Virtual Field Trip

Welcome to the National Museum of Language!

Here are some of our website resources.

We have three field trips for students of Spanish based on our Virtual Cruise to Puerto Rico. They are forcused on the Food, Music, and a Story of Puerto Rico. View the Food field trip padlet here.

A Virtual Cruise to Puerto Rico

Use your imagination to travel to Puerto Rico and explore the language, culture, food, music, natural beauty, and visual arts of the island. Board here for A Virtual Cruise to Puerto Rico

Spanish Story: Mi Mascota do Ojos Amarillos

View our Padlet for the Virtual Field Trip here.

Language Trivia Game

How much do you know about language?

Test your knowledge with our trivia game.

Play the game

Spanish Trivia Game

How much do you know about the Spanish language?

Test your knowledge with our trivia game.

Play the game

Chinese Trivia Game

How much do you know about the Chineselanguage?

Test your knowledge with our trivia game.

Play the game

Chinese Kahoot

Play a game

Check how much you know about China and its language.

Play the game

Stories in English and Other Languages

Sharing Our Stories

Choose from 17 languages to read and hear stories from around the world.

Visit the collection

Click on a location shown on the map below to see the stories from that location.

Dictionary of American Regional English

Game Screenshot

Learn about Language Researchers

Stories, a game and quiz

DARE is based on face-to-face interviews carried out in all 50 states between 1965 and 1970. Graduate students, primarily from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, conducted interviews and made recordings of speakers in communities across the country. The stories that you will find in this exhibit are based on the fieldworkers’ memoirs published in the DARE newsletter.

Visit the Exhibit

Arthur the Rat

How did this short story help dialect researchers?

In this video you ca hear accents from people in different regions of the U.S. and of different ages. They reflect the variety of speech patterns collected by the DARE researchers.

Hear the Story

Teacher Notes

Pre-visit and post-visit activities are included in each padlet for the field trips.

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Fanni is Radnóti's wife
Located near the Tang capital city of Chang’an, site of the modern city of Xi’an in Shaanxi province, in central China.
Soldiers of that time commonly wore a white head cloth, similar to what is still worn by some peasants in China today.  The implication is that the conscripts were so young that they didn’t know how to wrap their head cloths, and needed help from elders.
Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
The area of Guanxi, meaning “west of the passes”, refers to the area around the capital city of Chang’an.
This is an alternative name for a province in western China, now known as Qinghai, which literally means “blue sea”.  Kokonor Lake, located in Qinghai, is the largest saline lake in China.  
Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
Oulart Hollow was the site of a famous victory of the Irish rebels over British troops, which took place on May 27, 1798. The rebels killed nearly all the British attackers in this battle. (Source: Maxwell, W. H. History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798. H. H. Bohn, London 1854, pp 92-93, at archive.org)
The phrase "United Men" is elaborated upon in the Notes section below.

Ghetto

An Italian word meaning “foundry.” It originally referred to a part of the city of Venice where the Jews of that city were forced to live; the area was called “the ghetto” because there was a foundry nearby. The term eventually came to refer to any part of a city in which a minority group is forced to live as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure. Because of the restrictions placed upon them, ghetto residents are often impoverished.

"You’re five nine, I am do-uble two"

A reference to the year 1959 and the year 2020.

"The Currency"

Meaning US dollars - this is drawing attention to the fact that Cuba is effectively dollarized.

"Sixty years with the dom-ino stuck"

This sentence is a reference to the Cold War notion that countries would turn Communist one after the other - like dominos. Cuba was the first domino, but it got stuck - no one else followed through into communism.

رحلنا

رحلنا, or "rahalna," means "we have left."

Habibi

Habibi means "my love."

Ra7eel

Ra7eel, or "raheel," means "departure."

3awda

3awda, or "awda," means "returning."

أهلاً

أهلاً, or "ahalan," means "welcome."

a5 ya baba

a5 ya baba, pronounced "akh ya baba," means "Oh my father."