A Dubious Award for the Squeezed Middle

‘Squeezed middle’ beats out ‘occupy’, ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘tiger mother’ to win the OED’s word of the year

Podcast: Memorizing the Koran and a New ‘Speak English’ Test

A Spelling Bee for Muslim World, a language proficiency test for immigrants to Britain, and Alaskans learn an African language.

Punjabi immersion, Nigerian pidgin radio, and Annoying “Americanisms”

Top five language stories this month including: The first Punjabi public school in the US, a and a British journalist rails against the invasion of what he calls Americanisms into British English.

An Indian Toilet Museum’s Public Health Mission

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The World’s Rhitu Chatterjee reports on a small museum in New Delhi that is at the center of an effort to improve sanitation for the 600 million Indians without access to modern toilets. Download MP3

Slideshow: India’s Toilet Museum
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The battle to own Bin Laden’s story

Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, a new battle has begun: the rhetorical fight to frame his legacy. The White House got off to a bad start, with its initial claims about the circumstances of the killing. We offer two stabs at this story, one from the perspective of the US government, the other from a cultural point of view. There have been many other such stabs: I especially like [...]

Civil War, 1896 Tsunami, Mau Mau, Yuri Gagarin, Bay of Pigs

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In the last week alone we’ve had at least three big anniversaries: 150th anniversary of the start of the (American) Civil War; 50th anniversary of the first human being into space; 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs. So we’ll look back at each of those moments. Plus Lisa Mullins interviews an archivist at National Geographic about an American writer and photographer, Eliza Scidmore, who documented the aftermath of a tsunami in northeast Japan more than a century ago. And we have two segments on the history behind the trial unfolding in London right now over alleged British atrocities in Kenya during the counterinsurgency campaign against Mau Mau rebels in the 1950′s. Download MP3

Consciousness, Poetry, and Bilingual Babies

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, we take a trip inside the mind. Rhitu Chatterjee takes us through some of the recent research into the bilingual brain. Also, theoretical psychologist Nicholas Humphrey gives us his take on consciousness, and why language may be only a small part of it. Then we consider poetry, which offers a bridge between consciousness and language.
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The staying power of English, and Shakespeare in Shona

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In this week’s World in Words podcast: a new book sparks a debate about how long English will rule the world. Also, Shakespeare’s plays will be performed in 38 languages next year in London, plus efforts to eradicate a Colonial-era pidgin still used by South African mineworkers, and to eradicate English words from Russian and Chinese.
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Capturing the war in cameras

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We have seen a lot of pictures from Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. Chances are that many of them were actually taken by the military. Combat cameramen and women, document everything from battles to the daily life of the soldiers. Most of the soldiers in training will be deployed either to Afghanistan or Iraq. Correspondent Jake Warga has more. Download MP3 (Photo: Jake Warga)

Slideshow: Images from the war

Voting, vowing and singing in a foreign language

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, we explore when it’s helpful to understand a foreign language, and when it’s essential. Also, an Islamic calligraphy master offers classes in his Arlington, Virginia home. And Broadway star Amra-Faye Wright talks about learning Japanese so she could perform “Chicago” in Tokyo.
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World Books Review: From Iran and Japan, Two Modern Visions of Horror

Thankfully, these fascinating short novels, while they provide plenty of genuine scares, transcend the grisly genre of “ghost stories” or “tales of madness,” partly because their authors self-consciously manipulate staid spine-tingling formulas.

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Aussie English and proper English

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, author Simon Heffer visits a school in his quest to have people speak good English. Also, poet Les Murray describes some delightfully improper expressions used by Australians. And we check in on a language school in India where the teachers have a strong sense of what constitutes proper English. Download MP3

Genders, geniuses, and Tamil onomatopoeia

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In the latest World in Words podcast: a new line of Tamil pulp fiction translated into English keeps the magnificent onomatopoeia of the original. Also, new research shows that no matter you much some Germans try, they can’t make their language gender-neutral; and Carol Hill’s adventures with Swedish. Download MP3

Speaking in Tongues and Dreaming in Chinese

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, a PBS documentary follows four students and their families at dual immersion schools in San Francisco. Also, a conversation with Deborah Fallows on living in China and learning Chinese. In Chinese, she says, rude is polite, brusque is intimate. And then there’s the lousy Chinese name she was given. Download MP3

World Books Review: Life Under Mao

Bi Feiyu’s satiric novel about village life during the Cultural Revolution is uneven, but he displays an uncanny understanding of young women and the way they use their sexuality to try to take control of their lives.

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