uTalk and Asterix: An Origin Story

Today is National Comic Book Day, so if you can tear yourself away from stories of superheroes or zombies, then why not check out our very own uTalk origin story? Spoiler alert: there are no angry aliens set on wiping out half of the universe’s population, but there are some comics involved! Way back in … Read more

A couple of days in Berlin

After volunteering in a hostel in Riga for six weeks, I decided to take the long way home via a series of overnight buses. With everyone raving about how beautiful a city Berlin is, I decided to make it my next stop on my journey home. It is easy to see why people like it … Read more

Translation mistakes – not just for laughs

Today we have a guest post from language company, thebigword, on famous translation mistakes, some of which had serious consequences. Mistakes are common, and to be expected, when you’re learning a language – but when it really matters, it’s important to get it right! Over the years there have been many translation ‘slip ups’ and faux pas, and whilst … Read more

Learning Mandarin: Never call your mother a horse, and other tips

Cameron’s spending a couple of weeks with us here at EuroTalk for work experience. In today’s blog post, he explains why he chose to learn one of the world’s most difficult languages, and gives his suggestions for anyone who’s thinking about taking up the challenge. Are you learning Mandarin? What drew you to the language? And … Read more

Will Online Translators Make Language Learning Redundant?

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

Why Fluent English Language is Important for Business

Today we have a post by guest blogger Jeff Peters on the importance of the English language in the business world. Globalization is a dominant feature of post-modern industrial and developing societies and is being led by multi-national corporations. Whether it is high tech companies such as Apple, automobile manufacturers like General Motors, or even … Read more

Languages for the future: the top ten

A recent report by the British Council has laid out the ten most important languages for the UK’s future, in political, economic, educational and cultural terms. According to the report, the ten most important languages, in order, are: Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese. I read this list with a … Read more

A brief guide to English Office Jargon

Today’s post was contributed by Mark James, Copywriter at Crunch Accounting. It’s been just over a year since I traded academia for the office, my three years spent studying English coming to an end and my career as a copywriter now starting to take shape. In that past year I’ve had to make an array … Read more

Business or pleasure – it makes no difference

In an earlier post, I talked about the importance of learning a little bit of the local language before visiting another country. Not only is it the respectful thing to do, it also saves you from embarrassing misunderstandings or spending your entire holiday communicating through pointing and exaggerated mimes. A few years ago, I visited … Read more