Blog

The Most Annoying, Pretentious And Useless Business Jargon

Timely article in Forbes on the rise of needless business jargon. Among their list of the top 45 expressions there are some high-profile usual suspects such as 'core competency', 'buy-in' and 'empower...

READ MORE | 20 Jun 2012

New On Site Search Engine

Our new site search engine goes live today. This should make it much easier for users to find specific products as the new search engine gives greater weight to product titles over the use of the phra...

READ MORE | 1 Jun 2012

London, France's sixth biggest city

Insightful article on the BBC web site to a Radio 4 programme on what attracts so many French to live in London. Many of the estimated 400,000 French in London live in the East End which is where the...

READ MORE | 30 May 2012

Mon Esprit Partagé, My Two Minds

Wonderful article from New Scientist that pulls together recent findings of the cognitive advantages of bilingualism. According to studies highlighted in the feature, being able to speak two languages...

READ MORE | 28 May 2012

Hidden Talents

Want to find out if you have a special aptitude for learning languages? The UK's Channel 4's  popular, new series, Hidden Talents has created a slew of specific self-marking online tests designed...

READ MORE | 11 May 2012

English that's good enough

Ever felt that unless you speak a language fluently it's not worth having a go? Marina Warner's recent article in The Guardian is a rallying cry for making do with what you've got. As she points out:...

READ MORE | 26 Apr 2012

Cockney cash: Lady Godivas and speckled hens

Fun story on BBC News of an initiative by the Bank Machine Company to add the option of cockney rhyming slang on cash machines in the East End of London. This sounds a great way to introduce overseas...

READ MORE | 20 Apr 2012

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

More fuel for Bilingualism as one of the most effective forms of brain training in the op-ed piece in this Sunday's New York Times. The article highlights research that now shows that that the 'interf...

READ MORE | 20 Mar 2012

Specialist language teachers 'urgently required'

At last some good news for language teachers in the UK: according to a news story on the BBC there's an urgent need for specialist language teachers as the number of pupils set to sit language GCSEs n...

READ MORE | 14 Mar 2012

The Art of Mastering Many Tongues

Excellent book review in the New York Times of Babel No More, The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners by Michael Erard. As well as looking at some of the secrets of langu...

READ MORE | 9 Mar 2012