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International issues
Posted by: Catie Holdridge
14 / 04 / 11
When writing anything for a global audience, it’s best to leave idioms out of it. Idioms are groups of words whose meaning is usually metaphorical and cannot necessarily be deduced from looking at each component word. Unsurprisingly, this can make them problematic for anyone who may be attempting to translate word by word. What might […]
29 / 03 / 11
Patriots and language guardians rejoice: any perceived threat to our mother tongue from pervasive Americanisms – at least as far as our accents are concerned – seems largely without substance. New research by the British Library has revealed that English pronunciations are standing firm (if not static), despite our ‘special relationship’ with across-the-ponders – and […]
Posted by: em-admin
17 / 07 / 10
How do you avoid confusing your reader when you’re writing for non-native English speakers? Expert business-writing trainer Janet Bateman explains: The single most important thing to think about Why you should avoid non-literal expressions Which words are easiest for non-native English speakers to understand. Click here to listen.
12 / 10 / 09
A new dictionary is set to make sense of that most inscrutable of languages: teen speak. This comprehensive reference book, called Pimp Your Vocab, aims to allow bemused parents and teachers to comprehend such ‘teenglish’ terms as ‘owned’ (meaning embarrassed), ‘smacked it’ (to have done well), and ‘teek’ (adjective for very old; from ‘antique’). Understanding […]
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