Madame White Snake

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A new opera will premiere in Boston on Friday. It’s a piece that was written, and developed in the city over the past four years. But its story is over a thousand years old. It’s based on the ancient Chinese legend that has never been brought to a Western audience. Sung in English with projected English and Chinese titles. The World’s Adeline Sire has more. Download MP3

• Opera Boston
• Facebook Madame White Snake: World Premiere
• Madame White Snake’s study guide
• Cutler Majestic Theatre

A Chinese Valentine’s pod

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Hundreds of language programs at public schools have become victims of shrinking budgets. Not Chinese. We visit an inner city high school where 400 students are learning Chinese. Also, don’t be fooled: the language of love is not universal, not unless you keep you mouth shut. That’s the view of an American woman who endlessly misunderstands the amorous words of her German-speaking lover. Plus, bodice-ripping our way out of the recession: romance novels are more popular than ever.Download MP3

Chinese popular with American students

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Medgar Evers College Preparatory School is a public school in central Brooklyn, NY. Most of its student population is African American and Afro-Caribbean. The school runs one of the largest Chinese language programs for students not from a Chinese background in the US. The World’s Alex Gallafent went back to school for us. Download MP3

• Alex Gallafent’s photos from the Brooklyn school
• From the NY Times: Will Americans Really Learn Chinese?
• The World in Words

Words your grandmother taught you in Chinese, Dutch and Yiddish

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Many people learned their first foreign words from their grandmothers. Marco Werman learned a Dutch curse. Nina Porzucki learned a Yiddish word that speaks to a certain Jewish mindset. Marilyn Chin learned insults, puns and tongue twisters, many of which later found their way into Chin’s poetry and fiction.
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Spelling Obama in Chinese, oratory, and chop suey love

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In this all-Chinese pod, how to spell Obama in Chinese. Then, the contrasting oratorical styles of presidents Hu and Obama. That’s followed by something on a type of Chinese idiom known as chengyu. Then to the UK, where Confucian philosophy infuses Chinese language classes in five public schools. Finally, poet Marilyn Chin on why she loves the expression chop suey.

Understanding Chinese, birds and Glaswegians

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We select our top five language-related stories from the past month. Among them: Some birds develop distinct dialects based on the decibel levels of their habitats; Companies doing business in Glasgow are offered interpreters to translate the local dialect; And Chinese expats do battle over which script U.S. schools should use to teach Chinese – traditional characters, favored in Taiwan and Hong Kong, or simplified characters, used in mainland China.

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Chinese city raises child limit

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China’s long enforced the so-called one-child policy. But officials in Shanghai say they’re ready to encourage some couples to have TWO children. Anchor Katy Clark finds out more from Yiyi Lu Research Fellow for the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham.

Iran and translation, a search engine is sick in Chinese, and a drug ring’s Arabic dialects

Patrick Cox and Carol Hills select the top five language-related
stories from June. Among them: Google translation gets to work on the streets of Teheran; Microsoft’s choice of Bing as the name for its search engine to rival Google may not go down well in China; a music festival in Quebec runs afoul of language sensitivies; and a drug ring in Pennsylvannia uses Iraqi Arabic dialects in its communications.Listen