Amidst a veritable sea of language learning programs, audio courses, online courses, web-apps, mobile apps, books, games and the odd bipolar disorder medication, it can be hard to select the best learning tools for the job. But there are three attributes that many of the larger, more commercial language product companies always try to lure…
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I promise not to get too far away from languages, but I wanted to take a little bit of time (and I really do just mean a little) to talk about the symbolism of the little infinity symbol we all know and love. The bulk of this mini-article appeared in a previous and much larger work…
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With the holidays fast approaching for many of us around the world, a whole lot of us are starting to feel the pressure mounting to provide our friends and loved ones with a shiny new stack of gifts once again this year. If you count language learners and enthusiasts, linguists, teachers, expats or whatever among…
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Every time we need an example of someone who speaks ridiculously quickly, we tend to turn to auctioneers. These machine-gun-mouthed ramblebots are capable of slinging some serious verbiage in your direction extraordinarily fast. But why do auctioneers talk so fast? According to Slate, this is done in order to keep audiences and potential buyers in…
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Ah, yes, the ages old quip about talkative ladies. Drawing the ire of many a woman and the insipid chuckles of many a bro in a popped-collared polo, this is one of those annoying questions you may already have assumed to know the answer to, but that I felt merited addressing anyway: do women talk…
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Unfortunately for the French, they’ve managed to accumulate an unfair number of negative stereotypes over the years, most of which are fairly unfounded, or at the very least highly dated, but we’re not here to play on those right now. A popular English idiom – pardon my French, or occasionally excuse my French – is…
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