cultural understanding

AI’s Linguistic Blind Spots

AI language models can write poetry and translate languages, but their impressive abilities mask significant linguistic blind spots. Inheriting biases…

3 weeks ago

The Final Boss: Untranslatable Puns

You can conjugate verbs and debate politics, but can you understand a pun in your target language? This article breaks…

3 weeks ago

The Billion-Dollar Word: Naming Products for the Globe

What's in a name? For a global brand, it could be a billion dollars. This post explores the high-stakes world…

3 weeks ago

Why You Can’t Just “Count” in Thai

Ever tried to say "two dogs" in Thai and been corrected? That's because you can't just count nouns; you need…

3 weeks ago

Learning from Zero: The “Monolingual Method” and the Art of Linguistic Fieldwork

Imagine trying to learn a language with no textbook, no translator, and no shared vocabulary. The monolingual fieldwork method is…

3 weeks ago

Accent on Belonging: The Unique Linguistic Identity of Third Culture Kids

Explore the fascinating world of Third Culture Kids (TCKs), individuals whose lives are a tapestry of languages and cultures. Their…

3 weeks ago

Speaking in Tones: The Art and Science of Politeness in Japanese (Keigo)

Beyond "konnichiwa" lies Keigo, a complex system of Japanese politeness that goes far beyond simple pleasantries. This linguistic art form…

3 weeks ago

Reading Between the Lines: The Art and Science of Subtitling

Subtitling is an unsung art form involving far more than direct translation. It's a delicate dance between art and science,…

3 weeks ago

Canali on Mars: The 19th-Century Mistranslation That Invented a World

This post explores how Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli's 1877 description of "canali" (channels) on Mars was translated into English as…

3 weeks ago

Famous Mistranslations: The “Let Them Eat Cake” of the East

Just as the West has its infamous mistranslation of Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake", the East too has seen…

2 years ago

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