- Good morning.
Welcome to another week here at "Coffee Break."
I'm Mark and, as ever on a Monday morning,
I like to have my coffee break with you
and update you a little on what's happening here
at "Coffee Break" this week.
I am just back from Sweden.
I had a great trip.
You may have seen last week's Monday morning video.
If not, you can click up here and watch last week's video.
I travelled around a little in Sweden.
I visited Dalarna.
I visited Karlstad.
I spent a couple of days in Stockholm,
and I even managed to have a "fika",
a little coffee break with Hannah,
our Coffee Break Swedish teacher in her hometown
of Vaxholm on the end of Vaxön.
Now we actually made a video,
and you can look forward to that
because in this video for the first time
I taste salt liquorice ice cream.
I'll not say anything about it.
You need to watch the video to find out
exactly what happened.
Now, today we're talking palindromes.
Why are we talking about palindromes?
Well, today is the 20th.
No, it's not, it's the 22nd of the eighth, 22.
So in the UK, we would put the day first
then the month and the year.
So 22, 8, 22, it's a palindromic date,
because it reads the same one way as it does the other way.
So forwards and backwards, it reads the same way.
Now I realise that if you're in the U.S.
that wouldn't be a palindromic date
because it will be 8, 22, 22.
But nonetheless, you get the idea.
Now palindrome, the word palindrome
comes from the Greek, "palíndromos",
which is, it means something like running back again.
So "palín" is back or back again
and "dromos" is running or a race.
So a word that runs that way,
and it runs back again that way.
I thought it would be fun to look at some palindromes
in other languages, and have a little fun
with the word itself.
So, first of all, let's think about some palindromes
in other languages.
The first one from French, (speaking in foreign language).
So that would be what you would say
if you were asking a cow, how are you feeling?
(speaking in foreign language), but you've got to have
the eh at the beginning.
Eh (speaking in foreign language)
in order for it to be a palindrome.
In Italian, there's a nice one,
(speaking in foreign language).
So the mice didn't have grandchildren.
(speaking in foreign language).
Okay, moving on Spanish, we could say,
(speaking in foreign language).
So a red eye would be (speaking in foreign language).
And another one could be (speaking in foreign language).
So are we or are we not, ooh, philosophical question there.
A Swedish one?
I'm just back from Sweden, as I said,
so we could say (speaking in foreign language).
You plural speak good Latin, you speak Latin well.
(speaking in foreign language).
In German, the palindrome that I found
is a little bit philosophical too.
(speaking in foreign language).
So that means something like,
vital fog with meaning is relative in life.
I don't really know what that one means, but not to worry.
It is a palindrome, it works the same way backwards
as it does forwards.
Now, when I've been doing the research for this,
I came across a fabulous word,
and that word is "aibohphobia".
Now we know that phobia means a fear of something.
Can you work out what this would be?
It is in fact, a fear of palindromes.
It's a palindrome itself.
"aibohphobia", fantastic.
And even would you believe there are some languages
whose names are palindromes?
So Malayalam, the language that is spoken
in the Indian state of Kerala, is a palindrome.
It reads the same backwards as it does forwards.
And there are also other languages, Ewe,
spoken in Ghana and Togo.
Mam, spoken in Guatemala,
and Manam spoken in Papua, New Guinea.
Do you have a favourite palindromes,
either in the language you're learning,
or in your own language?
If you do post it in the comments.
And I'm really looking forward
to seeing your favourite palindromes.
Okay, coming up this week on "Coffee Break Languages"
we are in Module Two of our masterclass.
And today we have the review for Module Two.
And also later in the week,
we'll be doing the Module Two test.
So you can look forward to testing
to see how much you've learned in Module Two.
If you are a member of our club,
then every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
we have content in the club.
So this week as ever regular listening materials
on Monday, that's today.
On Wednesday we've got some reading materials for you,
and Friday video lessons.
Now, if you'd like to find out more
about our Coffee Break Club,
just click up here and we will provide you
with more information about the Coffee Break Club.
Now in our podcasts this week
we've got two episodes going out.
First of all, the Coffee Break Spanish Magazine,
that's Season Four, Episode 10.
And the topic of this one is (speaking in foreign language)
which is corn or maize, which is a very important food
throughout Latin America, and indeed throughout the world.
So we'll be finding out more
about maize or corn in this episode.
And in a "Coffee Break" French magazine,
Season Two, Episode 10,
we're talking about a date, which took place last month.
And that was (speaking in foreign language)
the 14th of July,
a very important date in the French calendar.
As usual, we have our social media content on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Just make sure you're following "Coffee Break Languages"
or the individual language accounts on Facebook
for French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish,
Chinese, and English.
Okay, that's it for this week.
Don't forget to tell me about your favourite palindrome.
I'm looking forward to reading the comments.
In the meantime, I wish you a happy week
of language learning.
And of course, as ever, happy coffee breaking.
See you again next week.