How to Say ‘Hot’ in Chinese (And How to Complain About the Weather!)

With temperatures relentlessly rising in some parts of the world, and massive floods wreaking havoc in others, it’s high time we learnt how to complain about the weather in the language with the highest number of native speakers: Mandarin Chinese. After all, odds are, if you grumble dramatically in Mandarin, someone somewhere will understand you. … Read more

The Brittonic Celtic Languages: A Brief Introduction

What do Welsh, Cornish, and Breton have in common? They’re all from the same language family! Keep reading to learn more about the Brittonic branch of the Celtic language family, including its history, some useful phrases, and how the languages are doing today. The Celtic Language Family The Celtic language family is made up of … Read more

What is Kinyarwanda?

How much do you know about Kinyarwanda, one of Rwanda’s four official languages? Closely related to Kirundi, one of the more recent additions to our app, Kinyarwanda is spoken by around 13 million people all over the globe. In this post, learn more about Kinyarwanda, including some words and phrases that might just come in … Read more

A Brief Introduction to the Bantu Languages

Bantu languages are spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, including up to 30% of the population of Africa. In fact, you probably even know some Bantu words without realising it – like ‘safari’ from Swahili, or ‘banana’ from Wolof. So we’re really pleased that, when we added Kirundi to the uTalk … Read more

Language Classes – Designed for You!

You probably already know that, here at uTalk, we’re really into the speaking and listening side of learning languages. That’s why we’ve got all that native speaker audio on our app! But what about when you want to get that all-important practice in? Well, we just might have found a solution. Odds are, if you’re … Read more

Burundi’s Secret Language

The indigenous language of Burundi has a surprising secret – it has a hidden code which not every Kirundi speaker can decipher. Burundian-born translator Cédrick Irakoze shares his insider knowledge of the language, including why it’s a compliment to compare a woman to a cow! Many Kirundi speakers have a secret way of communicating with … Read more

A Beginner’s Guide to Swahili

Swahili is a Bantu language that is spoken by between 50-150 million people mainly across the African Great Lakes region, as well as other parts of Eastern and Southern Africa. It is a lingua franca but also an official language of Kenya and Tanzania. In this post, we’re going to find out more about Swahili, … Read more