Newspapers: How falling in love can help you learn a language

Source.  

Find the article on this page at the BBC site.

Some questions to consider in preparation for our discussion in class:

1. How is the article structured? Examples:
• as a personal story or stories,
• narrative of an event,
• essay (series of arguments advocating an idea or point of view),
• analysis with bullet points,
• etc.
2. Given the structure as you’ve described it, list the segments of the article
3. Summarize or paraphrase each segment of the article
4. Is there a ‘take-away’? (One point that the author wants you to remember?)  If yes, please describe.
5. Is there another thing you will remember, in addition or instead, a week or so from now?
6. What are three good discussion points that the article brings up? Anything that made you think or question?
7. Did you notice anything illogical in the article's arguments? Do you have information that tends to contradict or supplement the info or perspective in the article?
8. Describe the voice and register (formal, informal, personal, or others -- see list here). 

Some of the more interesting, helpful, or obscure phrases in this text:

sparky
catch the eye
mutual attraction
stand in the way
fledgling romance
transgressed, transgression
forge a relationship
feature (verb), featured
in equal parts
shorthand
all manner of
tricky
painstaking, painstakingly, take pains
crystallise
spur on, spurred on
with gusto
pitfalls
dog paddle, dog-paddling
standing water
tongue twister
get one's tongue around
in tandem with
dogged
balancing act
come to the fore
trigger (verb)
push his (her) buttons
reticence
epiphany 
of sorts
catalyst
innate
pared-back
Kummerspeck
hygge
non-linear
determinist
a recipe for happiness