Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

Many of you will know that the International Film Festival is on right now. Euroasia is a long-standing supporter of international films in NZ, and every year we encourage all the students at Euroasia Language Academy to go watch these films. Here’s a list of some of the French films you should check out. As always, there’s an amazing selection of top films on offer.

p/s: Join us for French classes starting 19 July if you wish to enjoy French films without solely relying on the subtitles.

Normal ticket price is $15/session. Tip for film festival fans: if you’re planning on attending several films at the Festival this year (or planning to go with a group of people), check out the Ten-Trip Passes. At $105.00, it works out at great value. The Ten-Trip Pass can be purchased on the day or in advance and can be used throughout the Festival to secure tickets to any session that is not sold out. You can also share this pass with a friend or two.

Check out “The Tree” – 16/7 at Lido and 23/7 at Civic. Selected to close this year’s Cannes Film Festival, French director Julie Bertuccelli’s second feature is an arresting drama of loss and rebirth shaped by emotion, intuition and the elemental forces at work in its ravishing Queensland landscape.

French films showing in Auckland at the Film Festival:

A PROPHET

Jacques Audiard, France 2009, 155 mins

Jacques Audiard’s dense, involving, richly layered crimeworld drama is one of the year’s standout films. Set largely in a prison, bu…

15 Jul | 8:45pm

Civic Theatre

16 Jul | 3:45pm

Civic Theatre

AMER

Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, France 2009, 90 mins

Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani are a Belgian couple who have made five short films together. Amer is their dazzling debut fea…

24 Jul | 8:30pm

Rialto Newmarket

25 Jul | 6:00pm

Rialto Newmarket

AROUND A SMALL MOUNTAIN

Jacques Rivette, France 2009, 84 mins

New Wave veteran Jacques Rivette sets a tentative late-life romance between a performer and an intrigued admirer in a tiny ramshackle circus…

10 Jul | 6:30pm

Rialto Newmarket

12 Jul | 6:30pm

Rialto Newmarket

9 Jul | 1:45pm

Rialto Newmarket

BABIES

Thomas Balmès, France 2010, 79 mins

With wit, tenderness and a keen eye for the fledgling signs of intelligence and sociability, director Thomas Balmès documents the fir…

10 Jul | 1:45pm

Civic Theatre

11 Jul | 4:00pm

Lido Cinema

Sold Out!

13 Jul | 11:00am

Civic Theatre

9 Jul | 3:30pm

The Bridgeway Cinema

CARLOS – PART ONE

Olivier Assayas, France 2010, 100 mins

This extraordinary three-film epic, made for French television, was showcased out of competition in Cannes to a storm of…

22 Jul | 4:00pm

Rialto Newmarket

23 Jul | 4:15pm

Rialto Newmarket

24 Jul | 4:15pm

Rialto Newmarket

25 Jul | 1:00pm

Rialto Newmarket

CARLOS – PART THREE

Olivier Assayas, France 2010, 123 mins

This extraordinary three-film epic, made for French television, was showcased out of competition in Cannes to a storm of…

22 Jul | 8:45pm

Rialto Newmarket

23 Jul | 9:00pm

Rialto Newmarket

24 Jul | 9:00pm

Rialto Newmarket

25 Jul | 5:45pm

Rialto Newmarket

CARLOS – PART TWO

Olivier Assayas, France 2010, 107 mins

This extraordinary three-film epic, made for French television, was showcased out of competition in Cannes to a storm of…

22 Jul | 6:15pm

Rialto Newmarket

23 Jul | 6:30pm

Rialto Newmarket

24 Jul | 6:30pm

Rialto Newmarket

25 Jul | 3:15pm

Rialto Newmarket

CERTIFIED COPY

Abbas Kiarostami, France 2010, 106 mins

At Cannes this was the year of Juliette Binoche. She graced the Festival’s poster; then she took the Best Actress Award for her role i…

18 Jul | 6:15pm

Civic Theatre

20 Jul | 11:00am

Civic Theatre

ENTER THE VOID

Gaspar Noé, France 2009, 156 mins

25 Jul | 8:15pm

Civic Theatre

FAREWELL

, France 2009, 113 mins

Christian Carion’s tensely atmospheric Cold War spy movie reveals an amazing true story. In the early 80s a disillusioned KGB colonel …

15 Jul | 6:00pm

Lido Cinema

20 Jul | 6:15pm

Civic Theatre

21 Jul | 11:00am

Civic Theatre

FATHER OF MY CHILDREN

Mia Hansen-Løve, France 2009, 110 mins

It’s a rare reviewer anywhere who has not been caught up by this persuasively acted portrait of a charismatic, workaholic, art-house m…

