Saturday, December 18, 2010

How Canadian Labeling Laws Can Help You Learn French at the Supermarket

Canadians, and visitors to Canada, know that products sold in Canada have to be labeled in both English and French.  It’s one of the things that Canadian customs checks for when products cross the border.

What you probably didn’t know is that these Canadian labeling laws make every trip to a Canadian supermarket AND every trip to a US supermarket a chance to learn more French.

You see, businessmen hate making separate English and French versions of the same thing, so a lot of times, they simply print both English and French labels on the same box so they can sell the same version to the US and Canada.
French Labeled Squid

Many products sold in the US like this box of frozen squid for sale in Hawaii are labeled in both English and French.

Pay Attention to French Labels

If you live in Canada, turn every trip to the supermarket into a chance to learn a few new French words.

If you live in the United States, turn every trip to the supermarket into a search for products labeled in both English and French.  You will find them!

When you find one, compare the labels and learn to read the French words.
Make it a game!

You’ll turn your shopping time into French study time.   What a deal!
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by Brent Van Arsdell
Brent is an engineer . . . and a world traveler.  When he’s not traveling the world, he’s busy making software to help people Learn Canadian French and other languages.

He works for Language101.com

Angelina Jolie Deserves an Award for Leadership in Language Education

People often ask me, “How can I teach my 3 year old French or Spanish?”
I always say, “First let me tell you how Angelina Jolie is teaching her children French.”
The first thing you should know is that she isn’t spending a penny more for her children to learn French than other Hollywood moms are spending whose children aren’t learning French.

So what’s she doing?
She hires French nannies to do most of the care for her children.
It’s that simple.
The French nannies care for her children in French and her children automatically learn French.
French nannies work just as cheaply as American nannies, so it doesn’t cost her a penny more.
Don’t worry about her children not learning English, they live in Hollywood, California, USA.  They’ll learn English just fine.

If You Can Afford To — Follow Her Example

Angelina’s method for teaching small children a language is an excellent one.  If you can afford it, it will work every time.  Just make sure that your nanny talks to your children in the language you want them to learn.
It’s just as cheap to hire a French nanny as is it to hire an American one, so if you are going to pay for this type of premium childcare, you might as well have your children get a great language education at the same time.

How to Follow Angelina’s Example Without Spending as Much Money
If you don’t plan on spending the money to hire nannies, you can get almost as much benefit for your children by putting them in foreign language day care.
Even the most dedicated mom needs time away from her children.  If you consistently use your child care time as foreign language learning time, your children will automatically learn an additional language.
This won’t cost you a penny more than you would pay for child care in English, you’ll just have to spend a little bit more time to find the right people.
The key thing here is consistency.  Don’t put your child in Spanish language day care one month and French day care the next month.  Pick one language and be consistent.

One Day a Week is Probably Worthless

There is a certain minimum amount of time for your child to spend with foreign language care givers in order for this to work.  One day per week is not enough time.
For example, it’s obvious that if a French speaking nanny spends 20 minutes per week with your daughter it’s not enough to have your daughter learn French.
Three days per week, for at least four hours per day is probably the minimum amount of time necessary for this to work.
One or two days per week definitely won’t work.

Don’t Spread Your Child Too Thin
Some ambitious parents want their children to learn several languages.  This might be okay if you did it just perfectly, but I’ve often seen this fail.
For example, my brother speaks pretty good Spanish and his wife is a native speaker of Czech, so they decided to teach their children both Spanish and Czech.
But since they didn’t remember to get the minimum required time in either of these languages the result is that his children can only speak a few words of Spanish and Czech.
It’s better to succede with one language than to fail with two.

Turn Family Vacations into Fun Language Learning
Do you think that Angelina Jolie takes her children with her when she vacations in France?  You bet she does  . . .  you can read about it in the tabloids.
If you can take your children on vacations to France too . . . that’s great.  However you can have just as much fun in the French speaking province of Quebec, Canada without the expensive flights to Paris.
For most North Americans, a drive to Quebec is a lot easier, faster, and cheaper than a flight to France.
For example, if you leave New York City by car in the morning, you can easily have dinner in Quebec that same evening.
Driving to Quebec from New York City is faster than flying to Paris and you’ll still be in the eastern time zone so you won’t have any jet lag either!
If you do decide to vacation in Quebec, both you and your children will have a lot more fun if you can speak French too.  So take time to learn Canadian French before you go.


Learn Along With Your Children
I’m not sure how well Angelina Jolie speaks French, but my guess is that she’s probably at least conversational in French.
If she wasn’t, I would encourage her to study French at the same time that her children are learning it.
The more encouragement your children get for their language learning from the people who love them, the better this works.

