie translated to German because his Austrian accent was too rough; ✓ The actress Sandra Oh, Canada’s own, is fluent also in Korean - and French, which she learned in Montreal; ✓ Mila Kunis was born in The Ukraine, and she speaks excellent Ukrainian and Russian to this day; ✓ Celine Dion didn’t start learning English until well into her teens – and her motivation was world fame, her inspiration – Michael Jackson.

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"IF MAMA AIN'T HAPPY, AIN'T NOBODY HAPPY"

3/18/2018

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You can improvise all you want - with your own sentences and thoughts.
When it comes to expressions and idioms, you learn them and use them exactly as they are; there is no room for improvement, grammar corrections, free styling or synonyms.
You can't say things like "Nobody is happy in the house if the mom is not happy"; nope, not an option.
It's raining cats and dogs - never "dogs and cats", and most definitely, never any other animals.

There are different degrees of idiomaticity: some expressions have meanings that are easy to guess (example: "to bite more than you can chew") and others have to be learned because at first they appear to be a total mystery (example: "to fall off the wagon" or "to put your money where your mouth is"). Obviously, in the first case the meaning is that someone has taken more responsibilities or work than they can handle, or gotten into a situation which is more demanding than they thought it would be. Anyone can figure it out without much effort. However, if you fall off the wagon, you fail at something you decided to change or pursue, like a diet or a fight with an addiction. You were sober but relapsed into drinking? Yep, you fell off the wagon. You hopped on the wagon with good people and support and really good intentions - but lost your nerve or something happened and now you're back into the problem, off the wagon. The idiom about the money and the mouth is my favorite because I totally misunderstood it the first time I run across it and thought it was supposed to mean that money doesn't buy happiness and you can stick it wherever. In reality, however, you put your money where your mouth is when you keep your promise! Crazy, I know!

Once you get into the territory of idioms, you have reached an intermediate level of learning a language - English, French, Spanish or any other. You vocabulary is rich enough and you are able to use it comfortably in a more eloquent way. The trick here is to remember and use the idioms mot-à-mot, as the French say, word-for-word. No improv allowed. If you say that you dropped off the wagon... you said nothing. If you announce that you have more in your mouth than you are able to chew, it doesn't cut it. Sometimes it's funny, but most of the time it's just plain awkward. Don't. No, seriously, don't. You were doing so well showing off all your knowledge; don't ruin everything by declaring you have put your "blood, tears and sweat" into that project - it's "blood, sweat and tears" in that exact order. If you need a drink, you can't say that in some time zone it's probably 5 pm and socially acceptable; "it's 5 o'clock somewhere", no variations. Well, except in French, where cultural differences manifest themselves in a very amusing way, by correcting the acceptable time for a drink to noon: "midi" is a good time to have a glass of wine with lunch in more liberal cultures.

Idioms are fun. Research their origins, find cartoons with their meanings, write a few sentences using them in your own way... They are the salt of the earth, the Holy Grail of language learning, the cherry on top... you get the idea!

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Moving to a new address Jan. 1st, 2017 37, rue St-Eustache (St-Eustache)

12/12/2016

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THAT PESKY "S"

4/14/2016

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ACCENTS / DICTION / PRONUNCIATION

2/18/2016

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VLog Jan. 2016: WORD BLENDS

1/21/2016

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BROKEN HEART 1990 VS. 2015

4/1/2015

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NOTHING COMPARES 2 U
Sinead O'Connor (1990)

It's been seven hours and fifteen days
Since u took your love away
I go out every night and sleep all day
Since you took your love away

Since you've been gone I can do whatever I want
I can see whomever I choose
I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant
But nothing
I said nothing can take away these blues
'Cause nothing compares
Nothing compares 2 U

It's been so lonely without you here
Like a bird without a song
Nothing can stop these lonely tears from falling
Tell me baby where did I go wrong
Nothing compares
Nothing Compares 2 U

I could put my arms around every boy I see
But they'd only remind me of you
I went to the doctor and guess what he told me
Guess what he told me
He said girl you better try to have fun
No matter what you do
But he's a fool
'Cause nothing compares
Nothing compares 2 U

All the flowers that you planted, mama
In the back yard
All died when you went away
I know that living with you baby was sometimes hard
But I'm willing to give it another try
Nothing compares
Nothing compares 2 U

HABITS
Tove Lo (2015)

I eat my dinner in my bathtub
Then I go to sex clubs
Watching freaky people getting it on
It doesn't make me nervous
If anything, I'm restless
Yeah, I've been around and I've seen it all.

