Behemoth

Behemoth:

often capitalized : a mighty animal described in Job 40:15–24 as an example of the power of God

2: something of monstrous size, power, or appearance <a behemoth truck> 

 

 So, when thinking about this word, I am hoping that this is not too much of a stretch on using the word of the week, but I wanted to choose Mont. St. Michel to portray this word. 

Mont St Michel is a castle that is located in the Normandy region of France. This is one my favorite places I've ever been. It is so full of history. One of my favorite parts is that this is located just enough offshore that it is impassible when the water rises. Something about the structure, the closeness, it just seems so crazy to me to understand a time when people lived in such a small commune. I know that it doesn't necessarily describe a "behemoth" place; however, the thought of how royalty, peasants, merchants, nuns and priests all inhabited this area is a behemoth idea to me. 

 

I am listing the wiki site for it, for some background :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint-Michel 

 

It just impresses me greatly that things we do today, such as live life, our houses, our education, leaders and peasants all resided in such a small area as compared to today standards. 

 

So for my "behemoth", I choose the idea of the city within and the inner workings rather than land mass itself. It is such an intricate and grand city that is encompassed in such a small area. The way in which every day interaction would have occurred is a "behemoth" idea for me to process. It is a beautiful place and piece of history. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as me!

 

Enjoy the pictures!!! 

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Ambidextrous

Ambidextrous

While thinking about the best way to come up with this word in relation to a language or a country, I thought of French in different francophone countries. If one is serious about studying French, you would probably come across the difference of the accents throughout the francophone countries. One that is most notable to me is the French accent from France (or the general French accent, if that is possible to say) and the Canadian accent.

We don't have to get into the fact that I like one more than the other, but the Canadian accent is just crazy for me. I've studied French for almost 20 years, and for some reason the Canadian accent is still hard for me to always understand. Personally, I like to show my students the difference in the accent and see what they think. Here at the U of A, we have both a study abroad program in Chicoutimi, Quebec, as well as multiple cities in France such as Besançon and Le Mans. I have posted two videos, one showing the Canadian accent and one showing the French accent. The Canadian video is quite long and the French one is a movie I love! I just want you all to see the difference in between the two.

Canadian Accent

French Accent

As we have discussed multiple times throughout the semester, although the language itself is what we want our students to focus on, the culture is a great part of the language as well. The difference in these two accents is a wonderful example of how French is seen and used around the world.

Although I doubt I'm teaching anyone anything really "new" with this post, I still think things like showing the difference in the accents is very  much apart of learning the language. Enjoy!

Piggyback

Ah the word piggyback. Such a simple term we are all very accustom to hearing and using, but what an interesting word to try and associate with other cultures. After some thought, I am sad to say that I won't be as creative as I was last time.

As many people know, some of  the "super powers" of the world (i.e. the US, France, England, etc.) not only have their own country but still maintain multiple territories as well. Today, most territories function on their own, but maintain the statues of being a territory. Some, however, still maintain some financial reliability on their motherland.

One thing that has come up recently is the question of how much financial aid should be given to various territories that are held by France? With the global financial crisis, along with the specific EU crisis, how much is too much when it comes to helping its territories? These territories are know as the DOM (Département d'outre mer) that include Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guinea. These territories essentially have the same status and benefits of a regular French citizen. Without boring anyone too much with the history of France and its territories, the DOM are what they call "
ultra-peripheral regions", which basically means they have a "structural handicap". Essentially, what these territories need is constant aid from its governing nation. The problems that can arise is a false sense of independence and once problems arise, such as the financial crisis of the EU, problems arise much faster and greater than imagined.

The question then arises, what happens in the situation of a financial crisis? Is it up to the governing territory to also pull its territory out of the financial crisis when they, themselves are already struggling? Who is responsible in this whole process? Should the territory step up and handle it on its own? Should there be more requirements of sorts put on the territories themselves to ensure that they can survive on their own?

I obtained my information from the following article:

 EU Crisis Article

Any quotations used are taking from this article. The article is quite lengthy so don't feel obligated to read the whole thing by any means. Hopefully I have explained it well enough for everyone.

Pugilism

Pugilism: n : boxing

This week, I've spent quite a bit of time trying to think of the best way to blog about this word. To me, although the meaning is clear, I have had quite a bit of difficulty in my attempt to relate it in some way to the francophone culture. I wanted to try and come up with something more original than the obvious of a boxer or history of boxing. In saying that, I came across something that I found very interesting.

