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jung moon

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - 'Native English' is losing its power - 0 views

www.atimes.com/...HI15Df01.html

english' china culture international globalisation communication

shared by jung moon on 05 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Even as the English language continues its meteoric global rise, native speakers such as the North Americans, British and Australians will soon become a rare breed, overwhelmed by the many millions who have started speaking English as their second language.
  • the new lingua franca in what is now often called a flat world.
  • "So the balance of power is changing, and when the second-language speakers adopt English language as their own language or as a second language, they actually take control of it, mix it and use it with their own language, developing new forms, vocabulary and ways and using English."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • "China now produces over 20 million English speakers each year, and possibly within a few years, there could be more English speakers in China than in India."
  • Graddol's findings predict that by 2015, there will be about 2 billion people from Asia and non-English-speaking Europe learning English.
  • However, that is not necessarily good news for native English speakers. Instead, it could come as a big blow because "they can no longer look the other way, celebrating the rising hegemony of their language".
  • As English becomes more widely used as a global language, it will become expected that speakers will signal their nationality, and other aspects of their identity, through English, Graddol says. Lack of a native-speaker accent will not be seen, therefore, as a sign of poor competence.
  • jung moon on 07 Oct 09
     
    I hope someday I can speak 'Konglish (Korean English)' in everywhere. :D
sayaka uchida

Top 10 Geekiest Constructed Languages | GeekDad | Wired.com - 0 views

www.wired.com/...-geekiest-constructe-languages

language

shared by sayaka uchida on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • 1. Klingon Perhaps the most fully realized science fiction language, Klingon has a complete grammar and vocabulary, permitting countless nerds to learn it like it was high school Spanish. Fans have translated Shakespeare, Sun Tzu and the Bible into the language. There’s a Klingon Language Institute, the purpose of which is to promote the language and culture of this nonexistent people. You can even select Klingon as your language of choice in Google.
  • it has become almost de rigueur for fiction writers and moviemakers to include a constructed language (conlang) when crafting a new universe. Here are some of the best:
  • sayaka uchida on 27 Aug 09
     
    I believe Klingon speaking people certainly share some value and the way of thinking....
Rika Ninomiya

Have a chuckle, but cut the English hybrids some slack | The Courier-Mail - 0 views

www.news.com.au/...0,,24818304-5003424,00.html

Language Malaysia English Globalization

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 01 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Each of these flavours of English has its own local properties. If you know something about the pronunciation of the languages of these countries, you can often identify the speakers' nationality by their English.
  • These Englishes can show a variety of errors of grammar and vocabulary. Sometimes this is caused by interference from the homeland language. Sometimes it is just a feature of the local English that has become established
  • does it really matter? After all, the Australians, the British and the Americans routinely announce "all trains cancelled".
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • English is growing rapidly as a vehicle for communication in many parts of the world. In return for having signs that we can read, we might cut the sign writers a little grammatical slack.
  • Anglos too easily ridicule such lapses, and make feeble jokes about signs like "rock the door of the lavatory securely".
  • Just think – with a little honest humility – of the devastation we would wreak if we tried to translate these notices into Malay for a supermarket or a hotel in Oz.
  • Rika Ninomiya on 01 Sep 09
     
    Funny article with regards to English in different Asian countries. This article focuses on Malaysian sign boards in English.
Christoph Zed

Terrorists in the Making?: Egypt Pursues Europeans Taking Arabic Classes - SPIEGEL ONLI... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,651318,00.html

islam multiculturalism terrorism egypt usa faith

shared by Christoph Zed on 26 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?
  • Young men with downy beards, caps, kneelength a traditional Arab galabeyas and sandals sat chatting in a McDonalds' restaurant in Nasr City, a large middle class district in the eastern part of Cairo.
  • In the neighborhood Egyptians, the European Salafists - Sunni religious fundamentalists - are outsiders.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Ashraf, a 26-year-old Dutchman of Moroccan descent, came to Cairo a year ago. "To learn Arabic," he says, "the language of my religion."
  • "We aren't hurting anyone," says Ashraf, whose apartment was recently searched. "We only come to study and pray."
  • "Religious fanatics want to be taken seriously," says Walid al-Gohari, founder and director of the Al-Fajr institute, one of the many language schools in Nasr City. "But Salafists who don't even know Arabic are not considered credible."
  • The Egyptian security service is concerned about the situation. It therefore keeps a close eye on fundamentalist visitors with a European passport.
  • As a precaution, the security service picked up hundreds of foreign students in a few days time, among them a few from the Netherlands.
glen donnar

