Al Gore warns on latest climate trends

At TED2009, Al Gore presents updated slides from around the globe to make the case that worrying climate trends are even worse than scientists predicted, and to make clear his stance on "clean coal."
Turn on the subtitles in English or French by selecting it in the drop down menu below.

How babies learn languages

Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.

Turn on the subtitles in English or French by selecting it in the drop down menu below.


   


Read more at http://www.usingenglish.com/weblog/archives/000454.html#qoEcZcKQaEdqElHZ.99

Sort of

informal: in a way, to some degree

• I sort of believe that, but not totally. - je le croyais plus ou moins 
• I sort of miss everyone. -en quelque sorte

Educational system

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish on his ability to climb a tree, it will spend the rest of its life thinking its an idiot."

-Albert Einstein

http://21stcenturyhippies.blogspot.in/2011/11/educational-system-in-one-image.html

Become the language learner you want to be

The future of English : Go English N°58 January-February 2013 

An article published in the latest issue of “Go English” explore for us the realm of language-learning strategies, from using innovative technologies to writing a language learning plan.

The first advice given by the author is to personalize your learning strategies, whether your motivations are career or leisure-related, they are closely linked to your aspirations and that’s what makes your apprenticeship unique.

They suggest that by taking time out to get to know ourselves better,we should be able to build up a learning strategy that suit best our ways of learning. Knowing better how we function as a learner will enable us to play to our strenghts.

Here are some examples of steps you can take towards getting better acquainted with your learning style through the use of new technologies.

For those who learn best by engaging in real-life conversations, there are versatile online websites offering tuition as well as online chatting. For example, have you ever considered how you could use Twitter or Facebook choosing the English version on a day-to-day basis and encourage your friend to respond in English too. Little things like this, done on a regular basis, can add significantly to your language practice time.

A handy way of squeezing some language practice into a small time window can lie on the use of language-learning apps such as crosswords or games like “Word Carrot” to commit more new vocabulary words to memory.

In a more collaborative approach, you can share video on Youtube and try to post the transcript you’ve produced. You could also use a bookmarking sites to collate useful language resources and share them with others.

You can also choose to start off a blog and share resources that can be used time and again by people following you. Putting yourself out there in the blogosphere helps also to generate enthusiasts and could even open doors that you least expect.

Writing a learning plan can help you to think through your learning objectives. You can list your areas of strength, weakness, the time frame to realize your objectives and you can record your progress against your objectives.

You can indulge in more relaxing activities by watching a film with English subtitles.

To put in a nutshell, technology has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past decades, opening up doors for creative and exciting ways to learn a language than ever before, so by taking time to get to know what works for you, you are setting off on an exhilarating journey. The world is your oyster!

Vocabulary

realm : domaine
by taking time out to get to know oneself : en prenant le temps de se connaître
to play to our strengths : exploiter ses points forts
getting better acquainted with: se familiariser avec
to squeeze sth into: caser quelque chose dans
to commit to memory: graver en mémoire
to collate : rassembler
time and again : maintes et maintes fois
Putting yourself out there : se faire connaître
to think through : bien réfléchir à quelque chose
record your progress against : évaluer ses progres par rapport
indulge in : s’offrir
to put in a nutshell: en résumé
by taking time to get to know what : en prenant le temps de connaître
setting off on : se lancer dans
exhilarating : exitant
The world is your oyster! : le monde vous appartient

Monitoring microblogs

Word in the news: Sina Wiebo



Ecouter le rapport





To mine:

• They mined the data, looking for buying patterns. analyser, extraire des données 
• In this context, data-mining means information gathering and analysis. - traitement des données

To bring into line:
Syn: to bring into alignment

• Bringing bloggers into line is forcing bloggers to follow the rules

To flag
Syn: making a note of; highlighting something for more attention

• Censorship in China included flagging repeat offenders for closer scrutiny. - signaler, baliser, marquer
• The errors were flagged in the margin.

Heavy-handed
Syn: using too much force

• However, press freedom is endangered not only by heavy-handed oppression but also by public indifference. - autoritaire, maladroit

To walk a fine line
Syn: to conciliate

• Today, all democratic governments walk a fine line between these two claims. - concilier, trouver le juste milieu 

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/03/130311_witn_china_microblogs.shtml 

Sina Wiebo is a Chinese microblogging website. More information on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sina_Weibo

A bucket list

A bucket list (slang)
Syn: to-do list

• a compilation of things one has never done but wishes to do before dying. 

A drop in the bucket (slang)

• The U.S. needs to redevelop passenger rail; Amtrak funding is just a drop in the bucket.- une goutte d'eau dans la mer 

A bucket of worms (slang)

•  slang: loose and nasty

Opening a can of worms (slang)

•  If you open a can of worms, you do something that will cause a lot of problems and is, on balance, probably going to cause more trouble than it's worth.

