by Elodie Milne | Thursday, May 3rd, 2018 | Countries of the world, History and culture
All schools closed! No more homework and no more studying for children in Japan on May 5th, for it is Children’s Day! Children’s Day (or 子どもの日 “kodomo no hi”) is celebrated once a year in Japan, always on May 5th. On this bank holiday, everyone puts their...
by Stuart Milne | Thursday, December 21st, 2017 | Countries of the world, History and culture
Most of us associate Christmas with all things joyful and heart-warming. Such as colourful lights, ornaments, carols, mulled wine, presents, and Santa. The Language Room has discovered, however, that some countries have rather creepy Christmas customs and beliefs....
by Elodie Milne | Tuesday, November 14th, 2017 | Countries of the world, Language, Translation
When a machine translation tool tries to render foreign idiomatic expressions, the results can be quite unexpected. Machine translation error is commonplace. For example, the French expression “sage comme une image”, used to talk about a quiet well-behaved child, can...
