No language can escape the fate of foreign influence. Languages evolve over time; new words enter the dictionary and new expressions enter the everyday language, a lot of them coming from other languages. In addition, with the global dominance of English it is just impossible to avoid using English words in domains such as IT [...]

Don’t you just love idioms? They generally make no sense whatsoever, particularly in a foreign language. Anyone learning English, for example, would be particularly stumped by ‘It’s raining Cats and Dogs’ – I mean, what have cats and dogs got to do with rain?! To make your lives easier and to give you a little [...]

As the summer approaches, the same problem keeps popping in everyone’s heads: “what to do during the holidays?” is a common question. Well, since the world is quite vast, it looks like you have a lot of options and many different places to choose to spend your free time. You can travel to faraway places, [...]

Have you ever felt completely lost when in a foreign country whose culture and language are not very familiar to you? You don’t know how to act towards the natives or at a dinner party, or even worse you have no notions of the language whatsoever? Well, this is why our Lexiophiles writers have developed [...]

It is obvious that when learning a foreign language the best way to improve your skills is to visit a country where this language is spoken, not only to extend your knowledge of the language, but also to get in touch with the culture and lifestyle. Learning a language is not just about words and [...]

Language learning is definitely a tricky process. You may have studied a foreign language for many years but you just cannot get rid of those tiny mistakes that remind you (and all the others) that no, you still don’t sound (or write) like a native. Sadly for language learners, one tiny mistake can often change [...]

As they say, you can laugh about anything… but not with everyone. Humor is a very subjective concept, and what might be funny for some might be considered outrageous by others. And of course, in a country several of the jokes often make fun of other cultures. Who, for instance, does not love to make [...]

Flirting… this really is a complex topic, especially as, let’s face it, there’s no magic formula to get out of this tricky and dangerous situation. Flirting evolves with time, and things that may have worked several years ago are now considered very lame. If you’re a man, you might want to try pick-up lines, but [...]

As Frank Sinatra once sang, ‘Love and Marriage go together like a Horse and Carriage.’ Well, not so any more it would seem. Marriage apparently is dead; an institution of a bygone Era and romance has died along with it. So many couples divorcing those lucky people that are ‘in love’ don’t see any sense [...]

For all international shopping lovers, one major problem keeps hunting us down and confusing us: the sizes! Indeed, they are quite different whether you shop in the United States, in England or in France. At some point you would have to face some 6 and 8, and at some other point some 34 and 36. [...]