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...
Do you know the difference between a boot and a trunk? Can you differentiate your aluminiums from your aluminums? The differences between British and American English are more than a skin-deep accent change. This makes them an interesting topic for discussion, but...
December 25th is traditionally the time that the birth of Jesus is celebrated by followers of Christianity. At least, it is in most parts of Europe and the United States. But there are many places where the celebration of the birth of Christ happens quite differently....
