When the course of time changes the meaning

How some English words have changed their meaning over time.   Not all is as it seems, sometimes! When it comes to the meaning of English words the course of time really can change things quite dramatically.   Take the word “nice”, for example. This word comes from the Latin word “nescius”, which means “ignorant”. Back in the 1500s it was used in …

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This month in history. Riding the wave of technology since FSTL began 28 years ago. 

It’s quite something – this month FSTL celebrates its 28 year anniversary! So we thought it fitting to look at how far the world of technology has come with a roundup of what’s happened in technological history on various dates in the month of January…  17 January 1882: Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the carbon microphone for the telephone, and created tech history. …

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24 facts you probably didn’t know about Christmas Carols and Songs

“Did you ever notice that life seems to follow certain patterns? Like I noticed that every year around this time, I hear Christmas music.” Tom Sims  1. The word “carol” comes from the French carole which means a circular dance 2. The word “carol” first appeared in the English language in the 16th century. 3. “Christmas” carols began in the 15th century and had no dance element to them. 4. …

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English pronunciation

Mastering the meaning!  Christmas is almost here…. Christmas. That silent “T” in the word made me start to think about the pronunciation of English words and just how confusing it can be!  I’m not the only one to think about it either – in fact way back in 1922 a poem called The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité amusingly worked its …

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Explaining some of the anomalies of the English language.

English can be a pretty confusing language!   We’ve all learnt about the “rules” of English at school – “i” before “e” except after “c” and the like, but virtually without exception there are exceptions!  It doesn’t make it an easy language to learn.   So for a bit of fun we thought it might be an idea to delve …

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Creating a value for money proposition by offering transcription services from FSTL for your next conference.

Hotels, especially the larger ones, can be so much more than just a place to rest your head these days. The facilities they offer are becoming more and more diverse and sophisticated – from fully fledged spas to impressive wedding venues and of course locations where business meetings or conferences can be hosted comfortably. With increasing competition from the likes of Airbnb, staying ahead of …

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Moving with the times – how shorthand has been replaced within the digital world

How FSTL has embraced the change for transcription.  Shorthand has quite some history, but is something that leaves most of us “lay people” quite baffled!   It’s been around for about 2,000 years, in various shapes and forms, purely to make note taking much quicker than writing out the full words. The earliest example of shorthand was found in the Parthenon in …

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Should you use transcription in YouTube videos?

Is it really necessary?   In a word – yes!   While YouTube is clearly a visual phenomenon, there are definitely a huge number of instances across a wide range of industries where transcription of the video is very useful. And the same applies vice versa – providing audio files for blogs or other online written content can be hugely …

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