Tag: Christmas

ICMTSU #2 Grim multilingual Christmas corporate cards

I really can’t MTSU, this time. I’ve seen some dire ones over the years, but this one is downright scary. I’ve changed the logo of the Firm who sent it as it is a legal firm and so I might get sued, and I did make a very slight adjustment to the lead partner’s face, just to emphasise a certain aspect I noticed about it.

A very scary Christmas to you, und Du, et vous...

Not only can nearly none of them (with the worthy exception of the one speaking Italian) manage to crack their faces into a smile or any appearance of happiness while launching into their multilingual greetings in Polish, English, Italian, German, Russian, French, and, for some inexplicable reason, Taiwanese Chinese, but also the greyscale photos seem to lend a depressed air to the whole effort.

With regard to the Chinese one containing half characters that most Chinese people outside Taiwan wouldn’t recognise any more, I assume they went into the Google translate thing and saw that they could have “simplified” or “traditional” and they probably thought that “traditional” would be better for a Christmas card.

I’m also far from sure some of these people speak the languages that are bubbling out of their mouths. I did check their website, and it says what languages they actually claim to speak. Hanyu is not included among them, as you may guess, but the guy speaking German here is in fact a real German.

As a marketing effort this is such an epic fail I can only put it here under the ICMTSU section. If you know any worse ones, please include them in the comments!

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 6
4.8 out of 5 stars(48537353)
$21.99 (as of 14/05/2026 00:32 GMT +02:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
You Can Tell Me: Olivia Cruz, Book 1
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Buy “The Polyglot Project” on Amazon via my aStore, or download e-book

If you have decided to buy one or more paper copies of this book – the ideal Christmas gift for the linguist in your life – it costs you the same – and makes a small commission for me which will offset the costs of this site a little bit.

The Polyglot Project - 42 contributors, 534 pages

http://astore.amazon.com/wwwusenetposc-20/detail/1453898247

If you would like to read this book, which was collaborated on free by all the contributors and will always be freely available to those who need it in electronic form, then the free version of this is on Docstocs and you can find the link to that on on the channel of the Editor which is http://www.youtube.com/syzygycc

The book is unique, there has never been as much practical linguist-to-linguist help in a single bound volume, and the volunteer nature of the writing has kept the cost of the book far below the price tag it would have if it had been produced commercially.

One of the contributors I am proud to say is myself, and you can find in the very last section how it came about that I was in a position to discover the Goldlist Method – the story has quite a few unexpected aspects in it, and many a linguist will find their experience reflected in it and in the stories of other polyglots featuring in the volume.

It should help the budding linguist to get and stay motivated, as well as to avoid ineffective study methods and save time and money. In these days where thousands of pounds are spent by many people on expensive courses and schools where they often are doomed to fail, it makes sense to read this book first – whether the free e-book or the cheap-as-possible paper form – and then decide on your strategy before committing your cash.

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My Daily Telegraph Christmas 2007 Creative Writing Competition Entry

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