The meaning of ‘moot’ is a moot point – whichever variety of English you speak (David Marsh, The Guardian)

Open to debate, or unworthy of it – ‘moot’ can mean either. At least that’s the argument I’m mooting.

The OED quotes the US supreme court ruling that ‘a moot question’ has ‘no bearing’ on an issue. The word was used to describe arguments over the disputed 2000 election. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA.

If the past tense of take is took, why shouldn’t the past tense of meet be moot? (“They moot by moonlight.”) Sadly it isn’t, but moot remains a lovely and versatile word, equally at home as noun, adjective or verb – and with contrasting meanings, depending on which side of the Atlantic you are using it.

Why I would choose an immersion course over a language degree (Fred McConnell, The Guardian)

After a disappointing four year degree in Arabic, it was only in an immersion course that Fred McConnell discovered the magic of language learning.

‘The intensity started to work its magic. I was getting full marks on assignments and regularly staying up past midnight to prep for classes.’ Photograph: Alamy.

I did not choose Arabic for an undergraduate course because I loved learning languages. All that mattered to me was travel and adventure, and in that regard my degree was highly successful. But I loathed all forms of academic work and was under the delusion that academics could somehow transmit Arabic over the course of four years via exposure and mental trickery.

I need real people to help me learn a language (Alan Haburchak, The Guardian)

A few weeks into his attempt at learning Spanish only with a smartphone, Alan Haburchak is beginning to doubt he will succeed with tech alone.

Don’t go at it alone. Language learning sometimes needs the help of others. Photograph: Alamy.

It’s been a few weeks since I started this journey to learn Spanish using nothing but my smartphone. And don’t get me wrong, Duolingo is a well-designed app with lots of fancy features like gamification, social media integration and even offline lessons (so I can use it on the train). But at this point I need to admit that there are some issues with trying to learn a language this way.