If you’re a language fan in Perth, you might be interested in attending a show at Fringe World Festival, it’s called Chatterbox and the Proper Abuse of Language. Showing in the Sun House Tent at Perth Cultural Centre from Monday 28th January – Wednesday 13th February, this comical theatre performance promises to deliver a “humorous analysis of why and how we make blunders in basic communication.” But if you want to really start learning more about languages, you can start by taking German lessons in Gold Coast!

Tickets are available here.

Editors of the Macquarie have reacted to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s recent use of the word “misogyny” in a parliamentary speech, by suggesting that the meaning of the word will be updated in the next edition of the Australian English dictionary.

The Macquarie dictionary previously listed the word as meaning “hatred of women,” but will now be expanded to encompass a second definition.

Dictionary edition Sue Butler told ABC Radio:

“We decided that we had the basic definition, hatred of women, but that’s not how misogyny has been used for about the last 20, 30 years, particularly in feminist language. We need to add a second definition, which is slightly stronger than sexist but heading in that direction towards entrenched prejudice rather than a visceral hatred.”

The update will appear in the online dictionary later this year, and in the printed version next year.

Language Trainers is currently offering English lessons in Cairns and Noosa.

I think it’s time for a bit of fun, and one thing that’s had me bamboozled for a while now is a game on Sporcle which challenges you to come up with the 100 most used words in the English language. I promise you, it’s easier said than done. It’s the most frustrating game ever! My latest score is (shamefully) 63 out of 100. Can you do better?

Be sure to let me know how clever you are! Here you go…

I hope everyone is enjoying the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend! Have you had your fill of street parties, Pimms, and the BBC’s horrible coverage of the events? Maybe you can celebrate in a different way… with some Royal style communication.

There is a new app for Android which converts your texts, emails and tweets to the Queen’s English. It’s called the Queen’s English, in case you were wondering. The language module, which works by processing known speech and then creating a database of words that the Queen might say, was built by British company SwiftKey. The research has unveiled some common occurrences in the Queen’s speech, which includes the avoidance of contractions and her tendency to maintain a positive tone.

The app is currently free for a one month trial.

Those of you hoping to go to China and only speak in English have had your plans thwarted!

The planned controversial English language town project, which was to be based in Miyun, a county in the suburbs of Beijing, was vetoed by local government officials who felt that it was discriminatory against the Chinese language and people.

The proposed European-style town was in the process of being developed by a private enterprise, with the main objective of promoting the learning of the English language to internal tourists. Visitors to the town would have only been able to communicate in English.