Lost, drowned, in a shirt… how do you like your eggs?

Happy World Egg Day! English is quite a boring language when it comes to eggs. We boil them, scramble them, poach them, fry them. All very ordinary. Which is why we were delighted to discover that other languages are more dramatic in their approach to eggs! Over to Italy: For Italians, poached eggs are literally ‘eggs … Read more

5 times you spoke Italian and didn’t know it

Did you know that you speak Italian? No, really – you do. And we don’t just mean that time you ordered a pizza. Here are a few words you’ve probably used at some point, but might not have realised were Italian: Novella Longer than a short story, but not quite a full novel. Well-known novellas include … Read more

Language of the Week: Italian

Buongiorno! Italian is our language of the week, in celebration of an annual tradition, Il Palio, which dates back to the 12th century and is held on the 16th of August. This is a horse race unlike any other and is all over in 90 seconds. It’s held in the beautiful city of Siena, where the … Read more

Breaking the ice: overcoming language nerves

So apparently a quarter of Brits are nervous about speaking another language when they’re abroad, and 40% of us are embarrassed by our language skills. These conclusions come from a study by the British Council, which surveyed 2,000 British adults. While 67% of respondents believed it’s important to learn a few words of the local language … Read more

10 reasons to visit… Venice

We’ve all seen the Italian city of Venice in the movies, but does it live up to its reputation as one of Europe’s most beautiful and historic cities? Amy says yes; here are her ten reasons to check out Venice for yourself. 1. Boats I think this has to be a very obvious point, as … Read more

Interesting idioms from around the world

No matter what language you’re learning, at some point you’ll probably come across idioms. These phrases, on the surface, seem to mean very little and yet, to native speakers, they roll easily off the tongue without a moment’s thought. In a recent post, we covered Chinese chengyu, idiomatic expressions that each have their own fascinating story. … Read more

Scire linguas: Why Knowing Your Latin Can Help Your Language Skills

Thanks to London Translations for today’s blog post about the value of learning Latin! Latin, a language that is more than 2,000 years old and is still spoken in the Vatican today, has shaped modern European languages like no other. Who would’ve thought that this medium of communication, which spread through the power of the … Read more

Book review: Through the Language Glass

Ever wondered what us language geeks do for fun in our spare time? Reading books about languages, of course! Well, not all the time – but I recently read the very interesting Through the Language Glass by Guy Deutscher, and would recommend it to anyone else who is interested in how different languages work, and … Read more

Junior Language Challenge – the semi-finals!

Back in March, over 1,100 primary school children from around the UK joined our annual competition, the Junior Language Challenge, learning Italian online. Over the next three months, they scored points in the language games, and then in June the top scorers from each region of the country progressed to the second round. Not wanting … Read more

Are you a language geek?

We’re proud to be language geeks here at EuroTalk, but we know we’re not the only ones! Here’s your opportunity to show us what you know… Can you get 100%? And more importantly, can you beat your friends? 😉 (By the way, if you want to cheat on any of the questions, the words we’ve used … Read more