Blog Archive

John Barré, Author at John Barré - Page 4 of 13

Page 4

Burying the Minitel

Minitel? If you are not French or born after the 1990s, chances are that you do not know what the Minitel is or that you even ever heard the word before. Even Microsoft Words thinks the word does not exist. The Minitel is actually a direct competitor to the Internet. Or more accurately was – […]
December 02, 2019
Les obsèques du Minitel
French article
Le Minitel ? Pour connaître le Minitel, il faut être français et né de préférence avant 1990, sans quoi le mot vous est sans doute méconnu et le concept obscur. Pour nos plus jeunes lecteurs, sachez que le Minitel est un concurrent de l’internet. Ou plus exactement, était un concurrent. A l’heure actuelle, le Minitel […]
December 02, 2019
Ogham

Ogham or Ogam, pronounced “o’m” or “oem”, is an alphabet from the 4th century used to write the old Irish language. Ogham is found engraved on stones. There are only 382 relics found with such inscriptions, most of them in Ireland, the rest in Scotland, Wales, England and on the Isle of Man. Divine inscriptions […]
November 29, 2019
Ogham
French article
L’écriture oghamique ou Og(h)am, prononcé « o-eum » ou bien « o-weum », est un alphabet datant du IVème siècle utilisé pour écrire le gaélique ancien. L’Ogam était sculpté sur des pierres. Seulement 382 reliques ont été retrouvées, la plupart en Irlande, le autres en Écosse, au Pays de Galle, en Angleterre et sur l’Ile […]
November 29, 2019
Breizh: an Endangered Regional Language?

Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany, in the west of France. In 2007, only 206,000 people claimed to speak it. Since the 80s, there are no more monolingual Breton speakers. Is Breton in phase of becoming a dead language? It is and it is not. True, the UNESCO acknowledged Breton as a “seriously […]
November 12, 2019
5 mad ways to practise your language skills

So, you’ve just arrived in a new country, eager to put all that theoretical knowledge you have striven to learn into practice. Then you realise it is not that easy, being in a new place can be rather lonely and when you have sorted out all the paperwork and other duties you cannot avoid, you […]
October 25, 2019
Comics vs. Bandes Dessinées
French article
Sans doute n’avez-vous jamais entendu le nom de Chris Hemsworth jusqu’à il y a quelques jours. Quand bien même vous ignoriez qui il est, vous connaissez à coup sûr son visage: il tient le rôle principal du dieu mythologique scandinave Thor dans le film du même nom. Le marché des super-héros est en forme. Difficile […]
October 11, 2019
Viennoiseries: Danish, French, or Austrian?

Upon finishing their school-days, French pupils are usually treated to a tasty viennoiserie before facing their homework. Thank God I did not escape that tradition and I must confess, it did make my day a lot better – I was almost willing to do my math exercises. French children have the 4 PM viennoiserie, we […]
September 05, 2019
Is English the official language of music?

It seems to be challenging for other languages to break the international charts, let alone selling over 20 million records to enter the legendary most selling albums – Andrea Bocelli, who sings in Italian, looks rather lonely in this table. Is English better than other languages? English sells well, nobody will question that. It does […]
August 11, 2019
A Simplified Introduction to Irish Names

Ó Flaithbheartaigh, Ní Raghallaigh, Ní Tuama, Ó hAonghusa,… No idea how to read, let alone utter, those words? Quite likely like most people and yet these words come from a European language. Gaelige is a speech that differs a lot from its fellow European languages. Official language, with English, of the Republic of Ireland, it […]
July 10, 2019