Making the world a smaller place one translation at a time...

5 Lessons on Overcoming Language Barriers From Race Across the World

With summer in full force, many will be preparing for summer trips abroad. When travelling with limited knowledge of the local language, learning a few phrases can go a long way in making a good impression, forging connections, and preventing any miscommunications. We’re going to take a look at some lessons gleaned from the television series Race Across the World, on how to connect with locals when you have a limited knowledge of the local language. Race Across the World is a television series which sees pairs of contestants from different regions of the UK take part in a challenge to race from a specific starting point to a destination thousands of kilometres across the world, without the use of smartphones, and with only a restricted budget, a paper map, and limited knowledge of other languages. In this year’s series, teams travelled 12,000km from Palermo, Sicily, to Hatgal in Mongolia. Over several weeks, the teams had to travel to different […]

Translation and Interpreting at the World Cup

The World Cup is right around the corner, but with players and fans speaking different languages, how does the competition cater to multilingual audiences?

Rosalía’s Lux Album: An Exercise in Language Learning

Rosalía is a musician from Catalunya, Spain whose latest album, Lux, is of particular interest from a language perspective; languages and language learning played a significant role. In this album, she takes inspiration from the lives of female saints originating from different cultures and continents. She not only delves into their lives by recounting their stories, but writes in the languages of the figures themselves. The album features songs about saints including Saint Olga of Kyiv, Saint Joan of Arc, and Saint Rosalía. The artist sings in 13 different languages including French, Arabic, and German, as well as her native Catalan and Spanish. The title itself, Lux, has different meanings in different languages. It means ‘light’ in Latin, while luxe in Catalan can mean ‘luxury’. This shows how our language becomes a lens through which we understand and interpret a message. The visual images in the album’s cover and foldout also carry their own meanings and possible interpretations. Some have […]

What The Traitors Teaches Us About Language

With communication being so important to The Traitors, it can teach us a lot about language and localisation. Let’s take a look at some of the core communication strategies in the game and how this ties to localisation.