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Culture, Unfiltered

Language exchange

Untranslatable Words

A language-exchange activity where students collect words from their own languages that have no neat English translation.

Ages
12–18
Time
1 hour

Placeholder resource.

Steps

  1. Read The Word I Cannot Translate.
  2. Each student brings one word from a language they know, or from slang, that is hard to translate.
  3. Explain it without translating it: act it out, give examples, draw it.
  4. Build a class glossary.
  • Abstract placeholder artwork of purple, peach and yellow shapes.

    Interview ·

    The Word I Cannot Translate

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  • Abstract placeholder artwork of indigo, orange and yellow shapes.

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