Princeton University - Cultural explorations aid learning process for aspiring policyma... - 0 views

www.princeton.edu/...index.xml

intercultural communication college cultural difference

shared by glen donnar on 22 Jul 09 - Cached
  • glen donnar on 22 Jul 09
     
    "The most important rules of the card game: No words, no sign language, no talking; the only communication allowed was through drawing pictures. With these rules, 35 rising college seniors from the United States and several other countries participating in a workshop titled "Intercultural Dimensions of Policymaking" were to learn how playing a card game in complete silence would teach them a lesson about cultural differences."
Blaze Yau

China upgrades palace of Dalai Lamas - 0 views

news.theage.com.au/...dalai-lamas-20090824-ewa8.html

national identity China Tibet

shared by Blaze Yau on 26 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Blaze Yau on 26 Aug 09
     
    China says the project is part of its plan to promote Tibetan culture and language in the region as it develops its economy, of which tourism forms a major part.
katherine ong

Unleashed: Small talk - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...s2371609.htm

lingua franca

shared by katherine ong on 17 Aug 09 - Cached
  • katherine ong on 17 Aug 09
     
    Another language
Fei Xu

China Social Media; Xiaonei: China's Facebook Replica. - 0 views

www.littleredbook.cn/...iaonei-chinas-facebook-replica

shared by Fei Xu on 13 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Fei Xu on 13 Aug 09
     
    the reasons behind social networking services failing in the Chinese market, are not only the language (Facebook has a Chinese version), but also the failure of realising the common desire of subgroup in the market..
  • fiona hou on 14 Aug 09
     
    As copycatting goes, China is King. It is an incisive criticism, which sharply points out the most significant existing problem in China in the copyright respect. This bug on policy and regulation corrupts Chinese creative thinking fundamentally.
Maria D'Amato

'Slip carefully!' : Shanghai tackles bad English before expo - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...before-expo-20090826-eyxl.html

-

shared by Maria D'Amato on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The Shanghai government, along with neighbouring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces
  • standardise signs and eliminate notoriously bad, and sometimes amusing, English translations.
  • A malfunctioning online translation tool may have helped a restaurant named "Translate server error"
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Last year a city-wide inspection by Shanghai's Language Affairs Commission found that more than one in 10 signs had incorrect translations
  • Beijing ran a similar campaign in preparation for last year's Olympics.
  • The Shanghai government, along with neighbouring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, published a 20-page guide book this week to standardise signs and eliminate notoriously bad, and sometimes amusing, English translations.
  • The official campaign prompted local media to share favourite mistranslations. At Shanghai's iconic Oriental Pearl Tower, visitors are warned "Ragamuffin, drunken people and psychotics are forbidden to enter", according to the Shanghaiist city blog.
  • Last year a city-wide inspection by Shanghai's Language Affairs Commission found that more than one in 10 signs had incorrect translations, the China Daily reported.
  • The city is preparing to hold the biggest-ever World Expo from May 1 to October 31. The city expects 70 million people, the vast majority of them Chinese, to attend the event, featuring pavilions from nearly 190 countries.
  • Blaze Yau on 27 Aug 09
     
    Lost in translation?
glen donnar

Chinese hack into film festival site - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...stival-site-20090725-dwvx.html

communication international china australia film festival

shared by glen donnar on 25 Jul 09 - Cached
  • CHINESE hackers have attacked the Melbourne International Film Festival website in an intensifying campaign against the screening of a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
  • The hackers replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans
  • "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us because we've refused to comply with the Chinese Government's demands."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Last week, three Chinese directors withdrew films, with two denying they were forced to do so by Chinese authorities. Director Tang Xiaobai, who withdrew her film Perfect Life after being phoned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said it was her decision to boycott the festival."I do not want to see my film screened on the same platform as a film about Kadeer," Tang told the official English-language newspaper China Daily.
Yair Frid

