For blogger Stephen Dodson, swearing is liberation. And the more languages you can swear in, the more liberated you’ll feel. Dodson is the co-author of a new book on global cursing, and we feature an interview with him. Also this week, the story of YouTube sensation (now that’s a 2008 cliche) Peter Nalitch, a Russian [...]
Entries from August 2008
August 19, 2008
podcast #16: naming your child, Senegalese scrabble and “Um”
Why is Ghana’s most famous citizen Kofi Annan so named? Hint: if he’d been born on a different day he might have been called Kwame. Plus, in New Zealand a judge has allowed a 9-year-old girl to change her name from Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii. In parts of Honduras, the name Radiator is [...]
August 5, 2008
podcast #15: China’s mad about English and everyone’s mad about Chinglish
Learning English is all the rage in China right now. We have several items on how the Chinese are struggling to learn English: many struggle more than learn. We ask whether China’s emerging English profiency will mean an end to those poor but funny translations known as Chinglish. We also discover that you can commit [...]
