Ever wonder how Mount Diablo got its name?  What the “San” in San Pablo means, or what an “alcatraz” is?

California’s diverse toponymy comes from its rich cultural history — places like Ohlone Park, Sonoma, Solano, Petaluma, Marin and Napa all originate from the indigenous peoples of the area (Ohlone, more→

J’ai grandi dans une famille juive. J’ai passé mes trois dernières années de lycée dans une banlieue de Chicago à majorité juive. Il n’y avait pas moyen, donc, d’ignorer le Shoah. On en parlait. À la télé, on passait un téléfilm avec le Capitaine Spock en vedette et qui s’appelait “Never Forget.” Et, [...]

Today, we are attending the Berkeley Language Center’s conference on History and Memory in Foreign Language Study.

So, we’re asking you some questions:

How have you brought history into your foreign language classroom? Have you taught a language where you felt that a national memory or a historical period was off limits? Have you encountered [...]

I’m at the BLC one-day colloquium, History and Memory in Foreign Language Study, and though I’ll only be able to be here for part of the day, I’d like to leave a few thoughts. Or, as I’ve tried to indicate in the title, one view.

Before launching into the collection of liveblogging tidbits that [...]