Dialogue Language Services International Ltd

Ineffable (adj) - incapable of being expressed or described in words #wordoftheday

We have been having some fun in the office this morning. Have a go at this quiz to see how good you are at translating difficult words and concepts. https://buff.ly/2EKb5kz #translation #t9n

Ever wondered how a new word gets added to the Oxford English Dictionary? Probably not, but maybe you are wondering now. Have a look at this short video explaining what it takes for a new word to be added. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juwDkP3ov IY #thoughtoftheday #knowledgeiskey

Have a look at this video explaining how words are coded in our brain and shows which brain areas respond to hearing different words. https://buff.ly/2R4zFAZ #factoftheday #psychologyoflanguage #language

Diminutives are used to express that something is very small or cute. There are loads of suffixes that do this such as adding 'y' to a word - puppy, mummy, or by adding 'let' such as piglet. Have a look at this article; it gives examples of 50 different diminutive suffixes and where they originated from. #languagefacts

Trope - something such as an idea, phrase, or image that is often used in a particular artist's work, in a particular type of art, etc. The more it taxes people, the more hours of the day people have to 'work for the government' (a familiar trope in right-wing rhetoric). #wordoftheday #language

Greng-jai - a Thai word that means the feeling you get when you don't want someone to help you because it would be difficult for them. #untranslateablewords

The Women's World Cup - football bringing people from different countries, religions, cultures together. Have a look at the official trailer for the Women's World cup which is held in France this year. https://buff.ly/2wO3GMg #womensworldcup #football #sport

It is the Dragon Boat Festival today otherwise know as the The Duanwu Festival - a traditional holiday in China going back over 2000 years. Dragon boat racing and eating sticky rice dumplings are some of the customs in China on this day. #dragonboatfestival #TuenNgFestival

Research has shown that our brain perceives translating a phrase into another language harder than switching between languages in a conversation. Blanco-Elorrieta found that there was no activity in the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (brain areas responsible for language) when bilingual participants naturally switched between Arabic and English. However when participants were asked to translate sentences, the participants cortexes become active. https://buff.ly/2XelHiH #factoftheday

'i.e.' We all use it, we all know what it means - but do we all know the literal translation? It is an abbreviation of the Latin words 'id est' meaning 'that is.' i.e. should be used for clarification in a sentence. https://buff.ly/2wyTwie. #wordoftheday

Kummerspeck - a German word that means the excess fat gained after emotional eating. The direct translation is 'grief bacon'. #untranslatablewords

NEW BLOG ALERT: Novel Translations
I’m an avid reader. Since a young age, I have been surrounded by books and despite modern advances in technology resulting in super light, super slim, super smart reading devices, I don’t think you can beat a good old fashioned book..... click here to read more: http://www.dialogueuk.com/2019/05/31/nove l-translations/

Translation blunder in Game of Thrones : a character with a thick Geordie (Newcastle) accent, who said 'She can’t see us' was interpreted phonetically as “sicansíos", into Spanish, a word that does not exist. It goes without saying, twitter had a field day with this interpreting mistake. Read more here:

"Here's an oldie but a goodie. A linguistics professor was lecturing his class the other day. “In English,” he said, “a double negative forms a positive. However, in some languages, such as Russian, a double negative remains a negative. But there isn’t a single language, not one, in which a double positive can express a negative.” A voice from the back of the room retorted, “Yeah, right.” #jokeoftheday #happyfriday

Struggling to remember new vocabulary in a foreign language? Try the image association technique. Think of an image that could be associated with the word you are learning. Benny Lewis gives a great example - "caber" in Spanish means "to fit" - try visualising a bear trying to fit into a cab. Does it work for you? Comment below if you can think of any others. #Dialoguetips #learnalanguage #languagetips

Pangram - a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet, such as 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'. A perfect pangram however, contains all the letters in the alphabet, BUT, only once. As of yet, no one has been able to come up with a perfect pangram that makes sense. Dialogue challenges you. Can you come up with a pangram, or better yet, a perfect pangram? #wordoftheday https://www.businessballs.com/…/languag e-grammar-and-liter…/

Uitwaaien - a Dutch word that means 'to take a break to clear one's head.'. We hope that everyone is having a well-deserved break this #BankHolidayMonday #untranslatablewords