Category: Blog

Most of us associate sign language interpretation with a person gesticulating in the corner of the screen during a television broadcast of a speech or another event of major importance. However, sign language interpretation is guided by the same basic principle as other forms of interpretation – mediation between languages. In most cases it involves…

Following months of debates around the new Copyright Directive of the European Union, the negotiators agreed on a final text on the 13 February 2019. While awaiting formal confirmation, we give an overview of what changes can be expected in content sharing. Caught in the act? Originally, the aim of the Directive was the fair…

In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev presented his version of the periodic table of the elements, and this event fundamentally changed the course, not only of chemistry, but of all the natural sciences. To honour the 150th anniversary of this ground-breaking innovation, the United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO declared 2019 to be the International Year of…

When a language dies, a way of understanding the world dies with it, a way of looking at the world. (George Steiner, After Babel, 1975) Despite their indisputable value, languages around the world are disappearing at a worrying pace. Indigenous languages – the majority of today’s estimated 7000 spoken languages – are the most endangered,…

As the face of international business changes, so do the languages used to communicate. From professional networking and academic collaboration to transport and traveling, the business world requires business owners to use different languages in order to scale up their companies. Even if you’re a small company and aspiring to sell your services and products…

If you have only read the news headlines about Greta Thunberg, you might have thought she is just another teenager with a romantic vision and over-enthusiasm to change the world. But what is it about her that makes her climate protection message get through? The Swedish butterfly-effect Greta Thunberg has just turned 16 but she’s…

A new social media craze, the so-called #10yearchallenge, has taken the Internet by storm, with millions of people posting photos of themselves from 10 years ago to show the world how much they have changed. The trend initially aimed to foster positivity about ageing and physical appearance. And while showing how much we have “glowed…

The New Year began with important news: 1 January 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of perhaps one of the most monumental decisions the EU has ever made – the adoption of the euro. Although the euro is a relatively new currency, it has become the second most traded currency, behind only the US dollar. On…

Electric vehicles (EV) have been around since the mid-19th century and, at one point, they seemed to be the future of transportation. However, with the advent of mass production, the affordable price of petroleum, and the technical limitations of the electric motor, internal combustion engines (ICE) gained many advantages over EVs, and they became the…

It is a common perception that breaking habits is difficult. In January, this problem is even more accentuated when people are making resolutions in order to change their lives. While most common promises aim to enhance the quality of life (to improve health/self-care/social relations), most of them do not last until the end of January.…