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.

Dictators with dialects, finger spelling and universal Inuit

Napoleon, Hitler and Gaddafi all grew up speaking a distinct dialect of their native tongue. Coincidence? Dialects are the languages of outsiders, at least until they are co-opted by people, or governments, trying to standardize the language. That’s what’s happening right now in northern Canada, where with the dialects of the Inuit. The hope is that language will unite this widely scattered people[...]

Voting, vowing and singing in a foreign 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.

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.
Download MP3

The multilingual census, and why Thais win at Scrabble

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 podcast, the U.S.Census Bureau is firing on all linguistic cylinders to ensure that non-English speakers are counted in this year’s census. Things don’t always go smoothly: in Vietnamese, the word “census” got translated into something closer to “investigation”. Also, how to pronounce that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, Scrabble obsession beyond the English-speaking world, and five unique Japanese expressions.
Download MP3

Japanese Jazz Opera

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 standard view of Japanese popular culture, at least here in the US, is that it’s wacky, chaotic and impossible to fathom. For instance, there’s a video doing the rounds online that features actors dressed up as peasants singing American jazz standards, with Japanese lyrics. The World’s Alex Gallafent finds out what it all means. Download MP3

• Video: “Momotaro: Modern Jazz Opera”
• Subscribe to our Global Hit podcast on iTunes

Bilingual metaphors, place name changes, and interpreting for the Dodgers

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, Nobel literature prize winner Herta Mueller dreamed up metaphors in a mix of her native German and the Romanian she learned at school. Try translating that into English. Also, a conversation with the author of “Whatever Happened to Tanganika? The Place Names that History Left Behind.” And a profile of the man the Los Angeles Dodgers hired to interpret for the team’s Japanese players.

Download MP3

Haruki Murakami’s fans, confessions of a kanji-holic, and kwassa kwassa

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.

We check out a claim that with the aid of a super-computer, it’s possible to predict which words will become extinct in a few centuries. Also, a report on the extraordinarily devoted fans of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. That’s followed by a conversation with Eve Kushner, a devoted fan of those Japanese characters known as kanji. Finally, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig on his favorite phrase out of Africa: kwassa kwassa.

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

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 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

Going grassroots in Japan

Inspired by the grassroots Obama campaign, a Japanese student tried to start an online group to mobilize young Japanese voters. But he discovered that his online effort violates the country’s 50-year-old election law. Akiko Fujita reports. Listen