Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Jason Strother reports on the spate of suicides at one of South Korea’s most prestigious universities. Critics say the school’s competitive tuition policy may have played a role in the student deaths. Download MP3
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Learning English is the norm for most South Korean grade school students. But it’s expensive to bring in native English speakers. So the government is starting to experiment with another kind of English teacher: robots. Jason Strother reports. Download MP3
In his State of the Union address, President Obama told Americans that “the first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation.” The President said, maintaining leadership “in research and technology is crucial to America’s success.” What do you think? What’s your take on how America can win the future? Post your comments here
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
“This is our generation’s Sputnik moment,” President Obama said during last night’s State of the Union address. He was referring to the need to spur innovation and stay competitive in a rapidly-changing world. The World’s Jeb Sharp tells us what Sputnik was and whether the analogy makes sense for today’s challenges. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In this week’s World in Words podcast, new research suggests that hard-to-read typographical fonts may help us remember the ideas they spell out. Also, an exhibit in Silicon Valley traces the origins of the language of computer programming. And the architectural grammar of the U.N. Security Council: the design layout of the council’s chamber and adjourning rooms is considered so important that replicas have been constructed during refurbishment.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Languages are often described like patients in a hospital. This language is healthy, that one is dying. The descriptions can apply equally to the health of languages taught here in the US. Today, we consider what it takes to keep a language thriving in America. The Worlds Alex Gallafent reports from New York on the state of Italian. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In this week’s World in Words podcast, a back-to-school edition about learning in a second language. We have stories about English language learning, Arabic language immersion, and the challenges of one Creole-speaking highschooler in New York City. Plus, the first Zulu-English dictionary in 40 years has just been published in South Africa. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A new PBS documentary profiles four kids who are attending dual immersion public schools in San Francisco. The filmmakers are husband and wife team Ken Schneider and Marcia Jarmel. Their own kids go to a dual immersion school and speak fluent Chinese. Patrick Cox has part four of our ‘Learning in Two Languages’ series. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Since the earthquake in Haiti, thousands of Haitians have arrived in the US. Many of them are young people who were in the middle of high school back in Haiti. One grassroots organization in Brooklyn, New York, helps such students finds places at schools over here. The World’s Alex Gallafent has this story in our series ‘Learning in two languages’. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Some kindergartners in California spend half their days learning Arabic. Muslim immigrant families there like the program but they’re troubled by the school’s partnership – with the FBI. Hana Baba from station KALW in San Francisco has the second part of our ‘Learning in two languages’ series.
Most American children don’t learn foreign languages, and the opportunities are decreasing. Schools are cutting back on language programs, especially French and German. But immigration and globalization are creating new circumstances for language learning, along with new challenges. >>>In our four-part series, we hear about some of them.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The fastest growing segment of the American public school population is English Language Learners. These ELL students, the majority of whom are born in America, sit side by side their native English-speaking classmates, but their test scores lag far behind. The U.S. Department of Education has now launched a civil rights investigation of the ELL program in Los Angeles. Officials say only 3% of ELL students at LA schools are proficient at Math and English by the time they reach high school – but some public schools doing far better than others. Nina Porzucki reports from one of them in Downey, California. Download MP3Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In 1973 Sue and Peter Westrum and their baby went to live among an indigenous tribe, the Berik, in Indonesian New Guinea. Their aim was to learn the oral Berik language, develop a script for it, and then translate the Bible into Berik. They spent more than 20 years there. It was a time of great transformation for the Berik people, their beliefs and their language.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
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
