Today's Podcast included a commercial for the audio books again. I have always thought that audio books are meant for people who are visually impaired or for those who are too lazy to read a book. Actually, they can also be used by people who want to learn English.

If you want to learn the pronunciation of the language, you can listen to the audiobook and read the actual book simultaneously. You have to find out the edition that was used for recording the audio book first though. However, I do not think there are huge differences.

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When I was in high school, I had to read German novels. And my favorite authors were Herman Hesse, and Thomas Mann, though I had only read a few novels by them. Haha. I think reading novels is good and fast way to learn a language. At least if you have the knowledge of quite some words. You just do not want to consult the dictionary for every word in the novel. It can really get annoying!

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So far I have finished reading Jean Sasson's Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman's Survival Under Saddam Hussein and Leslie Chang's Beyond the Narrow Gate. Jean Sasson's Desert Royal turned out to a book I already read, but with a different title. Apparently, in the US the three books of Jean Sasson's on the life of Princess Sultana were published as a trilogy. However, in Great-Britain there is no trilogy. I found the cover of Desert Royal kind of misleading, for it is not written by the 'bestselling author of the Princess trilogy and Mayada'. Desert Royal should be part of the trilogy. I was too ignorant to notice that the content of the two books was exactly the same......

Since the exchange rate f the British Pound/Euro is at its lowest point ever (I hope the value of the Euro will be more than the Pound though), I think I should be able to find some bargains on Amazon.co.uk. Haha. Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope only costs 4 Pounds, since it is on sale. Here the same version of that book costs around 15 euros....

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'Et tu, Brute?' is Latin and means 'And you, Brutus?' or 'You too, Brutus?'. This is what Gaius Julius Caesar said, when he was assassinated. Brutus was he friend whom he trusted. Caesar found out that his friend participated in the assassination, so he felt betrayed when he said that. It is not clear whether Caesar really said that, but 'Et tu, Brute?' became popular because of its use in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. [1]

Recently, it has been argued whether the last sentence that Julius Caesar might have spoken was actually meant as a curse and threat. It could be interpreted as 'You are next' or 'To hell with you, too'. [1]

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I was wondering why the 'Christ' in Merry Christmas is sometimes replaces by an 'X'. So I did some research on the internet, i.e. I Googled for the answer.

When I was in high school, the teacher who taught me ancient Greek told me that a fish (ichthus; Ιχθυς) is sometimes used as a symbol of Christianity. For the letters 'Iesous [Ιησους] (Jesus) Christos [Χριστος] (Christ) Theou [Θεου] (God) Huiou [Υιου] (Son) Soter [Σωτηρ] (Savior)' which means 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior'.

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2. Small beer: Of little value or importance

3. The hard stuff: A drink with high alcohol content, e.g. undiluted whiskey

4. A different kettle of fish: Something entirely different, more complex or demanding

5. A couch potato: Someone who spends too much time watching TV with no real interests or hobbies

6. A hot potato: An issue that is controversial, dangerous or embarrassing

7. Take with a pinch of salt: Do not believe that what is referred to is completely true

8. Pie in the sky: Predictions or promises which are unlikely to be fulfilled

9. The upper crust: The highest social classes; the aristocracy

10. Fair game: Someone who is easy to attack because he/she has left him/herself weak or exposed

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In The Netherlands Latin and ancient Greek, considered as dead languages by some people, are taught in middle and high school. Not everyone gets to learn them. Only students who follow the six year education that prepares them to enter university (and sometimes college) can take Latin and ancient Greek.

I started taking Latin in grade 8 and ancient Greek in grade 9. Almost half of my classmates dropped Latin after the first year and only a few actually took ancient Greek. As far as I can remember, we mostly learned how to translate Latin and ancient Greek texts into Dutch. The translations only contained the essence, but not the style. I really liked it, because I was amazed at the writing style of Latin and Greek authors. They used a lot of parallelisms and chiasms in their works. In ancient Greek classes I even learned about the rhythm Greek epics had.

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1. Food baby:  "When a person, typically a thin one, indulges in a large amount of food which makes his stomach stick out from the fullness as if he is pregnant."

I would have never guessed the meaning of food baby.

2. Mouse potato: "Someone who spends all his time on the computer surfing the net or playing games." Similar to couch potato.

I only knew the meaning of couch potato. Haha.

3. Anal retentive (= anal): Obsessively self-controlled: in Freudian theory, relating to adult personality traits that are considered to have originated during or be characteristic of the anal stage of development, e.g. obsessive neatness, stubbornness, and frugality.

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When I was in grade 7 or 8, I thought to myself that I wanted to improve my English. So I started writing letter to my friends in English instead. In the beginning it was pretty hard. Structure-wise English is similar to Dutch, but my English vocabulary was pretty limited. So I used my Dutch-English dictionary a lot. After a while writing in English became easier for me. I started reading novels in English, apart from the ones we were required to read in school.

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When you go to the washroom to do your business, there can be some poop left on the toilet bowl after flushing the toilet.

In Dutch that is called 'remsporen'. It would be 'skid marks' in English, if you translate it literally. I asked a friend who was born in the States, but raised in Canada, about that. He told me that you get skid marks on your underwear, after you have done your business and have not cleaned your derrière well enough. And he did not know the official term for that. The explanation he gave me was that in North-America they never have that problem, because the toilets there are different from the ones in Europe. I know that the water level in toilets in North-America is higher than the ones in The Netherlands. So the solid human waste would not stick to the toilet bowl.

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