Or How the University of Helsinki Avoided Making Itself Look Ridiculous.

Our most esteemed editor discovers that the 18th century gothic novel has very little to do with The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Free coffee and biscuits caused a rampage
“The staff of the English Department, in an unprecedented act of foolishness and with complete lack of foresight, decided to offer the languishing student body something to cheer them up and maybe carry them through the harsh, cold winter months: coffee and biscuits. In a rampage one bystander described as ‘hauntingly similar’ to the Job Offer Riot of 2008 (when the department advertised one minimal pay opening as a …

Idioms are often beguiling in their incomprehensibility. This is particularly palpable when learning or teaching a new language. For example, Finns say that “cold coffee beautifies,” referring to coffee that has been sitting on the table for too long and is drunk anyway. I am still not entirely sure what the phrase really means, though all the words gathered together seem simple enough.
It is not only language learners that confuse these expressions. A …

In addition to a profound and passionate interest in linguistics, I am equally driven, if not even more so, by a brain-stimulating, soul-shaking fascination towards the North American continent, the U.S. of A. in particular. The questions, research and casual, that arise from a nation so wonderfully contradictory and attached to its past are copious and complex enough to keep me from ever getting a full night’s sleep.
From a “foreigner’s” perspective, it’s always a question …