It’s that special time of the year again! Chinese New Year – also known as the Spring Festival – is about to be celebrated in China, as well as across large parts of Asia and by communities around the world. In 2022, the Year of the Tiger, Chinese New Year falls...
Malaysia is one of the most developed countries in South-East Asia. It’s commonly ranked second in overall competitiveness and fourth as a manufacturing hub – it’s ahead of even China and Japan in this respect. If you’re aiming to start doing...
Korean is the 14th most-spoken language in the world. Over 77 million people speak it as their native language. But global interest in the Korean language is spreading far faster than seems likely given South Korea’s physical size. The worldwide spread of...
If you’re reading this on or after the 12th February 2021, Happy Lunar New Year! Chinese New Year (often called the Spring Festival) falls in mid-February this year. It marks the turning of the Year of the Rat into the Year of the Ox. 2020, the Year of the Rat,...
For non-deaf or hard of hearing people, it is often a surprise to learn that there is more than a single sign language. Today, there are anywhere up to 300 different types of sign language used around the world. Some are only used locally. Others are used by millions...
On 25th January 2020, the twelve-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac begins anew. The first year in the cycle is always the Year of the Rat. Now, the rat might not sound like the most glamorous of zodiac personalities. But it actually has many good qualities: Quick...
Farsi is what many Persian-speakers call Persian. It’s the official language of Iran and of that nation’s ancient rulers, spoken today by more than 110 million people around the world. A great many of those speakers are in Iran – where around half the...
The twelve-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac ends with the Year of the Pig. The Pig might finish last, but it’s said to bring good fortune for all – not only those lucky enough to be born in one of its years. Were you born in a Year of the Pig? Great! But which...
Around 75 million people around the world are native speakers of Vietnamese, the language of Vietnam. It’s also widely used in neighbouring Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, the sixth most-spoken language in Australia, as well as being officially recognized as a...
Homophone and homographs might be confusing to anyone learning English for the first time. After all, why does that word sound the same or look the same yet have widely varied meanings? But homophones and homographs in English have got nothing on the complexities of...
May 4th, unofficially known as Star Wars Day, is celebrated by fans of stories from a galaxy far, far away in numerous places around the world. For the uninitiated, May 4th was chosen as the fan-created day of celebration of the films and universe first created by...
Chinese Language Day is the 20th April. It’s a time chosen to fit in with the Chinese celebration of Guyu, which honours Cangjie – the four-eyed mythical figure who is traditionally understood to have created Chinese characters in the time of the Yellow...
The border between North and South Korea is one of the most heavily fortified in the world. A combined force of more than two million troops keeps the border – which divides the Korean peninsula roughly in half – inviolable. But despite the huge variance...
The Black Panther movie has become one of the most lauded films in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Being the first Marvel film with a predominantly black cast, and featuring powerful themes (as well as female characters who can stare down charging armoured rhinos...
There are three different types of Japanese characters. These are called Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. There are several thousand characters in those different character sets combined, and they’re used together in many different ways, often even in the same word… So,...
Friday 16th February 2018 saw the celebration of Chinese New Year. This year in the Chinese Lunar Calendar is the Year of the Dog. This is an important fact to know because the festival is rapidly becoming one which is celebrated in all parts of the world, not just in...
Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, announced in November 2017 that the country will be changing its official alphabet from a Cyrillic script to a Latin one. This new Kazakh Latin alphabet is an attempt by President Nazarbayev – and his newly...
In China and many other parts of Asia, New Years Day isn’t on the 1st of January… Lunar New Year lies on a different date every year. And for over 1 billion Chinese people, it’s a time of family, festival and firecrackers! In this article,...
Sacrificial goats? Women being whipped in the streets? That doesn’t sound much like the modern idea of Valentine’s Day. But that’s where the “festival of love” started, as Ancient Rome’s celebration of Lupercalia. It took the...
Colourful floats. Dancers. Big bands and big music. Partying in the streets until the early hours. Whether you know it as Carnevale, carnival or Mardi Gras, the period traditionally leading up to Christian Lent is a festival time in many parts of the world. It’s...
