Blog

The life, death and maintenance of languages is a concept that has kept me amazed since childhood. With recent talks of language extintion I explore the language life cycle to see how the world’s many languages can be kept alive. The Life Of Languages Since I started writing for a…

Climate change is a hot topic (no pun intended) of debate and interest for politicians, heads of state, environmentalists, and the general public. We are all aware, to some extent, that the ice caps are melting, there are holes in the ozone layer, our seas and rivers are rising and…

I know that China’s economy is booming and that it’s going to be the next economic giant, perhaps one day it will rule the world, so learning Chinese should be the option to choose if looking for an Asian language to learn. In fact, I would recommend that you do…

Earlier this year the 12th edition of the Chambers English dictionary was published, it was popular in the news at the time as 200 new words had been added to the respectable tome. Many of which reflect the current foci of our society i.e. internet culture, economic and environmental issues.…

We know a surprising amount of detail about some languages that are extinct, and for which there are no written records. How is that possible, and how far can we push this reconstruction of extinct languages? Reconstructing languages for which there is no record is made possible by the fact…

An interview with Laura Lucardini, Translator Extraordinaire! Earlier this week I had a little catch up with one of our trusted and valued translators about how she manages to juggle being the mum of a ten year old daughter and  providing high quality translations for demanding clients, hoping she wouldn’t…

I laughed my socks off (or should that be slippers off?!) recently when a colleague  brought in an article from the Metro newspaper about a guy who had ordered some slippers from Hong Kong, and due to a translation error received a 7ft long piece of footwear, instead of the…

I recently read a fascinating article about the evolution of language (BBC Focus magazine), and was inspired to write today’s blog on the same subject. I’ve always been interested in language, the differences between them and, later in life, how we learn languages and indeed how the spoken word changes…

I think I often take for granted what I know about languages and translation, this is often brought home to me working here as many clients and potential clients are often (and I don’t want this to sound patronising in anyway) ‘clueless’ about the costs and time involved in order…

The media reported recently that logistics firm Unipart, who run Waterstones’ distribution depot in Burton upon Trent, have tried to impose rules on their Polish or Latvian employees banning them from speaking their native languages in the workplace. This action has led to the employees in question signing a petition…