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Loose Ends and the Etymologicon

Think that 'gene pool', 'car pool' and 'pooling your resources' have something to do with water? Then you'll need to think again, thanks to Mark Forsyth's new book, Etymologicon, a circular tour throu...

READ MORE | 4 Dec 2011

The word of the year? 'Squeezed middle' says Oxford Dictionary

It's official:  the Oxford English Dictionary have declared 2011’s Word of the Year to be 'Squeezed middle'. The term was originally coined by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband. This...

READ MORE | 24 Nov 2011

Vous, les femmes !

Surely, this must be a first on British TV, a foreign language comedy show with sub-titles. Women! (Vous, les femmes), a sketch show in French and produced in France is currently screening on Fridays...

READ MORE | 16 Nov 2011

British invasion?

Nice piece on Language Johnson, an Economist blog dedicated to language use, on the recent influx of  'Britishisms' into American English. Apparently, 'kerfuffle', 'snog', 'nick' and 'c...

READ MORE | 15 Nov 2011

European Ventures Seek to Fill a Void in World News

Stumbled on this fascinating article in the New York Times about three new news services, Worldcrunch, European Daily and Presseurop which take articles from leading European newspapers and trans...

READ MORE | 3 Nov 2011

Googling the ghosts of Montparnasse cemetery

With Halloween just round the corner what could be more appropriate than this fun piece from the BBC's Radio 4 From Our Correspondent on some of the illustrious graves of Paris's Montparnasse cemetery...

READ MORE | 28 Oct 2011

Speak to the Future: The Campaign for Languages

Speak to the Future is a new campaign sponsored by the British Academy and the Chartered Institute of Linguists among others with the purpose of highlighting the importance of languages, language lear...

READ MORE | 26 Oct 2011

The Talking Kitchen That Teaches You French

Wonderful video on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's YouTube Page of a new experiment at Newcastle University that gives lessons in cooking and French at the same time. Cou...

READ MORE | 25 Oct 2011

London Language Show 2011

If you don't know already, the London Language Show 2011 starts tomorrow at Olympia London and runs from 21st to the 23rd of October. If you've not been before, the London Language Show is ideal for l...

READ MORE | 20 Oct 2011

Slow Down! Why Some Languages Sound So Fast

A recent article in Time Magazine highlights a fascinating piece of research into whether some languages truly do sound faster than others. Researchers from the Université de Lyon recruited vol...

READ MORE | 4 Oct 2011