Will Online Translators Make Language Learning Redundant?

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Microsoft have just unveiled the latest version of their Skype Translator, which will enable us to chat with people all over the world even if we don’t speak their language. This story ran in the Daily Mail here in the UK yesterday, under the rather depressing headline, ‘Don’t bother learning a foreign language! Skype will soon … Read more

10 Reasons to Visit… Pittsburgh

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We love sharing our reasons to visit different places around the world, but we also enjoy hearing from you. Is there somewhere we’ve missed that you want everyone to know about? Today we’re hearing from Emily Nemchick, who lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her top ten reasons to visit the city. 1. The Museums Although many … Read more

A history of languages in the USA

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Last week, a report was published using a series of maps to show the distribution of languages besides English and Spanish in the USA. We thought it was really interesting to see the huge number of languages spoken in one country; it’s easy to assume one country means one (or maybe two) languages. Here’s a … Read more

Found in translation – untranslatable words, in pictures

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If you liked our recent infographic on words that don’t exist in English, you’ll love this. New Zealand-based designer Anjana Iyer has been working on a project called Found in Translation, illustrating 41 ‘untranslatable’ words so far, with more to come. We asked Anjana about the background to her project, and where she gets her … Read more

10 reasons to visit… Russia

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Today, we’re going to Russia. At least in spirit. Here are my top ten reasons for visiting Russia – and, trust me, it’s been hard narrowing it down to ten! 1. Train Travel Travelling by train is arguably the best thing you can do in Russia, so try to leap on one as soon as … Read more

What’s so good about Eurovision?

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This Saturday is the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Denmark, with 125 million people expected to watch across Europe and beyond. The contest, now in its 59th year, has become known for its wacky performances and tends to divide opinion; while some people love it (although maybe not as much as this man), … Read more