Beyond Words - Language Blog
Recent Blog Posts
A Cup o’ Joe and a Heart Attack on a Rack, Please – The Delicious History of American Diner Lingo
May 11, 2019
Along with Uncle Sam, Civil War daguerreotypes, and hot apple pies on Thanksgiving, diners are one of those nostalgia-inducing cultural artifacts that somehow get under the skin of millennials and baby boomers alike. Diners have long been a quintessential element of Americana, but along with bottomless coffee and the time-honored […]
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Cinco de Mayo: A Minor Mexican Holiday Turned Major American Drinking Day
May 2, 2019
In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is a day synonymous with tequila, recurring ethnic and culturally charged controversies, and more tequila. Long regarded by Americans as the boozy day in which both we and Mexico celebrate the independence of our neighbor to the South, many might be surprised to […]
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Esperanto – The Language of International Peace
April 26, 2019
Bonan matenon, kiel vi fartas? That’s Esperanto for ‘good morning, how are you?’ If you’re trying to remember what country Esperanto is spoken in, don’t flex those brain muscles too hard. Because while around two million people from more than one hundred and twenty countries speak Esperanto, you’ll be hard-pressed […]
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Could Texting Be Making Us Linguistically Smarter?
April 17, 2019
Communication via complex language is perhaps the single most defining characteristic of humankind. But if the birth of spoken language was charted as hour zero on a twenty-four-hour clock, and the moment that you’re reading this article represents twenty-four-hundred-hours, written language would have only appeared about fifty-three minutes ago, at […]
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Why Do We Change the Way We Speak Depending on Whom We’re Speaking to?
April 9, 2019
In a recent BBC article, subtle changes in Meghan Markle’s accent following her marriage to Prince Harry were brought into question. The Duchess of Sussex hails from California, but linguistics experts have noted that, recently, she has begun slipping in and out of more British inflections, pronunciations, and expressions. Marisa […]
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Top U.S. Translation Schools: Specialized Programs
April 4, 2019
With the nearly exponential growth of the translation and interpretation industries over the past few decades, unique new language studies programs at universities seem to be cropping up all the time. Finding a program or degree that’s right for you can be exhausting and time consuming, so we’ve put together […]
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The Best Languages to Study for Government Jobs
March 29, 2019
In today’s global job market having bilingual skills can help you stand out among the masses to advance your career goals. According to the Center for Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Ohio State University, the U.S. Government has greatly expanded its search for foreign language employees. This includes the Department […]
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Five Tax-Related Words with (Surprisingly) Interesting Origins
March 25, 2019
It’s everybody’s least favorite time of the year – tax season. If you’re trying to find the silver lining while navigating through what seems to be a never-ending labyrinth of numbers and headache-inducing terminology, read on. Because though tax forms may be boring and difficult, a lot of the language […]
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29 Countries With French as Their Official Language
March 15, 2019
French is one of the most popular and fastest-growing languages in the world. Outside of Europe, you can also hear the language on nearly every continent, including Africa, North America, South America and even the Caribbean. It is the official language in 29 countries, the procedural language for the European […]
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Six Lessons from a Polyglot to Help You Live Your Best Life in 2019
March 7, 2019
A language is the only thing worth knowing badly. Unlike a person who can play a few notes on the violin or your friend who took that one year of pre-med, the amateur language speaker gains something from trying rather than remaining silent. “Well-intentioned sentences full of mistakes can still […]
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