Moving around London (part 7): walking

Despite what many think, London is a city that is great for walking. There are many green areas and paths that vehicles can’t get to and the pavements all over the city are being improved all the time. Transport for London has been trying to support healthy and environment-friendly alternatives and now treats walking as […]

English words of German origin

German and British language

English is a Germanic language, which means it is in the same family as German. Because of this many words are very similar or the same in both languages. This article is not about those, it is about words that came to modern English from modern German. We also have other posts about words from […]

The other British languages

Southall station sign

Most people think of the UK and English comes to mind. However, there are several other languages spoken here including local languages, sign languages and immigrant languages. Let’s take a look at all the other languages of the UK.   Germanic languages Germanic languages are the most popular in the UK, they arrived in the […]

Early May bank holiday: May Day and International Worker’s Day

Maypole Dancing

The 1st of May is a bit of a mixed day. Officially the UK has the early May bank holiday the 1st of May (or closest Monday) . In most countries it is worker’s day and traditionally in Northern Europe it is May day. In the UK it is deliberately not called either May Day or […]