Bilinguals: do they switch off one language?

Recently it happened again: in the middle of a lecture about the history of psychology, I used a German expression. I didn't even notice it at first, only the puzzled look of my students told me that something was wrong.

As I'm even thinking now more and more in English, it surprises me that occasionally German words would unconsiously sneak in when I'm speaking English. A group of Dutch psychologists now found an explanation:

Bilinguals Are Unable To 'Turn Off' A Language Completely, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (2009-08-19) -- With a vast majority of the world speaking more than one language, it is no wonder that psychologists are interested in its effect on cognitive functioning. For instance, how does the human brain switch between languages? Are we able to seamlessly activate one language and disregard knowledge of other languages completely? ... > read full article

Bay of Fundy, Canada

Back from summer vacation. In the past two weeks we visited New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Our first stop was at the Hopewell Rocks of the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.

"The Hopewell Rocks, also called the Flowerpot Rocks, are rock formations caused by tidal erosion in The Rocks Provincial Park in New Brunswick.

They are located on the shores of the upper reaches of the Bay of Fundy at Hopewell Cape near Moncton, New Brunswick. Due to the extreme tidal range of the Bay of Fundy, the base of the formations are covered in water twice a day. However, it is possible to view the formations from ground level at low tide." (Wikipedia.org)

We were lucky and arrived at the Flowerpots at low tide.

Wet Start to the Summer

After spending most of this rainy Sunday inside, I finally ventured out for half an hour in raincoat and boots. I also took my camera for a few snapshots about the wet first day of the summer 2009:

Charles Riverfest

This weekend, we went again to the annual Charles Riverfest in Cambridge.

I love this time of the year when many towns and groups in Massachusetts organize festivals and Town days. Last weekend, we have been to the Greek festival here in our town, Arlington. The Greek community celebrates every year for two days with music, dance groups and ethnic food. Everyone is invited as the money raised during this event is for the Greek church in our town.

This weekend, it was the Charles Riverfest. Music, dance, food and beautiful weather - what do you want more? We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon:

Junior Prom

OMG - time is flying. It seems like yesterday that my oldest son had his first day in kindergarten, and now it's already time for Junior prom.

For us, this is all new terrain. There was a learning curve, which involved trying to find a Tuxedo 5 days before the event and remembering to buy a wrist corsage on the big day - without having it pre-ordered, of course. But we were lucky, and everything worked out perfectly.

Squirrels

How did the squirrels know about the sunflower seeds in the bottle? They even ate the plastic. Did they get stomach pain?

New England: Beach day in April!

Boston set a record today with a high temperature of 86 degrees. What better way to enjoy such a beautiful weather as with a visit at Crane Beach?

The only downside is that the magnolia blossoms don't last:

Long Patriots' Day Weekend in MA

This was a great long weekend, filled with sunshine and gardening. Here in MA, we celebrate Patriots' day every year on the third Monday in April. It's a holiday commemorating the anniversary of the first battles of the American Revolutionary war. Early risers can visit the re-enactment of one of the major battles in our neighbor town Lexington.

In our first year in the States, we went at six in the morning to watch the re-enactment, starting with Paul Revere's ride and right afterwards the battle at Lexington's green. There have been so many other spectators there that we hardly could see anything, but we got a great pancake breakfast after the battle in one of the churches in Lexington.

This year, we spent the long weekend working in the garden: we needed an extension to the irigation system and an additional fence unit. I also spent a couple of hours cleaning up, seeding and replanting. A lot is in bloom, even the apricot tree:

For Easter

Creativity or Stupidity?

I read today in the newspaper that a teacher in a cash-strapped school district in Idaho made a deal with the local pizzeria: The business will provide paper for handouts, worksheets and tests for his classrooms and in return, on each provided sheet of paper will be an ad for the pizza shop.

So, while taking a history test the kids can already think about which slide of pizza they will buy for lunch: cheese or pepperoni?

According to the newspaper article, some officials applaude the teacher for his creative solution of the spending freeze in his town, others criticize that he crosses a line.

I agree with the critics and find the idea of sponsorships for school material most worrisome. And by the way - what's with the fight against obesity?

Vegetables from the White House

Today, I read in the newspaper that Michelle Obama is planting an organic White House vegetable garden. She believes that children are more willing to try fruit and vegetables when they see them grow.

