Growing up in Ireland, I was constantly exposed to both British and American English (and the Australian variety as well) through the medium of television. Every day I would hear both versions with their myriad of regional and societal variations for several hours, along with Irish English of course. I wrote ‘British’ but the vocabulary […]
British versus American English – which one to speak? Read More »
As a native speaker of English whose first foreign language was French, I find the history and interaction between these 2 major global languages fascinating. English is today by far the world’s most studied foreign language. According to the British Council a little under 1 billion have English as a foreign language. French was once used
How different is English from French? Read More »
Colombia – the homeland of Sofia Vergara and Shakira, with a coastline on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea is a country in both South and Central America. Named after Cristopher Columbus, Colombia has around 45 million inhabitants and Bogota as its capital. In 1821 the Republic of Colombia became independent from Spain with borders
How different is Spanish in Colombia from that spoken in Spain? Read More »
While travelling and learning an official language of a country you should also appreciate that it may not be the main language depending on the region you’re in. In this sense Spain is an interesting example. Even if Spanish is the only official language on a national level, there are plenty of regional languages, i.e., Aranese, Basque, Catalan and Galician. And
How different is Catalan from Spanish? Read More »
Quebec French or Québécois has always been something of a mystery to me. I first came across it when I met a Québécoise exchange student at university and its different sounds (from standard French pronunciation) intrigued me. In 2016, I finally made it to Montreal (a city I had long wanted to visit) but for one
3 Ways Quebec French is different to Standard French Read More »
I love traveling to both Portugal and Spain (and Latin America, of course). Moreover, Brazil is actually my favorite country … in the world! I learnt Spanish while living adjacent to a Spanish-speaking barrio in Washington, DC in the US. My time in Washington, DC also included my first trip to Brazil and the beginning
How different or similar are Spanish and Portuguese? Read More »
Vocabooster Ukrainian is a new course from LanguageBoost. It promises to teach you the first 600 words in your new language. I recently tried out Vocabooster as part of my Learn Ukrainian Mission in Lviv, Ukraine. So I went through Vocabooster and released a video about using it during my Learn Ukrainian Mission. So what was my
Vocabooster Review Read More »
I first started learning the Italian language over 10 years ago and got to a very basic level in standard Italian before going to study in Bologna for one year. When I arrived I was taken aback by the number and variety of dialects spoken on a daily basis by Italians of which I struggled
How different are Italian dialects and languages for the learner? Read More »
