Happy April Fool’s Day! If you’re English, you’ve only got till noon to play your tricks or you’re the fool. If you’re over the channel, your day may involve April Fish, usually made of paper and attached to someone’s back…
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april fish!
Tagged with: April Fool, English, Flemish, French, Idioms, Italian, Language, Languages, Translation, words
Posted in April Fool's Day, international, language, words
Posted in April Fool's Day, international, language, words
¡habla conmigo! – talk with me!
If you want someone’s mind to grow, you have to start a conversation with them as soon as they’re born. It’s not enough for them to hear language around them, adults talking to each other, people talking on TV or…
Tagged with: bilingualism, conversation, English, language learning, Languages, linguistics, Polish, Spanish, Welsh, words
Posted in Illustration, language, words
Posted in Illustration, language, words
world book day 2014: binge-read or savour?
World Book Day today, and there’s a £1 book for everyone under 18 in the British Isles (discussion of the politics of that short-hand term another time, please). There’s an app, there are trailers for the books, you can win a…
Tagged with: binge-reading, books, Children's literature, Finland, Finnish, Herbert Lomas, Language, Mirkka Rekola, Poetry, slow food movement, words
Posted in books, language, literature, Word of the Year 2013, words, World Book Day
Posted in books, language, literature, Word of the Year 2013, words, World Book Day
more gender pronouns: they
Facebook has finally broadened its pronoun options from 2 to 50. This should theoretically stop those odd posts with the “wrong” gender assignment, and make a lot of transgendered and queer people very happy. The only problem is that you have to…
more stories, more words
“One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.”— Evelyn Waugh “Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced…
Tagged with: book sculpture, Brazilian Portuguese, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, English, Evelyn Waugh, Fiction, Finnish, Jose Saramago, Justin Rowe, Language, native, Roald Dahl, words
Posted in international, language, literature, words
Posted in international, language, literature, words
one word to begin
New years’ resolutions can be overwhelming, if like me, you make a lengthy list and then struggle to live up to your own ideals, often failing within the first week. So this year I decided to choose one word to guide…
Tagged with: Alice in Wonderland, Bible, English, gift, Illustration, Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Saint John's Bible, Welsh, words
Posted in faith, Illustration, language, literature, words
Posted in faith, Illustration, language, literature, words
hobbit scripts
It is that time of year again – time for the next Hobbit movie, a chance to escape back into the magical world of Middle Earth. The first Hobbit film was too long, but it was also the first film I saw…
Tagged with: Anglo Saxon, Cirith, Elvish, Finnish, Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, Language, Literature, Lord of the Rings, Runes, Scripts, Tengwar, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Tibetan, Transliteration, Welsh, words
Posted in international, language, literature, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, translation, words
Posted in international, language, literature, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, translation, words
selfie, bookshelfie
The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 is: Selfie (n. informal) a photograph taken of oneself and usually uploaded onto social media. From a short list which included bedroom tax (for UK speakers), binge-watch and twerk, selfie was the clear global…
Tagged with: Dictionaries, English language, Filipino, Finnish, Korean, Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Romanian, Selfie, Word of the year, words
Posted in language, Word of the Year 2013, words
Posted in language, Word of the Year 2013, words
twist your tongue around the world
Sometimes your tongue gets in a knot and the words just don’t come out. But if you can untangle it, you will sound fluent as never before. I tell first time visitors to Finland that they can find the lift…
Tagged with: English, Finnish, Hebrew, Language, Latin, Maori, Polish, pronunciation, Tongue-twister, Welsh
Posted in international, language, translation, words
Posted in international, language, translation, words
found in translation 