Language

Centre Pompidou in Metz, France

I was fascinated to find out about the Centre Pompidou being built in Metz. I think this “franchizing” of museums in different cities is fantastic. I visited the Bilbao Guggenheim several years ago, and I can’t wait to see the new Metz Centre Pompidou. But I do wonder whether it’s really necessary to attach an existing name to a new museum. If the same amount of money and effort were put into building a museum called Le Centre Degueldre, say, would it be notably less interesting?

What’s up with Wikipedia?

I love the idea of Wikipedia, but the reality is less interesting. For some reason, the editors of the French language page have a vendetta against external links. I honestly believe that my French site is one of the best French sites on the internet, but every time I add it to Wikipedia, someone takes it out. I understand that they don’t want spam, or a hundred sites that all say basically the same thing, but my site is nothing like that. Plus, other language pages at Wikipedia have dozens of external links, so what’s the deal?

Learn French

This isn’t the kind of thing I would normally blog about, but I’m just so happy. For about 8 months, I’ve been trying to get my site into the top spot in Google for the phrase learn French, and today I’m finally there. It may not last, but it feels great right now! 🙂

Language Learning

I will never understand how anyone can think there is no value in learning a second language. While speaking several languages is obviously more useful for some people than others (e.g., people who travel a lot, or work for a multinational company), it’s not as if speaking a second language is a total waste if you’re not one of them. There are so many advantages to language learning; I just wish everyone could see them. My family, for example, used to say stuff like “why are you learning French? We speak English in the US!” They just didn’t get it. It’s a little better now, since I obviously use French and Spanish for work, but they still don’t have any idea about why I find language so fascinating.

What do you think? Am I missing some obvious argument *against* learning another language (other than a simple lack of time)?

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