Seattle - Queen Anne

Queen Anne is a quiet, mostly residential neighbourhood in Seattle - a little ostentatious on the borders to Lower Queen Anne, where Kerry Park is situated (see below), and gradually becoming more modest as you near the Fremont Cut, a river that flows into Seattle's Lake Union.  Still, expect to see plenty of boats alongside the wood-clad homes.

I loved the peaceful feel to Queen Anne.  Whilst we mostly only walked through it, down Queen Anne Ave. N. on our way to Fremont, We were immediately struck by a sense of community to the place.  Queen Anne is generously populated with signature cafés, tea-rooms and restaurants that we'd have been sure to frequent with more time to spare. I detail a few below that caught my eye, to give an idea of what to expect:

Storyville Coffee

2128 Queen Anne Ave. N.

photo from: 

storyville.com/place/queen-anne

Hilltop Ale House

2129 Queen Anne Ave. N.

photo from:

facebook.com/HilltopAleHouse

Nana's Mexican Kitchen

1825 Queen Anne Ave. N.

photo from:

nanasmexicankitchen.com

Cederberg Tea House

1417 Queen Anne Ave. N.

photo from:

cederbergteahouse.com

Queen Anne Books

1811 Queen Anne Ave. N.

photo from:

www.qabookco.com

As for those places that we did find time to explore, there are two in Queen Anne that I would advocate as essential for anyone visiting the area:

Kerry Park

211 W. Highland Dr.

Those famous skylines that you know of Seattle from iconic shows such as Frasier can be seen from Kerry Park.  As such, it is a fantastic location to view the sun setting over Seattle.  If you're a photography enthusiast wanting that perfect shot, though, I'd recommend arriving early though, as the park is small and does get a little busy towards sunset.  I can't take credit for the photo below, and it was taken by Shaun Joyce Photography.  I will, however, take credit for holding his spot as he ran back to the hotel for a better lens.

We actually visited Kerry Park a couple of times, as it was not too far from our hotel in Lower Queen Anne.  That said, it is separated from Lower Queen Anne by an impressively steep hill, so be prepared to feel the burn in seeking this vista.  Shaun certainly did!  That said, the pay-off is well worth it. 

Blue Highway Games

2203 Queen Anne Ave. N. | www.bluehighwaygames.com

As previously mentioned, we were on somewhat of a mission as we walked through Queen Anne.  Our intention had been to walk as far as a bus stop, which we deemed was reasonable as Queen Anne Ave. N. is a busy enough road and leads pretty much directly to the bridge over into Fremont - our destination for that morning.  The trouble was that Queen Anne Ave. N. proved to be a one-way road, and since that walk to the other side of the bridge works out at a minimum of 3.5km, we had to make it brisk to ensure that we'd see enough of Fremont when we eventually got there.

Nonetheless, we were drawn to stop off a while in Blue Highway Games.  We instantly fell in love with it.

Happily, establishments such as Blue Highway Games are starting to appear now in the UK, but at the time we had never seen anything like it:  an extensive shop front showcases not just the games, but also laminated copies of their rulebooks to help you judge on more than the box cover, coupled with a comfortable library corner where you could sit down and try before you buy.  They also serve drinks and snacks, giving a gaming café experience, and the friendly owners frequently host gaming evenings.  At the time they were displaying an ongoing leaderboard for their Carcassonne Championship.  At the time my overwhelming feeling was "I wish I lived here - what a great way to meet people and have fun!":  A true embodiment of the spirit that emanates from Queen Anne's charming neighbourhood.

Index

Lower Queen Anne

Seattle Center

Fremont – coming soon

Belltown – coming soon

Downtown Seattle – coming soon

Pioneer Square – coming soon

Taking a Turn: an exercise in vocabulary.

By "taking a turn", I'm not referring to your opportunity to shine during a game of poker, or your go at bankrupting your soon-to-be-estranged family over a game of Monopoly.

I am instead referring to the archaic phrase "to go for a stroll", that many will not have encountered since they last read or watched Pride and Prejudice (BBC dramatisation only, please!).  Some may never have encountered it at all, such has it fallen out of modern usage.

Lizzie and Mr Darcy - taking a turn

I've been meaning to write about this phrase for a while now, since it came up in discussion at a wedding I attended last August.  A friend there related that she found it quaint how the Spanish phrase she'd recently learnt - "dar una vuelta" - literally translated to "to take a turn" in English.  At least, that's how I recall the conversation five months later - I may have actually indiscriminately butchered it in the interests of "linguistic journalism".

It occurred to me later that the Spanish aren't the only ones to take turns where us Anglophones would prefer a more specific walk or jog, or a more colloquial wander.  French has an identical construct:  "faire un tour".  Notice their use of the word "tour" that we would more likely see in phrases such as "guided tour" or "world tour".  It is the same word, with the same meaning...we have just bestowed it with more weight and specificity over time.

Do any languages you speak still use the same formula?  What other examples do you know of phrases or words becoming archaic in one language, but still going strong in another?  Leave a comment - I'd love to hear your examples!

Forvo: All the words in the world. Pronounced.

forvo.com

Forvo is an interestingly specific tool that I have recently come across that acts as an online pronunciation database.  Whilst I suspect that this tool will be more interesting to linguists than beginner learners, there are certainly applications for all levels of interest.

