Not so long ago we would have laughed at the idea of carrying around a tiny computer. That was the realm of Star Trek-level science fiction. Yet here we are, with smartphones that can seemingly do anything. But can they really? Is a translation app on a phone a way to bridge the cultural divide […]
The classic Broadway musical and film, West Side Story, has made its way back to the big screen. And this time, it was directed by the great Steven Spielberg, who wants no subtitles for the Spanish-spoken parts. He said heās not going to add them āout of respect for the inclusivity of our intentions to […]
Oftentimes one of the best things about conversing with others is learning and implementing all kinds of new words. Even better when done in another language. And with over 572 million Spanish speakers around the world, espaƱol is one of the most useful languages to have in your repertoire. One of the best aids for […]
Mark Zuckerberg announced at the end of October 2021 that Facebook was changing its name to Meta. No doubt weāre pretty familiar with the word āmetaā in the English-speaking world, but it might have been a good idea for Mark & Co to do a little research on how that name would fare worldwide. In […]
Climate solutions may become more feasible if our language reflects humansā efforts to protect the Earth. Imagining a shift in languageāone that puts humanityās relationship with nature at the forefrontācould lead to a more holistic view of our climate. And it may not even require the invention of new words. Instead, we can look to […]
Youād be forgiven for thinking that Arabic is about as far removed from Western languages as you can get. After all, Arabic is spoken in a completely different part of the worldānot to mention its use of an entirely different script, unrecognizable from the Latin alphabet in more ways than one. But when we delve […]
The cultural landscape of the U.S. and elsewhere has been in flux for a while, and weāre now seeing the effects fit into place. How does that affect content creation? Well, just look at the recent Netflix phenomenon Squid Game, which became the streaming platformās most watched series in its 15-year existence in just 17 […]
When a language dies, we lose a culture. We lose a sense of identity and belonging. Imagine that the language you speak is slowly becoming extinct. What would you do? How would you react? This is what many Indigenous peoples in Canada, and in other parts of the world, are experiencing right now. The National […]
Getting English language pieces translated into other languages is a bit of a no-brainer when a literary work is successful; however, the same mindset rarely makes its way to pieces written by Latin American writers. Because of this, many Latin American authors are finding their works never make it to English speaking audiencesāunless weāre talking […]
English has long been considered a key language to know, and like any language-learning endeavor, it comes with its fair share of difficulties, such as its pronunciation and the voluminous vocabulary that learners sometimes struggle to memorize. However, not all of the words that make up the English lexicon are English in origin. Much of […]