Inventing a Word for a Facebook Relationship

Podcast: Asking your Facebook friends to invent a tenuous Facebook relationship.

Why Most Presidential Contenders Hide Their Language Skills

One feature of this election season has been a reticence on the part of most candidates to admit to knowledge of languages other than English. Deep down, though, they may recall a word or two of a foreign tongue.

Corporate Spelling Experiments and Fear of a Chinese-Speaking Planet

Corporations love to tinker with spelling, often with disastrous consequences. Also, a film explores fears about Chinese.

Does the Language You Speak Determine How Much Money You Save?

A controversial new study out of Yale concludes that people who speak languages without future verb tenses like Chinese are better at preparing for the future than people who use a future tense like in English, French, and Spanish for example.

Are Chinese Kids Losing Their Language?

In this week’s World in Words podcast, Beijing urges mandatory calligraphy classes for school kids.

Confucius in Kigali: China’s Cultural Outreach in Rwanda

China is doing a lot to promote its interests in Africa. But it’s not all about building roads and infrastructure. China is trying to promote its language and culture as well.

Pakistan Province Makes Learning Chinese Mandatory

The Geo Quiz is looking for a Pakistani province which has announced plans to make learning Chinese mandatory in schools.

Finally, Proof that Fiction is Good for You

In this week’s World in Words podcast, researchers test the supposed link between reading fiction and empathy.

From Cicero to Lynne Truss with Robert Lane Greene

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Robert Lane Greene’s new book “You Are What You Speak” examines how language we speak is bound up in our identity. How much does our native language define us? How much does it set our ways of thinking? Can we think a different way in a different language? Why do people get so persnickety about punctuation? Why do grammar sticklers yearn for a golden age of usage that usually coincides with their school days? Download MP3

Tuscany textiles

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We’re looking for a city in Tuscany for our Geo Quiz today. It’s known for its fabrics, its delicious biscotti, and now for its growing Chinese community. The city has the second largest Chinese immigrant population in Italy. Download MP3

Pharaohs, Cantonese and the Gang of Four

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In this week’s World in Words podcast: why did British band Gang of Four name themselves after China’s notorious cultural revolutionaries? Also, was Hosni Mubarak Egypt’s last pharaoh? Or is that just a cute turn of phrase? And is Cantonese, once the lingua franca of Chinatowns around the world., imperiled by the steady march of Mandarin?

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Cantonese: a Dialect in Peril?

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In official China, Mandarin is favored over all other dialects. That has had a knock-on effect here in the US, where Cantonese used to be the dominant Chinese language. Reporter Nina Porzucki reports from New York on how Cantonese is faring. Download MP3

Cantonese Social Club

The events of English and the future of Tibetan

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, Tibetans protest over the potential loss of their language in some schools. Also, Spain re-orders its family names (under the new rules General Franco might have been General Bahamonde). Plus, historical events that have shaped the development of the English language. And how do you know when you can speak a language?
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The English-only movement in America

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, a conversation about making English the only official language in the United States. Tim Schultz, lobbyist of US English makes the case for this, ahead of an English-only vote in Oklahoma. Also, an election ad in Chinese, aimed at Americans who don’t speak Chinese.
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Spanish, pure and otherwise

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In this week’s World in Words podcast: you can hear Latin America’s clearest, crispest Spanish in Colombia. So, Bogota is now home to everything from call centers to telenovela production houses. Also, what the spread of Spanish in the United States is doing to both the language and the country. Finally, Dora the Explorer and Kai-Lan: two fictional TV characters who introduce American kids to their first words of Spanish and Chinese.
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