Parlez-vous Kent?

It used to be the case that, once Christmas and the New Year were safely out of the way, our thoughts turned to holidays. The standard method for getting through the wintry weeks of January and February was to plot and plan your summer jaunt.

This year it is not just the weather that is distinctly icy, so maybe you are thinking in terms of Margate rather than the Med. But that needn’t stop you buffing up your language skills – think how impressed they’ll be in Broadstairs when you ask for a raspberry lolly in fluent German! Try these websites for help with your learning.

See-through linguistics

Transparent Languages sell language courses. That’s presumably how they pay the mortgage, and good luck to them. But the reason they’re on the Gateway is that they have some useful free stuff for language learners. I particularly like the games.

I have to confess that normally I wouldn’t do one of those puzzles where you find words hidden in a square of jumbled letters. But do it in French or German and suddenly it becomes much more interesting.

As well as the games, there are quizzes, "survival phrases", and several more useful freebies. Well worth a look.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Languages". Transparent Languages is under "Language learning and teaching".)

Coining phrases

Of course, if it’s language games you want to play, there’s nothing to beat the Babel Fish Reversible Translation Game. The rules are simple: go to the automatic translation site, Babel Fish. Enter a phrase in English (I tried "take me home"), then ask it to translate into, say, French ("prenez-moi à la maison"). Then re-enter the French phrase and request a translation back into English – this comes out as "take to me at the house", altogether a more intriguing prospect!

The permutations are endless, and fun is guaranteed. The serious aspect of Babel Fish is that you can get a rough idea of the meaning of a phrase, a paragraph or even a whole website. Just don’t rely on it to gain the admiration of your friends or the people you meet on the road!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Languages". Babel Fish is under "Translation")

Pic: Fred Fossett