Junior Language Challenge 2014 – the final!

On Friday 17th October, 31 young linguists from all over the country came to London for the final of our national competition for primary schools, the Junior Language Challenge. Since March, they’d learnt Italian for the first round, Japanese for the semi-finals and they’d spent the last few weeks studying the African language of Somali in preparation … Read more

10 reasons to visit… Algiers

I must admit that Algeria does not feature highly among people’s bucket list destinations. While most tourists visiting the region flock to Egypt or Tunisia, Algeria is still very much off the beaten track. Nor does it help that it  has attracted a rather bad press over the last year or so:  much of the … Read more

Why learn Chinese Chengyu?

Today’s guest post is by Joe Paterson, a student at Keats School in China. Joe explains Chinese chengyu, which are absolutely fascinating and a perfect example of why we love languages so much – they’re all so unique and interesting. Do any Chinese speakers have more examples – or does the language you’re learning have an equivalent? … Read more

10 reasons to visit… Tokyo

To finish up our Japanese week, Safia’s written today’s blog post on her top ten reasons to visit Tokyo. Do you live in Tokyo, or have you visited? Please share your own top tips in the comments! 1. The old and the new Before I even start talking about specific points of interest, all you need … Read more

Japanoises (How things sound in Japanese)

Have you ever wondered how to make the sound of a typewriter in Japanese? Or how to describe the noise a cat makes? Well, wonder no more. We present to you – Japanoises! (Yes, we were so excited that we made up a word.) Which one’s your favourite? Other Japanese sounds that almost made it … Read more

Win a $100 travel card with uTalk!

When we asked you in our recent survey why you were learning a language, almost half of you said it was for travel. Which makes perfect sense, of course – why learn a language unless you plan to use it? As you know, our uTalk app is designed for people who are travelling, who want … Read more

Language of the Week: Japanese

As it was the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, we have chosen Japanese as our Language of the Week. First and foremost, our thoughts and good wishes go to Jules Bianchi for his full recovery following his crash on Sunday at Suzuka. Though in many respects I’m a complete petrol head, I have never found … Read more