To kick the bucket (slang)
Syn: to die

• Did you hear that her grandfather kicked the bucket? -casser sa pipe

 

Born to learn

 

Vocabulary

• thereabouts: environ
• grown-up: adulte
• desperate to: désespéré de
• knock togheter: entrechoquer
• to pull apart: démonter  
• going along with what: qui est en accord avec
• the longing to: le désir de
• to walk out the door: prendre la porte
• pliable: docile 
• bewilder: dérouter, rendre perplexe  
• exhilarating:  exhaltant, grisant, enivrant
• to bear in mind: garder à l'esprit

Transcript

Ever feel like you're capable of far more than what society expects of you?

I know I do, remember being a teenager and school being less about a passion to learn and more about getting good grades. How many times did you sit in class bored and desperate to just get away?

Every teens felt that. Albert Einstein acted on it.Aged just fifteen he's sitting in class when all of us sudden, he decides enough is enough, gets up and walks right out the door, he never goes back.

Remember being a kid and just wanting to play around with stuff, pulling things apart, knocking things together and to the grown-ups saying no, no or being called “good” for sitting still or “naughty” when you couldn’t bear to sit still any longer. It’s all completely well-intentioned of course but that doesn't make it any less insane because the fact is, our capacity to create and learn knows no bounds and the latest research proves it.

The invention of MRI scans, only in the past twenty five years, has allowed scientists to see which part of the brain is used by different kinds of thinking.

We now know infinitely more than we did about how we learn and what makes up human intelligence and it's extraordinary. So, want to know what you’re really capable of?

Let's start at the beginning. A baby's brain is amazing, it doesn't take nine months to create, it takes seven million years and around three hundred and fifty thousand generations.

All the skills, knowledge and talents cultivated by our ancestors are stored inside it. These are like numerous software programs which can only be activated by the baby engaging with its environment, here's the striking thing, if not activated at the most appropriate time, they simply disappear.

Take language, if a child doesn't hear language by around the age of eight, they may never learn to speak. So you can see just how important our interactions are, they ignite our dormant intelligence and they reinforce it too.

There's something else. We have evolved to learn by looking at things from different perspectives and making connections between things and we do that through play.

So wouldn't it be amazing if we bore all this in mind when raising kids, letting them play when they're little and when they're older too.

Charles Darwin's teacher did never amount too much because he spent too much time playing with insects. So let children play because it's never just play, of course it takes more time and energy to do this but when you’re deciding where to focus resources for kids learning, you couldn't do better than focusing on pre-puberty, that's when we learn by copying the people around us, after twelve or thereabouts it's all changed.

Say goodbye to pliable easy child and hello rebellious challenging teenager. Huu, where do those cute babies go. Ah well, let's have another look at that brain. See what's happening?

Loads of the connections made through childhood are breaking up and reforming. From around the age of about twelve through twenty, the equivalent of an earthquake takes place in a young person's brain, no more going along with what the grown-ups say.

The adolescent brain needs to go its own way. Oh no say parents, Oh yes say evolutionary scientists because if we hadn't developed this urge to do things differently, we would never made it this far. Up until about sixty or seventy thousand years ago, it was fine for children to grow up like their parents but then along came the last ice age, Thank goodness for that handful of our ancestors who chose to break away from their doomed parents freezing to death in the ancestral caves.

They built rafts and set off across the ocean hoping to find a place with a warmer climate. Critically this made “risk taking” the essential feature of adolescence. We shouldn't bewilder adolescence, we should be honoring it for what it really is: the defining struggle,  the moment when the next generation challenges the status quo and pioneers new ways of thinking and being that ensure our survival.

Now just imagine if we actually gave adolescents the freedom to undertake that's struggle rather than force them to sit passively in class. How about trusting that their earlier “clone like” learning now enables adolescent to spread their wings and works things out for themselves? If that sounds terrifying, it needn't be because if we allow their natural curiosity to flourish in childhood they will be bursting with the longing to learn and climb unscaled mountains of the mind and that's not scary, that’s exhilarating, this is the way we've evolved to be, it’s what makes us fulfilled well-adjusted human beings.

Let’s stop trying to live in a way that still goes against how we’re hardwired to live. Let's allow ourselves and the next generation to reclaim the incredible gift of our ancestors. Adolescence is not a problem but it’s an opportunity.

Dreams 'can help with learning'

Napping after learning something new could help you commit it to memory - as long as you dream, scientists say. Dreaming may be a sign our brain is working hard in our sleep. They found people who dream about a new task perform it better on waking than those who do not sleep or do not dream. 

Study tips
Co-author Dr Erin Wamsley said the study suggests our non-conscious brain works on the things that it deems are most important. 

"Every day we are gathering and encountering tremendous amounts of information and new experiences," she said. "It would seem that our dreams are asking the question, 'How do I use this information to inform my life?"

The research, published in the academic journal Cell Biology, could have practical implications.The scientists say there may be ways to take advantage of this phenomenon for improving learning and memory. 

