Languages
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Comparative study of modern Romance languages: a linguistic treasure trove!
I recently had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Michelle Sheehan, a professor of linguistics at Newcastle University, at the School of English Literature, Language and Linguists, entitled “The comparative study of modern Romance languages: a linguistic treasure trove!”. Michelle, who is interested in syntactic theory (i.e. the structure of languages), how languages vary,…
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How to learn Japanese: my journey
Ever since I was young, I have always had an interest in Japan and Japanese culture and a desire to learn Japanese. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in Japan. I don’t remember what got me interested me in Japan originally. When I asked my parents where I could have picked up…
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Days of the week in European languages: where did they come from?
As a translator and linguist, languages are fascinating to me. I enjoy comparing words in languages and seeing the similarities and differences. When it comes to abstract things, I find it interesting to look at the meanings of words and their etymology (the history of where words came from) to see why we call things…
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How can I type the International Phonetic Alphabet?
Before reading this post, you should know a little about the International Phonetic Alphabet and Phonemic Alphabets. You may also want to read IPA: History, Functionality, and Limitations. Learning to type the International Phonetic Alphabet can seem like a daunting task. How can I get one keyboard that creates 107 basic pronunciation symbols, 31 diacritics,…
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International Phonetic Alphabet(s)? How many are there?
Before reading this post, you should be familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet and Phonemic Alphabets. You may also want to read IPA: History, Functionality, and Limitations as well. The shower answer to this question is that there is only one International Phonetic Alphabet, the one created in 1888 by the International Phonetic Association. However…
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IPA: Who uses the International Phonetic Alphabet?
Before reading this post, you should be familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet and Phonemic Alphabets. You may also want to read IPA: History, Functionality, and Limitations as well. IPA may be great for languages, but who actually uses it? The short answer is that the following types of people/professions may use IPA to varying…
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Graduation Speech: 18 months at GenkiJACS in Fukuoka
If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you may remember that I was studying in an 18-month intensive programme to learn Japanese. I am happy to report that I graduated at the end of September. I am very proud of how far I have come since I started. I went…
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IPA: History, Functionality, and Limitations
Introduction The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a notational system for phonetic transcription, representing the sounds of spoken languages. Its widespread use is credited to the uniformity and precision it offers in transcription. However, like every system, IPA has limitations and drawbacks. Some of it is due to its history, while others are due to…
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Immersive language learning online and offline
Guest Blogger: Nick Eley is the Co-Founder of English Like A Native and has become fluent in Spanish and Thai while travelling. What is immersive language learning? Immersive language learning is the process of surrounding yourself with a language and culture. At its best, you take away all of the options to engage with the…
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Double negatives in English – a big no no
Picture it: you are sitting in an English class and a teacher says “don’t use double negatives”. Double negative? What is a double negative? How can anything be negative twice? What is a double negative? A double negative in the content of language is when a sentence has multiple negative words. A negative word can…
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Punctuation in Scientific Writing and How Powerful It Can Be
In addition to the basic characteristics of Scientific English, the next most important thing when writing is grammar. Oh no! I said the bad “g” word – grammar. No one really likes it but it is important and we will be seeing why in this post. Specifically, we are going to be looking at punctuation…
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Future in the past – What were you going to do?
In English, there exists a concept called “future in the past”. This is when you talk about how the future was going to be at some point in the past (whether it actually happened or not). Before you continue this article, if you are unfamiliar with either the future tense or the past tense, please…
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Reported Speech – He said, she said
Sometimes when you are telling a story or relaying information someone told you, you don’t necessarily want to say absolutely everything in exactly the same way as it was told to you (i.e. direct speech). Sometimes you simply can’t remember and other times exactly what was said was important. So what do you do instead?…
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Past habits – Over and over again
In this article we will cover: You can describe past habits (or actions that happened repeatedly in the past) in three different ways in English: used to, would and the past simple tense. Used to If you have learnt about modal and semi-modal verbs before, you may be familiar with used to. In fact, this…
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Should vs ought to vs had better
Before reading this post, you should be familiar with should, ought to and had better. You will need this information to understand Should vs ought to vs had better. Which to use? Should? Ought to? Had better? What are these three modal verbs? Why are there three ways to talk about recommendations or suggestions? Are…
