Like many countries Estonia uses English in signs, new words and everyday language. In Tallinn this Estlish was sprinkled pretty liberally, but was also mixed with Russian and Nordic languages (at least I think they were Nordic rather than Baltic). As with other ‘lishes there are loan words which are ‘adapted’ such ‘Faks’ for ‘Fax’ […]
Academic Glossary for UK English Essay / Exam Questions
I’m currently studying an excellent and very interesting Open University course about the English language. One of my fellow students posted this very useful list on our Facebook group. ACCOUNT FOR: Give reasons for; explain why something happens. ANALYSE: Examine in very close detail; identify important points & chief features. COMMENT ON: Identify & write […]
Wanna be exclusive? Use another language!
I have a tie. It’s a nice tie. I know this because: 1) My daughter chose it 2) It’s from Milan (Milano) But I was very surprised the company that made the tie was called “Andrew’s Ties“. Perhaps in Milan ‘Andrew’ gives a certain gravitas to the brand, but as a Brit I would have […]
Palinisms
Just in case you’re missing George W, Jacob Weisberg in The Slate has collected five web pages of Sarah Palin’s notably quotes. One of my favourites is “We’ll do a stop. We’ll do a lot of OTRs, off the records. We’ll meet a lot of great Americans. And then I’ll write about that at the […]
Bandi and Luni’s underground bookstore in Seoul
I like book shops and find it difficult not to leave a store without an arm full of purchases which I naively intend to read, and sometimes do – despite that owning a book is often a substitute for reading it. No one who knows anything about Korea will be surprised to learn that Korean […]