YouTube - Food Fight - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

Food nationalism history war

shared by Yair Frid on 24 Aug 09 - Cached
  • xinning ji on 24 Aug 09
     
    it is a quite funny animation. Also, in an interesting way, it uses symbolic languages to represent the modern world, pop culture and globalization. In my point of view, there is a global war in which sushi represents Asia and hanburg and chips play as West. they fight with each other in order to prove which one is more dominant and powerful.
  • Yair Frid on 25 Aug 09
     
    Its the recent history of war:Go here to see which country is represented by which food, its quite cool http://www.touristpictures.com/foodfight/cheat.htm
glen donnar

China steps up film festival row - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...estival-row-20090801-e58v.html

china nationalism international relations australia miff nation states protest

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • A DIPLOMATIC row between Australia and China
  • with Australia’s ambassador called to a dressing-down by China’s Foreign Ministry.
  • Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told Mr Raby that Australia must ‘‘immediately correct its wrongdoings’’ and cancel Ms Kadeer’s visa
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • the documentary The 10 Conditions of Love, about Ms Kadeer
  • Ms Kadeer will take part in the screening of the documentary next Saturday.She will also meet members of Australia’s 2000-strong Uighur community.
  • Her involvement in the festival led to seven Chinese-language films — from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — being withdrawn.
  • ‘‘This latest attack is just extraordinary,’’ the festival director said. ‘‘What’s happened is that this has become a question of Chinese nationalism where it has almost become people’s official duty to register a protest.’’
glen donnar

Chinese hackers circulate email on how to sabotage film website - Film - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...1248977230490.html

china miff australia protest global culture international relations

shared by glen donnar on 02 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Instructions educating Chinese citizens on how to sabotage the Melbourne International Film Festival are being circulated around the world, organisers say.
  • Six Chinese-language movies have also been pulled out of the festival, leaving organisers with a logistical headache and the fear that Chinese film-makers will boycott the festival in future.
  • Hackers replaced festival information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans soon after the launch of the 2009 festival.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "It's a very, very concerted and pointed attack," Mr Moore said. "Everyone's watching this - it's totally global." The email provides instructions for loading tickets into "shopping carts" from the festival's website, and Chinese are being urged to teach others how to "purchase" MIFF tickets online.
amy wu

Wikipedia Testing New Editing Restrictions - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...estrictions-20090826-eyix.html

Wikipedia edit restrictions online credibility openness

shared by amy wu on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that has increasingly drawn some decidedly juvenile pranks, is looking to impose more discipline with new restrictions on the editing of articles.
  • The latest changes come as Wikipedia continues trying to balance a need for credibility and a desire for openness.
  • The idea is to block the kind of high-profile vandalism that has marred some pages.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The same flagging process, for example, has been imposed on all entries in the German-language Wikipedia for more than a year.
  • Some believe Wikipedia must continue tightening editing policies if it wants to gain credibility.
  • amy wu on 27 Aug 09
     
    Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that has increasingly drawn some decidedly juvenile pranks, is looking to impose more discipline with new restrictions on the editing of articles.
xinning ji

Eyeing off cultural difference | The Daily Telegraph - 0 views

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/...story-e6freuy9-1225761653092

shared by xinning ji on 17 Aug 09 - No Cached
  • the oriental "neglect'' of the mouth can lead to more mistakes in interpreting a person's emotion, said the study, describing how feelings can be ``lost in translation.''
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 17 Aug 09
       
      different culture makes people who have different behavious. it is obvious between West and East. people in Asia do nto have many facial expression and body language; they looks shy and strict. in contrast, Western people's facial expression always change when they talk to each other. In Asia, people would not like to express themselves to each other. in other words, they sometimes seems try to hide something, or sometime they do not like others, such as family members to worry about them. So, we usually tell each other good news and hide bad things. it is quite interesting to know different cultural values around the world, and also it is useful to understand various ways to communicate with people from all over the world.
  • Asian participants had difficulty recognising facial expressions of fear and disgust, mistakenly interpreting them as surprise and anger instead
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 17 Aug 09
       
      I do not think it is a mistake Asian participants made because different explanation or understanding is based on different cultral backgrounds from West and Aisa. so it is not wrong or right but cultural conflicts and differences.
Adinda Silitonga

