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Lost in Translation

Young woman walking down Myeongdong street market in Seoul, South Korea
Lost in Translation

The one question all Koreans ask

By Vivian Song

Doric, Scotland’s little-known fourth “language”, is spoken across north-east Scotland (Credit: Eduardo Fonseca Arraes/Getty Images)
Lost in Translation
The UK language with 20 words for rain
By Mike MacEacheran
Suzana Vaz: “Brazilians are warmer, loving. To speak in the diminutive is a form of affection most of the time” (Credit: Jo Holz/Alamy)
Lost in Translation
Brazil’s cute and complex small talk
By Ian Walker
Bahasa Indonesia is Indonesia’s official language
Lost in Translation
A language people don’t want to speak
By David Fettling
Writer Susannah Rigg first encountered ‘albur’, a Mexican play on words, when discussing her love of chilli (Credit: Giulio Mignani/Getty Images)
Lost in Translation
Be careful what you say in Mexico
By Susannah Rigg
Sausages are always on the menu at German beer halls, or Biergartens (Credit: Pat Behnke/Alamy)
Food & Hospitality
The nation obsessed with sausage
By Giulia Pines
Beom Lee: Korean people use ‘uri’ when something is shared by a group or community (Credit: Alain Evrard/robertharding/Getty Images)
Lost in Translation
The Asian language designed to unify
By Ann Babe
Traveller’s Rest provides lodging in the Rocklands area of the Cederberg ranges (Credit: Denby Weller)
Culture & Identity
The country with 11 official languages
By Denby Weller
Mexico City is considered one of Latin America’s most modern and cosmopolitan cities (Credit: Lucas Vallecillos/Getty Images)
Culture & Identity
The city where people don't get angry
By Megan Frye
In the late 1800s, a union of anarchist bakers in Buenos Aires used their pastries as propaganda (Credit: Dosfotos/Axiom/Alamy)
Food & Hospitality
The cakes beloved by anarchists
By Rebecca Treon
Bocce
Lost in Translation
The town that's losing its language
By Marco Ferrarese
Lunfardo is so deeply ingrained in Argentinian culture that you may not know you're hearing it (Credit: Michael S. Lewis/Getty Images)
Lost in Translation
The slang that transformed Spanish
By Bridget Gleeson
In the 1970s, Bislama became the official language of Vanuatu’s independence movement (Credit: Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Contributor/Getty Images)
Lost in Translation
The pidgin language uniting 83 islands
By Julia Hammond
DB960 A
Lost in Translation
The confusing way Mexicans tell time
By Susannah Rigg
(Credit: Werner Dieterich/Alamy)
Lost in Translation
The revival of Europe's oldest language
By Anna Bitong
A great surfer is said to ‘rip’, while swimmers who get in their way are known as ‘tea bags’ (Credit: Mike Riley/Getty Images)
Lost in Translation
How Australia transformed English
By Sophia Auld