With high gas prices and a low dollar the idea of "staycations" is all over the place. Go over to Urban Dictionary and there's even an official definition of the term that has come to define Americans' 2008 summer travel season: "A vacation that is spent at one's home enjoying all that home and one's home environs have to offer." But as Jeremy pointed out, the whole thing feels rather lame. He came up with some good tips on how to cut down on travel costs so that getting away from home can still be possible, but what if you really only can afford a staycation? What then?

If summer 2008 is going to be the summer of staying close to home then it's high time to do something productive with your time off, and just because you can't travel to exotic lands doesn't mean you can't brush up on your foreign language skills. Adding to your foreign language repertoire is a great staycation activity for two main reasons:

• Thanks to the internet you can do it from the comfort of your own home

• You might be staying home, but you are still increasing your knowledge of other cultures

Here's the quick and dirty guide to incorporating learning a foreign language into this summer's staycation:

If you've been following any of the recent language controversy in Philadelphia, you begin to see that a country's language is a constantly evolving mix of the cultures, customs and the people who use it. Here at home, this interplay is at often work between our country's de facto official language, English, and an increasingly populous minority of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Now imagine this same language debate among as many as ten languages, and you begin to get a picture of the small South American nation of Suriname as featured in this article.

Suriname is a former Dutch colony on the northern coast of South America. Due to the country's colonial heritage, the official language is Dutch. But continuous waves of immigrants have left a unique mark on the country's language culture. This includes a recent influx Brazilians, who speak mostly Portuguese, a small population of Chinese-speakers from the Far East and Indonesian residents of Suriname who speak Javanese. Add to this mix a local language called Sranan Tongo, a dialect passed down from West Africa by many of the former colony's African slaves, and local indigenous languages like Arawak and Carib. AND, on top of all this, politicians in Suriname are urging the government to adopt English or Spanish as the new national language, hoping to create closer ties to with neighboring countries. Sound confusing? I'm with you.

It remains to be seen how this complicated language issue will play out in Suriname, but it raises some interesting questions. What factors should determine a country's official language? The U.S. for instance, will always speak English, but what concessions, if any, should be made as our country becomes increasingly multi-lingual? Should we base our decision on economic circumstances? Political? Cultural? It seems to me it's some combination of the three. What do you think?

[Via the New York Times]

French is the native tongue of over 80 million people. But many more people interact with it on a daily basis, be it through culture, as a second language or even as a subject being learned in school. The francophone world stretches from Hanoi to Abidjan, bringing together all kinds of foods and customs that aren't always immediately associated with all things French; this isn't about baguettes and wine, this is about creole music, saffron infused food and crazy carnivals.

If you haven't had France on the radar, you may not know that March is the official month of La Fête de la Francophonie. The month long festival is intended to celebrate the international and linguistic community that share French -- either as a native language or even a second one -- that is referred to by the coined term La Francophonie.

Thursday March 20 is the big celebration, being the official International Francophone Day, and there are a whole lot of global celebrations to take part in wherever you may find yourself, from Cambodia to Mali to Canada.

If you are in the New York area you can check out the Fête de la Martinique taking place today, March 19, which will turn Le Skyroom into a tropical paradise, full of French Creole culture that the island of Martinique is so well known for. This isn't a conservative event; prizes are being awarded for best carnival costume. Other events going on around the US include a French film festival in Burlington, Vermont and a French Cultures Festival in various cities across Texas.

For more Fête de la Francophone events go here.

One of the more difficult parts of my trip to Russia last year was the language barrier. Aside from having to navigate a whole new alphabet, it was difficult at times to find anyone that understood English. I frequently found myself pointing and gesturing or making use of a few phrases of poorly pronounced Russian I had picked up from my guidebook. That's why I was excited to hear about Steape, a Dutch company that produces a line of language dictionaries and phrasebooks you can download to your mobile phone.

