As a foreigner in South Korea, you might feel overwhelmed by the plethora of questions asked of you by your hosts, including and especially, what your age is. While it…
Category: Languages of Asia
Taglish – the mastery of code-switching
There are numerous interesting topics on language and culture that we cover on our blog weekly. We have already talked about the colorful language of Tagalog, and we have talked…
Dialects – the riches of the Vietnamese treasure chest
“Never let it be said that dialect is a reflection of intellect. On the contrary, it is a reflection of the deep traditional values of a culture” – Patricia H.…
Translating “Eva dislikes John” and vice versa – how difficult could it be?
The two seemingly inconspicuous sentences, “Eva dislikes John” and “John dislikes Eva” might seem easy to translate into the Korean language at first sight. After all, they each contain a…
Beauty lies in the small details. Discourse particles on Malaysian English
We mention quite often the usage of English “dialects” such as Chinglish, Japlish, etc. In this article, we are going to take a look at the phenomena of discourse particles…
Konglish – another example of the vibrance of the “New Englishes”
The late part of the previous century marks the birth and growth of hybrid languages, more often than not mixing a country’s native language with a variety of English. This…
Bahasa Indonesian and its sweet peculiarities
Indonesian (or Bahasa Indonesian) is the official language of Indonesia and the Indonesian archipelago. It is a relatively new language that has quickly taken its place in the rank as…
Exploring Asia: Interesting facts about the Mongolian language
By far, we have acquainted you with the peculiarities of numerous languages, spoken around the continent of Asia. Today, we will be taking a look at the language of the…
The Colors of Hmong – a centuries-old language
If you are a curious person, always searching for new, interesting facts and you happen to have a passion for languages and translation – then this article is for you!…
Challenges in Malay to English translation
Translating is a very interesting, yet challenging process. Whatever the languages that translators are working with, they always bear the great responsibility of correctly transferring the exact meaning of words…
Hinglish – the rapidly spreading Indian phenomenon
As observed in many other countries, the English language is slowly altering the face of local languages due to its popularity and simplicity. While other nations merely add English loanwords…
Exploring Japanese loanwords in English
Loanwords are words adopted from another language and there is almost no language that doesn’t make use of such terms. However, when such words are “borrowed” they do not necessarily…
Translation mistakes uncovered: Chinese Part 1
In this century, translation has become a popular profession around the world, and one that plays a significant role in communication — which we can also consider to be an…
Asian loanwords in English: Chinese
Loanwords are the words that pass from one language to another. People often refer to this act as “borrowing” although it is not entirely correct to do so. The words…
The hidden gems of the Vietnamese language
If you’re a bilingual or a multilingual person, then you’ve probably been in a situation when you know the exact word or phrase you need to express your emotions but…
Is Vietnamese Machine translation achievable?
Currently, Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, which inevitably adds it to the list of top countries in the business sphere, where big companies might want…
Filipino and localization challenges
The Philippines definitely sounds like an exotic holiday destination, as there’s a lot to discover in the archipelago’s nature and culture. What about their language practices? There are close to…
Similarities between Thai and Mandarin
Today we’re going to dive in and take a look at the linguistic similarities between two languages, both of which originate from Asian countries with a considerable proximity to one…
Lao and Thai – same, same but not really
The shared history Thailand and Laos have long been considered as sibling countries, having shared a history even before the colonial era began. They share not only the same origin…
One continent, 49 countries and 2300 languages. Asia!
When referring to a language spoken in Asia, people often use the term “Asian language family”. Here’s an educational fact – there’s no such thing, nor is ‘Asian language’ a…
Discovering Hmong: A language from a culturally and historically rich ethnic minority.
If you’ve been to the north of Thailand, Vietnam or the south of Laos, Myanmar, and China, you’ve probably seen someone from the Hmong ethnic group or heard them speaking…
Why do Koreans and Japanese understand each other?
Japan and Korea have shared a common cultural tradition of broadly defined Confucianism, which in general is quite different from the Western tradition. Their modern fate diverged after the East…
Indonesia – an archipelago of languages
Today we’re turning our looks to the country that happens to be a home to over 700 indigenous languages. If it didn’t come to your mind instantly – we`re speaking…
Thai words that do not exist in English
Thai culture plays a crucial role in shaping the Thai language. Some of the culture has created various Thai words that do not exist in English. To translate these words,…
Two major facts about Vietnamese Language
Asian languages are full of wonder. Every language is like an art. They have their own styles, writing systems, accents, local dialects and so on. In this article, we will…