Tag Archives: English
In Vietnam, a Nation Learns English
In Vietnam, history is daily life. So says economist Le Dang Doanh. So history might be a good indicator of which foreign languages the Vietnamese would be more inclined to learn. French? Russian? Mandarin? English? The Vietnamese have gone to … Continue reading
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The Chinese Yuan, the US Dollar and the Currency of Language
Imagine a time in the not too distant future when global business deals are mainly conducted in Mandarin Chinese. Contracts outlining sales of, say, Brazilian planes to India are written in Mandarin, the payments made in yuan. The websites of … Continue reading
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Globish, health care, and a Facebook misunderstanding
This week, the case for and against Globish. A group of writers and artists debate the proposition that a simplified version of English is uniquely equipped to take over the world. That argument is made by Robert McCrum in his … Continue reading
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Google’s humanoid translator, accent phobia, and misleading job titles
In this podcast, our monthly top-five roundup of language stories: 5. Why Google Translate rules (and why human translators shouldn’t feel threatened.) Google, as we’ve come to expect by now, does things differently. And that includes translation. We tend to … Continue reading
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Banning Hungarian, swearing for pain relief, and dog barks translated
For this month’s language news podcast, I roped in The World’s Online Editor Clark Boyd. In a former life, Clark taught English in Hungary — yes that’s a barely younger version of him posing beneath the signpost. He, of course, … Continue reading
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