Shakespeare’s Birthday and Our English Summer Program in London
Parasocial Takes the Crown: When Feeling Close to Taylor Swift Is All in Your Head
Ever found yourself emotionally invested in a celebrity, influencer or even your favourite chatbot – despite the fact that they’ve never even acknowledged you? That’s called a parasocial relationship…and it’s the fresh-out-of-the-box word that the Cambridge Dictionary has crowned its Word of the Year for 2025.
Continue reading “Parasocial Takes the Crown: When Feeling Close to Taylor Swift Is All in Your Head”Cambridge Dictionary Adds 6,000 New Words, Including Skibidi and Delulu
Imagine your dictionary sneezed and out popped “skibidi.” That’s not a typo — it’s how language is mutating thanks to TikTok, YouTube, and viral clips. In the past year, the Cambridge Dictionary added more than 6,000 new words and definitions — for better or worse.
Continue reading “Cambridge Dictionary Adds 6,000 New Words, Including Skibidi and Delulu”Empower Your Teaching with These Great, Free, Cutting-Edge AI Tools
Stay ahead with AI: Why teachers must embrace technology in the classroom? We present a resource pack that equips English language teachers with a complete toolkit for integrating AI-based activities into classroom teaching and ongoing professional development.
Continue reading “Empower Your Teaching with These Great, Free, Cutting-Edge AI Tools”The Silent Extinction of Languages: A Global Crisis
Languages are the foundation of culture, identity, and communication. Yet, every two weeks, one of the world’s languages disappears forever. With over 7,000 languages spoken globally, why is this happening?
Continue reading “The Silent Extinction of Languages: A Global Crisis”Unraveling Word Origins: from Villain to Muscle
Speak Your Mind! 🎯 “Word Origins” by Dan Manolescu
The English language of today is living and growing. Whether it’s the power of the written word, or whether it’s the choice of the right adjective in an articulate speech, or whether it’s simply playing with the proper verbiage, the English vocabulary has a remarkable history. If we look at the origin of some English words, we may find surprising twists and turns that display the vivacity of a language in a continuous change and development. Here are some examples prompted by everyday questions:
Continue reading “Unraveling Word Origins: from Villain to Muscle”Language learning through thought, memory, imagination, and reading
The present article aims to estimate the value of language learning through a quick review of the learning process and with a focus on “accumulated knowledge” and “the ability to learn.” Following the opinions of researchers and linguists, we can also argue that the whole history of human culture – “of intelligence and morality, folly and superstition, ritual, language, and the arts” – is what makes us human.
Continue reading “Language learning through thought, memory, imagination, and reading”Vocabulary enrichment for better communication
When writers create new vocabulary, their words turn into a written memory that crosses time and borders. They become a treasure for the generations to enjoy, and sometimes other languages can adopt them as they are or create similar coinages of their own. Who do you think was one of the most prolific generators of new words in English?
Continue reading “Vocabulary enrichment for better communication”ChatGPT: Educational friend or foe?
ChatGPT is incredible – and terrifying.
19-JAN-2023 | How many jobs will this kill? Will it disrupt our education system?
Continue reading “ChatGPT: Educational friend or foe?”Many British people regret not speaking a second language
According to new research commissioned by the British Council, one in four UK adults wishes they had learned another language.
Continue reading “Many British people regret not speaking a second language”Interesting findings about lockdown language learning
Interesting findings about lockdown language learning – Education Beyond Borders
VERBALISTS EDUCATION news – We keep you informed on your education journey!
30-SEP-2022 | Which languages were the most popular to learn in each country during the lockdown?
READ MOREIntercultural Communication
Speak Your Mind! – Intercultural Communication by Danae Perez
In this article, I flesh out the challenges of communicating among people from different cultures. The process itself is very much based on intuition and mutual respect, but there are a few things we can keep in mind to succeed. I have gone through this process many times myself.
Continue reading “Intercultural Communication”Voices of vanishing worlds – endangered languages
Of the world’s 6,500 living languages, half will cease to be spoken by the end of this century. Most of these endangered languages are oral speech forms, with little if any traditional written literature. If undocumented, these tongues – each representing a unique insight into human cognition and its most powerful defining feature, language – risk disappearing without trace. READ MORE
Do you change your personality depending on the language you speak?
Do you feel – sophisticated, elegant, suave – when you speak French, or perhaps – curious, outgoing, and free – when you speak English?
The results of the study published in the Journal of Research in Personality suggest that our perceptions of the culture associated with a given language can impact our behavior.
READ MOREA new unique museum dedicated to words and language
There are plenty of museums that revolve around visual art — now words have finally got their due. An interactive museum dedicated to words and language opened in Washington, DC.
READ MOREHow the changes in the landscape of global power and business have affected the importance of various languages
It used to be – and not that very long ago – that the list of most important languages in the world to know would have been quite small. French, English, Spanish, and German would have made the list, plus a handful of others depending on where in Europe and Asia one lived. Accordingly, these were the languages most in demand by students across the world looking to extend their linguistic repertoire beyond their mother tongue either for career or cultural/personal reasons. READ MORE
Languages dynamics and change
Over the course of human history, thousands of languages have developed from what was once a much smaller number.
How did we end up with so many? And how do we keep track of them all? Alex Gendler explains how linguists group languages into language families, demonstrating how these linguistic trees give us crucial insights into the past.
Continue reading “Languages dynamics and change”15 important Internet slang and SMS texting language terms that you should know
Love them or hate them, these are the newly created words and abbreviations on everyone’s lips, that is keyboards 🙂
Nowadays, our communication often happens online, so the Internet has developed almost its own language. This language is even more casual and has many abbreviations (shortenings of words and phrases). The English language on the Internet changes almost every day, as sayings, images and videos “go viral”.
Much of Internet slang is made up of abbreviations and shortenings, and some of the most commonly used Internet abbreviations are:
READ MORECroatia will waste your time! – a well-executed PR move or time for the Croatian Tourism Association to hire a professional translator?
“Before you visit Croatia you should know… Croatia will waste your time” is the message in the promotional video created by the Croatian Tourism Association, depicting the country’s national parks. The same message has been published on the Croatia Full of Life Facebook page, which has over 100,000 followers. Many have commented on the improper use of the English language by the administrators and the potential detrimental effect it may have on the image of Croatian tourism. READ MORE
What are the weirdest languages of the real and fictional worlds?
Let’s zoom on the weirdest or most extraordinary languages of the real and fictional worlds. Discover the complexity of Yupik languages, the particularities of Caucasian Archi, spoken by only a thousand people, or dip into fantasy worlds through the Sindarin used by Elves or the Aklo of Lovecraft creatures.
A great way to travel from the upper to the lower worlds, via the two hemispheres of the real world! READ MORE