Seeing a Japanese word I thought was buried in the past re-emerging in day-to-day use reminded me of a strand of posts I started but haven’t kept up with:「ありがとうございます」(Thank you very much),「入口」 (Entrance), and「おひさしぶりです」 (Long time, no see)  were posts I wrote as I tried to make sure my [...]

This is the first year in a while I can remember that I’m not planning to go to AAAL, the conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics that will take place this coming weekend in Chicago. And in not going, I’m perhaps more acutely aware of what I might be missing than [...]

I was online and on Facebook when the first news about the earthquake in Japan was posted. I hurriedly went to check English language news sites and found next to nothing on them. I switched over to the Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri, and Mainichi and spent half the night reading, refreshing, watching, and checking in on [...]

The 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan two days ago, the continuing revelations about the loss of life, the massive water damage, and now the minute-by-minute unfolding of an already bad and potentially horrific situation in a number of nuclear reactors in Japan … these seem to have reduced language to nothing. These are [...]

It’s rare, but every now and then I’ll be confronted by how many mistakes I learned through my mother.

Last week at a party, I discovered what a pomelo was. This green-peeled citrus fruit is something I am familiar with, having eaten it throughout my childhood. I always recognized the pomelo as a grapefruit, because they [...]

Admin note: An email announcement posted to the Berkeley Language Center mailing list earlier today, and re-posted here:

Dear Berkeley colleagues,

The White House has sent out a call for advice on education reform. The comment period is open until March 11 (Thursday). They promise every message will be read. During this small window of extra attentiveness, [...]

I have left my current residence in Oslo to spend a week in Guangzhou. I feel as though I’m starring in my own version of the film Inception, an American living in Norway conducting educational research in China. What will serve as my “kick” into familiar surroundings once again? Perhaps my move [...]

Like Jonathan, I found the recent announcement of an increase of half a million dollars to certain language course offerings at Berkeley to be heartening news. But I also find myself reacting with quite a bit of uncertainty to the announcement. Since my focus is in East Asian languages, my response to the [...]

Mr. Manu Joseph pens another Letter from India for the New York Times, this time on the “Uncompromising Practicality [that] Could Be India’s Downfall.” I covered his previous letter here, noting the gaping flaws in his argument about the spread of English in India. This time, he serves up [...]