May 2010

New Zealand Honours Samoan Language

May 30, 2010
New Zealanders are being encouraged to observe Samoan Language Week, which takes place from May 30 to June 5. Samoan is the third most spoken language in New Zealand. For the first time, Australia will join in the celebrations, with the support of the Australian and New Zealand Human Rights …        » read more

Australia Has Crisis in Asian Language Learning

May 30, 2010
The teaching of Asian languages in Australia is declining, a report reveals. Australia's close proximity to Asia, and its vital trade links, led Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to announce a multimillion-dollar plan in 2009 to revitalise Asian languages in the country's schools. But the reality, according to a government …        » read more

Canada: Government Failing in Duty to Promote Bilingualism

May 30, 2010
The Canadian government is not doing enough to promote the use of Canada's two languages, the country's Official Languages Commissioner has said. The Official Languages Act was enacted in 1969 to ensure that both English and French are preserved in Canadian law and federal public services. In a …        » read more

Author Claims "Globish" Set to Become the New Worldwide Language

May 23, 2010
A new type of English is becoming the dominant global language, a literary journalist has argued in a new book. "Globish" is the new "lingua franca," according to Robert McCrum in Globish: How the English Language Became …        » read more

Internet Domain Names Now Open to More World Languages, Cultures

May 23, 2010
New rules allowing internet domain names to use non-Latin characters are opening up the World Wide Web to billions of people worldwide. Domain names can now be formed entirely using the Russian and Arabic alphabets. Until …        » read more

FBI Translator Jailed for Disclosing Top Secret Information

May 23, 2010
A lawyer and former FBI translator has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for leaking confidential documents. Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, a Hebrew-English translator who also goes by the name Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, worked for the FBI in Maryland from January to August 2009. As a holder of top …        » read more

Google Adds Languages to Its Instant Visual Translation Tool

May 16, 2010
Google has launched an updated version of its photo-based instant translation Smartphone application. The Google Goggles prototype was revealed in February, and was able to translate text from German to English. Users …        » read more

ACLU Criticizes US Town for Passing 'English Only' Law

May 16, 2010
A small New York town has provoked controversy by making English its official language. Despite representing a community of only 1,700 people, members of Jackson Town Council passed a resolution by three votes to one that "all official meetings and business conducted by the elected officials and …        » read more

Number of UK School Children Speaking English as a Second Language Increases

May 16, 2010
Sixteen percent of elementary school students in the UK speak English as a second language, a new report has revealed. The figure for all state schools, including secondary, is 14 percent, making almost one million British school …        » read more

Immigrants Hit Hardest by Louisiana Oil Spill

May 09, 2010
Asian immigrants are isolated and angry following a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, below the US state of Louisiana. The spill happened after the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the Lousiana coast, killing an estimated 11 workers and injuring 17 others. The ensuing environmental disaster has ground …        » read more

Bomb Scare Standoff Due to Language Barrier

May 09, 2010
An apparent misunderstanding was to blame for a police standoff that lasted for nine hours. Armed police officers surrounded a Greyhound bus in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, last Thursday, after a passenger called 911 to report a bomber. The caller, who has not been identified, said a fellow …        » read more

UK University Drops Foreign Language Degrees

May 09, 2010
Undergraduate degrees in French and Spanish are being axed from a British university. The University of Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands region of England, will no longer offer the courses, due to under-recruitment. The institute declined to provide information about enrolment numbers on the courses, but said …        » read more

Movie Star Rourke Took Russian Tuition for New Film Role

May 02, 2010
Actor Mickey Rourke has revealed he travelled to Russia to brush up on his language skills for his latest Hollywood role. The star, whose films include Diner, 9 ½ Weeks and The Wrestler, played Russian technology ace Ivan Vanko in Iron Man 2, the action movie released this week. "It was quite challenging …        » read more

First Nations Languages of BC in Danger of Extinction

May 02, 2010
The native languages of British Columbia will soon disappear if no action is taken, a report warned last week. Research carried out by the First Nations' Heritage, Language and Culture Council revealed that indigenous languages faced "imminent extinction."  The Canadian province of BC is home to 32 …        » read more

Linguistic Diversity Increasing in the US

May 02, 2010
Foreign languages are on the increase in the US, according to a Census Bureau report. The number of people speaking a language other than English in the home has increased by 140 percent since 1980. Spanish has seen the biggest numerical increase, with 211 percent more speakers, although …        » read more