Stories about Language from September, 2009
Japan: Lessons in Communication from the Hatoyama Essay
When an online Op-Ed piece by current Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appeared in the New York Times just days before the Lower House elections last month, national reaction ranged from...
Morocco: Teaching Tamazight
Jamal Elabiad, author of the blog A Moroccan Voice in English, discusses the limits of teaching the Tamazight language in Morocco.
Bangladesh: The Importance Of Learning A Foreign Language
“If manpower is our strength, proper foreign language training at home will be a small step in equipping them better to settle down in foreign territories. A change of perception...
China: Crowd sourced translation and the issue of copyright
Joel Martinsen from DANWEI translated an article by Janson Yao discussing the crowd-sourced translation of The Lost Symbol in relation to the issue of copyright infringement.
Laos: Monk Chat Blog
The Monk Chat program in Vientiane is a venue where Lao monks and foreigners can exchange in dialogue about their culture and religion.
India: Bangla Blogs
Diganta at The New Horizon informs that two new Bangla (Bengali) blogging platforms have been launched by Bangla speaking people in India.
Dominican Republic: three poets
Repeating Islands features a new bilingual edition of poems by three women writers from the Dominican Republic: Aída Cartagena Portalatín, Angela Hernández Núñez, and Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo. “Each of them addresses...
Suriname: a word for freedom
“It’s hard for me to imagine a language or dialect without a word for ‘freedom'”: Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp reviews a new documentary film about the Surinamese poet Trefossa.
Hungary: Finno-Ugric or Indo-European?
Hungarian Spectrum writes about disagreements on the origin of the Hungarian people and the Hungarian language.
Moldova: The Language Issue
Scraps of Moscow writes about Moldova's “‘linguistic’ divides.”
Jamaica: Truth & Laughter
“If death is the closing parenthesis on the fiction of every human life, then humor is the asterisk that proclaims the dignity of human life despite the many absurdities”: Jamaican...
Jamaica, Barbados: Sandiford Speaks
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp features writer Robert Sandiford in his own words.
Belarus: Google Translations
Siberian Light is testing Google's newly-added Belarusian language translation tool.
Maldives: Arabization Of Dhivehi Language
“I am against Arabising Maldives’ unique language and culture, and so I will never use ‘Dhivehi alphabets with dots’ in order to accommodate Arabic language,” vows Hilath.
Bahamas: International Literacy Day
Bahamian bloggers Womanish Words and tings mash dedicate their posts to the marking of UNESCO’s International Literacy Day.
Palestine: A Change Of Language
In Gaza, Abu el Sharif has decided to start blogging in English instead of Arabic: “I really need to be more rude, and talk a little more about the shit...
Myanmar: “I'm your doll” phrase
Dawn translates a song from Myanmar in English and explains that the “I'm your doll” part of the lyrics is a popular phrase in the country.
Translator of the week: Boukary Konaté in Mali
Boukary Konaté teaches French and English in a high school in Mali. Joining Global Voices in French has steered him onto a new path: he is now involved in Web projects to promote his native language, Bambara, and train rural communities in Mali to use the internet.
Morocco: Teaching “Berber” in Schools
A BBC News piece on the teaching of "Berber" languages in Morocco has got the blogoma talking. The article, which outlines the educational options for learning and studying the language, prompted a variety of posts. Jillian C. York has the story.
Jamaica: Reggae Shows Cancelled
As Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton suffers from the cancellation of international shows thanks to his homophobic lyrics, The Wickedest Time says: “I don't get offended by the music, mainly...
