The Story of the Chinese Zodiac: Why 2020 is the Year of the Rat

Here at uTalk, we’ve spoken a little before about the traditions surrounding the Chinese New Year, which involve all kinds of things, chief among them wearing red, eating a reunion dinner with your family, and not washing your hair. But what about the origins of Chinese New Year—and why are there so many animals involved? … Read more

Learning New Languages

When it comes to learning new languages, it’s not all about being fluent. Language company founder, Richard Howeson, shares his do’s and don’ts on language learning for beginners. When you’re preparing for an overseas trip, language learning is often lucky to scrap in at the bottom of your ‘to-do’ list. But, thanks to digital downloads … Read more

Why Song is a Lifeline for Sephardic Jews

Sunday 12th January marks International Ladino Day, a celebration of the Ladino (or Juedo-Spanish) language through story and song. Music is a thread woven through the history of Sephardic Jews and is one way in which the community is trying to preserve and promote the language, with prominent figures such as Karen Gerson Sarhon and … Read more

Ladino: What’s in a Name?

If you’re trying to learn more about Ladino, you might have come across the various names the language has been given over the years: Judeo-Spanish, Judezmo, Yahudice, Españolit… Ladino also should not be confused with Ladin, a different romance language spoken in Italy. So, why has the term Ladino been the one to pass into … Read more

Meet Our Speakers: Rachel Bortnick (Ladino)

We’ve all heard of Yiddish, right? But have you heard of another Jewish language, Ladino? It’s the language historically spoken by Jews whose ancestors once lived in Spain and Portugal and is classified as endangered by UNESCO. It was also our most recent addition to the uTalk app, with the help of digital archive Ladino … Read more

uTalk’s Ladino Journey

After months of hard work, we’ve just added our 144th language to the uTalk app—Ladino! In this blog post, we share how we go about adding new languages, as well as the unique issues that arise when it comes to adding languages that are endangered.  Way back at the beginning of 2019, two individuals met … Read more

Language Learning Myths #3: Everybody Speaks English!

In our ongoing series, we’re busting all kinds of myths that prevent people from learning a new language. We’ve previously looked at whether you need a special gene or talent for languages (you don’t) or if you’re too old to learn a language once you’re past a certain age (you’re not) but today’s myth is … Read more