Leaving your native country is exhilarating at first. Everything is so new that you don’t think about your old home. Once you have settled into a routine, you start to notice the differences between your old home and your new one. Three years after leaving Luxembourg for Canada, I look back on my home country with different eyes.
Read MoreWondering where Mother’s Day comes from and how to celebrate it in Luxembourg?
Read MoreA fun way to learn additional vocabulary, animal expressions also allow you to learn a little bit about the culture of Luxembourg. There are hundreds of animal expressions in Luxembourgish, some clearly vestiges of old farming wisdom, others colourful caricatures of animals to describe aspects of human nature. Here's my top 10.
Read MoreFinally, after two years of work, the book "Learn Luxembourgish: an English Beginner's Guide to Teach Yourself Luxembourgish" is out!
I spent the month of March in Luxembourg to launch it and was pleased to see that there was so much interest from the English speaking community to learn Luxembourgish. Thank you to everyone who came to a book signing event, it was a pleasure meeting you!
Read MoreYou might witness something strange in Luxembourg on the weekend of February 22nd, in the form of a tall burning cross standing in the middle of a field lighting up the night sky. If you’re familiar with US history, you might think that something nefarious is going on but let me assure you, this is a very old and harmless tradition in Luxembourg and its surrounding areas to scare off the winter spirits and welcome spring back.
Read MoreYou can only learn to speak Luxembourgish if people reply to you in Luxembourgish. Let them know you're learning so that they can help you out with these cool accessories.
Read MoreIt is bitter, watery and leaves me with an artificial aftertaste I can’t quite place. This is not at all how I remember egg nog! I’m standing in the milk aisle of my local Toronto grocery store and hand my sample back to the lady. I try not to look too disgruntled, after all, it’s not her fault, she has never had
Read MoreI'm a big proponent of fun and diversity when it comes to language learning; we need to "change it up" to stay motivated. There are times when you can just listen to your target language, there are other times when you need to sit down and read, or gather all your courage and speak. Today is a time to play games.
Read MoreAutumn has officially arrived, the kids are back in school and the adults are back at work. Hopefully, you have had a chance to recharge your batteries and are feeling a renewed sense of energy as life and work are speeding up again after the summer break. Maybe you have vowed to finish some important projects before the end of the year or simply taken on some new challenges. Maybe you have even decided to start learning Luxembourgish.
Read MoreStarting to learn a new language can feel overwhelming. There seems to be so little you know and so much you don’t know. Your head is filled with ideas to communicate and it seems like you can’t get any across. How do you improve when you feel like you have everything to learn?
Read MoreEvery one of us can find an excuse not to learn and speak a foreign language. And it’s only natural to do so. After all, communicating in a different language takes us out of our comfort zone completely and puts us at the mercy of our native conversation partners. Yes, it can be awkward to make a mistake but we are grownups and should know how to laugh it off at this point in our lives. I have learned five foreign languages in my life and never once offended a native speaker to the point where they marched off in anger or pointed their finger at me laughing out loud.
So, what can you do to overcome your fear and start speaking today?
Read MoreIt can be quite awkward when you greet a woman in Luxembourg and you start with the wrong cheek for kisses. Or you only expect two kisses and the other person goes for a third one and you land on each other’s noses. Avoid it if you can! Here are some other face-saving facts you should know about Luxembourgish etiquette.
Read MoreLots of new Canadian experiences this weekend! Friends of ours invited us up to their cottage at the Georgian Bay in Ontario. "Going to the cottage" is a favourite Canadian pass time activity that has to be experienced at least once a summer.
This is when all the city dwellers and suburb creatures drive North from anywhere between one hour and 2 days to spend the weekend or in some cases two months during the school summer holidays in a wooden cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere and usually right next to
Read MoreOn June 24, 2014, on the occasion of the Luxembourg National Day, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie gave her first TV interview in Luxembourgish. Stéphanie, born in Belgium, only started learning Luxembourgish about two years ago and her TV interview caused quite the stir in the comments sections across the web.
Just how good is her Luxembourgish?
Read MoreCan you imagine lying on a hospital bed trying to explain the anesthetic you need to a room full of foreign-speaking doctors? This is what happened to my husband at the beginning of our time in Luxembourg.
Learning a foreign language as an adult can seem like a daunting task, especially with a busy work and family schedule. Many people simply don’t have the
Read MoreThis week, I had the pleasure to be interviewed by the well-known radio moderator Gilles Wunsch from Radio 100,7 (www.100komma7.lu).
Luxembourgish national day is coming up on June 23rd when we celebrate 175 years of independence as well as the Grand Duke's official birthday. To honour these events, Radio 100,7 is running a special this month where concepts relating to nationality, identity and homeland are explored.
Read MoreI was recently asked for restaurant recommendations by a Canadian friend of mine who was planning a business trip to Luxembourg with the Vice President of his company.
Even though I had a few ideas of my own, I thought I would ask the Learn Luxembourgish Facebook community for help. The result was a long list of very different restaurants in Luxembourg City that all sounded delicious. Take a look!
Read MoreWant to know how to win your Luxembourgish neighbours over? Send them a Luxembourgish invitation to a barbecue! This and other spring activities in Luxembourg!
Read MoreWhether you believe that the holiday is about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or whether you just want to celebrate the return of spring, Luxembourg has a wide range of interesting and fun traditions to take part in during this season.
The story of Easter starts three days before
Read MoreDramatically improve your Luxembourgish by increasing your exposure to it. The more your brain hears and sees Luxembourgish, the more familiar it becomes. Language learning needs a lot of repetition and luckily nowadays, we have a lot more options to do this in a fun way.
One of those easy, fun and free ways of learning Luxembourgish is to sign up to the Learn Luxembourgish Twitter and Facebook feeds where you will get daily Luxembourgish-English vocabulary, sentences and expressions.
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