I spent this weekend happily listening to one of my beloved and well #travelled friends. There doesn’t seem to be a stone on this #earth he hasn’t upturned, and any conversation can seamlessly shift into an anecdote about some distant land. In comparison, I’m something of an anchor. I haven’t had half as much experience of the #world and I often find myself desperately searching for an appropriate response to the parry and thrust of his worldly #tales. You see I’m not worldly

Some people say that learning a new #language requires talent, which is then often immediately turned into an excuse as to why they don’t bother making the effort because supposedly they don’t have that ‘feeling for languages’. I don’t buy that. I think anyone can learn a new language, as long as they put in the hours. As boring as it sounds, it’s not a super-brain that gets you there, it’s cramming in vocabulary and grammar rules and after covering the basics, exercise, ex

Today's smartphones are so thin and fragile that the need to protect them from daily use makes a #smartphone case a compulsory buy, which if we think about it defeats the purpose of buying a slick phone as we always have to use a bulky case! However, smartphone case manufacturers (perhaps eager to distinguish themselves in what seems to be a competitive market) are creating inappropriate cases make everyone else believe that the smartphone is something else entirely, when it

Supposedly the world’s easiest #language to learn is the completely phonetic, regular and 16 grammatical rule known as #Esperanto. As well as providing a platform for businesses to communicate across different languages, Esperanto is an excellent base for learning other #languages and understanding your own native language. It was created by L. Zamenhof, whose aim was to create a very easy to learn language that would be neutral, foster #peace and provide easy #communication.

Several car manufactures have been busy developing #autonomous driving systems. To many of us this may seem the future of driving, but for an MIT teacher it sounds like an old 20th century idea that is doomed to fail... According to the #car industry, 2020 will be the year when the driver will finally become just one more passenger who should relax and enjoy the autonomous ride. However, there is one question no one seems to be answering (or thinking about it), but one that D