Stop provoking the people, Foreign Ministry tells media | The Jakarta Post - 0 views

www.thejakartapost.com/...eign-ministry-tells-media.html

Indonesia Media

shared by Adinda Silitonga on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Nora Ibrahim on 10 Sep 09
     
    I agree that media at times could work as the devil's advocate in stirring up animosity amongst the people and in this case between Indonesia and Malaysia. It is sad though because these two countries are very much similar since historically the native malays in Malaysia are from Indonesia itself. The national language of Malaysia which is Bahasa Malaysia (Bahasa Melayu) is historically from Bahasa Indonesia as well. How can there so much animosity when there is so much similarity that is ignored or intentionally over looked.
Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | Europe | Bhajis and cricket balls in Brescia - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8225202.stm

cricket sport culture clash europe italy immigration identity

shared by Christoph Zed on 28 Aug 09 - Cached
  • This is the San Polo municipal football ground on the outskirts of Brescia - a big industrial city in the north of Italy home to one of the biggest south Asian communities in the country.
  • The attraction is cricket - the final rounds of a limited overs competition.
  • "It's not a good place to live", he says. "Most Italians only speak their own language and so - unlike Indians and Pakistanis - they don't mix well with people from other cultures."
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • the place could benefit from a "multicultural mix-up"
  • The League is almost invariably described as xenophobic
  • there have been complaints about cricket in the parks; and, yes, it has been banned, with local police ordered to halt games
  • "I want to see more Italian kids take it up," he adds. "Cricket can help build links between the Italian and immigrant communities - and help us avoid some of the problems we've seen in the past."
  • He is a politician - a pragmatist who simply can no longer afford to ignore the demands of his hometown's large south Asian community. And in this case pragmatism - it would seem - might just be the best way to start building a better life for everyone.
sayaka uchida

Can a Mother Lose Her Child Because She Doesn't Speak English? - 0 views

www.time.com/...0,8599,1918941,00.html

language migrant

shared by sayaka uchida on 28 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Can the U.S. government take a woman's baby from her because she doesn't speak English? That's the latest question to arise in the hothouse debate over illegal immigration
  • Can the U.S. government take a woman's baby from her because she doesn't speak English? That's the latest question to arise in the hothouse debate over illegal immigration,
  • Department of Human Services (DHS), which ruled that Baltazar Cruz was an unfit mother in part because her lack of English "placed her unborn child in danger and will place the baby in danger in the future."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The social-services translator also reported that Baltazar Cruz had put Rubí in danger because she "had not brought a cradle, clothes or baby formula." But indigenous Oaxacan mothers traditionally breast feed their babies for a year and rarely use bassinets, carrying their infants instead in a rebozo, a type of sling.
  • sayaka uchida on 28 Aug 09
     
    Can the U.S. government take a woman's baby from her because she doesn't speak English? That's the latest question to arise in the hothouse debate over illegal immigration,
Blaze Yau

Stirring tale of dancer who emerged from Mao's shadow - Film - Entertainment - 1 views

www.theage.com.au/...1253385036858.html

Australian movie China Dance

shared by Blaze Yau on 02 Oct 09 - Cached
  • This image was imprinted in our minds
  • This was my bible
  • this was the book that my life should have been following. This man was our god who had saved us from hell! But when I went to America everything contained in this thing - the beliefs, the ideologies - all crumbled right in front of me. I realised I was really the victim of an incredible cultural brainwashing
  • Blaze Yau on 02 Oct 09
     
    A very good Australian film 'Mao's Last Dancer'. The main character(real one) is now living in Melbourne as a stockbroker. I think the film successfully highlights the contradiction between Communist China and America. Should go and see it.
  • fina ramlee on 04 Oct 09
     
    have you seen it Blaze? Anna said it was brilliant.
  • xuejiao lin on 05 Oct 09
     
    Personally, i appreciate this movie so much. Mao's Last Dancer was opened on the same day in Melbourne as another movie called The Founding of A Republic. That was an obvious ideological confrontation. Though the two movies are telling story in the same country. Compared with the Singapore Girl TV Commercial, which was made by Asian for showing oriental spirit to the western in a western way, Mao's Last Dancer was made by Australia for showing their understanding of the age of ideological confrontation. I think for many western audience, there are a lot of languages and ideology during that special years could not be understood forever. But i appreciate the director and adaptor so much. Because sometimes we need others to help us grow.
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