When it comes to popular languages to learn we tend to go with the trend and think of things like Mandarin, Spanish and English. But if you look at any top ten most widely spoken language list, and there will be all sorts of other languages that are worth your consideration. This time, Punjabi is(…)

Sometimes us native English speakers forget that the variety we see in our own language is to be found in other languages as well. That is to say, for every American correcting a Brit on spelling, for example, there is a Brit looking down on what some see as the simplification of English by Americans,(…)

If you’re already dreaming of summer holidays and are considering a little backpacking in Europe, a popular route to take through Eastern Europe thanks to cheap bus travel tends to be Tallinn-Vilnius-Riga. And though we hate to play favourites, there is much about Lithuania’s capital that has stolen our heart. So with that in mind,(…)

Sinhalese, or Sinhala as it is known locally in Sri Lanka, is potentially a surprising discovery to find on the Indo-European language family tree, since Indo-European tends to characterise the language group covering Europe, Iran, and North India. We all have that one family relative that sticks out like a sore thumb, but Sinhalese is(…)

When you think of Cornwall, chances are you might be thinking of the humble Cornish Pasty—even if technically they originate from Devon! But did you know that Cornwall, one of the most beautiful counties on the southwestern coast of England, also has its own language; one that is recognised as a minority language by the(…)

English might be the most popular second language for people around the world to learn, but it certainly isn’t the only one. Which makes sense, right? We live in a society where people are constantly moving, and that often means relocation for jobs, remote working, communication with overseas clients, etc. There is definitely more than(…)

There are thought to be almost 7,000 living languages spoken across the planet today. Only 6% of that number have more than one million speakers each, accounting for around 94% of the world population—a vastly disproportionate number. So what about all these other languages that don’t top popularity lists or language-most-essential-to furthering-your-career ones? They might(…)

What do you consider when you are choosing a language to study? Is it the relative ease to pick it up, future job prospects, for deepening the enjoyment of the place you’re going to travel to? Or maybe simply because it’s the popular language to study right now. But then… what is it that makes(…)

Sometimes when you turn on the radio, you find yourself mumbling along to words to songs you’d not normally want anything to do with. These earworms wriggle their way into your head, and the next thing you know, you’re word perfect for the lyrics to a Justin Bieber song. The horror. But what if these(…)

There’s a joke that lurks around places like Reddit and Tumblr for language lovers, and it goes a bit like this: If you know three languages, you are trilingual. If you know two languages, you are bilingual. If you know one language, you are a native English speaker – variants on the joke tend to(…)