Is banning swearing the answer to stopping violent incidents? Shanghai’s city council thinks so. In addition, to cleaning up its rude reputation, they hope this will be another benefit to banning swearing in public places. So, how does this get policed? Surely, if someone is around to stop people swearing, they should be able to [...]
Posts under ‘News’
And the Oscar goes to…multiculturalism
After the Golden Globes I was about to launch into a post ranting about how foreign language films never seem to get the recognition they deserve. After the Oscar nominations were announced, I’m glad I held my tongue.
Babel is competing in seven categories, which is a good number for them since they use an impressive [...]
And then I just feel pride for my country
At the same time as the US tries to ban other languages. New Zealand goes and takes a step forward by trying to include the Maori language on road signs. It was all sparked off by a school principal trying to use the Maori word for bus, ‘Kura’, on their school buses.
The problem is that the [...]
One Step Forward
I love news stories that talk about the spread of different languages. I personally feel that the more languages we speak, the better. So when I see stories like the ones below, I smile.
First, we have British Police Officers in East Lancashire being funded to learn foreign languages. Due to the increase in European immigrants, [...]
Mandarin gaining popularity, French losing
For a long time, I have held the view that China is going to dominate the world as an economic power during the next few decades. Relating this to languages, I enjoy discussing whether this will create a change in terms of using English as a business medium.
My conclusion in the past has been, unfortunately, [...]
Chinglish to be banned from Beijing Olympics
I found this article a while ago and use it for a laugh in my English classes. For those that don’t know, Chinglish is when Chinese gets poorly translated into English. It’s quite prevalent when you’re travelling round China and always amusing. Here is the BBC article about the preparation for the Beijing Olympics and also [...]
Cultural differences
Ok, so how truly liberal is your country? Would you ever find a politician, an elected politician even, with quite high standing in the party, pose nude? I was quite shocked when I saw this had happened in Spain, and the most amazing thing? No-one cares. It was a story that lasted one day. The [...]
Changing your perspective
It’s hard to avoid some exposure to the media in your country. Whether you believe what they say or not is another question. An interesting example of this is a recent speech made by none other than the US’s beloved George W. Bush. The NY Times focuses almost exclusively on the decision to send more [...]
What makes the news
Living in a foreign country, it can be interesting what makes the news. A recent example was pointed out by some US friends when Gerald Ford, a former US President, died. Now, I’m from New Zealand, so this wasn’t exactly a big deal to me either but what made it interesting was the other person [...]