According to the Steape website, the company offers two main products, Steape Travel and Steape Mini Speaking Dictionary. Steape Travel offers a catalog of around 100 commonly used travel phrases, whereas the Mini Speaking Dictionary offers a database of around 500 traveler-friendly words. Both can be purchased on the Steape site for only $4 each. If you purchase Steape Travel or Mini Speaking Dictionary, you'll also get Steape Knowledge as a free bonus, which has basic vocabulary like numbers and days of the week. The interface for each application works basically the same way - you search for a word or phrase you want to use and press the action key to have it pronounced using your phone's speaker.

Currently, the applications are supported on more than 160 phone models and in 17 different languages. Check out the site to verify compatibility for your particular phone model and language needs. For only $4, Steape seems to have a cheap and highly useful application on their hands. Then again, as Jamie suggested recently in her post, there are "alternative" methods to help you learn foreign language phrases for your next trip.

[Via: Xellular Identity]

If you've ever dabbled in the French language, you know the difficulty of memorizing which gender goes with which noun. Why is a beard -- la barbe -- feminine? Why is a bicycle -- le vélo -- masculine? Well you shouldn't have to feel bad about your French language difficulties; turns out even the French can't agree on which gender goes with which word.

A recent study conducted by Dalila Ayoun at the University of Arizona found that, "Fifty-six native French speakers, asked to assign the gender of 93 masculine words, uniformly agreed on only 17 of them. Asked to assign the gender of 50 feminine words, they uniformly agreed [on] only 1 of them. Some of the words had been anecdotally identified as tricky cases, but others were plain old common nouns."

Put simply, even native speakers have a hard time distinguishing between le and la. But I'm not surprised, French is after all très difficile.

Via LanguageHat

Smorgasbord is a word commonly used in the English language. The Merriam Webster Dictionary describes it as "a luncheon or supper buffet offering a variety of foods and dishes (as hors d'oeuvres, hot and cold meats, smoked and pickled fish, cheeses, salads, and relishes)." You can even use the word to describe a random mixture of things. But let's take a look at its real meaning.

In Swedish the word is spelled smörgåsbord and breaks down into two parts: smörgås and bord. Smörgås of course means "sandwich" and bord means "table." Scandinavians are big on open faced sandwiches and it is no surprise that one of their contributions to the global culinary vocabulary has to do with exactly that. This means that a true Scandinavian smorgasbord will always have a good selection of bread, butter and cheese, the beginnings of an excellent open faced sandwich. The first smorgasbord in America was seen at the 1939 World's Fair held in New York, when Sweden's delegation served up a traditional buffet as part of the exhibition. The American's loved it so much they got rid of the pesky dots and rings over the "o" and "a" and americanized the word into its current state.

Although American lovers of Nordic culture like to use the word liberally, Scandinavians rarely use the word smorgasbord to refer to their buffets, and it is certainly not a staple of everyday life. Instead, the fancy buffet normally consisting of various fish like herring and salmon, even surströmming, cold meats and pates is saved for large gatherings, festive parties and special occasions. The most common variant on the theme is the julbord, the standard Christmas buffet which is served everywhere from family dinners to classy restaurants during the holiday season.

I find that either you love IKEA or you hate it; you can probably ascertain my own leanings by the fact that I am writing this article. Coming from a Scandinavian family, we have friends who used to have stuff shipped from Sweden to the US before the store made its American debut -- some people are just truly committed. But seriously, the company's basic idea was pretty cutting edge back in the 50s when it started designing furniture. "Affordable solutions for comfortable living," as the company's motto goes, went along with flat pack and consumer assembled pieces. How intelligent to reduce costs by reducing the volume of a piece of furniture.

