Monday, May 24, 2010

Are you a bookworm?












I have tried to work out a solution to Rafa's math problem about the worm that pierces books, and I must confess that I failed. Right, I'm not very good at maths, but I am good at languages so here is a bit of language comparison.

In English, we say that you are a "bookworm" if you like reading very much, you spend your time reading, you talk about books all the time, you are an avid reader, etc. However, in Spanish, we say that you are "un ratón de biblioteca". Why do you think the animal related to books is a worm in English-speaking countries (Anglo-Saxon countries) and a mouse or a rat in Mediterranean countries like Spain?

In other languages:
German: Bücherworm (like in English)
French: rat de bibliothèque
Italian: topo di biblioteca (topo is mouse in Italian)
Portuguese: rato de biblioteca

In any case, are you a bookworm?

9 comments:

  1. No, I'm not! I don't like the libraries. I only go there when I have an exam or when I have to do the extra excercise and I go to Montoro's library with Javi. I think the libraries are boring and everybody is quite. I only like the libraries to sleep... :) Well, but Montoro's library has computers and I can play there and there is wi-fi and if I bring my computer I can play... And I haven't to wait my turn! And it's free... Hihihi!
    In my opinion the libraries are horrible because there, you can't speak and the librarian says: If you want speak go out! (They always are angry) When a library where you can speak exist, I'm going to go there but at the moment, I only want to go there if it's necessary...

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  2. And a question teacher, do you speak German, French, Italian and Portuguese? Well, a better questions: How many languajes do you speak?

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  3. I'm sorry to disappoint you, Antonio, but I can only speak Spanish, English and French. At the moment, I'm learning to speak German, but it's rather difficult. However, once you can speak a language, learning a different one is easier, and English helps me with German because many words are similar. Would you like to learn another language? When I feel I can speak German well, I would like to learn Arabic.

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  4. teache, do you want to learn all the languages? if you learn a lot of languages you can make mistakes when you speak hahaha

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  5. And I think as Antonio, the libraries are very boring. However, I like reading very much

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  6. Who said that libraries had to be fun? A library is just a place where you go to read if you haven't got any other place or to borrow books. I seldom go to libraries because I have a wonderful place for reading at home (quiet and well lighted). What is really good fun is reading. I love it!

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  7. Teacher I`m agree with you.
    And the lengages,too. Because I can speak Catalan and it helps me when I speak French.
    I love the libreries.

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  8. I may be a "bookworm" but I just read in my spare time when we should not study.Usually I read at the weekends.

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