The Language Learning Specialists
English speakers should be wary of receiving ein Gift from a German! That’s because Gift just happens to be the German word for “poison”! And more incredibly, both the English and German meanings stem from the exact same Proto-Germanic root – giftiz! Our friend and language guru Brian Loo Soon Hua explains all: The word … Read more
Why every language in the world uses the same two words for “tea” and why in fact, that assumption is wrong! (There’s actually only one word for tea!) Our friend and language guru Brian Loo Soon Hua explains all: The word “tea”, in almost every language in the world, is ultimately of Chinese origin. Whoever … Read more
By our multi-lingual friend Brian Loo Soon Hua aka uTalk’s Language Guru Did you know that Canada was almost named Efisga? Or, even more unusual, Hochelaga? Imagine the jokes Americans would have been making about their Efisgan or Hochelagan neighbours to the north! Thankfully, “Canada” came into official use in 1791 when the Province … Read more
Malaysian steamed buns – what a passer-by might offer you in a rural village. Brian, who grew up in Malaysia, is embarrassed at any suggestion that he’s a high-achiever. The 37-year-old, who works as a language translator, educator and blogger, is more interested in helping others learn languages than bigging himself up. “Where … Read more
New languages and a faster app are waiting for you when you update to uTalk 2.08. Languages added in 2018 are Ancient Greek, Southern Saami, Manx, Kinyarwanda, Dzongkha, Lingala, and Xhosa. Tech improvements – in FULL – are: *Sound effects now muted when your phone is in silent mode – we’ve listened … Read more
Check out this quick guide to tennis terminology and where it comes from. (Answer: mostly French!) According to some experts, love in tennis may come from the French word for egg, l’oeuf, because an egg looks like a zero. Others insist it’s so named because the game is being played for love ie without any … Read more
This week we’re really lucky to have a guest post by the team at TakeLessons. Approximately one language dies every two weeks. Most of the 7,000 languages spoken worldwide are dialects, however that doesn’t make them any less important. Languages are tied to the culture of those that speak them and should be regarded as … Read more
The Junior Language Challenge is uTalk’s annual competition for primary school children across the UK. We’ve been running the JLC now for 15 years, and hope to make this year our biggest yet! Children taking part in the competition will first learn Spanish* using our app, and top scorers will progress to round 2 – and a … Read more
Try out 40 languages free as part of uTalk’s Great Language Adventure We’re off on a round the world trip by (virtual) planes, trains, boats and automobiles to meet and talk to people in 40 different countries celebrating the fact that uTalk goes to more places than any other languages company. Our mascot has started his tour in … Read more
Valentine’s day – a day for declaring your love in any way you can. But love can often be more tortured than a simple declaration. As Alfred de Musset said in his book “On ne badine pas avec l’amour”: “We are often deceived in love, often wounded and often miserable; but we love, and when … Read more