11 Jul | 1:00pm

Rialto Newmarket

15 Jul | 9:00pm

Rialto Newmarket

23 Jul | 3:30pm

The Bridgeway Cinema

24 Jul | 3:30pm

The Bridgeway Cinema

GAINSBOURG

Joann Sfar, France 2009, 130 mins

A quintessential French icon gets his big- screen bio. In the 60s, singer Serge Gainsbourg mixed pop outlawry with low-down lechery to blaze…

17 Jul | 5:45pm

Civic Theatre

20 Jul | 3:30pm

Civic Theatre

I’M GLAD MY MOTHER IS ALIVE

Claude Miller, Nathan Miller, France 2009, 90 mins

This compelling drama of a boy’s obsessive pursuit of his birth mother is based on a true story. Like many adolescents, rebellious Tho…

15 Jul | 3:45pm

Academy Cinema

19 Jul | 3:45pm

Academy Cinema

19 Jul | 8:30pm

Academy Cinema

LA DANSE: THE PARIS OPERA BALLET

Frederick Wiseman, France 2009, 158 mins

“In La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet, his 36th documentary in more than 40 years, Frederick Wiseman takes his camera into the stately …

16 Jul | 12:30pm

Civic Theatre

18 Jul | 12:30pm

Civic Theatre

MAMMUTH

Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern, France 2010, 89 mins

Inspired absurdists and cheerleaders of underclass rancour, Delépine and Kervern follow last year’s savoury Louise-Michel with …

17 Jul | 6:00pm

Lido Cinema

21 Jul | 1:30pm

Civic Theatre

23 Jul | 6:00pm

Lido Cinema

25 Jul | 4:00pm

Civic Theatre

OCEANS

Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, France 2009, 84 mins

A miraculously photographed showcase of some of the seven seas’ least seen and most incredible specimens, Oceans is an immersive cinem…

17 Jul | 11:00am

Civic Theatre

18 Jul | 4:00pm

Civic Theatre

THE CONCERT

Radu Mihaileanu, France 2009, 119 mins

A band of out-of-work Moscow musicians travels to Paris posing as the celebrated Bolshoi Orchestra in this lavish, shamelessly popular comed…

11 Jul | 3:30pm

The Bridgeway Cinema

Sold Out!

13 Jul | 1:15pm

Civic Theatre

9 Jul | 6:15pm

Civic Theatre

THE TREE

Julie Bertuccelli, France 2010, 100 mins

Selected to close this year’s Cannes Film Festival, French director Julie Bertuccelli’s second feature is an arresting drama of loss and rebirth shaped by emotion, intuition and the elemental forces at work in its ravishing Queensland landscape. Like her first, the lovely Since Otar Left (NZIFF03), The Tree is attuned to the delicate, strangely inspired unwordliness of characters discombobulated by loss.

On their small country block, eight-year-old Simone and her mother Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are dealing in very different ways with the sudden loss of their father and husband. While Dawn struggles spasmodically to keep it together, and her other children fare for themselves, Simone becomes convinced of her father’s presence in the magnificent primeval Moreton Bay fig tree that towers over the family’s rambling bungalow. In Simone’s eyes, Martin Csokas as Dawn’s amorous boss has aroused the tree’s anger. Why else would its roots be rupturing the drains and pushing into the house’s foundations?

16 Jul | 6:00pm

Lido Cinema

22 Jul | 11:15am

Civic Theatre

23 Jul | 6:45pm

Civic Theatre

TWO IN THE WAVE

Emmanuel Laurent, France 2009, 93 mins

Cannes, 1959. The 400 Blows carries off the Best Director award. Its young director and even younger star, François Truffaut and Jean…

15 Jul | 4:00pm

SKYCITY Theatre

17 Jul | 11:45am

SKYCITY Theatre

21 Jul | 11:00am

Academy Cinema

WHITE MATERIAL

Claire Denis, France 2009, 102 mins

Over the past 22 years, Claire Denis (Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum) has built up one of the most impressive bodies of work in contemporary

18 Jul | 8:15pm

The Bridgeway Cinema

20 Jul | 8:30pm

Rialto Newmarket

24 Jul | 6:15pm

Rialto Newmarket

25 Jul | 3:45pm

Lido Cinema

This would have been a Top 10 list, except Number 11 is Japanese and Number 12 German, both very important languages, so I’ll make this the TOP 12 list of the most spoken languages in the world, as at 2009. Source is Ethnologue, a widely cited reference for languages. The full list can be found on Wikipedia if you’re keen.

