The Language Learning Specialists
If you went to see Black Panther at the cinema last year, then you were far from the only one—Marvel’s second-highest-grossing film of the year raked in over one billion dollars, putting the spotlight not only on its talented actors but also its setting, the fictional Wakanda, and Xhosa, the very real language that is … Read more
Happy Cappuccino Day! In today’s post, uTalk’s guest blogger Brian investigates the many different ways of saying ‘coffee’—and where the word used around the world actually originates! Forget about tea. Linguistically speaking, coffee is the one beverage whose name sounds the same in almost every language in the world today. Just landed in South Africa … Read more
The sign saying ‘this is a no wang wang zone’ can be puzzling for foreign visitors to Manila International Airport in the Philippines. It’s written in English, one of the two official languages of the country (the other being Filipino, a standardised form of Tagalog), but what does it mean? Well, ‘wang wang’ is used … Read more
India boasts the largest film industry in the world, with nearly two thousand films released in 2017. Despite the recent economic slowdown, Indian Cinema still makes money—with the majority coming via Bollywood. Even if you’re not learning Hindi or Urdu or Tamil, or even any other language spoken in India, watching a Bollywood film can … Read more
Children everywhere look forward to Halloween with glee. And why wouldn’t they? They get to dress up in fun costumes, galavant about town with their friends and have all sorts of sweet treats to look forward to. In this post, uTalk’s guest blogger Brian explores festivals that are similar to Halloween and are celebrated around … Read more
We’re halfway through Round One of the 2019/20 uTalk Junior Language Challenge and so thought it would be a good idea to update you all on how that’s going. If you’re on the fence about having your student or child participate, keep reading and see if we can convince you to join in the fun! … Read more
Germany is famous for a lot of things—but its cuisine doesn’t really top that list. Most stereotypes around German food include sausages, potatoes and lots and lots of beer. And while these stereotypes may be somewhat grounded in fact, Germany has much more to offer—as we’ll share with you today. If you’re in any city … Read more
With over 2,500 basic words and phrases in more than 150 languages, there’s plenty the uTalk app offers for you to learn. But as we all find ourselves getting busier and busier, how much time do we realistically have to spend on language learning? We decided to find out by having Charlotte, our Marketing and … Read more
Romania is famous for plenty of things: the Carpathian Mountains, medieval fortresses, Sebastian Stan… But when most people think of Romania, they think of Transylvania and, you’ve guessed it, Count Dracula! In today’s post, we explore the origins of vampires, how Dracula helped boost Romania’s tourism industry, and we’ll teach you some words and phrases … Read more
In the second part of our blog series on myths surrounding language learning, we’re exploring the myth that you have to be under a certain age to learn a new language. Do children really learn everything better than adults, or are there some advantages to being older and learning a new skill? If you’re over … Read more