Stories about Language from November, 2007
Jamaica: Terms of Endearment
“Coming back to work in the Caribbean has meant getting used to using words of endearment that professionals in developed countries have long eschewed”: Jamaican Francis Wade tries to strike a balance.
Barbados: Bajan-Speak
Cheese-on-bread has a few tips on how to speak like a Bajan.
Hong Kong: Putonghua is a Chinese Language
Diumanpark pointed out that Putonghua is just one of the Chinese Languages. He criticized the Hong Kong government language policy for equalizing Putonghua as “The” Chinese languages and killing all the Chinese language diversity (zh).
Russia: Ulan-Ude
Russian Blog writes about “dostoprimechatelnosti” of Ulan-Ude, one of which is the biggest Lenin head in the world.
South East Asia: Delicious
How to say delicious in several South East Asian Languages.
Palestine: Learn Arabic
Arabic is the second fastest growing language, writes Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah.
South Africa: Wikipedia Academies
Heather blogs about Wikipedia Academies, which will take place this week in Johannersburg: “Jimmy is in the country to launch the African Wikipedia Academies – a series of Wikipedia sprints, workshops and boot camps to encourage the local celebration of Wikipedia as an amazing tool for education, culture and enterprise...
Slovenia, Hungary: Travel Notes
Csíkszereda Musings writes more on his travel in Slovenia and Hungary: “Bodonci is in a national park which uniquely (the literature implied) spans the borders of three countries – Slovenia, Austria and Hungary. […] I am not 100% sure if you can describe a national park that is simultaneously in...
Russia, Ukraine: Language Issues
Window on Eurasia writes about the “language issue” – in Russia's Komi Republic, in Ukraine, and in Moscow.
China:Korean professor under catcalls
A Korean professor's theory was put under critiques soon after it was reported in China. His suggestion that Chinese mythology mainly originated from Korea piqued many Chinese netizens and received despising reactions. It is the latest incident of a series of controversies between China and Korea on culture issues.
China: 1989 and Peking University's Notice Board
Chris O'Brien from Beijing Newspeak looked into Xinhua report on the removal of Peking University's notice board to see how censorship is at work as the notice board has strong political meaning in 1989 student movement.
Serbia: A Trip to Kosovo
Novala, Europa writes about his trip to Kosovo: speaking “the language of the opponent” – Serbian – with an Albanian family; a drawn-up map of Pristina; photos from a farmers market; school uniform street fashion.
Albania: Online Bookstore Update
Things are going pretty well for Albanian Blogger‘s online bookstore that sells Albanian-language books – so well that it has inspired him to read a couple titles, too.
Cast Your Votes for The BOBs!
Back in September, Global Voices urged you to nominate your favorite blogs from around the world for The BOBs (Best of the Blogs) - now it's time to put on your thinking caps again, and get out there and vote!
Kazakhstan: Blogosphere Debates the Language Issue
A month ago Nurgeldy told at neweurasia how they are fighting poor knowledge of the state language in the Kazakhstan's northern city of Kustanai. His post gave rise to quite a heated dispute both in Russian and English versions of the blog, covering such issues as why urban population speaks...
The Balkans: More on the Language Issue
Balkan Anarchist responds to Balkan Baby on the issue of the language(s) spoken in the Balkans.
China: Illegal Content Check
There is a website for checking illegal content of your website (Chinese only). Hegelchong has a checkup and finds a list of illegal words such as CCP, repression, independent, strike, protest, demonstration, sex, etc. (zh) The check-up website is a mockery of the Great Fire Wall.
