· October, 2007

Stories about Language from October, 2007

Barbados: Gullah Gullah Island

  29 October 2007

Gallimaufry finds similarities between the language of the Gullah people and the way Barbadians speak: “I am reminded that something as commonplace as the way we talk is, even without our conscious knowledge, powerfully denotive of our national African heritage.”

China and Hong Kong: Translation Politics

  29 October 2007

Many bloggers in Hong Kong pointed out that the criticism against Martin Lee's article in Wall street is a result of translation. An example given by erynnyes from Those were the days, is the translation of “press for” to “give pressure to” (zh). The blogger also points out that China...

The Balkans: The Language Issue

  26 October 2007

Balkan Baby writes about the “language issue” in the Balkans: “What language do we speak when we are in the countries that once made up Yugoslavia? In Slovenia and Macedonia the answer is quite simple since these two countries both had their own languages which were recognised by the Yugoslav...

Japan: Taiwanese chorus music to the ears

  25 October 2007

A video of an auditorium in Taiwan featuring 258 Taiwanese people watching and singing along to the lyrics of Japanese anime songs became a hit in Japan earlier this week after it was uploaded to a popular video sharing website, attracting over 120,000 views and nearly as many comments. A Japanese blogger considers how this kind of connection can bring Japan and Taiwan closer together.

Japan: NOVA on the brink of collapse

  21 October 2007

Despite numerous statements to the contrary from an increasingly evasive management, the collapse of Japan's largest English language school operator NOVA appears imminent as bloggers have been reporting lesson cancellations, school closings, and busy phone lines. Read about the thoughts and first-hand experiences of Japanese bloggers in today's post.

Lebanon: Bittersweet Blogging

  12 October 2007

Louis-Noel Harfouche has returned to blogging about Lebanon in a new post about the Arabic language. “And bitter[sweet] and disheartening as it (and its people) are at times, Lebanon remains an infectious, delicious, long-savored and addictive torment,” he explains.

Latvia: Citizenship Debate

  11 October 2007

So far, there are 121 comments to the “Stateless in Latvia” post at Euroblog by BBC's Europe editor Mark Mardell – and All About Latvia is tired of explaining Latvia's citizenship laws.