The Language Learning Specialists
The Indonesian word for ‘dictionary’ (kamus) is almost the same as the Swahili word (kamusi) and is in fact an old borrowing from Arabic that somehow came from the Greek word for ‘ocean’. Confused? Here’s how multilingualism and trade spread three rather unusual words around the world. An ocean of words The Indonesian word for … Read more
Romania is famous for plenty of things: the Carpathian Mountains, medieval fortresses, Sebastian Stan… But when most people think of Romania, they think of Transylvania and, you’ve guessed it, Count Dracula! In today’s post, we explore the origins of vampires, how Dracula helped boost Romania’s tourism industry, and we’ll teach you some words and phrases … Read more
Every language has its own tongue twisters—words or phrases that are difficult to say without making mistakes. In this post, we’ll show you ten different tongue twisters in ten different languages; can you say them all? How many tongue twisters do you know in English? Red lorry, yellow lorry is a fun one, though perhaps … Read more
Last week we added our 133rd language to the uTalk app – and it’s a good one! Latin has been around ever since the year 75 BC and it has evolved from Old Latin to Classical Latin, to Early Modern Latin and finally Modern Latin. Along with Greek, its roots are used in theology, biology, … Read more
The Junior Language Challenge is a national competition for children aged 10 and under across the UK. One of the goals of the competition is to give young learners the chance to discover exciting new languages, and this year we’ve chosen Romanian as the first language. But how much do you know about this European … Read more
Today is “Baba Marta Day”. In Bulgaria the 1st of March marks a holiday that welcomes the upcoming spring. “Baba Marta” translates to “Grandma March”, the mythical character who brings the end of the bitter cold winter! On this day people exchange “Martenitsi”. These are red and white coloured bands or figurines that symbolise health and … Read more
Jenny’s daughter Grace was a finalist in the 2015 Junior Language Challenge – and one of the stars of our video from the day! In today’s blog post, Jenny tells us about her experience of the competition as a mum, and what taking part in the JLC has meant to Grace. The JLC has become a very big part of … Read more
Valentine’s Day is a moment we should all pause our busy lives to celebrate love and the important people in our lives with whom we share special moments – not only lovers but also friends or family. Obviously a popular holiday on the American continent, followed by Western Europe and in the last years Eastern Europe, … Read more
This year in November I went for my first trip in the USA. I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in sunny Florida and it was wonderful! But the story I want to share with you starts earlier than that, on our way. After a 10 hour long flight spiced with excitement, plans and … Read more
I recently came back from a week long vacation in my home country, Romania. While there, I noticed something very interesting that I’m sure you’ll find as fascinating as I did. I’ve been living in London for more than two years now and on a daily basis I only speak English. Well, I am currently … Read more