Tuesday, October 2, 2007
How can it be?
I thought my fellow students/teachers might find this interesting. The local language we speak here is Albanian. In the Albanian language, there is just ONE word for both teaching and learning. When I was first learning the language, I went round and round with my tutor. How can this be? Teaching and Learning are two totally different concepts! When I hear people use the word for it now, I usually know whether they mean teach or learn by the context, but occasionally it is a bit ambigous and I am left wondering, "Did he say he is learning. . .or is he teaching?"
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2 comments:
Hello, Jill, you know what? In Chinese language, there is not a word like "Literacy" in English, meaning being able to read and write at the same time. They are also two different concepts in Chinese. Just thought this would be interesting too!
Actually, in Chinese there is no separate word for problem and question, which I still find confusing at times even after almost 10 years here. On the other hand, there are many words and idioms in Mandarin that English doesn't have a elegant counterpart for. Their words for relatives, for instance, are more specific than in English. You cannot merely say sister, brother, uncle or aunt but must, by your choice of word, tell people which side of the family he/she comes from. Just thought you might find that interesting.
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