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How social media fires people’s passions – and builds extremist divisions

How social media fires people’s passions – and builds extremist divisions

The people of the United States continue to learn how polarized and divided the nation has become. In one study released in late October by the Pew Research Center, Americans were found to have become increasingly partisan in their views. On issues as diverse as health care, immigration, race and sexuality, Americans today hold more extreme and more divergent views…

Calligraphy – the art of beautiful handwriting

Calligraphy – the art of beautiful handwriting

On 14th August is World Calligraphy Day Calligraphy is art in a written format, giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skilful manner. This ancient writing technique uses flat edged pens to create artistic lettering through thick and thin lines, depending on the direction of the stroke. Calligraphy’s vast history has impacted many cultures all over the world.…

‘F**k Vegetables’: China is set to end the spread of “Chinglish” mistranslations

‘F**k Vegetables’: China is set to end the spread of “Chinglish” mistranslations

Chinese is known as one of the most difficult languages to understand and interpret, and the struggle can clearly be seen from the many public signs with hilarious English mistranslation. However, China has finally unrolled a plan to eradicate “Chinglish” before the 2022 Winter Olympics and is working on improving the quality to standard English in 13 public areas like transportation, entertainment and medicine.

Five entertaining examples of localisation gone tragically awry

Five entertaining examples of localisation gone tragically awry

If you follow this blog, or any other blog that covers localisation and internationalisation, you probably already know that localisation is super important for expanding overseas. But that’s all just talk unless you’ve seen exactly what happens when you fail to localise successfully. It shouldn’t be difficult to see that marketing blunders can be disastrous for your brand. They can…

Artificial Intelligence can detect / create fake news

Artificial Intelligence can detect / create fake news

A visualisation of a fake vs real news distribution pattern; users who predominantly share fake news are coloured red, and users who don’t share fake news at all are coloured blue   When Mark Zuckerberg told Congress Facebook would use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect fake news posted on the social media site, he wasn’t particularly specific about what that…

How best to talk about politics with your family

How best to talk about politics with your family

Talking politics with people who you disagree with is always tricky, but it’s especially hard when those people are your family or closest friends. All too often, problems arise because of how politeness (and impoliteness) operates in interactions.
Everything we do can be more or less polite; the way we move, the way we look at each other and, of course, the words we use.

Meghan Markle: reports of her ‘British accent’ sound like journalistic licence, say linguistics experts

Meghan Markle: reports of her ‘British accent’ sound like journalistic licence, say linguistics experts

Fairly soon after her marriage to Prince Harry in May 2018, articles about Meghan Markle started to appear – in the BBC, Mirror, Daily Star and Daily Express – reporting a change in her speech. Apparently the American actress has taken on a “British” accent along with her membership of the royal family.