If you’re in the UK, you may have seen or perhaps bought a batch of hot-cross buns to enjoy on Good Friday or have a few chocolate eggs stashed in your cupboard ready to delight your children on Easter Sunday. These Easter traditions, symbolic of the Christian faith, are pretty well-known to us. However, around […]
Category: Languages and Culture
5 Valentine’s Day Traditions from Around the World
The 14th of February is more than just exchanging cards and gift flowers with your loved one. Around the globe, we can find a variety of different and meaningful traditions with a historical origin that people still celebrate today. Read on below to learn more about these incredible Valentine’s customs. Mr Jack Valentine, England Every […]
Lingo Around Languages
Do you know your localisation from your transcreation? Or your neural machine translation from your statistical machine translation? Over the last few weeks, we have been sharing some of the most commonly queried language lingo via our weekly #WordsOnWednesday posts across social media. Below, we’ve compiled our top 8 favourite jargon-busting posts. Transcreation or […]
Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday and the End of Carnival: The Importance of Localisation
Did you know that all these different festivities are all linked to the same day? They all mark the lead-up to the following day, Ash Wednesday. This day is the first day of Lent, a Christian period based on penitence and sacrifice that lasts until Easter. Depending on which country we are referring to, we […]
Fun with Words: 5 Types of Wordplay
Do you know your pangram from your lipogram or your palindrome from your semordnilap? At Mission Translate, we love language and the different ways it can be used to communicate. Here are five forms of English wordplay that we’ve enjoyed puzzling over. 1) Palindrome Probably the wordplay that is the most widely recognised; a palindrome […]
Chinese New Year: Celebrating in Birmingham
This Saturday, 25th January, marks the start of Chinese New Year and, with a Chinese population of almost 13,000 people in Birmingham, there will be plenty of celebrations in the local area. Mission Translate first takes a look at some of the traditions of Chinese New Year and then shares what events you can expect […]
Neglect Languages and Miss Out on So Much More
Learning languages has become quite a controversial topic in the U.K. recently, since Brexit negotiations began. In the last five years, there has been a 19% drop in the take up of language GCSEs, fewer primary schools are teaching languages and motivation, in general, has seen a downturn. We are passionate about reversing these figures […]
6 Tips for Finding the Balance Between Formal and Informal Business Communication
Over the last couple of decades, the way in which many businesses conduct their activities has become more relaxed and less formal. In a lot of organisations, working hours have become more flexible, dress is less corporate and policies less rigid to account for the fast development of technology and the opportunities this brings. With […]
Sport: When People Unite and Speak the Same Language
After a historic comeback from Liverpool FC earlier this week, I was mesmerised by the sight of tens of thousands of fans in the stadium, all standing and singing as one to celebrate with their team. If this game could unite so many people from a wide range of different backgrounds within the U.K., is […]
The Day of the Dragon! And Three Other National Days
Earlier this week, on the 23rd April, it was St. George’s Day. Although this is known as England’s national day, it is likely to have passed without many people in the country even realising! This week, Mission Translate explores St. George’s Day, finding out the history and legend behind it and why its recognition is […]