From my experience, I can only confirm that. We had in Austria a very big fruit and vegetable garden, and my kids were used to picking apples, pears and plums right from the tree. We never had discussions at the dinner table about eating vegetables. In Austria, people rarely have gardens without fruit trees and vegetables.

One of the first purchases for our house here in America was a peach tree. From my Dutch neighbors, I got red and black currant bushes, and my Portugese neighbors gave me a grape plant. In the following years, we bought more and more fruit trees and bushes and this year, we are hoping to harvest apples, plums, apricots, grapes, cherries, currants, strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries. In addition, I'm planting tomatoes, salad, beans, squash, eggplant...

My neighbors, who first couldn't believe that apricots or cherries would grow in Massachusetts, are now also starting their own kitchen gardens. They are now convinced that even an average sized backyard can yield a delicious crop (and save you quite a lot of money)

Beer and St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day in Boston means

• a huge parade on the Sunday before the 17th (according to Wikipedia, the world's first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in Boston in 1761)
• Corned beef and cabbage
• many people wearing green (or at least a glittering shamrock sticker on a cheek)
• bunches of green and white carnations
• many more Celtics shirts, caps and wristbands to be seen on the streets than usual
• pubs that open at 6 am (for breakfast with beer?)
• Irish music everywhere (where do all the Irish music playing bands come from?)
  
• long lines in front of pubs despite cover charges of up to $ 20 per person ( plus $ 5/glass of beer)
• and people in the road, who are celebrating the Irish saint with heavy alcohol consumption.

What leads to my question: How became getting drunk a St. Patrick's day "tradition"?

First Spring Ocean Walk

This past weekend, the weather here in Massachusetts was great. Nice and balmy 55 F. Ideal conditions for our first spring walk of the year at Crane Beach/ MA.

A picture says more....

....than a thousand words.

Picture of snowdrops taken today in Arlington, Massachusetts.

In like a lion

In like a lion, out like a lamb. The first part of this saying about the weather in March was proven true today. The Nor'easter along the eastern seaboard dumped close to 10 inches of snow on us here , west of Boston :

Now I'm hoping the second part of the proverb "out like a lamb" will be true, too.

Snow days in March?

Looks like that March will start for us in MA with a punch, better double punch. Two winter storms are heading our way and the forecast for our area calls for up to a foot of snow.

Even my boys, who may have a snow day on Monday and get a chance for earning good money with snow shoveling, are disappointed. They are, like me, tired of snow.

The past two days were nice and balmy, and we just started for the first time since Christmas to see the lawn again; and even better, the first flowers emerged.


I can't believe, this all will be over in a few hours.

Frozen Art

Recently, we have been to an ice sculpture competition in downtown Boston. Art students transformed crude blocks of ice with "chisels and chainsaws" into all kinds of things:

Money can buy Happiness

Money can buy you happiness - if you spend the money right. Instead of buying material things, purchase positive experiences; for example go dancing, buy tickets for a concert or make a boat trip at sunset. According to a recently published study, such experiences will boost your happiness. Read more.

Last chance

Yesterday, we got another glimpse on the effect of the dismal economy on daily life in America: We decided to go to our local movie theatre and watch Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. (We liked the movie, by the way, and recommend it. Good actors, good story)

Our local, suburban movie theatre is old, smells musty, the chairs are not very comfortable, the quality of the screens is so-so and tickets are cheap: only 7 bucks compared to more than $ 10 in the big, modern theatres in the Greater Boston area.

In the past, we felt sometimes almost lonely in our local theatre because only few people went there - even on Saturday nights. Boy, how has this changed. Yesterday, to our big surprise there was a long line in front of the ticket box and we feared , we wouldn't be able to get in, since several movies were already sold out. Luckily, we made it, but just barely. Shortly after we got our tickets, also Last Chance Harvey was sold out as was Benjamin Button, Rachel getting married and Gran Torino.

Well, it seems that at least some businesses profit from the economic crisis and I don't need to worry anymore that our historic Capitol cinema will disappear because of lack of customers.

Snow tubing

Today, we went snow tubing. It was a cold winter day with bright sunshine and it felt so good to be outdoors again.

A ski resort, only about 20 miles away from our house, has an area devoted solely to tubing. There are more than 10 slopes with snow barriers on the periphery. Thus, the tubes remain on the course. They also have pulley towlines that tow riders and their tube to the top of the course, so you don't have to hike up.

All in all, it was a great day of fun:

Happy Valentine's Day