Is it easier to learn new languages if you've grown up bilingual or is it an inherent talent that just depends on how your brain's wired? I got thinking about this yesterday, over dinner with a friend. We were discussing my newly arrived niece and whether my brother and sister-in-law were going to bring her up speaking two languages. I guess the dilemma for parents is whether a multilingual household ends up confusing the child's developing linguistic abilities. I'm firmly of the opinion that you should bring up kids speaking as many languages as possible and there's no downside to a polyglot kid!

The other angle of our discussion last night was around whether an aptitude for learning languages was an indicator of a well-balanced mind - the rationale being that linguistic expertise required the use of both sides of the brain; the left brain for the logical, understanding of linguistic patterns and the right brain for the creative, representation of foreign sounds. I'm not sure I entirely agree with this line of thought - sleep-talking in German on the eve of my German A-Level was definitely not a sign of my well balanced mind!

Anyway we love our languages here at Touchnote (12 languages between us at the latest count...and that's not counting programming languages..)

A la prochaine ...

Last weekend as I was on the tube, I spotted a man with his arms fully tattooed, most of his face covered in tattoos and presumably the rest of his body similarly decorated. Trying not to stare too much I thought to myself, this guy is just adorning himself in a certain manner and why should that be any different to me having my ears pierced or wearing a hat?...

A friend I met later that day did, however, wisely point out, "...you change your earrings every day and you take your hat off when you want...that guy you saw on the tube - it's like he's wearing a permanent sweater.."

Mmm, think I'll stick to less permanent forms of self-decoration...anyone had a nose job lately?

So, it's a couple of days after the binge, seems that it's been drizzling incessantly, and there's still nothing on TV. It's that weird time of the year when you know that New Year's is coming, and then you've got January and all the resolutions: "back to the gym", be more productive at work, spend more time with the family stuff....

But for now, just wait. Enjoy the remnants of the turkey / mince pies / pud and turn up the heating. There's no alternative.

And think on the brights side, it might snow soon - and that totally rocks!

:D

Merry Christmas one and all.

Wanna job? Come and let us know - we're hiring....

Web designer that's got a bunch of developer skills. An all round impressive person that can come and hang out with us and do some really exciting work.

Let us know!

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath.

This made him .....a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis


Love it!

ps. we didn't come up with this one!