An interesting sideline to the eternal debate about taboo words. The BBC reports that the English term, shitstorm, considered by many to be vulgar and not a word to be used in public as such, has entered the German vocabulary. However, it has entered as a...
There is not one single Chinese language as such but several varieties which are more or less mutually understandable. In all, these are spoken by over 1 billion people (making it more popular than English). Of the different varieties of Chinese, Mandarin is the most...
How hard is it to learn English? Well that's not easy for me to say since I've been learning it since the day I was born (actually, recent research suggests I've been learning it since I was in the womb1). But it got me thinking. I searched around a bit and couldn't...
Russian is spoken by over 150 million people, mainly in Russia itself and the countries of the former USSR. It is part of the Slavonic branch of the Indo-European language family and as such is very different indeed from English. This article looks at those...
The language spoken predominantly in the Philippines. It is a "prestige" version of Tagalog and alongside English one of the national languages. The video shows a few basic phrases (greetings and suchlike) in Filipino.
Old English was the language spoken in what is now England from around the 5th - 11th centuries and is the origin of modern English. Back then it was called Englisc and the people who spoke were the Anglo-Saxons; Old English is also known as Anglo-Saxon. Old English...
Runes are the letters in the runic alphabets. Runic alphabets were alphabets used by various Germanic tribes not only to write their own languages but also in divination and magic. They were used throughout northern Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland...
Dutch is one of the closest relatives to English and the two languages share many facets. But this article is about the main differences between the two languages so that if you ever happen to teach students with a Dutch mother tongue, you'll understand why they make...
The English language was heavily influenced by French in the past and there is a great deal of overlap between the two languages, both in terms of vocabulary and grammar. However there are a number of major issues that French native speakers have when they learn...
Azerbaijani or Azeri Turkish has over 30 million speakers based in both Azerbaijan and the surrounding countries. It's closely related to Turkish and is, to a certain extent, mutually understandable. Although there are a couple of major varieties (Northern...
If you are teaching English in Vietnam, or teaching English to Vietnamese speakers, you may well face a few problems when your students use English. Let's take a simple example. Your Vietnamese students may well say things like this: * Yesterday he go school. *...
Greek is spoken by about 12 million people. The majority of these are in Greece and Cyprus whilst the Greek diaspora are generally bilingual. This article looks at the kinds of problems Greek as a mother tongue speakers have in learning English. Background In Greece...
German (Deutsch) is a Germanic language, related to English and Dutch. It is the second-most spoken language in Europe after English. It is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. It is spoken in Germany by...
One common question asked by people wanting to teach English abroad is, "Do I need to speak the local language?" "I'm going to teach English in Korea - do I need to speak Korean?" "I'm going to teach English in Greece - do I need to speak Greek?" "I'm going to teach...
If you are teaching English in Hungary or working with Hungarian native speakers who are learning English, you will find this article comparing Hungarian and English useful. It looks at various aspects of the Hungarian language and how they relate to English. These...
Italian (= italiano or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by another 10 million Italian descendants in the world, particularly in Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil and Venezuela where they form a very strong...
Arabic is spoken in various forms by more than 250 million people as a mother tongue throughout the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Because there are strong regional variations in Arabic, the notes below will not necessarily apply to all Arabic speakers....