Angelina Jolie Deserves an Award for Leadership in Language Education
If you want your small child to learn French or Spanish, you should consider following Angelina’s excellent example.
If you can’t exactly follow her example, then follow the spirit of her example and start looking for French or Spanish day care opportunities for your child.
My guess is that Angelina is going to raise the most well balanced, well adjusted children ever to be raised by a Hollywood star.
And that’s saying something.
Somehow I think that if you follow her good example, your children will become well balanced, well adjusted stars at whatever they do too.
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by Brent Van Arsdell
Brent is an engineer . . . and a world traveler.  When he’s not traveling the world, he’s busy making software to help people Learn French and other languages.
He works for Language101.com

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladamir Putin Sings Blueberry Hill for Childrens Cancer Research



You’ve just gotta love what some politicians are willing to do for a good cause. Take Vladamir Putin the current Prime Minister and former President of Russia for example.
When the cause was a benefit concert for childrens cancer research in St. Petersburg, he picked up the microphone and sang the Louis Armstrong version of Blueberry Hill  . . .  in English!
When the show’s emcee asked him to sing, he didn’t want to at first, but she finally talked him into it.
Then he sat down at the piano, tapped out the tune and sang the melody.  Unfortunately his microphone was turned off.
Then the band picked up the tune, so Putin walked to center stage where he started to sing.
He had Maceo Parker’s excellent jazz band with some back up singers accompanying  him, so when you watch this YouTube video you can’t always tell exactly how he sounds.
But where you can hear him clearly, he’s definitely on key and having a good time!

Hollywood Stars Came to Russia

The Hollywood crowd jetted off to St. Petersburg to support this benefit concert in full force.
When this video cuts away from Putin, you’ll first see GĂ©rard Depardieu, then Kurt Russell with Goldie Hawn, then Kevin Costner.
The Russia Times reported that Mickey Rourke, Sharon Stone, Vincent Cassel, Monica Belucci, Ornella Muti, and other stars were there too.
The stars all looked like they were having a wonderful time.  I bet that at least some of them took time to learn some Russian before they settled into their private jets for the flight to St. Petersburg!

Putin Learned Blueberry Hill as Part of His English Studies

Putin is obviously a native speaker of Russian but he also speaks good German because he lived and worked in Germany for several years.
Now he’s learning English.  Apparently he’s learning popular American songs as part of his method for learning English.
What a great idea!

How to Learn a Russian Song

Say for example that you’re a big Hollywood star and you’re going to meet the Prime Minister of Russia at a charity event.  You just might want to learn some popular songs in Russian, in case you get a chance to sing with him.
According the the Russia Times, something like this actually happened:
When the concert was over Putin took Sharon Stone by the arm and together with other guests they went on stage to sing a Russian song about cosmonauts, “Grass Near Home”.
I bet Sharon Stone wished she knew more Russian songs!

Here’s a famous Russian song for both you and Sharon Stone to learn.  It’s called, “If You Don’t Have an Aunt” and it’s been turned into an easy Russian lesson.
To hear the song.  First click on the button labeled


“Play Complete Lesson Soundtrack or Video.”
Below that you can click to hear the Russian words pronounced both slowly and at normal speed.  You can also read the Russian text, and both a literal translation and a good translation in English.
To try it click on If You Don’t Have an Aunt.
This song is from a classic Russian movie called, “The Irony of the Fates”.  This movie is a popular love story that’s played all over Russia every New Year’s Eve.
Putin would definitely know this song.
You should too!
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by Brent Van Arsdell
Brent is an engineer . . . and a world traveler.  When he’s not traveling the world, he’s busy making software to help people Learn Russian and other languages.
He works for Language101.com

Friday, December 3, 2010

Axis Bank - One of the Worst Bank I Have Come Across

My salary account is with Axis bank and was really excited to start with them. But after few months, I started experiencing the bitter side of their services. To say in short, their services were one of the worst things that I have experience with any bank. I am still wondering how such a reputed bank offers such poor services to its customers.

The major issue lies in their online banking, because it looks too crappy and none of the functions works properly. When I logged into my internet banking dashboard of Axis bank, I only had a few menus and options. I didn't have the options for fund transfer, which was too important for me. All my friends had options for fund transfer and other things. We all filled in the same form for registering with the bank, but I am still wondering what happened to my account.

They have put a clickable square banner on their login dashboard saying "Fund Transfer in  3 Clicks", but when we click on that we get a message saying "Menu ID not in user Profile". I don't still don't understand the actual meaning of this message but I know that my account does not have the option to transfer fund for some reasons.

They have also provided a document to download for activating the fund transfer facility, but when I click on the link it is being redirected to a page https://www.axisbank.co.in/BankAway/web/L001/images/Internet%20Banking-FTF.pdf, which is non existing file location. Really pathetic, and I was left with no option but to visit the nearest bank or ATM to get the form and submit it.

Another big irony is that the nearest Axis bank ATM is at Tapasya Building in Infopark Cochin. I have been working in my company at Infopark for around an year. From the day I joined the company, this Axis bank ATM was out of order and it has never been repaired for an year. Really shameful of Axis bank that it have avoided an ATM at a place where a lot of customers are present.

First I thought of activating the fund transfer option by visiting the nearest Axis bank ATM which is in Tapasya, but then it came into my mine that the ATM has never functioned since I started working at Inforpark. So I have to go and visit the nearest branch, which I wished to avoid going. If their customer services are this much pathetic, I am wondering how their services at the nearest branch would be. Do anyone have faced such issues with Axis bank? I am also having an account with HDFC bank and their services are on par with the best and they do have an amazing internet banking facility and customer service.