Memory Play Notes

The calendar has become inundated with Days. While there used to be pretty much just Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and a few others, today there’s a Nati

Insults these days can sometimes feel so drab. While once in a while someone will get out a good zinger, too often people rely on F-words, A-words and

If you are a citizen of a democracy (or democratic republic), voting in elections is an important part of how your society functions. While methods of

What makes an entree a country’s national dish? That’s not an easy question to answer. While many countries officially adopt official symb

There are languages one learns because it makes geographical sense, connecting you to your neighbors on the map or to people in your own community. Th

The first thing pretty much anyone learns when they first start studying Swedish is how to say hello, which is both pleasantly familiar and delightful

Even if you’ve never actively learned any French, you probably know a few words here and there. One reason for this is because English and French go w

On February 21, Mother Language Day promotes linguistic diversity and action against language discrimination. During the Covid-19 pandemic, language e

The most common surname in the United States is Smith. Actually, the most common surname in just about every English-speaking country is Smith. As you

There’s no such thing as a perfect translation. You could give 1,000 translators the same text, and no two would be identical. The work of a translato

Learning a language is a little like going to the gym. Everyone says you should do it. You tell yourself you should do it. The difficulty lies in actu

My thoughts are racing, my eyes blur, as if I’m looking at the world through the bottom of a milk bottle. My breathing shortens and all peripheral sou

You may have heard that the longest word in the world is antidisestablishmentarianism. This 28-letter word, which is the name of a movement in 19th ce

One thing you’ll learn quickly as a language student? There isn’t always one catch-all “sorry” term in every language that enc

Anyone who has been to Italy, even just once, knows to what extent it’s a country of dialects, and not just because there are so many. In some regions