The Big DON’Ts of Language Learning: Don’t Look for ONE method
The promise of “the best way” to do a certain thing is a very tempting one. Advertisements and click-baits are full of such promises: the best diet, the best work-out routine, the best investment strategy, etc. No surprise then, that Duolingo calls itself “The world’s best way to learn a language”. Most of you probably […]
Diary of a (Student) Teacher
In previous issues we spoke a lot about students – British, Italian and French students and their struggle in learning languages. This time I would love to focus on a different scenario: the teacher. We normally don’t think about it when we speak our own language, but all of us have a “starter”; some words […]
“Mum, I Missed the Plane!” and Other Translations of Film Titles
In many ways, Hollywood, and popular culture more generally, has become a kind of lingua franca for the younger generations across the globe. Whilst on exchange in France, I chatted with local students about their love of American films and TV series – many of them consumed popular culture as a way to improve their […]
Ancient antagonists: how our ancestors cursed at each other. Part two — the Romans
THIS ARTICLE IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK There is such a vast amount of ancient profanities that are worth the read, that I just simply couldn’t leave it be a one part thing. In my previous article we explored the vast and extremely rich vocabulary of curse words used in ancient Greece, with the special […]
The Power To Yeet
A favorite word of mine is cantankerous. I am more annoyed with accents than words themselves. As an aging Millennial, there are things I have sworn off. The closer you get to age forty, words and/or youth culture are irritating. We think we ended all need for vocabulary expansion with one movie, “Clueless”. I was […]
DoW: Sunday, bloody Manchedi
The title of my 1st Silly Linguistics magazine article, a reference to one Day of the Week (DoW), is harmless enough for most mono-lingual Americans but may evoke strong emotions from the Brits, French, Irish, and certainly other cultures of which I’m undoubtably unaware. Working backward, the Irish rock band U2’s most political song, Sunday […]
