Author: Paolo Frassine
-
B1 – SPREAD YOUR BETS, ACE YOUR TESTS
BEATING THE DEALER AT BLACK JACKWould you place 250˙000$ on a single bet? The answer is most likely no, unless one of two conditions is met: the bet has an unreasonably high chance of turning out a win for you, or you have an unreasonable taste for taking wild risks. Indeed, Edward Thorpe had a…
-
3 – THE EVOLUTION OF A LANGUAGE
HOW INDIVIDUAL LANGUAGES EVOLVE Today, we are going to talk about the historical trajectory of a given language as understood individually, starting from the point when it can be considered independent and distinct from its Sister Languages. In other words, that’s the path that a certain language follows after venturing outside the bulk of its…
-
2 – ON LANGUAGE FAMILIES AND THEIR INTERNAL STRUCTURE
PARENT, DAUGHTER, AND SISTER LANGUAGES We are going to stick with language evolution and language history for quite a while, so better pause for a second and take a more rigorous, step-by-step approach. If you remember what we have just seen you will immediately see why it makes sense to speak of “steps”. There will…
-
1 – LEARNING LANGUAGES BY COMPARING THEM, AN INTRODUCTION
LEARNING LANGUAGES FROM SCRATCH Studying abroad, and even more so working in translation and in simultaneous interpreting, I’ve had the chance to learn a number of foreign languages. The one thing I am proud of is not how many of them I know, nor how native I sound in any language (I definitely don’t). What…