IKEA is a Scandinavian institution gone global, and despite whether you love it or hate it, you are bound to end up with one of its products at some point. I mean really, who can resist sleek Scandinavian design? And when you do find yourself with that Nordic sofa, bookcase, or lamp, you might be interested to know exactly what all of the funny names mean. Pyssla, Svala, Visdalen, Gök? Although it may seem like a jumble of Viking vowels, there is some method to the madness. IKEA's founder Ingvar Kamprad was actually dyslexic, and he found that developing a system where products were named after places and things made it easier for him to remember them. Learning Swedish is great, but learning IKEA? Even better. A guide to deciphering the system that defines the IKEA language, thanks to a little help from the The Guardian:

Scandinavia unite:
Sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage and doorknobs -- I agree, that last one is random -- are named after places in Sweden; beds, wardrobes and hall furniture after places in Norway; and carpets after places in Denmark. And don't think Finland gets left out; Finnish cities and places are the namesake for dining tables and chairs.

Any trip to Sweden, be it for business, personal reasons or just because you want to stay in the Ice Hotel, is going to necessitate knowing the word fika.

In a grammatical sense it is a verb meaning "to take a coffee break." But fika is so much more than a word; it is a Swedish way of life. Swedes love their coffee breaks (and I am not stereotyping). Fikas are happy afternoon gatherings between friends, study breaks for university students, and beyond that, absolutely necessary in the workplace. I dare you to try and find a Swedish company that doesn't encourage a mid-morning fika for its employees; it is practically written into the contracts, although sometimes that fika time can turn into a casual business meeting.

The word can be used as a verb or a noun. Ska vi fika? (Should we take a coffee break?) or vilken trevlig fika! (what a nice coffee break). Originally the word was really only used for coffee, but nowadays there is often an implied consumption of an accompanying pastry, bun or small sandwich. And fika isn't just about what beverage and food items are consumed, it is also about the social gathering that takes place. This is a time when Swedes gather and relax in a casual setting. A fika is therefore great option, and very standard, for a first Swedish date. Or for catching up on office gossip.

Fika is such an integral part of Swedish culture that MSN Sweden recently ran an article called Fika dig friskare (Fika yourself healthy) about the benefits of getting together with friends and being in a relaxing and enjoyable place like a cafe, or an outdoor terrace in the summer sun. But, as the article clearly noted, to really "fika yourself healthy," the delicious Swedish baked goods that go along with the cup of coffee need to be switched out for a sandwich made with crisp bread. Not as glamorous as a kanelbulle (cinnamon roll) but tasty all the same.

If you happen to read Swedish and want to check out the article, you can do so here.

Browsing through a past edition of the Economist, I came across this article about a French news channel that broadcasts in English and Arabic. The channel was recently shocked when President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that he thought it should only broadcast in French.

France 24 is France's version of Al-Jazeera, a way to communicate a French perspective on news but at the same time keeping it accessible to even those who didn't get past their high school vocab list of bonjour and merci. Despite France 24's difficulties in finding distribution channels in the US, the broadcasting company has offered a fresh perspective in comparison to other global news media.

Sarkozy wants the channel to become French only, because he is "not disposed to finance a channel that does not speak French." Yes Sarko, blame it on the budget. Foreign Minister Bernard Koucher doesn't agree with his co-worker, much like most of the managers of France 24 who have already committed to lobbying for their trilingual broadcasts. From a country that has its own academy to protect its language, it will be interesting to see where this goes, just make sure not to judge too hard.

One thing is sure: Sarkozy's choice does seem odd given his pro-American stance, but maybe some people just want to keep things en français.

There is no better way to learn a foreign language than to throw yourself into a foreign culture and completely immerse yourself--unless it happens to be the Czech language you're trying to learn. And then no amount of immersion will ever make you fluent in this crazy, difficult language.

My language problems aside, immersion is not only a great way to learn a foreign language, but also a great way to discover local customs while doing so.

For those of you interested in learning Spanish in such a manner, you might want to pop on over to the LA Times and check out an Elliott Hester article exploring the joys (and challenges) of immersion learning.

The great thing about learning Spanish, he tells us, is that there are a slew of wonderful places to do so at a fraction of the cost of your local Berlitz. Take, for example, Antigua, Guatemala. Hester reveals that "a week of private, four-hour classes" costs just $100. Throw in $75 for room and board with a local family, and you've got a whole lot more than just an opportunity to learn Español.

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