learning

We tend to assume that books aimed at the pre-school age group are written in simplified language to make sure the target audience can follow the narrative. A recent article in the TES suggests that these texts are, in fact, more complex than you might think both in terms of…

  The decline in numbers of UK students taking modern languages at GCSE, through to A-level and at university is well documented. This blog has touched on the issue on several occasions, in particular in March of last year when we asked “Are modern languages an endangered species in British…

Rosetta Translation officially started its Shanghai operations in 2008. That’s 7 long years already, and I thought it would be interesting to sit back and think what lessons can be learnt in terms of getting a small service business off the ground in the People’s Republic of China.   Get…

  Well, the short answer is: the Chinese language isn’t so difficult to learn, and here is why. Ease of learning depends on (linguistic) distance The difficulty of a new language that we want to learn is very relative, and is significantly related to how similar it is to our…

For some travellers, a phrasebook is the first item in their suitcase when they prepare for a trip to a foreign country, while, for others, learning to say ‘excuse me’ and ‘thank you’ in the target language is deemed a waste of time. Undoubtedly, the view one adopts will depend…

Research has shown that bilingual people have brains that are able to deal with ambiguities faster, are able to distinguish sounds even against a noisy backdrop faster, and resolve conflicts or problems quicker. Studies have also shown that bilingual brains remain ‘sharper’ for longer and can resist diseases such as…

Having studied languages at various stages in my life, school, university (under and post graduate) it has always been evident that languages were more of a ‘girls’ thing’ rather than a boys’. In classes, for every one guy there was at least five girls; a favourable ratio perhaps for the…

The Practical Importance of Stuying Phonetics   As a French native speaker, it became obvious to me very early on that I would need to learn at least one, and ideally two foreign languages, in order to optimise my chances of getting a good job in the future. How does…