History Linguistic Extinction: How Languages Die In a previous article, we said that language is a living organism. It gets born, it grows and it develops — as does the society in which it is spoken. Languages change over time
Discussion 5 Reasons You Shouldn't Learn a Language We have a fair share of articles that discuss language learning on our blog. We’ve told you what to do if you’re stuck at the intermediate plateau and discussed whether accent
Language Learning Tips Overcoming the Intermediate Plateau: Keep Calm and Carry On You’ve reached a cool point in your language journey: you’ve achieved a level where it’s possible to talk about almost any topic, despite making a fair amount of mistakes. Most
History Shibboleths: Words Intended to be Mispronounced Did you know that there are words which physically cannot be pronounced by speakers of other languages? And that these words can be used to identify such people in critical situations? These words
History Why an Ancient Roman Wouldn’t Recognize Their Own Alphabet Today We’ve previously covered the history of the Latin script and how it came to life: How it evolved from the Greek alphabet, which in turn was derived from the Old Phoenician writing
Vocabulary Language Learning Basics: How to Learn Vocabulary Learning vocabulary is a significant part of language learning. A lot of learners believe mastering vocabulary is the key to fluency, and thus spend most of their time on learning new words and
English Why English Spelling Is Such a Mess English is the most popular foreign language in the world. It is learned in nearly every country in the world, starting from the first grade, and it is the language most people resort
Grammar Grammatical Case: What It Is and Why English (Almost) Doesn't Need It Many languages of the world depend on a structural feature that you might never have heard of: a grammatical case system. If you’re learning such a language, learning it well is important,
conlang Volapük: The Would-be Language of the World In one of our previous articles, we discussed the most well-known and widespread constructed language in the world: Esperanto. Despite not achieving its initial goal of becoming the main means of international communication,
Learn Esperanto Esperanto: The Birth (and Failure) of a Language In one of our previous articles, we stated that languages are living organisms. They get born, they live, grow, and change over time. Eventually, they pass away, making space for others. This happened
History Latin's Lifespan: How Do Languages Die Out? The influence of the Roman Empire on our modern civilization cannot be underestimated: Europe’s judicial systems, scientific traditions, and literature can all be traced back to the ancient world. Their language also
alphabet Your Alphabet: The History of the Latin Script The Latin script is the most commonly used writing system in the world. In brief:Most European languages use this alphabet A good portion of Asian and African ones do, tooMost Native American
Thinking About Moving Abroad? Read This First. Over the last few decades, the internet has become an integral part of our daily lives. Remote work became a thing. The pandemic has accelerated this trend, making home offices a new norm.
What It Takes to Master a Language As a private language tutor, I often find myself encountering a specific issue: many students have an undeniably high level of proficiency—an extensive vocabulary and general mastery over grammar— but, somehow, they
Accent Reduction: How Much Does Pronunciation Matter? I’m going to be upfront with you: I don’t think reducing your accent is as important as mastering grammar or expanding your vocabulary. Perhaps you disagree.I feel this way for
