Keeping up to date with the news is one of the best ways you can truly absorb a language. You get to know what people are speaking about in that language today, learn colloquialisms and slang, and pick up a range of ways people express themselves when sharing the news. The internet has given us(…)

Looking for some realia to help you with your German learning? Look no further than German newspapers! With constant up to date use of the language on every current topic of conversation, there is little better way to practice. And thanks to the internet and so many newspapers now available digitally, an incredible resource for(…)

Whether you’re a young person ready and eager to explore the world, or more of a late-bloomer on the travel front, there’s no denying that travelling takes a toll on the body. From the unhealthy habits of sleeping sporadically and downing junk food on the road to lifting heavy luggage and being exposed to the(…)

Alright, so we’ve all lost things. We sometimes lose our keys. Occasionally we lose our heads. Kate Hudson taught us how to lose a guy (hence the title). Heck, even Elizabeth Bishop wrote a whole poem about it (“One Art”). But what about a language; how can you lose a language? Boy are you in for a treat.(…)

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(…)

Nearly a decade ago, I came to Taiwan with one suitcase, a laptop, a generic Mandarin Chinese phrasebook and precisely two words of spoken Mandarin: “Nǐ hǎo” (Traditional Chinese: 你好; English: Hello), which I more or less gleaned from the Rush Hour movie franchise starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Call it foolish, call it(…)

Unless you plan on spending your Christmas Eve frantically trying to buy every last one of your gifts in a one stop shop, we imagine that by now you have already begun your Christmas shopping. If you would like to combine that shopping with a little travelling for yourself, here are some of the best(…)

If you are looking to visit a country that is perpetually warm, our next suggestion for Travel Tuesday might be just the place for you. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is a southeast Asian country nestled between Bangladesh, Thailand and China. Temperatures rarely dip below 30, the cool season between November and February being cooler(…)

Film-making is a truly international business, and there are so many exotic film locations, we think it would be an amazing idea to visit each and every one. Now that we are thinking about it more, that actually sounds like a travel plan and a half! To give you a taster, here are some of(…)