Senior writer covering language, culture, and the people who carry both across borders.
Senior Writer
Senior writer covering language, culture, and the people who carry both across borders.
About
ernadine Racoma is a senior writer at Day Translations covering language, culture, and the small everyday acts of translation that make global life work. Her features lean toward the human side of the industry — the lives of interpreters, linguists, and the communities they serve.
The archiveEvery byline
Vietnamese or “tiếng Việt” in the vernacular, is the official and national language of the Vietnamese people or “Kinh” living in Vietnam and the Vietnamese people located in many parts of the world since 1954. Several ethnic minorities in Vietnam also speak Vietnamese as their…
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Linguists, translators, and engineers writing on language, culture, and the craft of being understood.
Christians and Catholics around the world are celebrating Holy Week, the final week of the Lenten season that culminates ofnEaster Sunday, March 31. The days of the final week each have their own label and most are self-explanatory. However, Friday, Good Friday to be exact,…
The Ides of March corresponds to March 15 according to the Roman calendar. In Latin it is called “Idus Martiae” and “Idus Martii.” Various observances of religious nature were associated with the date. It also corresponds to the fateful day in 44 BCE when Julius…
Language experts and other agencies, including UNESCO are one in being concerned about the fast disappearance of world languages. In the United States alone, there are close to 170 native languages that are already categorized as vulnerable, endangered, severely endangered languages and critically endangered. UNESCO…
When it comes to tying the knot, men and women all over the world celebrate in various ways. Though we often associate the white wedding gown, many tiered cake and a bouquet as a given at weddings, this may not necessarily be the case of…
If you are to travel to El Salvador sink your teeth into a pupusa. A pupusa is basically a stuffed tortilla, which can be eaten plain or filled with various toppings in which the sky is the limit. Visit a pupuseria – it sells various…
One of the greatest contributions of American culture to the world is Jazz music. It captures a variety of emotions and takes on the various European and African influences to create a form of music that is both an art form and an expression of…
Uinyeo, (의 녀), pronounced un-yo, was the term used during Korea’s Joseon Dynasty (1392 to 1910) to refer to women who were trained to be a medical professional, as a female physician or a nurse. They were created because of the strict Confucian rule that…
Rhode Island, officially named State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a region in New England in the United States. It is the smallest state in the U.S. by land area, with 1,214 square miles or 3,140 square kilometers. Its population in 2012 was…
Everyone knows that as a world organization, nothing symbolizes unity, cooperation and understanding more than the United Nations. Better known as the UN, the United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945, at the heels of the Second World War. The UN was intended to…
With less than half a million native speakers, Aramaic, the language of Jesus is about to be extinct. Aramaic is a living language that belongs to the Semitic language group, which includes Arabic, Tigrinya, Amharic and Hebrew. It has been spoken by countless peoples for 3,000…
No formal study has been made yet, but of the millions of iPhone users (and now Android users have joined in), it can be assumed that a majority, probably more than 70% use the app known as Instagram. A student from Cambridge has already done…