French Cow Fighting. Yes, I am writing about French cow fight.

Dating back to its origin in the 1910s, cow fighting has been an annual event attracting crowds up to 50,000 people from all over. The event is actually held in Alps in the city of Martigny, Switzerland, a town located close to the French border. For the competition, there is only one type of cow used, the Herens, which is the breed most adapted to the climate and mountain conditions. The Herens is a naturally aggressive breed.  Each year at the "combats des reines" (queen fights), handlers fight their cows against one another until they reach one ultimate winner, or "La Reine des Reines". Battles can last anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. As stated in the video posted below, one man talks about the difference between this competition where you have cows fighting against themselves and the famous bullfights of Spain. The things he points out is that this competition is animal versus animal, not animal versus man. As he puts it, "it is a notable difference." They did come up against some problems in the 1980s from animal rights groups, but apparently were able to bypass this in stating that the injuries were not significant enough on average.

Here is a link to a video that has all the information on it and it is only about 6 minutes long.

Cow Fighting

Now, I don't put this up here to start a huge debate one way or the other, I just found this piece of history that has remained for almost 100 years interesting to share. What I would like to hear from you all though is an answer to the question at the end of the video.

If you want some more information on it, I have a few websites.

•  Rules (French)
• Wiki - Cow Fighting (English)

This is a picture of the prizes that goes to first, second, third, etc...


Lastly, I also found out they have camel wrestling in Turkey, but I'll save that for another post.

Aegis

When thinking of the word of the week, aegis, I was partial to one of the definitions given by the the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Control or guidance especially by an individual, group, or system.


When taking this look at the word, immediately I think of a teacher/mentor, or in my case a foreign language teacher. As teachers, we have the majority of control in our students' language learning. Sure, students can seek out other means to learn a language (books, movies, music, etc); however, instruction in a classroom is (hopefully) the most accurate way to learn a language. As teachers, we fit all three categories of this guidance and control. We have individual times with all students both in and out of the class. As a whole, we work as a group to ensure the language learning as a department. Finally, all languages come together as a system to enrich and enlighten the students to the world I which they live.








Another way of looking at this word with language would be a native speaker from any country respectively. To a foreigner, they are your guide to experiencing the language and culture from that country. I know what I have done before with friends that are native speakers from other countries, we both help each other out when needed to remember words or learn new terms. For me at least, it's fun and exciting to be opened up to a new world. Without this guide or control, this task would be much harder to accomplish. Now my question is, have any of you found yourself in either of these scenarios?

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Nomothetic

When learning any new language, one synonymously learns another culture as well. From a young age, I constantly learned about new languages and cultures through my elementary school. Unbeknownst to me at the time, not all elementary schools provided the options of learning about new languages and cultures like mine did. Now that I am older, I realize how close-minded people can be. People tend to base their opinions on things they know and don't always seek out more information that what is given to them. When I think of the word "nomothetic", what comes to mind is not only the idea of what I would consider a nomothetic word or statement, but what others may have concerning my life.

Although it was not until a few days ago that I knew the meaning of this word, my first real encounter with this idea was when I was ten. It was my first time to travel without the comfort of my family when my class did an exchange program with an elementary school in France. We lived with host families and attended classes for a month. Of course you wonder what things are going to be like when you visit a new place, but having been taught by native French speakers, I had been introduced to much of the French lifestyle with things such as food, traditions, teaching styles, etc. The moment most marking to my life in regards to this term was when I had a student in my class ask me, "Do you ride horses to school and live in teepees?" To me, this was such a ridiculous notion. How did he not know that we lived in houses and drove cars everywhere? At the time, I didn't think much of it and of course politely told him how things really were. It is humorous to reflect on how surprised he was of this news.

Today, being around so many people of varying backgrounds and ages, it is interesting to see the multitude of the abstract ideas people hold of others and of other cultures. As much as I try, I am sure I fall subject to this from time to time, but I try to keep myself well informed. I would not want someone assuming or passing judgement on me while only have an abstract idea of who I am, and therefore want to do the same for others. Being as involved with the language world as I am, I would love for people to be more away with this idea of being nomothetic.

Le voilà!