Most Commonly-Spoken Languages

I often get questions about which language is spoken most in the world.  People usually think of English, and with the rise of English as Lingua Franca, this may one day be the case.  If measured by population, however, people often forget about some of the world's most densely populated countries and the dominant language in each of them.  To put an end to some of these questions, here is a link to another infograph from Mental Floss which breaks down languages by population.

Proportional Map of the World's Largest Languages

What Languages Are the Hardest to Learn?

This infograph from Mental Floss shows the breakdown of a handful of languages based on their difficulty for English-speakers to learn.  Since I often get questions about whether Spanish is easier than French or which is the hardest language to learn, I figured this article would provide a good answer.


What Languages are the Hardest to Learn?

12 Charming Facts About 'The Little Prince'

Le Petit Prince is one of those books that it seems like everyone knows.  This list post is pretty timely considering that The Little Prince has also been made into a new movie that will be released this July. So, for your reading and viewing pleasure:

12 Charming Facts About 'The Little Prince'*

*In school, you probably learned that book and movie titles should be italicized, articles and poems should have quotation marks around them (" "), and single quotes (' ') should only be used for quotes within quotes.  This is generally true, but journalists sometimes have different sets of rules that they follow.  The rules of grammar and punctuation are sometimes murky.

Sacred Heart

I'm in the process of trying to clean out my inbox, and I found this gem from Garlie.  Enjoy!

Food waste: fact or fiction?

Whether or not this is true I haven't looked into.  You can't always trust everything you read on the internet. If you're viewing this, feel free to fact check and post in the comments section!

School Vacations

When we talk about the French school system, we're often jealous of how many vacations they get.  This article offers a different perspective: that students get too much vacation!  Is that even possible?  What are the benefits and drawbacks of having a two-week vacation every six weeks?

"One Woman's Struggle To Survive 'Too Much Vacation' In France"

Le Pont d'Avignon

I have a very special place in my heart for le Pont d'Avignon since Avignon is where I studied in college.  It's also the subject of a classic French kids song that I learned as a child.  Here is a video that imagines what the Pont d'Avignon looked like before it was washed away and an article about it.