Language

A successful actor has the ability to place themselves inside the head of another person/see the world from a different perspective; which, when you think about it, is not too dissimilar to the modus operandi of a successful linguist. This started me wondering whether you might expect actors to have an above-average proficiency with languages (well OK, it was rather a slow day in the office), which in turn led me to an interesting online article about actors who are read more

Thanks to Antonio for pointing me to an interesting article in The Economist on the subject of invented languages. Not surprisingly, Esperanto gets a prominent mention – but following the flurries of interest from that esteemed community in response to our recent articles on the language, I’ll try to avoid poking that hornet’s nest again for the near future.

The Economist article seems to have been prompted by the author’s observation that over five million people are exposed every week to read more

Away from the heady world of translation, I have a number of interests which are mostly ways to pass the time rather than absolute passions and I start a number of projects which then seem to fade away as I flit onto something new. I have a portfolio of numerous abandoned short stories and novels (mostly science fiction). I quite like a number of sports but have never really put the effort in to become particularly proficient in any of read more

It seems to me that all Italians are bilingual, and that their two native languages need to coexist to avoid one of them becoming senseless. I am talking about Italian language and body language.

I was given the idea to write this blog by my co-worker Antonio, who over my time at RLI has given me a crash course in Italian gestures, meaning that verbal conversation has almost become futile in the workplace. Using simple movements he can express most feelings, read more