Stories about Language from March, 2009
Hong Kong and the Philippines: Satire or racism?
A Senate leader in the Philippines just filed a resolution condemning a Hong Kong writer Chip Tsao for his article “The War at Home” in HK Magazine (originally published on...
France, Americas, Africa: The “Y'a Bon” Awards
On March 17th 2009, a group called les Indivisibles [Fr] launched the “Y'a Bon Awards”, a dubious honour bestowed upon politicians, journalists, or any public officials who have contributed to the spreading of racism in France. The Awards have sprung from reactions to a century-long advertising campaign that has not sat well with most black people in France.
Jamaica, Canada: Caribbean Voices
Is there room in Canadian literature for a Caribbean voice? Jamaican diaspora author and blogger Pamela Moredecai shares her thoughts…
Global Voices Book Challenge – Read Your Way Around the World!
April 23 is UNESCO World Book Day – and just because the Global Voices team loves blogs, doesn’t mean we have forgotten other forms of the written word! In fact, because we think reading literature is such an enjoyable way to learn about another culture, we have a fun challenge for all Global Voices contributors and readers, and bloggers everywhere.
Israel: The Language of Taxis
Rasha Helwa, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel living in Acre (and describes herself as living in Palestine), has written a series of short posts at her blog Zaghroda about her thoughts when taking shared taxis, and on the significance of the language - Arabic or Hebrew - that the driver chooses to use.
Kuwait: Send the Police Back to School
Kuwaiti 4th ring posts a photograph of a police car – where the word police is misspelt in both Arabic and English.
Morocco: Early English Writings
Moroccan blogger VOLVBILIS discusses early English writings on Morocco.
St. Lucia: Visiting Gros Islet
Repeating Islands’ Blog visits St. Lucia and discovers that “the fishing village of Gros Islet – the principal setting for Derek Walcott’s Omeros – seems serenely frozen in time.”
Lao idioms
Bryan, A Laotian American writer, identifies some of the popular Lao idioms.
Japan: Italian news commentary in Japanese
Italian comedian and opinion-leader Beppe Grillo's blog [ja] is the only blog that is translated into Japanese (and English), presenting Italy from an unusual perspective. In his blog, he also...
Taiwan: Diplomatic Officer's Blogposts Ignite Ethnic Controversy
Bloggers and netizens in Taiwan found that Kuo Kuan-ying, an information officer in the Taiwan diplomatic service in Toronto, who blogs under his pen name Fan Lan-chin, publishes insulting posts which has provoked more controversy and debate of Taiwan's long unsolved ethnic hatred.
Algeria: Scanned Manuscripts Online
“The Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts has put a large number of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish scanned manuscripts online. Plenty of interesting stuff there, but one that particularly stood...
Guyana: The English are Coming
“…plenty visitors from Engerland is here for cricket, and to be hospitable, we the people must speak in a way that they can understand”: Guyana-Gyal is practicing her English.
Martinique, Dominica: Mount Pelee
Repeating Islands’ Blog takes us to Martinique's Mont Pelée volcano and also offers a glimpse into the work of the Dominican/Martinican poet “whose verses…commemorated the tragedy of Mont Pelée…when the...
Hong Kong: Ng-hao big-naug or you are dead!
On Tuesday, March 18, a local police shot at a Nepali homeless man twice at close range and one of the bullets end up in the head, leading to the...
Japan: I wanna know America!
Koichi (耕一), a webdesigner living in Oregon (U.S.A.), tells about American culture, people, food, language and much more at his personal website Koichiben: Amerika ga shiritai (コウイチ弁、アメリカが知りたい lit. Koichi dialect: I...
Jamaica: Inspirational Books
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp shares 15 books that have influenced him.
Hungary: Subtitling vs Dubbing
Csíkszereda Musings is campaigning against Hungarian TV dubbing – and in favor of subtitling: “My problem is that saying that you are the world’s best dubbers is akin to saying...
Czech Republic: Naming Rules and Laws
The Czech Daily Word writes about “the rules on how first names and last names of Czechs shall be given, used, written, etc.”
Global recession and its discontents
Today the world seems flat. From Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas, the people of the world are experiencing the traumatic effects of a global economic recession. This post is an attempt to describe the social impact of the great financial crisis as seen and felt by ordinary citizens around the world.
Guyana: Thoughts on Immigration
“People is people no matter what they do or where they go”: Guyana-Gyal explains.
