Who needs Tagalog?! Filipinos pretty much all speak English, right?!
Well, yeah, more or less. But when you’re visiting a country as social and fun as the Philippines, knowing some Tagalog will not only endear you to the locals, but inspire almost inexplicable positivity everywhere you go. Continue reading
In this post we’re going to look at how similar three Polynesian languages are: Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Marquesan.
In the recent Langfocus video on The Hawaiian language, I mentioned that the original population of Hawai’i are Continue reading
If I asked you to name two languages that people often say are similar, what languages would you name?
Maybe Spanish and Portuguese popped into your head. Maybe you thought of German and Dutch. Or maybe Hindi and Urdu. But what about English? Continue reading
In a recent Langfocus video I talked about Celtic influence on English, inspired by John McWhorter’s book “Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue”. In the video I mentioned that while English has a couple of grammatical peculiarities that resemble Celtic languages, Continue reading
Slang is one area of language that can be difficult to describe, not necessarily because it’s complex, but because it’s dynamic. Since it arises in the spoken language in informal situations, it is not tied to the written language and it goes in whatever direction its speakers feel like taking it. Continue reading