No surprises here. Chinese is number one – but do note that there are many dialects within the Chinese language. Chinese and Spanish are the top two because both China and South America are very populous. If we compiled another list of the most spoken languages in the world, including people who speak English as a second language, English will come up tops, especially given the rate at which young Chinese and Spanish kids are learning English.

Posted via web from Euroasia

Spanish. We consistently have more students for Spanish than for the other languages. Although in the past we used to have more learners of French and German, we have found that more New Zealanders are now interested in Spanish.

Why is this? It could be because Latin America is fast becoming a popular travel destination. Spanish culture is also becoming more mainstream. Just look at the number of tapas bars and salsa schools in town. New Zealand also has a Free Trade Agreement with Chile and does a lot of business with Spanish-speaking countries. Spanish is also perceived to be a relatively easy language to learn.

A related question is “Which is the fastest growing language?” The answer is Chinese Mandarin. Given the perception that Chinese is a hard language to learn, this is somewhat surprising. So why are more New Zealanders interested in Mandarin these days? It could be to do with the fact that China’s economy is fast-growing, and New Zealand is increasingly doing more business with China. China recently overtook Japan as the world’s second largest economy. China also beat Germany as the world’s largest exporter in 2010. At this rate, New Zealand will be more reliant on China not just as a source of imports, but also a large market for our exporters.

We recently covered the topic Which language should I learn? 

More on why learn a language and why learn with Euroasia.

FAQs previously covered:

1. Why is it a good idea to learn a foreign language

2. What does learning a language really involve?

3. What’s the best way to learn a foreign language?

4. As an adult, can you learn a language the same way that you did as a child?

5. How can I obtain instant/magic results in learning a language?

6. How long will it take me to learn a language?

Posted via web from Euroasia

From the point of view of children learning their first language, no! Children around the world acquire language at pretty much the same rate. But as adults learning a second language, we are likely to find languages which are more closely related to our own easier than others.

For example, German is easier for a native English speaker than say Chinese because for starters, you can actually read the German alphabet, but Chinese script is somewhat more complex.

Willkommen bei Deutsch! (German) vs 欢迎 学 汉语 (Chinese)

Although in the case of Chinese, we would simplify this for English-speakers by teaching you pinyin, the Romanised system that would enable English speakers to learn Mandarin without having to learn the script.

For example, 欢迎 学 汉语  becomes Huān yíng xué Hàn Yǔ.

With languages from the same family, say Romance languages eg Spanish, French, Italian; there are vast similarities, so knowing one language would give you a significant advantage in learning another. Some say French is harder than Spanish, or that Spanish is harder than Italian, but ultimately we think the difference is not huge, so choose the language you prefer to learn.

We recently covered the topic Which language should I learn? 

In the next few days, we’ll be answering the question “which is the most popular language?”.

More on why learn a language and why learn with Euroasia.

FAQs previously covered:

1. Why is it a good idea to learn a foreign language

2. What does learning a language really involve?

3. What’s the best way to learn a foreign language?

4. As an adult, can you learn a language the same way that you did as a child?

5. How can I obtain instant/magic results in learning a language?

6. How long will it take me to learn a language?

Posted via web from Euroasia

Many people will have a particular reason for learning a certain language. If you just have a desire to experience foreign language learning, it doesn’t really matter which one you choose. Which country or culture interests you?

For example, at Euroasia, one of the languages we offer is Italian. Despite the fact that not many people speak Italian outside of Italy, we continue to get enrolments for Italian courses. We believe this is because New Zealanders are fascinated with Italy; Italian brands, Italian architecture and generally all things Italian!

Some people learn a language for business reasons. Various international organisations adopt “working languages” for day-to-day communications. Your career prospects would certainly be brighter if you are fluent in at least major one language other than English. Some examples of key working languages:  

The United Nations has six official and working languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish). German also enjoys special status as a “documentary language”. 

The working languages of the Secretariat of the U.N. are English and French. 

The World Trade Organization has three working languages: English, French, and Spanish. 

The International Criminal Court has two working languages: English, and French.

The International Labour Organization has three working languages: English, French, and Spanish.

The International Olympic Committee has two working languages: English and French.

The European Commission has three working languages: English, French, and German.

The Free Trade Area of the Americas has two working languages: English and Spanish. 

Mercosur has two working languages: Portuguese and Spanish.

