Back from a week researching around Montenegro ๐ฒ๐ช, Bosnia and Herzegovina ๐ง๐ฆ and Croatia ๐ญ๐ท with a writer friend of mine. An amazing time! ๐ โ๏ธ For anyone working with languages, trips to “territory” (where those languages are spoken) are valuable for language maintenance and seeing and hearing what’s on trend linguistically, particularly slang. There’s […]
It’s all about being friendly when driving out in “woop woop” (the middle of nowhere) ๐ค Driving across a lot of Australia ๐ฆ๐บ involves traversing not just hundreds but thousands of kilometres of roads in near-empty deserts. This huge part of Australia is known as ‘the Outback’ because, you know, it’s out back there. Once […]
Feta, prosecco, parmesan, mozzarella (di bufala campana), champagne…Would you believe that the names of all these famous products are the cause for the deadlock in the free-trade agreement negotiations between the EU ๐ช๐บ and Australia ๐ฆ๐บ. How come? ๐ All these product names (and more) are protected designation of origin (PDO) terms in the European […]
Watch out for the killer squirrels! ๐ฟ๏ธWe’re very much in “silly season” right now in the UK ๐คช Not long ago, a friend posted a link to a news item published the day before about an audacious missionary being killed by the uncontacted people of North Sentinel Islandhttps://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/man-killed-uncontacted-tribe-after-30620890 My immediate thought was “no, not another […]
Two more language directions have been added to my Institute of Translation and Interpreting profile (check it out here https://www.iti.org.uk/directory/member/mr-nick-nasev.html):โญ Bosnian to Englishโญ Montenegrin to English That brings my total to six ๐. Some background… The breakup of Yugoslavia over 30 years ago transformed what was once one language, Serbo-Croatian, into four: Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin […]
Surprising as it may be, I was once a child, but one who happened to grow up in a multilingual environment but dominated by English. That I actually ended up having a career using my languages from childhood did not come easily. I had to overcome some major hurdles ๐ง in the form of widely-accepted […]
๐ฐ Words that look the same or similar in two languages but have two, at times radically, different meanings are called “false friends”. There are plenty of them in most languages, and particularly between Slovenian and the other Southern Slavic languages, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Serbian. ๐๐ป A particular false friend I love […]
Are you a fan of the cult TV comedy show The Office?๐บAnd which version: the UK one ๐ฌ๐ง? The US one ๐บ๐ธ? The French one ๐ซ๐ท? The Indian one ๐ฎ๐ณ or any of the other 13 variants made? ๐ฃ News in is that an Australian ๐ฆ๐บ version of The Office will be hitting our screens […]
Today (Monday), 29 May 2023 is a “bank holiday” in the United Kingdom, our third this month! ๐Now this term “bank holiday” often confuses many people not from the UK or Ireland. Does this mean that it’s a holiday for banks only? ๐ง Absolutely not! “Bank holidays” in the UK and Ireland are what are […]
Did you know that Tina Turner has been one of the biggest contributors to Australian culture? ๐ฆ Honestly, her impact has been huge! Here’s how… Go to any Australian wedding ๐ or social event ๐ and you’re bound to hear the rock guitars ๐ธ that herald Tina Turner’s 1973 hit Nutbush City Limits. The long […]
