One of the pleasures of being a traveller in a new and exotic place is not understanding the language. Of course, being an English speaker you will always find a person with whom you can communicate. However, being oblivious to conversations on the streets and in the shops, to the television blathering away, or the radio gibbering(…)

If your friend sent you this meme, how would you answer? The most likely options are “haha” or “LOL” (which means “Laughing Out Loud”, if you didn’t know). But if you found this meme hilarious, you may want to laugh hard and use “HAHA”, “hahahahaha”, or “ROFL” (Rolling On the Floor Laughing). The problem is(…)

Argentina has an incredibly rich immigrant history, resulting in an eclectic background of people and customs that have molded the country’s culture. This is especially true in Buenos Aires, where the cosmopolitan nature of the city makes it very easy to blend in as a foreigner. Until, that is, you open your mouth and try(…)

As we head into 2020, which seems like an impossible year to imagine, how does our reality measure up to what we expected of our future? Have any predictions from our past come to be true for our present? Let’s take a look!     Destination Mars In a 1997 edition of Wired, Peter Schwartz(…)

Based on anecdotal evidence from popular media, it’s widely believed that alcohol improves the ability to speak in a foreign language, ostensibly due to the anxiety-reducing effects of booze itself. Based on personal experience, a couple of drinks goes a long way toward loosening my tongue no matter what language I’m speaking. I’m currently on(…)

Are we too late? Or perhaps right on time. Possibly… but it’s that time of year again. For all those language lovers out there, have a sit after all the gift unwrapping is said and done and take in a little Christmas linguistics fun. Here are some long and perhaps not-so-long forgotten words associated with(…)

Sometimes the holidays can be more a season of stress than festive cheer, especially if you’re agonising over what to get who (not to mention what to buy for that one friend who seems to already have everything). If you know someone who is learning a new language, or you are a language learner yourself,(…)

Last week we covered the very basics of Taipei night markets in Part 1. Now that the stage has been set, we’re going to talk about getting you prepared. So without further ado, on with the show! 1. Bring: An open mind Forget all your homeland standards of sanitation, culinary taste and tradition, and human(…)

We know what you’re thinking. We’ve taken two of the, arguably, more difficult languages to master, and attempted to force them together like Mrs Bennett did with Elizabeth and the awful Mr Collins (Pride and Prejudice, folks), but we promise, there is a little more in common between these two languages than those two unfortunate(…)