NATO has two working languages: English and French. 

FIFA has four working languages: English, French, German, and Spanish. Formerly, French was the sole official language of the organization. Currently, English is the official language for minutes, correspondence, and announcements.

More on why learn a language and why learn with Euroasia.

FAQs previously covered:

1. Why is it a good idea to learn a foreign language

2. What does learning a language really involve?

3. What’s the best way to learn a foreign language?

4. As an adult, can you learn a language the same way that you did as a child?

5. How can I obtain instant/magic results in learning a language?

6. How long will it take me to learn a language?

 

Posted via web from Euroasia

Few of us were.  But do you know the best way to learn English grammar?  By studying the grammar of a foreign language!  You kill two birds with one stone. 

At Euroasia, we try to keep the grammar as straightforward as possible, and we avoid using difficult terms.  Some basic concepts are helpful, like “verbs” and “adjectives”, but we make sure people understand the terms we do use. At the beginners level, you will survive without knowledge of grammar, so don’t let this stop you from learning a language.

You probably can’t avoid grammar for ever, so as you advance through the levels, we will progressively teach you more.  Without grammar, you just learn words and phrases, but you can’t really put them together to make new sentences.  It’s like adding up just using a plus sign (+).  With grammar, you enter the world of multiplication (x)!.  You can say so much more. 

Euroasia language course are designed for people who don’t know anything about grammar, so don’t give up on learning a language simply because you don’t know grammar. 

FAQs previously covered:

1. Why is it a good idea to learn a foreign language

2. What does learning a language really involve?

3. What’s the best way to learn a foreign language?

4. As an adult, can you learn a language the same way that you did as a child?

5. How can I obtain instant/magic results in learning a language?

6. How long will it take me to learn a language?

FAQs coming up:

8. Is it easier to learn a language if I go to the country?

9. Which language should I learn?

10. Are some languages harder than others?

11. So which languages will I find easier than others?

12. Which is the most popular language?

13. Can learning a language be fun?

Posted via web from Euroasia

Two points here:

1.  What do you mean by “learn a language”?  To get by in everyday situations, to speak it like a native, or to reach one of many different stages in between?   There’s a huge range of possible levels of competence, and a huge range in the amount of time needed.  Which one do you hope to achieve?

2.   People are different; some pick up a language faster than others.  The ads which say you will be speaking your target language by studying ten minutes a day, watching a video clip or simply listening to your Ipod while you exercise overlook this fact.

A typical Euroasia language course covers a range of topics.  Even in this short space of time you can make really significant progress.  If you can find time in between lessons to go over material, expand your vocabulary, listen to CDs, then you will undoubtedly make faster progress.

FAQs previously covered:

1. Why is it a good idea to learn a foreign language

2. What does learning a language really involve?

3. What’s the best way to learn a foreign language?

4. As an adult, can you learn a language the same way that you did as a child?

5. How can I obtain instant/magic results in learning a language?

FAQs coming up:

7. I don’t understand grammar; we were never taught it at school?

8. Is it easier to learn a language if I go to the country?

9. Which language should I learn?

10. Are some languages harder than others?

11. So which languages will I find easier than others?

12. Which is the most popular language?

13. Can learning a language be fun?

 

Posted via web from Euroasia

Somehow or other, vocabulary has to be learnt, and words have to be strung into sentences using grammar, which also has to be learnt. While some courses are undoubtedly more effective than others, at the end of the day, certain bits of language have to be understood and memorised.

Unless someone has discovered a wonder drug, it’s hard to see how the magic results promised by some providers can be achieved. 

At Euroasia, we are constantly exploring cutting-edge methods and technologies. If appropriate, we incorporate what we learn into the courses we offer, which are custom-made for native English speakers. With over 3000 New Zealanders who have completed one of our courses, we draw on a significant experience base in designing effective courses to help you learn a foreign language. We explain more under Why Euroasia.

Check out the range of foreign language courses at Euroasia.

FAQs previously covered:

1. Why is it a good idea to learn a foreign language

2. What does learning a language really involve?

3. What’s the best way to learn a foreign language?

 

4. As an adult, can you learn a language the same way that you did as a child?

FAQs coming up:

6. How long it will take me to learn a language?

7. I don’t understand grammar; we were never taught it at school?

8. Is it easier to learn a language if I go to the country?

9. Which language should I learn?

10. Are some languages harder than others?

11. So which languages will I find easier than others?

12. Which is the most popular language?

13. Can learning a language be fun?

Posted via web from Euroasia