I get home, I got the munchies
Binge on all my Twinkies
Throw up on the tub
Then I go to sleep
And I drank up all my money
Dazed and kinda lonely.

You're gone and I gotta stay
High all the time
To keep you off my mind
High all the time
To keep you off my mind
Spend my days locked in a haze
Tryna forget you, babe
I fall back down,
Gotta stay high all my life
To forget I'm missing you.

Pick up daddies at the playground
How I spent my time
Loosen up their frown, make them feel alive
Oh make it fast and greasy
I'm numb and way too easy

You're gone and I gotta stay
High all the time
To keep you off my mind

Spend my days locked in a haze
Tryna forget you, babe
I fall back down
Gotta stay high all my life
To forget I'm missing you-uuuuh uuuuh

Staying in my play pretend
Where the fun ain't got no end, ooh
Can't go home alone again
Need someone to numb the pain, oooh

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TRUE OR FALSE?

1/20/2015

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Here is my argument in favor of learning a new language: every person around the world has done it! At some point, in some way, from conversations with parents and friends, following songs or TV shows, children form their vocabulary and start learning their mother tongue – naturally, gradually, step by step, year after year.

Nobody was born speaking a language.

So much for the tired excuse: “I’m not good with languages”! Recently, scientists have discovered that children are not really learning more easily or more quickly than us, adults. They spend several hours a day, immersed in the new language at school or out in the street, in a new country, working hard on their new skills, making mistakes, trying again, repeating and slowly going forward. Adults are more self-conscious and more critical; they get discouraged by every mistake, often have unrealistic expectations and, almost all the time, they’re very hard on themselves. Well, we, your teachers, have news for you: learning a language is a process. Make your mistakes – then the teacher will explain and correct you – then you’ll start catching yourself and correcting yourself – and fluency will come with time, practice and dedication.

It's a proven psychological fact that we retain much more when we are interested in the subject of learning. Our memory is very selective this way. Events and experiences that have impressed us or moved us deeply are engraved in our memory, many years later, while we all have boring exams we have passed and completely forgotten about within weeks. Take a sports fan who knows every detail about his favorite team or player, plus stats and scoring situations, championships, positions on the field, etc. I could never remember that, since watching sports is not my cup of tea; but ask me about my favorite musicians, and I will tell you every album, every landmark in their lives - believe it or not, I know every word of every song of my favorite band from the time I was growing up (it's too embarrassing to mention but I still like them), and I have won a bunch of contests and prizes because of my useless trivia knowledge, based on pure interest in the subject.

There is a huge, dangerous misconception about games, music and all visual media as sources of entertainment and nothing more. On top of that, young language learners are presumed distracted and unwilling to learn. Connect the dots, and you have the picture: if your students are lacking in interest or motivation, the reason is most likely boredom. The traditional textbook-workbook-pen-chalk-blackboard concept may be still good, but it most definitely is only a small part of the arsenal a language teacher can use in an attempt to make it a success.

So accept that new language as a new adventure.

Take a deep breath. Jump! The water is great.

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Author

A Europe-born-and-raised, but also suburban mother of two, with a passion for languages, cultures, writing, travel and knowledge - combining my 20-something years of teaching and marketing into a language school on the North Shore of Montreal. Quebec, Canada.
Finally, I've put my university degrees and creative energy to work - in harmony!
I sincerely hope you enjoy my vision, humor and creations.
------------------------------------------
Une femme d'Europe mais aussi une mère de banlieue, avec la passion pour des langues, des cultures du monde, d'écriture, des voyages et de la connaissance - en combinant mes 20+ ans de l'enseignement et de marketing dans une école de langues située sur la Rive-Nord de Montreal, Québec, Canada.
Enfin, j'ai mis mes diplômes universitaires et mon énergie créative au travail, ensemble!
J'espère sincèrement que vous apprécierez mes idées, mon humeur et mes créations.

Tips and insights

PANDEMIC BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE

Grandes ouvertes...We Welcome You - Always

Did You Know...?

"IF MAMA AIN'T HAPPY, AIN'T NOBODY HAPPY"

Moving to a new address Jan. 1st, 2017 37, rue St-Eustache (St-Eustache)

THAT PESKY "S"

ACCENTS / DICTION / PRONUNCIATION

VLog Jan. 2016: WORD BLENDS

BROKEN HEART 1990 VS. 2015

TRUE OR FALSE?

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