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

Israel’s road sign debate

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Last month, Israel’s new transport minister Israel Katz proposed an overhaul to his country’s road signs. Israeli signs are trilingual: Hebrew, Arabic and English. But Katz wants to remove Arabic and English city names and replace them with transliterations of the Hebrew names. Daniel Estrin reports from Jerusalem. >>> See more photos. (Photo credit: Daniel Estrin)

Global Hit: Corneille

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The World’s Lisa Mullins meets international musician, Corneille. His life story spreads out across three continents – Germany, Rwanda and Canada, and he’s just put out his first album in English.

Banning Hungarian, swearing for pain relief, and dog barks translated

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In the latest World in Words podcast, Patrick Cox and Clark Boyd select their top five language-related stories from July. Among them: Slovakia passes a law banning Hungarian in official communications in some of its Hungarian-speaking regions; new research seeks to show why babies and toddlers are so adept at learning two languages simultaneously; the trangressive nature of swearing helps when it comes to tolerating pain; and Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy has come up with a device that claims to translate dog noises into human language. But do we ready want to know what pooch is saying? Plus, our favorite hated words! Download MP3