Academic Delves into Puzzle of How Words Came to Be
Jan 31, 2010
English is sometimes difficult for foreign-language speakers to navigate. Laurie Bauer of Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, has been given a grant of over $400,000 US to produce the most extensive morphological analysis of the English language to date. In linguistics, morphology is the study of … » read more
Chinese Museum Invites Visitors to 'Enter the Mouth'
Jan 31, 2010
A Chinese newspaper reports that an art gallery became infamous overnight for a badly translated sign. The words over the doorway of the Chen Chi Art Museum in Wuxi, in the Jiangsu province of China, read "Enter the mouth," according to Nanjing Modern Express. The museum's eatery has a sign reading … » read more
European Translation Tool Aims for Precision
Jan 24, 2010
A group of European universities and private companies has received over $3 million US to put a translation tool online. The European Union gave the consortium 2.3 million Euros for the project, Dubbed MOLTO (Multi-Lingual Online Translation), which has an overall budget of 3.5 million Euros, or $3.5 … » read more
Language Teaching Falls While Chinese Classes Flourish
Jan 24, 2010
Foreign language teaching in American schools has declined over the past decade, but the teaching of Chinese is flourishing. A New York Times report last week revealed that the number of US middle and high schools offering Chinese classes rose by three percent between 1997 and 2008. Over the same … » read more
UK Government Adviser Targets Teens' Vocabulary
Jan 10, 2010
The language teenagers use has come under fire from a government adviser in the UK, following a survey by that found that young people limited their day-to-day speech to a vocabulary of 800 words on average. Citing the research, Jean Gross, the newly appointed "children's communication tsar," said that … » read more
Longlist Announced for Literature Translation Award
Jan 10, 2010
Twenty-five books have been announced as contenders for the 2010 Best Translated Book Award. Three Percent, a self-described "resource for international literature" at the University of Rochester, New York, chose works of fiction in 17 different languages, representing 23 different countries and … » read more
Translation at Heart of Islamic Attacks in Malaysia
Jan 10, 2010
Malaysian Islamic extremists have reacted violently to a court ruling that allowed non-Muslims to use the name of Allah. Several Christian churches in the capital Kuala Lumpur and beyond have been attacked with fire bombs since last week, when a court decided that the Catholic newspaper The Herald could … » read more
UK TV Interview with Slovakian Sportsman Goes Awry
Jan 03, 2010
A reporter from Scotland has earned both admiration and infamy after an awkward TV interview with a footballer who could not understand his English. Jim Spence of the BBC was speaking to Slovakian goalkeeper Dusan Pernis, who plays for football team Dundee United for the first time this month. Spence was … » read more
New Decade Brings Linguistic Dilemmas
Jan 03, 2010
Linguists, translators, interpreters and language pundits are debating how properly to refer to the year 2010. "Twenty-ten" and "two-thousand-ten" are the main options in North American English, although British English would make the latter "two-thousand-and-ten." Alicia Beckford Wassink, Associate Professor … » read more
Pilot's Language Barrier Leads to US Defence Operation
Jan 03, 2010
A military operation to force a private plane to land in Florida was due to language differences, officials say. Frenchman Jean-Claude Courtois took off in a Cessna 425 aircraft from the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport after being advised through an interpreter not to fly, since communication with the … » read more
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