北京时间8月8日晚上20点，第29届奥林匹克运动会在国家体育场（鸟巢）隆重开幕，全球204个国家和地区的代表团，欢聚在五环旗下实现了奥运史上空前大团聚。 在满座的体育场内，中国国家主席胡锦涛和国际奥林匹克委员会主席Jacques Rogge, 由他们的贵宾席上站立起来向在欢呼的人群挥手。 在悠扬的前奏下, 一名穿红色衣服的小女孩唱响了《歌唱祖国》。中国的升旗典礼经常会以《歌唱祖国》为主题的步操乐曲《歌唱祖国》。这首歌是中国最有名的爱国歌曲。以下是《歌唱祖国》的歌词，你除了可以欣赏到开幕表演的影片，亦能借此中文歌曲学习中文： 歌唱祖国 – Ode to the Motherland *Wǔxīng hóngqí yíngfēng piāoyáng, 五星红旗迎风飘扬， shènglì gēshēng duōme xiǎngliàng, 胜利歌声多么响亮, gēchàng wǒmen qīnài de zǔguó, 歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， cóngjīn zǒuxiàng fánróng fùqiáng. 从今走向繁荣富强。 Yuèguò gāoshān, yuèguò píngyuán, 越过高山，越过平原， kuàguò bēnténg de huánghé chángjiāng, 跨过奔腾的黄河长江, kuānguǎng měilì de tǔdì, 宽广美丽的土地， shì wǒmen qīnài de jiāxiāng. 是我们亲爱的家乡。 [...]

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games began in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, in north Beijing at 8 p.m. on Aug 8, 2008. In the full-packed stadium, President of the People’s Republic of China Hú Jǐntāo and Jacques Rogge, the President of International Olympic Committee, rose from their seats [...]

¿Pensaste que no había trabalenguas en español? Claro que los hay, y muy divertidos por cierto. Como en todas los idiomas, los trabalenguas se utilizan para mejorar la pronunciación (…) Sin embargo, también pueden ser utilizados cuando alguien quiere aprender español como segunda lengua.

Did you think there were no tongue twisters in Spanish? For sure there are, and they are very funny too… As in any other language, tongue twisters are used to improve the phoneme pronunciation, especially in kids. However, people who want to speak Spanish as a second language usually have fun reading them. The most [...]

Learning about the origin of words is always interesting. Why do we name a certain word in that way but not in another tells us not only about the language itself but also about history. For example, “sandwich”. We know it as a sausage between two pieces of bread. But what is the history behind [...]

Изучение о происхождении слов всегда интересно. Почему мы называем определенное слово так, а не иначе говорит нам не только о языке, но и об истории.
Например, «сендвич». Мы знаем его как сосиску между двумя кусочками хлеба. Ну почему же он называется «сендвич»?

Ci sono tanti modi per riconoscere gli italiani in vacanza, soprattutto quando non si é in Italia, e ho pensato di raccoglierne qualcuno… Ogni eventuale aggiunta sarà ben accetta! Innanzitutto, i gruppi di italiani sono di solito i più rumorosi… d’altronde, che ci possiamo fare se siamo tutti abituati a parlare a voce alta? Gli [...]

Italian tourists are louder than the others, but they are not yelling, as everybody thinks: they are just talking in the way they are used to. Italians use their hands a lot while speaking: often (there are a lot of exceptions) is easier to understand by looking at their gesticulating than by listening to their [...]

Korsan DVD satışının ve kullanımının desteklenmemesi gerektiğinden hiç şüphe yok. Yine de, yasal olmayan yollarla çoğaltılan DVD’leri dünyanın pek çok yerinde bulmak hala çok kolay. Kopya DVD’ler görüntü ve ses kalitesi bakımından yetersiz olmasına rağmen, düşük fiyatları nedeniyle filmseverler tarafından tercih ediliyor. Hakikaten, İstanbul’da bir dönem sokakta yürürken tezgâhtaki DVD yığınlarına bakmadan geçmek mümkün değildi. [...]

There is no doubt that use of pirated DVDs should not be supported. However, illegal copies are still easy to find in many countries and they are attractive due to their cheap prices although their audio-visual quality is quite low. For people living on a small budget, it is not easy to resist the view [...]