A new directive in the Inner Mongolia region is causing parents to protest. The directive will require three subjects — language and literature, politics, and history — to be taught in Mandarin. Inner Mongolia– the landlocked autonomous region within China as opposed to the country of Mongolia– has a population of over 24 million people,…
A new study suggests that English speakers create more droplets in the air when they talk, which may make them more likely to spread COVID-19. The amount of droplets varies based on different languages due to the amount of aspirated consonants (like the letter p) within the language. While we know that COVID-19 is transmitted…
While academic institutions around the world struggle to decide the way forward for the upcoming school year, how to test students safely and accurately is often at the forefront of their decision making. There is no way around it. We must embrace new methods so that testing as well as the entire academic process can…
A USC Professor is under fire for using a Chinese expression that sounds like an English-language slur. The professor, who was suspended, came under fire from a group of students who wrote a letter and signed it by, “Black MBA candidates c/o 2022.” Professor Greg Patton of USC’s Marshall School of Business was teaching a…
This week, editors at The Miami Herald and its Spanish-language cohort, El Nuevo Herald, apologized to readers over a Spanish-language insert that said American Jews support “thieves and arsonists” and compared Black Lives Matter protesters to Nazis. The editors said they were “deeply sorry” for the column that was posted in an insert in the…
Jean-Christophe Verstraete, a professor of linguistics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, worked closely with two sisters who were the last speakers of Umpithamu to create a new dictionary. The Dictionary was released as a 500-page book and an audio app on which their voices were recorded for posterity. Published by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal…
Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed, chair of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, has approved the Arabic Language Center’s strategy for 2020 to 2025, which will focus on a few core areas to preserve and encourage the use of the language, including using Arabic content, developing digital platforms in the language, and encouraging research to promote it…
In celebration of the 13th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ALNF partnered with Twitter Australia to celebrate; Indigenous languages and amplify Indigenous voices across the platform. In a world first, Twitter Australia’s account was hosted by a number of First Nations peoples, each sharing exclusive voice Tweets in…
September 23 is the United Nations’ International Day of Sign Languages and this year’s theme is “Sign Languages are for Everyone!” The result of a 2017 initiative by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), the International Day of Sign Languages is observed on September 23 because it was on that day in 1951 that…
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to ensure the world’s indigenous people have control over their own communities, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has affirmed. Michelle Bachelet described the pandemic as “a critical threat” to indigenous communities everywhere, at a time when many are also struggling against man-made environmental damage and economic…