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!