Interesting facts about languages, online language learning, language education hot subjects, etc.
“This Italian “more is more” attitude shows up throughout Italy.”
In Italy, you’ll find signs about face masks with 40 words in bureaucratic language. No smoking signs consist of 109 words of legal text, and simple toilet signs can be made up of 122 words. What reasons can we find for this in Italian society? READ MORE
Given the current reality, the need for new approaches for teaching – especially in online/blended learning environments – is critical. More than ever before, schools around the world are shifting their focus and prioritizing the practice of social and emotional learning. The call for compassion has never been greater.
The Verbalists Education & Language Network has partnered with the world’s leading teacher training experts to deliver a series of free webinars and workshops which will help you build easily and effortlessly emotional learning into virtual, blended, or in-person environments. READ MORE
Verbalists Education is a leading internationally accredited language network, with more than 5,000 language teaching professionals worldwide as members, many of them from the emerging markets. We strive to empower teachers to provide inspiring learning experiences. Therefore, we are very excited about our ongoing partnership with UKLC and iteach, which has recently resulted in a series of free webinars, exclusive to our member teachers and education professionals. One of the most exciting web events will happen next week: Read More →
If you want to “parla Italiano” well, then you have to learn how to punctuate your words with the myriad hand gestures that are such an important part of Italians’ spoken communication. Those gestures convey subtle differences in meaning which can be hard to pick up on. One article in the New York Times claims that Italians use around 250 gestures daily.
Sometimes gesturing can get out of hand, even in Italy. Last year, Italy’s highest court ruled that a man who inadvertently struck an 80-year-old woman while gesticulating in a piazza was liable for civil damages. The judges ruled: “The public street isn’t a living room!”
According to some, the origin of the habit of communicating with one’s hands can be traced back to the Greek colonization of southern Italy; in those times, cities were extremely crowded and body language was particularly important to catch each other’s attention at all levels. Other experts think Italians develop a special language made of gestures and signs between the 14th and 19th century, when large sections of the peninsula were occupied by foreign powers, namely France, Spain and Austria.
There are plenty of Italian hand gestures tutorial videos out there, but there is one that is particularly pleasing to the eye – with the male models of Dolce&Gabbana! Can you tell the models who are Italian from those who aren’t, just from the way they use their hands?
Listen to this story and Verbalists on Spotify: 
The nice thing about language is that it changes to reflect the times. The Internet has spawned lots of funny English words. Sometimes we also coin our own words and phrases for new things. Most of these new words are portmanteaus, which is the term that describes a word that’s constructed by taking some parts of two words, and making a new one. This is also known as a blend in linguistics.
Probably the best known portmanteau words are READ MORE
There are plenty of museums that revolve around visual art — now words are finally getting their due. An interactive museum dedicated to words and language is opening on October 22, 2020, in Washington, DC. Planet Word is designed to educate visitors about language, with exhibits focusing on the spoken, sung, and written word. The 51,000-square-foot space is located inside the historic Franklin School in the heart of DC. READ MORE
If you want to improve your pronunciation and speaking skills, then try the shadowing practice.
What is shadowing?
Shadowing is a language learning technique where you repeat an audio just after you hear it. You’re acting like an “echo” or a “shadow” (hence the name “shadowing). You listen to the words and then say them back out loud. READ MORE