Can a lack of basic reading skills make you sick? I would not have readily made that connection but the answer is yes. According to the NNLM, a U.S. government agency: “…poor health literacy is a stronger predictor of a person’s health than age, income, employment status, education level, and race.” I had never heard the term “health literacy” before and came across it while researching the impact of illiteracy in the U.S. It makes sense. If your reading and Read More…

My husband and I were hanging out with friends the other day when, somehow, the question arose as to the correct translation, from French into English, of the word con. My husband is French and I grew up speaking French in Haiti; but I came to the States as a young child, so conversations like this one are not unusual in our house. “How do you say, ‘an affair’ in French?” I said. “As in, ‘to have an affair.’” “Une Read More…