As students, many of us took part in some type of foreign language instruction at school, and depending on your age and country, this could have ranged from incomprehensible teacher lectures to singing songs, to intense grammar drilling. In the world of education, second language acquisition philosophies and practices change at a rapid clip, and the new breakthrough methodology [...]
From the moment we learn to control our mouths, lungs, and vocal cords as infants, we yearn to speak. As babies, we babble and attempt to copy words, and with no formal instruction at all, we can typically grasp the basics of speaking in under a year and begin to communicate. Neurolinguists have shown that our brain’s superior temporal [...]
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare’s Juliet famously asked, and the answer depends on what culture you are talking about and what language you are speaking. Our names are uniquely personal and individual identifiers, yet they often represent the lives, aspirations and beliefs of an incredibly large group of people. In some cultures, names are steeped in tradition and passed [...]
Picture this scenario: A young German executive from a semiconductor manufacturer is sent to pitch a proposal to a high-level business partner in Japan. The German executive knows his company’s products are superior, and he spends days preparing different documents, case studies, graphs, etc. as evidence. At the meeting he gives these mountains of handouts to the Japanese businessman, [...]
English is the official language of 55+ countries around the globe, but if you ask a random person to name the first one off the top of their head, there is a good chance they’d give you the wrong answer. England? No. The US? Australia? No and no. English is of course widely spoken in those countries and is [...]
People make it seem like it’s easy to learn English these days – watch some Marvel movies on Netflix, play around on the Duolingo app, and boom! You’re ready to hit New York City. Except, it never really works like that. The English acquisition process is a long and difficult one, and for learners in Spain and Latin America? [...]
No matter what your native tongue, adding another language will bring unparalleled benefits to your personal and professional life. The learning process itself improves mental capacity, and knowing multiple languages helps people cross social and cultural boundaries. The professional benefits are equally significant, including more job interviews and higher pay. With benefits like these, it is no wonder that [...]
Flashback to ten years ago and imagine hearing someone say, “She had to ghost him because his side hustle in the metaverse was sus.” You would think this was either utter gibberish or perhaps there had been a murder of some sort - “She turned him into a ghost?” In the present day and age, however, not only is [...]
Slogans are powerful. They accompany nearly every part of our daily lives and we ingest them unconsciously. We often think of them as being attached to products or services which are being sold. For example, most people from the U.S. need to simply hear the words “Just Do It” or “Have It Your Way”, to tell you the phrases belong [...]
If you’re in the process of updating or writing your resume/CV you may be wondering how to include your language skills. The number of bilinguals in the U.S. doubled from 1980 to 2018 and in Europe it’s common for the average person to speak 3 languages. This means, the ability to write and speak more than one language could prove [...]
