That Chinese Tattoo: I Do Not Think It M...

Chinese characters are so much more beautiful, so much more elegant than the boring old Latin alphabet. Or at least that seems to be the train of thought behind the ubiquitous Chinese tattoos that have been popping up on the bodies of young, English-speaking Westerners over the past few years. Granted, Chinese characters are a lot more classy than, say, a buxom half-naked lady or a dragon fighting a wizard for the Ring of Power.  The main problem is that the people requesting the tattoos can’t read Chinese. Sometimes, even the tattoo artist can’t read Chinese....

Belgium’s Language Divide Affects ...

The divide between French speakers and Dutch speakers in Belgium has grown increasingly intractable, and currently affects everything from how well the country’s government does (or does not) function to coaching schoolchildren at a soccer club. According to the Associated Press, the KFC Strombeek soccer club of Grimbergen, Belgium has been officially banned from coaching children’s soccer in French. Apparently, when Dutch-speaking citizens of the town heard coaches were speaking French to some of the children (presumably, children who already spoke French), they...

New York City Parents Increasingly Seek ...

Most parents want what’s best for their children. In New York City, that desire is increasingly translating into a desire for babysitters and nannies who can do double-duty as both caretakers and language teachers. Parents are looking for babysitters who will speak to their children exclusively in another language. The idea is that the children will grow up learning to speak English from their parents and learning to speak the second language from their childcare provider. As the New York Times points out, this is a big shift from previous conventional wisdom, which was...

Lack of Translated Documents a Problem f...

Generally speaking, it’s never a good idea to sign something you can’t read. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for international travelers to be asked to do just that, and it’s something that can definitely come back and haunt you later. For example, the Houston Chronicle interviewed Haroldy Woods, a Texas flight attendant whose travel agent advised her to purchase a Deutsche BahnCard to save money on a train ticket. Woods bought the card because she trusted the travel agent, but she couldn’t read the application, which was all in German. So, she...

English-speaking Australian Required to ...

On the surface, new Australian regulations requiring all foreign nurses to pass an English proficiency test before they begin working sound like a great idea. After all, communication breakdowns between nurses and doctors or nurses and patients can have devastating consequences. However, for Gerard Kellett, the testing requirement has proved to be an unnecessary burden. According to this article, Kellett is a native English speaker who was born in Singapore to English-speaking parents. He is an Australian citizen and has lived in the country for 17 years. However, when Mr....

Guernsey Language Expert Marie de Garis ...

The BBC has announced that Marie de Garis, an expert on the Guernsey language and culture, passed away on Tuesday, a little over a month after she reached her 100th birthday.  According to the BBC’s obituary: “Mrs de Garis was highly respected as one of the leading authorities on the Guernsey French language, her knowledge of the island and its language has been described as encyclopedic and she took the greatest of pleasure in passing on her knowledge, especially to the young.” She was the author of 5 books on local Guernsey history and folklore, including the most...

Native Americans Gather for Plains India...

From August 12th to August 15th, Native Americans from several different Plains Indian tribes will gather at the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana to create a record of a language that is rapidly going extinct: Plains Indian Sign Language, also known as “hand talk.”  Although today it is used by only a few deaf Native Americans, before Europeans arrived in America it was widely used by both the deaf and hearing alike, and was the primary form of communication between tribes that did not share a language. It was also used for story-telling and rituals. Over...

British Colombian Mounties Remove Google...

The debate over machine-produced versus human translation took the British Colombian division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police by surprise, according to this article in the Vancouver Sun. The BC Mounties were providing French translations of their press releases via Google Translate. However, after a recent, highly critical report from Radio-Canada sparked controversy, they will no longer offer Google Translate to translate press releases from French to English. Here’s the unfortunate thing-since the British Colombian division of the RCMP does not have enough translators...

Crowd-Sourced Translation Goes Awry For ...

Facebook’s crowd-sourced translation app has helped the company translate Facebook into over 100 different languages quickly and cheaply. However, the company (and many of its users) just discovered one of the downsides of crowd-sourcing- vulnerability to online pranksters. The problem was discovered on July 28th, when Spanish and Turkish-speaking Facebook users logged on to find their pages filled with profanity in both English and Spanish. For example, according to this article on The Register, the Turkish version of Facebook’s IM error message, which is supposed...

Bahasa Indonesia Giving Way To English...

Bahasa Indonesia is the national language of Indonesia, and has long been considered the linguistic glue that binds together the many different groups of people that make up the Indonesian nation.  However, as  educating children in English grows in popularity, an increasing number of Indonesian children are growing up with Indonesian skills that are poor or nonexistent, according to the New York Times. Although Indonesian public schools teach classes in Bahasa Indonesia, speaking English fluently is considered a sign of high social status. Of course, every parent wants what’s...