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Some good advice for the road
I found an article on Examiner.com giving some great advice for would-be travellers to non-English speaking countries. It is obviously aimed at American natives, but pretty much all of the advice can...
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Swearing in foreign languages
Besides the most basic terms in a language (greetings, numbers, how to say ‘yes’ and ‘no), swear words seem to be some of the most readily-learned phrases in foreign languages. Just the other night, I...
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Pain relief in four-letter form
Speaking of swearing, a study published last month has shown that it might actually be good for us. Although swearing is looked down upon in polite company, researchers have begun to investigate why...
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Is there a problem with ‘no problem’?
I recently read a great article from the Boston Globe about the demise of the simple you’re welcome. Granted, the author possibly has even higher expectations of people than I do, but she brings up a...
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Troll the ancient yuletide carol
A few days ago I stumbled across a Christmas-themed quiz about misheard Christmas carol lyrics. I usually start listening to Christmas music (everything from choral to Mariah Carey to Run DMC) as soon...
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‘Merry Christmas’ still more popular than ‘Happy Holidays’
Google’s NGram Viewer allows anybody to create quick graphs showing word and phrase frequencies in books going back to 1800. The tool searches a database of words from over 5 million books, and you...
View ArticleHappy Chinese New Year 兔 you
Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is starting this week. The biggest celebration of the Chinese calendar, it is a time for families to get together and ring in a prosperous new year. Many of the...
View ArticleShakespeare’s Original Pronunciation
The British Library has released the first ever audio CD of clips of Shakespeare plays spoken in the original pronunciation. The recording includes some of Shakespeare’s best known speeches, such as...
View ArticleGobblefunk
“I’ll swish you to a swazzle! I’ll swash you to a swizzle! I’ll gnash you to a gnozzle! I’ll gnosh you to a gnazzle!” (The Twits) Did you know that today is Roald Dahl Day? Roald Dahl is my hands-down...
View ArticleWords of the year: Collins vs. OED
Collins Dictionary has selected a word or phrase for each month of the year, to define trends and events of 2012. The words were submitted by members of the public on the Collins website. January –...
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5 Words with Origins in Literature
Books can change the way we think and often continue to influence us long after we set them aside. Anyone who, like me, has recently been on an Austen kick can attest to the fact that when one reads...
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Black Kettles and Kicking the Idiomatic Bucket
Sometimes when learning a new language it’s hard to stay the course when it comes time to learn idioms. Combinations of words with a common figurative meaning, idioms can be discouraging to deal with...
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