Hello from a frosty and foggy London! If you celebrate the "Western" Christmas, I hope you had a great time. I love the decorations, the traditional, rather heavy British Christmas dinner (turkey, roast potatoes, all the "trimmings"). Now it's 29th December and I've finished the turkey but the cake and mince pies are still going strong. We're in that strange no man's … [Read more...]
Why learn Welsh? Ten reasons
Why learn Welsh in 2025? This is for you if you're thinking of learning Cymraeg - the Welsh language - yourself or just interested in finding out more about it. Even if the language you're eyeing up isn't Welsh, this post my well help you get clear on your underlying "whys". It's an important step when you're thinking of taking on a new lingo. Clarity of purpose will help … [Read more...]
Basque Intensive! 6: the inside view (video)
Now I'm back from my trip to Singapore and Indonesia, I've finally managed to complete the first of two further videos in my "Basque Intensive!" series. As regular readers will know, I'm learning the Basque language. This is an ancient but very much a living language among about 750,000 people in the Basque Country (on both the French and Spanish sides of the western end of … [Read more...]
In Thessaloniki at the Polyglot Conference (review and video)
The long flight back from Singapore at the end of my "Minimmersion" Indonesian language project in Indonesia gave me time to get stuck into editing footage from the Polyglot Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, from where my wonderful trip kicked off thee weeks ago. My Conference vlog is now ready (link at the bottom of this post). This vlog is for you if you weren't there … [Read more...]
“Minimmersion” Indonesia 8: Prambanan, the Sultan’s palace and departure
After my five-day project to learn some basic Indonesian came to an end, I had almost two days left in Yogyakarta on the island of Java to explore. The highlights were the Prambanan temple, the sultan's palace and Berinharja market. Here's my final "on the road" report and video. The Prambanan temple On Saturday morning I went on the back of a motor bike to the Hindu … [Read more...]