Stories about Language from December, 2006
China: 2006 most popular Chinese word
Many Chinese bloggers are discussing the most popular Chinese word of 2006. Some of the suggestions are: Bo (as in Blogger), Gao (as in spoof) and Chao (as in argue). Gao is so far the most popular one (zh).
China: blogender
An online test (zh) about blogger's gender by analyising the language in the blogpost.
Taiwan: please speak Chinese
Holly blogs about her frustration in learning Chinese in Taiwan, and she hopes that her Chinese friends can speak Chinese to her.
Venezuela: Preserving Indigenous Languages
As many as thirty-four indigenous languages are spoken in Venezuela and a special committee of the country's National Assembly is drafting a law designed at preserving them. The Latin Americanist also reports that there are plans to have indigenous representation on the Assembly.
Freedom of speech and music celebrations in the Moroccan Blogosphere
Many different subjects were in the spotlight last week, in the Moroccan blogosphere. I'll start with Farid and his interesting numbers (Fr) about blogging in Morocco. Then comes Reda who found out, thanks to Shimon Peres, that there is a connection between laziness and Islam(Fr). The European Union is a...
Syria: Arabic Teaching
A new (and only) podcast that teaches Arabic language for English people is here, finally!
Estonia: Amnesty International Report
David McDuff of A Step At A Time (and Edward Lucas) – on Amnesty International's “report on Estonia which – almost incredibly – charges that country with “human rights abuses” allegedly committed against its Russian-speaking residents.”
Lithuania, Russia: Book on Vilnius Ghetto; Chekhov's Stories
Music and Life – Everywhere! is reading Anton Chekhov's short stories, and also posts a comment on a book about the Vilnius Ghetto.
The Esperanto Window Closes / La Esperanta Fenestro Fermiĝas.
On Nov 29, 2006, Howard Dean addressed the Liberal Leadership and Biennial Convention. He gave an inspirational speech about the strategies that resulted in the Democrats retaking the US House and US Senate. It's a message that ought to resonate with people who want to advance the goals of Esperanto....
The Balkans: Lack of EU Translators
Neretva River writes about one more reason not to allow the Balkan states to join the EU: “…meetings are simply becoming too large and the EU is unable to cope with the demand for translators.”
Tanzania/Kenya: differences between Kenyans and Tanzanians
African Affairs has some interesting observations about differences between Tanzanians and Kenyans.
China and Japan: translating USA
The Japanese translation of USA is “rice country”, while the Chinese translation is “beauty country”. Zhaihua looks into historical documents and tries to explain why there is such a difference. One explanation provided by Chiang Kai-shek in 1934 was that “rice” is edible… (zh)
Malawi: language, politics, and development
Afrika-Aphukira writes about the intersection of language, politics, and development in Malawi, “The twin issues of language and politics are extremely important, and have consequences that affect the long-term development plans of any society.”
