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

How Do You Choose Which Language to Learn?

Everyone’s always talking about how useful it is to speak another language – and they’re right, for so many reasons. There’s lots of advice too on how to get started and how to stay motivated when it gets tough. But the first question any aspiring language learner should ask themselves is, ‘Which language do I … Read more

Which language are you learning? The results!

We had a great response to our recent language learning survey; thank you to everyone who took the time to complete it. First things first: we’re delighted to announce that the winner of the iPad mini prize draw is Konstantia Sakellariou. Congratulations, Konstantia – your iPad is on its way! We wanted also to share a … Read more

Goal! around the world [Infographic]

Sometimes one word is all you need… With the World Cup getting underway today, here’s how each national team says that all-important word, ‘goal’. You can find this and lots more in our language learning app, uTalk – available to download and start learning right now from the App Store. So whether you’re watching the … Read more

10 Sports Stars Who Speak Other Languages

It can often feel like life is all about sport, whether we like it or not. But have you ever wondered how good sports stars are at languages? It turns out, pretty good. Like anyone who has to travel a lot for their work, athletes often find knowing only their native language isn’t enough. Here … Read more

Found in translation – untranslatable words, in pictures

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

5 tips for beginners in Japanese

Adam, 15, recently spent two weeks at EuroTalk for work experience. He’s passionate about languages and is currently learning Japanese. Here are his top tips for other beginners. In November 2012, I decided to start taking Japanese lessons once per fortnight. As a younger learner, I thought it might be interesting for you to see … Read more

8 common language mistakes to avoid [infographic]

When you’re learning a new language, it’s easy to make mistakes. And that’s ok; it’s the best way to learn. But sometimes you might think you know what you’re saying, and actually you’ve said something very different. Here are a few examples to look out for… Please let us know your own examples and as … Read more

10 Cool Words That Don’t Exist in English [Infographic]

A while back, we discovered this infographic of words that don’t have a direct translation in English. We loved it so much that we decided to see if there were any more words like these and create our own. So here it is – 10 cool words that don’t exist in English. Please do share … 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