Featured stories about Language
- 13 January 2018
Japanese Media Struggles to Translate Trump's “Shithole”
- 30 December 2017
In 2017, Stories of Resilience, Creativity and Love Were Plentiful
Stories about Language
31 March 2018
How English-Language Pronouns Are Taught Around the World
Globally, close to 1 billion people are learning English as a Foreign Language and all of them encounter binary gender pronouns from the earliest lessons.
27 March 2018
A Muslim Scholar Seeks to Link Israel and Indonesia Through the Hebrew Language
"I told my family that what I'm doing might have uncertain consequences, but it's something that needs to be done."
21 March 2018
On World Poetry Day, Some Verses Straight From Persia's Heart
"The sadness in my heart, like a mountain/The heart under your chest, like a stone."
7 March 2018
WordFrames: Are ‘Teens’ Getting a Bad Rap?
What do you think when you hear the word "teen"? In this post, we explore English-language media conversations around teens, adolescents, and youth.
4 March 2018
Lantern Festival Riddles Outwit and Enrage Chinese Censorship Authorities
By posting riddles, Chinese netizens have found a way to safely criticize the recent constitutional amendment proposal regarding the abolition of the two-term presidential limit.
3 March 2018
Iran's Ahwazis Continue to Suffer as Two More Disappeared Activists are Executed
The cruelty, injustice and lack of due process against Iran's Ahwazis continue: several deaths remain shrouded in mystery, with the added horror of families being denied burial rights.
26 February 2018
Twitter Thread of Observations and Surprising Moments in Japan Goes Viral
When a user experience designer traveled to Tokyo he was surprised and amazed by the small details of daily life. His observations about Japan then went viral on Twitter.
24 February 2018
These Sámi Women Are Trying to Keep Their Native Skolt Language Alive
“Adults and children are enthusiastic to learn the language, but we should make a situation where Skolt Sámi is becoming a normal language to use in everyday life.”
10 February 2018
Taiwan Literature Award for Migrants Makes Space for Different Narratives
Since 2014, the Taiwan Literature Awards for Migrants has provided a platform for foreign-born people in Taiwan to share their stories.
8 February 2018
Searching for ‘indios’ in Ecuador and Venezuela: A Lesson in Language and Data
What happens when the data doesn’t support the story we first set out to tell?
8 January 2018
What's In a (Nick) Name? Ask the Caribbean!
"Acid". "Leech". "Totee Muff". Caribbean people love to rename things. Check out a few of their most spectacular sobriquets...
27 October 2017
Kyrgyz People of Central Asia Shocked to Be the Bad Guys in New Japanese ‘Tokusatsu’ Movie
In Japanese, the 'kyr' in 'Kyrgyz' sounds a lot like 'kill'.
13 October 2017
The Crowd-Sourced Faroe Islands Answer to Google Translate
What do you do when your national language doesn't show up in Google Translate? If you're the Faroe Islands, you just crowd-source your own solution.
2 October 2017
Broadcasting the Thrill of the “Gooooooooal” in the Quechua Language
Football broadcasters in Peru are sharing the play-by-play in the Quechua language during the country's historic run towards a World Cup 2018 berth.
29 September 2017
If You Want To Understand Brazil, You Should Check out Its Memes
"Brazilians don't care if you don't understand their language and their jokes, they will talk to you — or Katy Perry, or Nicki Minaj — as if you were Brazilian”
25 September 2017
Katsura Sunshine Brings the Japanese Art of Comic Storytelling to English-Language Audiences
He's the only officially qualified non-Japanese rakugo professional in the world.
17 September 2017
Exploring Identities: Kazakhstan's Planned Shift to the Latin Alphabet
"Arguments against the adoption of Latin are inherently grounded in imperial Russian or Soviet ideology."
13 September 2017
Automatic Speech Recognition Project Seeks to Revitalize the Quechua Languages
Can you imagine computers, smartphones and robots that speak Quechua? A Peruvian engineer’s work aims to do just that.
30 August 2017
Macedonian ‘Moby-Dick’ Translator Ognen Čemerski, 42, Was a Meticulous Linguist and Engaged Educator
Čemerski passed away on August 25 of cancer. Beyond literature, he was remembered as someone who made thoughtful commentary about the tense state of affairs in Macedonia.
25 August 2017
How to Save Languages from Dying, and What I Learned While Documenting My Own
Half of the world’s languages are dying, but we can help preserve the age-old cultural heritage contained in them by documenting the languages around us in digital form.
