Author: Tymur Levitin — Founder & Director, Levitin Language SchoolCopyright © Tymur Levitin. All rights reserved. The traditional question in translation studies is usually framed like this: How should realia be translated? At first glance, the question seems natural. Translation theory has long offered a familiar set of procedures for dealing with culture-specific items: transcription, […]

Author: Tymur Levitin — Founder & Director, Levitin Language SchoolCopyright © Tymur Levitin. All rights reserved. For decades, translation studies has treated realia as a more or less settled topic. The usual assumption is familiar: realia are culture-specific words that denote objects, institutions, customs, or phenomena typical of one community and lacking full equivalents in […]

Why English, German, and Slavic Languages Organize Time Differently Many students believe grammar is universal. Past is past.Present is present.Future is future. But once you start learning several languages, something surprising happens. You realize that languages do not organize time the same way. They do not even look at it the same way. Time Is […]

(And Why That Confuses So Many Learners) The idea that seems obvious Most students believe English has a future tense. After all, we say: I will go.She will call you tomorrow.They will arrive soon. It feels obvious that this is future tense. But linguistically speaking, things are not so simple. Because English does something unusual. […]

Part 2 of the series: “Time Is Not Just Grammar” Most students ask a simple question: How many tenses are there in English? The textbook answer is easy: 12.Some teachers say 16.Some say there are only 2 or 3 real ones. But the real answer is much more interesting. Because the question itself is wrong. […]

When Languages Mix, But Not Always the Way You Think Many people have heard the word Spanglish.They usually imagine something exotic — a strange hybrid language somewhere between English and Spanish. But the reality is more complicated. Sometimes Spanglish really is a linguistic phenomenon.And sometimes the word is used incorrectly — to describe something that […]

How Language Turns into Social Obligation Language does more than describe reality.Sometimes it creates it. In many social environments, certain phrases carry far more weight than they appear to. A simple sentence can suddenly transform into an expectation, a demand, or even a test of character. Phrases like these exist in many languages: “You said […]

Why Some Words Cannot Be Translated Directly Languages rarely translate perfectly.Some words carry meanings that exist only within a specific culture. When people try to translate them literally, the result often loses the real context behind the expression. Street language is one of the clearest examples of this phenomenon.Many expressions that appear simple on the […]

Music, Stories and Misunderstood Cultural Codes Music often becomes the first place where people encounter unfamiliar cultural language.Many words, expressions and social archetypes travel through songs long before they appear in everyday speech. One of the most misunderstood musical terms in the Russian-speaking world is Russian chanson. Outside the region, the term often sounds mysterious.Inside […]

Why This Conversation Matters Language is never just a collection of words.In many cultures, words act as signals, roles, and sometimes even traps. A phrase that sounds harmless in one context can carry a completely different meaning in another. A joke, a lyric, or a casual expression may suddenly become a statement about identity, loyalty, […]