How many times was I told "my son / daughter is fluent" by proud mums and dads at Parents' Evenings when I was a languages teacher back in the day? These children certainly were NOT fluent as they were only doing CSE / O-level / GCSE at the time. So, what does "fluent" mean?
Read MoreLanguages develop and change all the time. They are influenced by other languages, or new technologies add new words and phrases. These are categorised by linguisticians as "loan words" or "loan translations".
Read MoreThe Christmas / New Year holiday is so long in Spain, and the weather forecast for this year is so bad, that we need something to do indoors, other than watching end-to-end Christmas films and TV repeats. How about reading a good book? Here are The Culture Vulture's suggestions for a festive reading list in no particular order. The writers are American, English, Irish, Norwegian, Ukrainian and two Spanish.
Read MoreLots of people volunteer, ie they work for free. Pablo de Ronda has been working for free for the best part of 20 years. From translating and interpreting, through teaching and writing, to building work and gardening. Here's a summary of his "working for free" career.
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