Sure, most online dictionaries these days have sound files attached to their entries, but Forvo allows users to explore pronunciations further.  Upon signing up users are asked to state their native language and the area that best represents their accent, meaning that you can listen to multiple pronunciations of the same word, knowing where in the accent spectrum that user's pronunciation lies.  This is not insignificant.  Think of the differences in pronunciation of the word "four" being spoken in, as an example, an Northern Irish or a Black Country accent.  Imagine the difficulties that the differing vowel sounds could present a foreign speaker with!

Forvo shows pronunciations and the location of the speaker.

Furthermore, imagine that you are learning a less common language that comes with fewer online learning opportunities.  There might not be as many words in Forvo for that language comparably with English or German, for example, but any that you can find are that much more valuable if your target language is less widely present in the online learning field.  The languages available in Forvo are numerous.  To name a few less common examples to the casual learner, Forvo boasts over 100,000 words of Tatar and over 10,000 words of Bashkir, Urdu and Azerbaijani.

Forvo's advantages do, however, come with their drawbacks.  The site is set up as a "wiki", meaning that content does rely on user input, so can never be 100% reliable.  Forvo do give users the option, however, to rate pronunciations as "good" or "bad".  With enough input this should enable users to differentiate which is the most trustworthy pronunciation, but for now there don't seem to be many ratings in place.  I imagine the site could benefit from a few more users for this to function better.  Many words do already have multiple interpretations, though, as well as whole phrases to offer context, so there is usually the option for the user to compare these and they should be able to filter the rotten apples out themselves, in most cases.

recording pronunciations to add to the Forvo database is very user-friendly

A couple of extra features worth mentioning:

After recording pronunciations, or upon navigating to the "Pronounce" page, Forvo will actually advertise which words and phrases are missing from your native language in its database.  These are often strange and can be, well, fairly amusing, as evidenced below.

Pronunciations can also be tagged to be added to groups.  These can be anything from names of Indian festivals to Tennis Players.  Being more of a football fan myself, I may start rallying for a Football Players group.  Maybe then, finally, our pundits can have a definitive guide for all those tricky foreign pronunciations!

Thug Notes: Classic Literature. Original Gangster

This is just a short post to recommend and share Thug Notes - a series of videos on the Wisecrack channel on youtube that I absolutely love.

The presenter, Sparky Sweets PhD presents summaries and analysis of classic literature as you've never seen before: through a gangster persona.

It's hilarious, informative, well worth a subscribe to Wisecrack's channel, and there are loads of these all ready and waiting for you to enjoy, so dive in!  Off the top of my head:  Hamlet, Catch 22, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights... 

I'll admit that a few have even opened my eyes to new interpretations of beloved classic reads.

They recently uploaded a review for Les Misérables, possibly one of my favourite novels ever, which I embed below for your enjoyment.

Danish Music

Some New Sounds:

Slem Igen - Blak & Jimilian (feat. Ceci Luca)

Tyveri - Hasan Shah (feat. Gilli)

Uanset - Rasmus Seebach

Some Old(er) Sounds

Page Four - Sommer

Listen to my "in-progress" Spotify playlist HERE

For my "in-progress" YouTube playlist, click HERE

Please feel free to suggest new tracks to me

Language Nerd Swag: Living Language Desk Calendars

These do exactly as advertised:  They are stand-alone day-to-view desk calendars that aim to inform on foreign language and culture.  They retail for approximately £10, but aren't especially high-demand products, so can sell for more from re-active retailers such as Amazon.  They can be tough to find on the high street (Waterstones are the only place I've seen them), but can be picked up for a bargain as the New Year progresses and stores look to sell off their calendar stocks.

Currently these calendars are available for those learning German, Spanish, Italian and French.

Whether or not this product is right for you and is likely to aid your language learning is, in my opinion, relative to your "working circumstances"...

On one hand the content is all there: useful vocabulary, pronunciation guide*, proper context via useful phrases and occasional cultural morsels.  If placed as a prominent vocal point on your workspace, Living Language's desk calendars can be an extremely valuable bolster to your more "hands-on" learning.

* whilst useful, always treat pronunciation guides with caution when delivered as written text.  We do all read them in different ways, so you have to have an idea of the language's phonetics to be sure that you're getting the right interpretation.

On the other hand, the calendars are not especially eye-catching, as you can see above.  You are paying for substance rather than glamour here, so if your work doesn't allow many moments for reflection then you will almost certainly forget that this is even on your desk.  This is not a  criticism of the product itself, but it's probably wise to consider how it might fit in to your daily routine:  There are no garish colours to remind you that the calendar is there, and the contents of the pages aren't going to jump up and insert themselves into your brain all by themselves.  You will still need to take time out to digest the day's content.

Generally speaking I would also advise not using this product in isolation, but that goes for all language learning resources.  Living Language do offer additional online content with purchase (accessible from http://www.livinglanguage.com/), though I'm afraid I didn't access this material myself upon purchasing one of these last year, so I can't advise on how good it is.  I'd just see it as a bonus on an already good quality product!

To sum up, these calendars can be a useful supplement to learning a language.  They can be easily digested on a daily basis and offer a solid vocabulary basis and useful phrases to consolidate the words that you have learned.  These phrases can be used in conjunction with research into the language's grammatical systems to offer a rounded view of the language that is suitable for everyday use.  I also had a lot of fun learning about important cultural holidays and literary works that I will be sure to research further.  I just hope that Living Language look to expand their range in the future, as I'd have loved a Polish calendar for this year!