Tag Archives: United States
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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Does Banning Bilingual Education Change Anything?
Nine years after bilingual education was banned in Massachusetts, educators are still arguing over the effect on students’ language abilities. Massachusetts is among of several states, including California and Arizona, to ban bilingual education. The fear seems to be that … Continue reading
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Twanging with Lynne Murphy aka Lynneguist
A conversation with University of Sussex linguist Lynne Murphy. An American in Britain, Murphy maintains the Separated by a Common Language blog, where she goes by the moniker Lynneguist. Murphy’s accent is soft, but that doesn’t stop Brits from mocking … Continue reading
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The battle to own Bin Laden’s story
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, a new battle has begun: the rhetorical fight to frame his legacy. The White House got off to a bad start, with its initial claims about the circumstances of the killing. We offer … Continue reading
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English-only in the US, translating tweets in Japan and satire in Egypt
The English Only movement in the United States is always active during times of high immigration (check out my previous interview with US English lobbyist Tim Schultz). Now, the movement has got a shot in the arm from the Tea … Continue reading
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Explaining Japan’s disaster to kids and Russian beer to Americans
Japan has a whole lexicon of earthquake and tsunami-related phrases, many of which are collected in the Japan Times by cultural commentator Kaori Shoji. There is bōsai zukin (防災頭巾), meaning the protective safety hood that Tokyo children carry with them … Continue reading
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Hiroshima, Nagasaki and self-censorship
(Updated) I originally wrote this post around the 65th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. The recent earthquake in Japan seems to echo those incidents in certain ways: a calamitous event, followed by massive destruction and huge loss of … Continue reading
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