July 2010

Thumbnail image for Bahasa Indonesia Giving Way To English

Bahasa Indonesia Giving Way To English

by Charlie Jolly July 29, 2010 Education

Bahasa Indonesia is the national language of Indonesia, and has long been considered the linguistic glue that binds together the many different groups of people that make up the Indonesian nation. However, as educating children in English grows in popularity, an increasing number of Indonesian children are growing up with Indonesian skills that are poor or nonexistent.

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Accents Make Speakers Seem Less Trustworthy

by Richard Brooks July 23, 2010

Sad, but true…according to researchers at the University of Chicago, when you speak with a foreign accent, people are less likely to believe what you say. The researchers designed a study in which people were asked to rate the truthfulness of various statements spoken by people both with and without noticeable foreign accents.

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Computer Program Could Be the Key to Unlocking Lost Languages

by Charlie Jolly July 23, 2010 Machine Translation

Translating written fragments of long-forgotten languages is an extremely difficult, often frustrating task. It requires vast amounts of linguistic knowledge and good intuition to make the pieces fall into place.

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China Encourages Beijing Residents to Learn English

by Richard Brooks July 16, 2010 Learning Languages

The Chinese government just announced a new drive to encourage residents of Beijing to learn English, according to this article in the Australian.

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Thumbnail image for Milkman Learns Gujarati At Work

Milkman Learns Gujarati At Work

by Richard Brooks July 15, 2010 Learning Languages

Some people spend months in language classes without becoming fluent, but the Daily Mail recently published an article about John ‘Jimmy’ Mather, a Lancaster milkman who became fluent in Gujarati just from listening to his customers talk.

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Thumbnail image for Language Demonstrates Link Between North America and Asia

Language Demonstrates Link Between North America and Asia

by Richard Brooks July 9, 2010 History

Archaeologists have long believed that humans migrated to North America from Asia, walking across a land bridge over what is now the Bering Strait. Now, Western Washington University linguistics professor Edward Vajda has demonstrated a linguistic connection as well.

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Papiamentu Language Beats The Odds

by Richard Brooks July 8, 2010 Languages

In an age in which we lose an average of 10 languages forever each year, it’s heartening to see that at least one language is beating the odds. Although Papiamentu, a Creole language spoken in Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba, only boasts around 250,000 speakers, according to the New York Times it is actually gaining ground [...]

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Sign Language In Space

by Charlie Jolly July 3, 2010 Events

American Sign Language (ASL) is the fourth most commonly used language in the US. However, until last week, it had never been used on the International Space Station. That changed when US astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson gave a video address aimed at schoolchildren in ASL last week.

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Lack of Tamil-Speaking Police Handicaps Sri Lankan Civil War Recovery

by Charlie Jolly July 2, 2010 Public Service

Talking to police officers can make even the most law-abiding citizen feel just a wee bit nervous. Can you imagine if the officer didn’t speak your language?

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Eyak Language

by Richard Brooks July 1, 2010 In Danger of Extinction

In 2008, an 89-year-old Alaskan Native woman named Marie Smith Jones died. The Eyak language died with her, as she was the last living speaker. Now, a young French student with a passion for languages is considering helping to resurrect the language.

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