Linguae Europaeae

by Johanna Kruisbrink Johanna Kruisbrink is a sophomore in Political Science and French at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is planning on spending the next academic year studying in Paris, France, and is interested in international relations as her future career. She wrote this text as a student enrolled in 418 ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ in the spring of 2015. Like all Dutch, the Frisians adore ice-skating. These skaters are participating in the Elfstedentochtin 1963, an ice-skating race that only occurs when the canals between 11 Frisian cities freeze. [ Image Source ] On September 18, 2014 the Scottish referendum captivated the world with the drama and intrigue inherent to battles for independence. The drama was only heightened by the widely held view that other minorities of Europe were watching intensely to learn and prepare. The interest Catalonia has expressed in the Scottish independence for their own ambitions of sovereignty is well known, b...

by Charlotte Prieu Charlotte Prieu is an M.A. student in French Linguistics at the University of Illinois. She is planning on graduating in the spring of 2016 and continuing with a Ph.D. She is interested in linguistics of French rap. She wrote this blog post as a student enrolled in 418 ‘Language and Minorities in Europe’ in the spring of 2015. Crédit photo : Charlotte Prieu Apprendre une langue étrangère n’implique pas seulement une maîtrise de la grammaire et du vocabulaire de base. Une langue se parle grâce à plusieurs registres mais aussi un bagage culturel qui sont nécessaires à une communication fluide entre les populations natives et les apprenants. Le Français ne fait pas exception. Le Français est enseigné très largement dans le monde : le nombre d’apprenants est estimé à environ 50 millions (Francophonie.org). Dans certaines zones du monde, en particulier en Europe, dans les Amériques et les Caraïbes, le nombre d’apprenants diminue. Afin de contrer cette perte d’ef...