Multilingual Milwaukee Avenue18 May 2012

A drive up Milwaukee Avenue (or should we say a bike ride along the avenue’s seven-mile bike lane) from its downtown origin at Kinzie to the northwesternmost reaches of Chicago is a tour of the city’s rich linguistic history. The Chicago ...

What word would you eliminate from the English language?9 May 2012

Some words make me cringe. Not necessarily words that have a negative meaning. Some are completely benign, but just sound off, like “moist” and “crisp.” Others drive me nuts when used incorrectly, like “literally” ...

Pronouns: the secret to dating success?30 Apr 2012

There are many “driveway moments” for me when listening to NPR – times when I’ve long since arrived at my destination but I find myself still sitting in the car, listening to a news or special interest segment (though given th...

Bribing your bilingual kid to speak: yay or nay?23 Apr 2012

Tracy Lopez, a blogger for SpanglishBaby, wants her son to speak Spanish so badly that she admits to employing bribery to get him to speak it. She wrote about how her son has now turned the tables on her own tactics, using Spanish as a form of persua...

Global snack – or sex act?13 Apr 2012

It’s possible you’ve heard examples of some mistakes companies have made when attempting to market their products internationally without first researching the linguistic and cultural implications in new markets. The classic example is t...