A Thing For Wor(l)ds

I’m easing back into posting. I don’t know why I took such a long hiatus, but I would like to make my re-entry into the blogging universe with this cheeky image: I’m planning on teaching English abroad in Spain (Hopefully! Hold out on your ...Read More

Remember when we talked about severe (and hilarious) mistranslations? Well, here’s a short article documenting some of the worst blunders cross-culturally. Some of my favorites: -a sign in a Japanese hotel: “You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid” -a laundromat in Rome: ...Read More

Here’s my favorite joke that’s been circulating since Election Day: ...Read More

My friend Luc preparing for our flight to Sweden Dreading my surely imminent demise During my year abroad, I took the budget airline Ryanair all over Europe. Besides being a great way to get places cheaply, it was just about the worst thing ever. ...Read More

Once I got into a steady rhythm of speaking Spanish everyday in Granada, sometimes my English would come out muddled. Since Spanish has a much smaller vocabulary than English, many times the words that stuck in its lexicon happen to be cognates of English’s ...Read More

Many people (mostly science and math majors, ahem) are surprised when I say I actually enjoy learning languages. When you have an affinity or genuine interest in it, languages are so much fun, just as I can only imagine that an affinity for learning ...Read More

Let’s round out to an even three what has seemed to become a theme here on A Thing for Wor(l)ds–college applications. (And then enough! No more talk about the subject, at least for a while :) For many people the college admissions process was ...Read More