· December, 2008

Stories about Language from December, 2008

2008: A turbulent year for South Asia

  27 December 2008

Looking back on the events that rocked South Asia in the year 2008 we see that terrorism took the center stage in many places in this region. This was also a year of crucial and decisive elections in many South Asian countries. The Global Voices coverages of the blogospheres of...

Gaza/Sderot: Israel and Palestine together on video

  24 December 2008

The Gaza/Sderot: Life in Spite of Everything Project is one of the prime examples of the variety of ways a bridge between different cultures and world-views can be created through online media. In this project created by ARTE.tv, a French-German cultural television station, twelve people going on their day to day business on either side of a violent border were exposed on a website for ten week project which ended on December 23rd. The two minute videos documented snippets of the lives of 6 characters in Gaza, Palestine and 6 characters on the other side of the border in Sderot, Israel during two months.

Russia: Patriarch; Yoshkar-Ola; Stalin's Legacy; Protests

  24 December 2008

A selection of recent posts from Window on Eurasia: a “Ukrainian” metropolitan who may or may not become Russia's next patriarch; Hungarians react to the Russian authorities’ suggestion to rename Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of Mari El, to Tsaryovokokshaysk, the city's pre-1917 name; some Russian history teachers’ efforts to educate students...

Pakistan: Love Of Arabian Language

  23 December 2008

The view from behind my specs… comments: “everyone in Pakistan seems to have some strange affiliation with the Arabic language.” Read the post to learn why.

Welcome, Global Voices in Serbian

  23 December 2008

Today, I am honored to announce that Global Voices in Serbian has officially launched, alongside our many other proud Lingua websites. The key initiator of Global Voices in Serbian is Sinisa Boljanovic who is also a Global Voices author.

Azerbaijan: Linguistic University Recollections

  22 December 2008

Sheki, Azerbaijan remembers studying 15 years ago at the University of Languages in Baku. The blog says that corruption was rampant at the university during the Soviet era, but that post-independence reforms in the admission system have improved the situation. It also remembers one lecturer who was sent to Siberia...

Eman Hashim blogs against Berlitz Egypt

  18 December 2008

Has corruption tarnished Berlitz Egypt's reputation? Egyptian blogger Eman Hashim wrote on facebook and on her blog wondering how come her students received their grades and certificates when she never submitted neither their grades nor their final exam papers. Eman tells us the story saying Back in July 2008, I...

Translation and Literature in the Philippines

  18 December 2008

Cebuano poet Adonis Durado posts an article on the importance of translation for literary development in the Philippines. Durado recently launched his book of Cebuano poems, Dili Tanang Matagak Mahagbong [fil] (trans. Not All That Drop Falls).

Poland: Climate, History, Holidays

  16 December 2008

A roundup of the recent posts on Poland: Leopolis writes about a successful outcome of the EU climate package talks; Raf Uzar writes about General Wojciech Jaruzelski's alleged plans to “open Poland’s borders and let in the Soviet army”; 20 east is fuming about bad driving in Warsaw; Polandian complains...

Cyprus: Banning Turkish Placenames in GPS Systems

  15 December 2008

The Cyprus government is currently attempting to ban GPS systems that use Turkish place names in the Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, Homeboy Media News reports: The Ministry of Education and Culture meanwhile has come up with some additional reasoning for the campaign to ban the GPS receivers. In its feedback, the...

Russia, China: Slang Dictionary

  14 December 2008

IZO links to LJ user du-jingli (RUS), who has scanned four pages from the 916-page Russian-Chinese Slang Dictionary and has so far received nearly 500 comments. (Warning: the post contains obscenities, in Russian and in Chinese.)

Japan: “Change”, the ideogram of 2008

  13 December 2008

Every year on the 12th of December, the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society announces the Kanji of the year [en]. This year the kanji is 変 (hen), the ideogram representing “change”. Miki Tansho (丹所美紀 comments on the choice, writing that to many Japanese 変 by itself recalls the meaning “change for...

Cuba: Idealogical Monogamy

  11 December 2008

“If concepts such as ‘sick’ have now been banished from the study of homosexuality, why does the adjective ‘counterrevolutionary’ continue to be used for those who think differently”: Yoani Sanchez puts the question to Mariela Castro Espin, the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education.