Stories about Language from April, 2008
Jamaica: Su Su
In honour of National Poetry Month, Geoffrey Philp's Blogspot features a poem by Jamaican Velma Pollard.
Guyana: RIP McAndrew
Signifyin’ Guyana acknowledges the passing of Wordsworth McAndrew, “a pioneering Guyanese artist.”
Japan and China: Nationalistic Language Learning
Ampontan noticed the nationalistic rhetorics in Li Yang's crazy English teaching approach.
Russia: Computerization of the Russian North
Window on Eurasia reports: “Scholars in the Sakha Republic have developed computer scripts for the Linux operating system […], a breakthrough that […] promises to open the way for computerization...
Lebanon: “Embarrassed Arabic Language”
“Arabic is an embarrassed language. Not embarrassing, but embarrassed,” comments Tantalus about how cryptic some Arabic writers become in order to avoid taboo words.
Jamaica: Contemporary Poetry
“Anthony McNeill was without doubt amongst the finest contemporary Caribbean poets, whose previous collections…were hailed as works of immense originality”: Geoffrey Philp features an excerpt from the late Jamaican poet's...
Jordan: Three Nasty Words
Jordanian 7aki Fadi tells her readers about the three words which make her cringe.
Jamaica, Guyana: Evolution
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp features a poem by Guyanese writer Cyril Dabydeen.
China: A History of Red Heart
Recently many netizens in China joined the campaign in hanging a red heart in their msn signatures. 1bao posted an article written by Qian Gang about the history of red...
Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad & Tobago: Lighting the Way
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp is still processing the news of Aimé Césaire's death: “For if the goal of any life is freedom, then Aimé Césaire was a light”…while Caribbean Free...
Angola: A glossary of Angolan terms
Casa de Luanda [Luanda House, pt] has been compiling a glossary of Angolan expressions. “Check out the A to D, E to L and M to Z. sections. As soon...
Remembering Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire - Martinican poet, politician and consummate West Indian - passed away today at the age of 94. It is not often that politics and poetry go together, but when they do, the West Indies is as fertile an environment as any for the two to coexist. Césaire seamlessly blended his love for language, ideas and writing into his political life, which spanned almost 60 years.
Jamaica, Guyana, U.S.A.: Virginia Tech Remembered
Jamaican Geoffrey Philp links to Guyanese poet Fred D’Aguiar's poem for Virginia Tech on the one-year anniversary of the shootings.
Zizou from Djerba translates the Dalai Lama in Seattle
zizou from Djerba has volunteered to do live Arabic translation of the Dalai Lama's “compassion conference” in Seattle this week.
Global Voices in Spanish and Canal Solidario
Readers of Global Voices in Spanish and Canal Solidario will have recently noticed a small widget showing on both webpages. The one on Global Voices in Spanish displays the latest...
China: Demonizing?
Ran Yun-fei from my1510.com argued that nationalistic sentiment would lead to the imagination of China being demonized [zh].
Jamaica: More Poetry
Geoffrey Philp features the work of Jamaican writer Opal Palmer Adisa.
Bahrain: Surreal Gulf Moments
Bint Battuta in Bahrain describes “one of those surreal Gulf moments when I found myself unable to get my message across in either Arabic or English.”
China: Tibet Fatigue Syndrome and Lhasafication
Fuge noticed new terms popping up after the Tibet riot [zh]. Tibet Fatigue Syndrome – meaning getting tired of the debate about media representation of Tibet incident. Lhasafication – meaning...
China: Nationalist traitor at China.com
Hecaitou criticizes the angry youth at China.com who used cultural revolution language to attack Nanfang daily's opinion piece calling for free press on the tibet issue. The blogger uses the...
Jamaica, Cuba: Lois Lane
Jamaican blogger Geoffrey Philp features the poetry of Cuban-born Celia Lisset Alvarez.
