Jonathan Del Prado

Every February 3, Japan marks the start of spring with Setsubun Festival 2026 — a lively tradition where families toss roasted soybeans while shouting 「鬼は外！福は内！」(Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!), or “Out with demons! In with good fortune!” But what exactly is Setsubun? In this guide, you’ll learn

The Korean alphabet might be easy to learn, but building an actual vocabulary? That's where most learners hit a wall. You need thousands of words before you can hold a real conversation, and staring at textbook lists isn’t going to cut it. I spent two weeks testing

Learning Chinese is no small feat. Between mastering characters, getting the tones right, and wrapping your head around grammar that works nothing like English, you'll want all the help you can get. Translation apps are great for quick lookups, but they won't help you actually retain

Look, Russian is hard. Like, genuinely one of the most brutal languages you can pick up as an English speaker. You’ve got a whole new alphabet, six grammatical cases that change word endings constantly, and verb aspects that'll make your head spin. In fact, most language difficulty

Dutch isn't an easy language to crack. The grammar shifts constantly, words stretch on forever, and those guttural sounds feel impossible. You need every resource available. Textbooks help. Language partners are great. But when you're at Albert Heijn trying to read labels or deciphering your landlord’

Ever stared at Russian text and felt your brain completely give up? That’s because Russian is genuinely one of the hardest languages out there. The alphabet alone throws most people off. Translation apps aren't just helpful here—they're essential. You're gonna hit roadblocks

Season 4 of Bridgerton drops soon, which means we’ll be back in Grosvenor Square watching scandals unfold with the ton. But while we wait for Benedict’s love story to hit our screens, there’s something we can do right now. We can revisit the quotes that first made

Turkish isn’t like the romance languages, where you can fumble through with high school French and good vibes. Words stick together like Lego blocks, meanings shift with suffixes you’ve never seen before, and half the time your translation app just shrugs and gives you word salad. We tested

When you start learning Korean, knowing the stories behind the culture gives you a huge advantage. You’ll suddenly catch all those references in K-dramas that used to confuse you. You'll understand why characters get nervous when they see a nine-tailed fox, or why certain symbols keep showing