Facts Archives | Raptor Translations Magazine

15 Interesting Facts About French You Need to Know!

16Feb

By Henry AusbergerNo Comments

Facts

15 Interesting Facts About French You Need to Know!

Today, French is considered to be one of the best and most useful languages you could learn. French has a particularly long, and interesting history, which lends itself to having some rather intriguing facts about French. If you plan to learn French in the coming future, it's always good to do some research beforehand. Learning some quickfire facts about French is probably the best place to start! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 15. Descendent of Latin In 52 BC, Julius Ceasar led Roman legions into Gaul (modern day France). Here, they would engage the Gauls and defeat them, capturing their leader, Vercingetorix. Gaul would then become a Roman Province. With this, Latin would become the dominant language in the region. For the aristocracy in ...

21Jul

By David Ratón GonzalesNo Comments

Facts

15 Most Famous Celebrity Polyglots!

Celebrities often get a reputation for only being able to speak one language. However, this is not the entire story, there are in fact some celebrity polyglots! Many of these celebrity polyglots have given interviews with foreign media outlets in other languages. Others have even been in foreign language movies, speaking in their other language. We recently covered the most famous polyglots, today we will cover the 15 most famous celebrity polyglots. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 15. Natalie Portman Natalie Portman is certainly one of the most active polyglots, although isn't quite a hyperpolyglot yet. She is most famous for her roles as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy and Evey Hammond in V for Vendetta. Born i...

30Jun

By David Ratón GonzalesNo Comments

Facts

11 Most Famous Polyglots

Since people started learning languages, some have been more successful than others, some have even become more famous. So who are the most famous polyglots? Some of these famous linguist may be dead, but their legacy lasts even to this day! However, most of the most famous polyglots are still alive and learning new languages every year! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 11. Richard Simcott Richard Simcott is one of the most famous linguists. But more than that, Richard Simcott is a hyperpolyglot. Simcott speaks an impressive 40 languages, and is the co-organizer of the annual Polyglot Conference. Residing in Skopje in the Northern Macedonia (born in Cheshire, UK), Simcott is able to speak 16 languages fluently, although he claims he has attem...

13 endangered languages you need to learn!

19May

By Chloe HarmonNo Comments

Facts

13 endangered languages you need to learn!

Today, there are a staggering 2500 endangered languages! However, some are incredibly endangered, and could go extinct in our lifetimes! Here they are... (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 13. Quechua Quechua's greatest claim to fame is the language of the Hutts from Star Wars, perhaps the most famous of all fictional languages. However, Quechua is also one of the most endangered languages on this list (although not as much as #1). There are currently 2.3 million speakers of Quechua, mainly in the Peruvian Andes but also Bolivian. Quechua suffers from what many indigenous languages in the former Spanish Empire do- the emergence of Spanish. Spanish has become more spoken over the years, with the government and media using it more and more. ...

11 most commonly mistranslated words: false friends revealed

14Jan

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

Facts

11 most commonly mistranslated words: false friends revealed

At Raptor Translations Magazine, we sometimes get pieces of work that have been already translated, and not to a particularly high standard. Often, especially when the work is translated through an inexperienced translator, they are full of commonly mistranslated words. So, what are the most common mistranslated words? The most common reason why words are mistranslated are often because of what linguists call ‘false friends’. These are words that look or sound like an English word, yet have nothing to do with the English word they look or sound like. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Spanish- Embarazada/Embarassed Embarazada is the Spanish word for pregnant. Whilst this is a mistake that we can understand, it is not any less funny when w...

The unknown mystery- Where do language isolates come from?

7Jan

By Henry AusbergerNo Comments

Facts

The unknown mystery- Where do language isolates come from?

Have you ever dreamed of learning a language that only you can understand, but is still understood by a few other people? Language isolates are the best languages for you to learn! There is much speculation, theorising and conspiracies about the origin of language isolates, so what are they? And what even are language isolates? (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); What are language isolates? Language isolates are (real) languages that have no linguistic similarities to any other language, both geographically and etymologically. These languages are also languages that have not descended from a language that is an ancestor of another language! In an overly-simplified way, a language isolate is a language that is a language family all on its own! ...

10 best jobs for linguists that aren’t a translator

3Dec

By Alexander PaskNo Comments

Facts

10 best jobs for linguists that aren’t a translator

For some linguists, the idea of becoming a translator just doesn't suit them. But, these linguists still want to use their language skills as part of their job. This begs the question, what are the best jobs for linguists that aren't a translator? 10 best jobs for linguists (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 10. Speech therapist Whilst this one may come as a surprise, speech therapy is one of the best jobs for linguists. Thanks to linguists knowing how to speak several language, they know how to make sounds from the different shapes of their mouth. This allows them to help deaf people and other people with speech impairments to speak again. Whilst you may occasionally work with adults, children will make up the bulk of your patients. A spee...

26Nov

By Alexander PaskNo Comments

Facts

9 most useful languages

A while ago, we covered the most useless languages, now we will cover the most useful languages. So, what are the most useful languages? (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 9 most useful languages 9. Hindi At first, it probably surprises you that Hindi is even on this list in the first place, but when you think about it, it does make sense. India is the world's 7th largest economy, so a lot of business is done there, which would make it quite useful if people knew how to speak Hindi. If Hindi was more well spoken, we'd all be better off, no longer would Indian manufacturers and Western companies have to communicate through an intermediary. This would allow for cheaper prices on Indian-made goods, which would make them even more attractive to...

19Nov

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

Facts

12 completely extinct languages

Languages come and go, those languages that go are called extinct languages. Just like other species, languages can go extinct, sometimes, there is a revivalist movement centuries down the line, which saves it, and other times, not. So which languages are extinct? 12 extinct languages (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 12. Breton We spoke about Breton in our previous article- 12 useless languages. In that article we talked about how in 2009, the UN reported that the language was officially considered one of the extinct languages. Breton was previously the most spoken language in Brittany, a Celtic language, spoken from the descendants of the Britons (a Celtic people who lived in present day Britain). This was up until it began to be overtak...

12Nov

By George SanghviNo Comments

Facts

12 useless languages

When it comes to learning languages, linguists normally have their heart set know a few to learn. Normally, this is because there is something particular that the language has to offer, or that it will be useful in later life. But, not all languages are equal, some are useless languages that serve little to no purpose for the speaker. I was recently talking with some translator friends of mine when we got around to how translators show off to non-translators. After much back and forth, we came to one that most of us had done- use a language we didn't know to impress someone- usually a girl they liked. Most of the time, these languages were useless languages spoken by less than 10 million people in Africa, or a small pocket elsewhere in Europe. Or better still, they were ...