The word denier usually follows the word Holocaust. Can we re-invent it and speak of global warming deniers? Or will it always be associated with the Nazi genocide? Then there’s the term 9-11. After the Mumbai attacks, is it useful or crass to speak of India’s 9-11, or Spain’s, or Britain’s? Finally, the top words [...]
Entries from December 2008
December 18, 2008
podcast #34: Learning Japanese for the manga and anime
Japan’s economic bubble may have burst but the pop culture bubble is still expanding. In this week’s cast, a report on how American teens are learning Japanese so they can read manga and watch anime in the original language. Then a brief history of manga, including a visit to the Tezuka studio’s vault. Then, the [...]
December 10, 2008
podcast #33: Language and personality, and skirt-and-blouse politics in Ghana
Does Barack Obama’s bilingual nominee for Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson have an English-speaking personality and a Spanish-speaking personality? A prominent bilingual scholar says many people develop differently depending on which language they’re using. Also, Mexican-American singer Julieta Venegas is bilingual but she sings in only one language…and the strange shorthand of Ghanaian electoral politics. Listen [...]
