Why Nature is at the Heart of the Scottish Gaelic Language

uTalk’s Scottish Gaelic translator, Iona Macritchie, has grown up using one of the last remaining endangered languages of the British Isles. To mark St Andrew’s Day (Nov 30), she told us all about the dozens of different words Scottish Gaelic has for types of rain, the way the letters of the alphabet are linked to … Read more

Yes, the Whole World Really Does Drink ‘Coffee’—Except Ethiopians and Armenians!

Happy Cappuccino Day! In today’s post, uTalk’s guest blogger Brian investigates the many different ways of saying ‘coffee’—and where the word used around the world actually originates! Forget about tea. Linguistically speaking, coffee is the one beverage whose name sounds the same in almost every language in the world today.  Just landed in South Africa … Read more

My Week Learning Scottish Gaelic with uTalk

With over 2,500 basic words and phrases in more than 150 languages, there’s plenty the uTalk app offers for you to learn. But as we all find ourselves getting busier and busier, how much time do we realistically have to spend on language learning? We decided to find out by having Charlotte, our Marketing and … Read more

Can You Say These 10 Devious Tongue Twisters in 10 Different Languages?

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

Samhain: A Festival of the Dead

Halloween is the favourite holiday of many people all over the world, and its origins can be traced back to ancient traditions. It has, however, been deeply influenced by a traditional Celtic harvest festival: Samhain, where the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could be more easily crossed. In the UK, at least, Halloween … Read more

Game of Phones: uTalk at LangFest

Our friendly quizmasters spent a fun weekend chatting all things language, including brief forays into Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), Breton, and Klingon. Everything had been rehearsed. The audience was waiting, phones at the ready, thumbs twitching in anticipation. To be certain that it would all go off without a hitch, there was an ethernet cable plugged into … Read more

10 reasons to visit… the Outer Hebrides

The scattered islands of the Outer Hebrides, off the Western coast of Scotland, are a haven of beauty, wildlife and mysterious archaeology. Tying in with last week’s Scottish Week here at EuroTalk, these are my top ten reasons to visit the islands, where Scottish Gaelic is still spoken as a native language. We’d love to … Read more

Languages of the week: Scotland

This week we’re celebrating Scotland, in honour of the Braemar Gathering of the Scottish Highland Games, which took place this weekend. The Braemar Gathering is one of many events that make up the Highland Games from May to September each year. It’s attended by 16,000 people, including members of the Royal Family. Events include tossing the caber, putting … Read more