Stories about Language from April, 2009
Jamaica: Calabash Countdown
“The line-up looks yummy”: Life, Unscripted, on the Rock begins the countdown to Jamaica's Calabash Literary Festival.
Bubisher: A Bus of Books for Children in Western Sahara
Do you want to go to the Sahara desert and read for children living in the refugee camps? Bubisher is a mobile library being driven across Western Sahara refugee camps. In those refugee schools, the bus shares with youngsters food for the soul and mind: books. Renata Avila highlights the initiative.
The News of Bantu Mwaura's death shocks Kenyan bloggers
The news of Bantu Mwaura’s death have caught many with absolute shock. Bantu Mwaura, an award winning Kenyan performing artist, director, playwright, storyteller, poet and university lecturer is dead.
St. Lucia: The Heat is On
Repeating Islands reports that the race for the prestigious position of the Oxford Professor of Poetry has become “decidedly unpoetic”.
Czech Republic: Blog Roundup
A Czech roundup: Czechmatediary – on the new translation of the Bible into contemporary Czech and on Albert Einstein's Prague connection; CzechFolks.com – on xenophobia, job market, and the Brno Expats Forum online community; The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks – on bone churches and the liberation of Plzeň 64 years...
Russia: A Chechen Folk Tale
Just A Mon translates a Chechen folk tale about Beksolta who could catch three lions in one swoop and posts it at Sundry Translations and Other Tangentialia.
Kosovo: The Language Issue
The Unforgiving Minute writes about “the language issue” in Kosovo.
Martinique: Celebrating Aimé Césaire
It is with great reverence that Martinican bloggers celebrated the first anniversary of the death of Aimé Césaire, who passed away on April 17th 2008.
China: More on Jackie Chan
Kai Pan from CNReview translates Jackie Chan's comment on “Chinese need more control” with more semantic analysis of the context. Imagethief wonders where exactly should we place the context then?
India: Importance Of Mother Tongue
Manasa Pamaraju at Desicritics states that many of the 22 official languages of India are losing the race to English or other dominant languages. The blogger comments: “what pains me is that that today’s generation doesn’t even know how to pronounce the language right. I have met scores of parents...
Taiwan: Promoting language diversity
Taiwan is home to a range of Austronesian and Chinese languages. Taiwanese Identity discusses ways to promote Taiwan's languages.
Barbados: The Danger of Hate Speech
Bajan Dream Diary makes a case for hate speech legislation in Barbados.
Israel: Reflecting on Israeli-Palestinian Relations
The mood in the Israeli blogosphere is contemplative. Perhaps it is the conclusion of the Passover holiday that celebrates freedom from oppression or just that Israelis have had quiet time to spend with their families, but a number of posts about relationships between Israelis and Palestinians have recently dotted the blogosphere's landscape.
Japan: Crisis Vocabulary
Adamu from Mutantfrog Travelogue collects and explains a list of Japanese vocabulary for describing the financial crisis.
Russia, Ukraine: Education in Russian/Ukrainian
Window on Eurasia writes about “a Russian activist [who] has written President Dmitry Medvedev asking that the Kremlin help Russian regions provide assistance to Russian-language schools in Ukraine.”
Ukraine: “Operation Yatsenyuk”
Leopolis writes about the prospects of Arseny Yatsenyuk – “a glimmer of hope shines for many in Ukraine who are fed up.”
Moldova: “A ‘Romanian’ Flavor”
MoldovAnn posts an update on Moldova, including notes on “a ‘Romanian’ flavor to the demonstrations” – and this on reports “that internet was cut off”: “Sasha said that external internet traffic had been shut down (ie Facebook, vKontakte, etc), but internal traffic had been and continues to be “on”, although...
China: A Satire That Caused an Uproar in Both China and The Philippines
The story of Chip Tsao's War at home has traveled to mainland China, and nationalistic sentiment is moderating netizen's reaction. China digital times has translated mainland Chinese netizens’ reaction.
Pakistan: Teaching Urdu To Expatriate Kids
Aisha PZ at All Things Pakistan urges the expatriate Pakistani parents to teach the Pakistani state language Urdu to their children.
St. Lucia: Walcott & Oxford?
St. Lucian-born Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott apparently has “the slimmest of edges” in “the campaign to succeed Christopher Ricks as Oxford professor of poetry”, according to Caribbean blog Repeating Islands.
Jamaica: Learning from Adveristy
“Adversity and being a writer, especially one from the Caribbean, are synonymous”: Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp shares what he has learned.
