Friday 5 September 2008

Heather's lexicon of weird and wacky words

I learned two new English words today, and I thought I might share them with you!
  • blype /blaip/: the skin that peels off your body after a sunburn (Ew? Are we the only language in the world with a word for this oh-so-appetizing phenomenon?)
  • inchoate /inkoeit/: yet to be completely formed, incomplete (i.e. inchoate ideas) -- my dad spent the whole day plopping it into random sentences, only to find out that he was pronouncing it incorrectly (the "ch" must be pronounced as "k"!)
If you, faithful reader, come across any words that are cause you to pause for thought, please let me know and every now and then I'll compile a list and post the submissions I receive.

3 comments:

The Wonder Worrier said...

Hey Heather, love the blog! I just read all your entries so far! I'm always impressed with your ability to learn new languages (well, impressed and JEALOUS!).

I am 99% sure that I'm going to be going to Poland next summer to visit with Martin's family. While Martin has been trying to teach me some Polish, it's been a slow process to say the least. I'm going to try to step it up this year though so that maybe I'll be prepared to at least say SOMETHING in Polish when I arrive there next summer. I downloaded the program you suggested before (Before You Know It Lite) for Polish, and I'm going to give it a whirl!

heather-in-italia said...

Wow, that's great Steph! I am glad my post actually provided someone with some worthwhile info! :D :D I really love Before You Know It...it is a traditional way of memorizing words, but the program makes it SO EASY. You know what's funny though...that Michel Thomas guy made a language set for pretty much almost every language except for his native Polish! How frustrating is that... Let me know how you get on with BYKI! (I guarentee that you'll be able to impress Martin with your native like pronunciation ;))

P.S. I am keeping up with your anxiety blog as well. Have you ever thought about making it into a book? I think your writing style is really approachable, so it might be worth giving it a go, as a sideline to teaching ;-)

The Wonder Worrier said...

Haha...no I haven't really thought of making it into a book, but you have no idea how nice a compliment that is. :-)

I have actually dabbled with the idea of writing a novel of some sort at some time, as I do LOVE writing... however, whenever I've begun with an idea I have trouble coming up with the whole story.

I do have some extensive notes on a novel I had started a few years back, and every now and then I add some more notes and ideas to the story...so perhaps one day I will be a writer! Who knows!? I read enough novels that I'd certainly love to write one.

Yes, I was surprised as well that your Michael Thomas post didn't list Polish! Too funny. I have a couple of Polish phrase books, one of which came with a CD, but I'm still trying to figure out the best learning style for myself. I think I just need to immerse myself in it and get going, and I'm sure the words will stick eventually!

Oh, and I'll answer your Facebook message while I'm replying here...

My "Associate Teacher" is the actual classroom teacher, and the one who evaluates me while I'm working as a student-teacher in her classroom. I'll observe her style and methods, and then I'll be writing some lesson plans and teaching the class part-time under her guidance. And yes, she's your mannerisms and voice twin. LOL.

Speak to you again soon!

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