For example, students might be better studying hard before bedtime, or taking a nap after a period of afternoon study. 

More about this subject at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8638551.stm

Commit sth to memory

BBC News

Syn: memorize, to learn by heart, to keep in memory

• Spies commit their orders to memory instead of carrying them on paper.
• If your board has such a policy, commit it to memory and follow it.
• Napping after learning something new could help you commit it to memory

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8638551.stm

To be on the slippery slope

To be on the slippery slope:
Syn: to be on the wrong track, to go downhill 

• The country's economy was on a slippery slope following the closure of its biggest industry. - être sur la mauvaise pente

•  With his big drinking problem he was on a slippery slope to bad health.

To go downhill

• The company went downhill after it lost its best contract.- dégringoler, décliner

As slippery as an eel
it means they are not honest and you can't trust them. It is difficult to catch them behaving in this way.

Variations around "time"

Back in time

From that point on - depuis ce moment
Syn: from that point until now, from that point onwards

• From that point on, he began to report to the captain the aircraft's position relative to the ground 

• From that point onwards, the policy has been reviewed many times in order to reflect changes in framework conditions

• From 1965 onwards - depuis 1965 jusqu'à ce jour

• Ten years on - Dix ans plus tard, cela fait 10 ans

From now on - dorénavant, à partir de maintenant
Syn: as of now, henceforth (formal), hereafter, by now

• As of now, you are no longer welcome in my house. 

• It should be clear by now - à l'heure qu'il est

Up until now - jusqu'à présent, jusqu'à ce jour
Syn: up to now, so far, hitherto, to date, till now

• To date, the project is an overwhelming success.

To date back - remonter à
Syn: dating from

• We also commented on another case of unlawful conduct dating back to 1997 - qui remonte à 1997  
• Dating back centuries - séculaire  
• Dating back 10 years

Take advantage of subtitles

• Listen to the BBC and display the teletext on screen so as to pinpoint the words you don't understand the meaning or the pronunciation

BBC Words in the news: wikileaks soldiers

• first-hand account: a written or spoken report about something given by somebody who was involved. un récit de première main
• blood lust: the enjoyment of and desire to see violence. - soif de sang
• backdoor: secretive and often dishonest or illegal. - clandestin, illicite
• unbecoming: inappropriate or unacceptable (of behaviour). - inconvenant
• plea: statement given in court in response to being accused of a crime. - faire appel
• to plea: plaidoyer
• to push ahead with: continue doing something difficult or unpleasant.- pousuivre

Variations around "landmark"

Landmark:
linked: benchmark, milestone, mark 

• We signed landmark agreements with the provinces – Accord historique

• A landmark decision,  a landmark ruling - Une décision qui fait date, qui fait jurisprudence

• Syn : milestone

• This can be used to create a visual landmark – Point de repère dans l’espace

• Historical landmark were destroyed – Monument

• The charter was a landmark in our law – Jalon, étape

• Syn: Stage, step, leg, stadium 

• The landmarks were wiped out by floods – Borne 

• Synonymes :Bollard, post: Poteau qui empêche les voitures de passer  Signpost : Panneau de signalisation Milestone: Borne kilométrique

Milestone: 

• It marks an important milestone in the deepening of co-operation with the central banks – Etape importante

Mark: 

• This time you really have overstepped the mark. – Tu dépasses les bornes.

Leg: 

• The second leg of the flight is from Paris to Milan. – Etape

A benchmark:

• Each of these attributes can be measured against a benchmark. – Standard, un point de référence
  
  Benchmark price – Un prix de référence 
  A benchmark test – Un  test d’évaluation

To benchmark: 
We need to benchmark the project as regards their impact on human right – Evaluer

• 
  

Variations around "to shed"

To shed:
syn: to get rid of sth, to dispose of sth, to dump, to discard, to slough off, to throw away

• The snake sheds its skin. - Muer

• slough off to remove an outer layer of skin
  (slough= /slʌf/)

• You will shed several kilograms on this diet. - Perdre, se délester

• Shed your clothes and swim. - Enlever, ôter 
• The trees shed their leaves in late summer. -Perdre ses feuilles
• In autumn the oak trees will shed.
• The new fabric sheds water easily. - Repousser l'eau, être imperméable
• They shed tears of joy.- verser

A shed (noun)

• Park the airplane in the shed. - Hangar
• The cows are in the shed.- Etable
• My husband spends a lot of time in his garden shed. - Abris de jardin

To dispose of sth

• They tried to dispose of the evidence by flushing the drugs down the toilet.-Se débarrasser
• After the funeral we have a whole houseful of stuff that we have to dispose of.- Se débarrasser

To dump

• Don't try to dump all your work on me -- do it yourself!.- Fourguer (argot) 

Dump (noun)

• Garbage or rubbish dump. - Décharge  
• Screen dump.- Capture d'écran