Like many (most?) of us these days, I have a Facebook profile, and I’m also connected to several pages. Some are to do with the charity I work for, but I also have a page for Awendan. However, they are
Does “mot-dièse” signal desperation from the Académie?
The news has hit this weekend that the Académie française, the venerable institution tasked with preserving and enriching the french language, has coined a new official term to combat the social media titan “hashtag”. The hashtag and its concept has
“10 Mindful Minutes” – a mantra for freelancers
I’ve just watched “All it takes is 10 mindful minutes” – a TedTalk from Andy Puddicombe, and I think it’s one worth watching for all freelancers out there. A former Buddhist monk and founder of Headspace, Andy aims to bring
Neuroscience locates the site of word meanings
Back in November I picked up this article in New Scientist : Mind-reading scan locates site of meaning in the brain and I never got round to blogging about it. Now it seems that this research has been expanded by
2012 Review: Language Gaffes
Well it’s that time of year when the 2012 reviews and roundups proliferate, so I thought I’d do a quick one on the language and translation errors that made the headlines in 2012. London2012 I posted at the time about
“The Book Farm” & how to buy secondhand language books
I’ve just been away to visit family in Warwickshire, and while I was there we went to a favourite local haunt of theirs; Astley Book Farm, which bills itself as ‘the largest secondhand book shop in the Midlands’. Well, I’ll
Language skills & SMEs
I was flicking through the news the other day and a headline from the BBC caught my eye; “Foreign language skills cost Scottish businesses“. In fact, it should really have read ‘LACK of foreign language skills’, as the article was
Translating Tolkein….The Hobbit in Latin!
Now I’m always up for a challenge, but this particular example really does strike me as pushing the boundaries. I love that Mark Walker has done this out of a passion for Tolkein and a desire to read something he
Potayto, Potahto…
Anyone who knows me can tell you that I get quite narked about American spellings or words creeping into use by my friends – to the extent that I do correct them if they do it! There’s just no need
London2012 Language Gaffes…
I have a horrible feeling I’ll be posting parts 2, 3 etc… to this topic as the Games progress. It’s Friday 27th, the day of the Opening Ceremony, but in fact the Olympics started at the beginning of the week