If you’ve ever heard someone speaking in a language other than your own, it might have sounded like they were talking five times faster than you ever have. Or perhaps their language was slow and deliberate, maybe even poetic. Does that mean that “speedy” language speakers are more efficient at communicating more information in less time? Not necessarily. In [...]
The Bee Gees might once have suggested in one of their songs that words alone are enough to sway another person. But as it turns out, human beings use much more than just words to communicate in conversation. Rhythm is an equally important facet of conversation—the rate at which participants speak, how often they interrupt each other, and how much [...]
Humans have always written too slowly for thought. Cultures across history have solved this problem in their own unique ways: Tiro’s word endings in ancient Rome, Chinese draft script, Pitman's phonetic system, and Gabelsberger's cursive "speech-sign art,” among many others. Nowadays, fast writing often comes down to text speak. But most people will admit that writing “u” instead of [...]
Someone in Buenos Aires might sing a song that first became popular in Italy, then was adapted in the UK, and later rewritten in Spain. And yet despite these vast changes across cultures around the world, everyone knows the words immediately, no sheet music required. How does this happen? Football chants are unique among both music and speech in that [...]
Have you ever taken a moment to look at the money you use? The banknotes in your wallet have a complex story to tell, and every bill carries a history of choices about what should be represented on it. Colors, faces, symbols, and more are all part of the equation, and by looking at them more closely, you can [...]
We’ve talked about football kits and the anthems you’ll hear at the World Cup, but those aren’t the only things you might notice. If you listen to the crowd, you may hear talk of tiki-taka or the G.O.A.T on the field, and you might not know what to make of these terms. Football is so popular worldwide that [...]
Before every World Cup match, you’ll see the entire stadium rise for the national anthems of the countries taking part. What you might notice is the differences in approach: South Africa’s national anthem switches languages mid-song (from Xhosa to Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans, and then English). Conversely, Spanish people fall silent during their anthem (because it has no [...]
Have you ever wondered why going to a football game is more exciting than watching one at home? There’s the energy of the crowd, sure, but there’s something else, too: the feeling of wearing your team’s colors loud and proud among so many others just like you. Football jerseys are symbolic and immediately recognizable, and this is [...]
If you read our previous article on Leendert Hasenbosch’s life, you likely know that things went poorly after his “trial” onboard the Dutch East India Company’s ship. In fact, his punishment was so severe that he perished, stranded on an inhospitable island. So why would he confess in the first place? The reality is that people give false [...]
The terms used for money (and counting in general) are shaped by deep cultural, historical, and value-based influences across many regions of the world. We discussed this further in this series’ first entry on the linguistic origins of money terms. But did you know that the language of money goes even deeper? Think of the difference between ten [...]
