Tag: linguistics

Boost Language Learning with Memrise Video Content

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a Memrise video might be worth a million. The language learning industry has come a long way in the past decade. The resources available have changed considerably since the days of rote recitation and that week your mom’s high school French class spent a week in Paris…
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Do Women Talk More Than Men?

Ah, yes, the ages old quip about talkative ladies. Drawing the ire of many a woman and the insipid chuckles of many a bro in a popped-collared polo, this is one of those annoying questions you may already have assumed to know the answer to, but that I felt merited addressing anyway: do women talk…
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The Greatest Insults in History, Profanity, and Why We Say Pardon My French

If we define an insult as words or actions that cause offense to a person or group of people, we realize that the nature of an insult is generally subjective and the best insults are essentially impossible to determine. Still, despite these being my list of the best insults in history, I certainly hope that you are entertained and that you learn something.

Indigenous Siberia: the Chukchi Language

A few years ago I ended up composing this tiny little “article” about the Chukchi language and people. It was one of my first articles and it’s just about as God-awful as you’d expect. To show you just how awful, I’ve taken a screenshot of the article and published it here as an image…  …
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Is it Possible to be Accent-Free? A Guide to Sounding Native

by Hongyu Chen   Here is one of the most commonly asked questions regarding pronunciation: “Is it possible for someone to learn a new language after childhood and still sound like a native speaker?” This question is widely debated everywhere from Quora to Internet forums, and is a heated topic of academic research. With tons…
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OMG! Texting Isn’t Ruining English!

In the past decade the world has experienced a communications boom brought on by an insane amount of increased connectivity; widespread use of the Internet, and of course; cellphones. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re also probably aware that these devices and methods often fall under considerable scrutiny for somehow helping to undermine…
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