From an Associated Press story:

“Chinese officials tried to defuse discontent following days of student protests in ethnically Tibetan areas, saying a plan to teach classes only in Mandarin Chinese was not aimed at wiping out Tibet’s native tongue, state media reported Saturday.”

The unrest arose when word spread of an educational reform […]

A recent post on Lexiblog has a list of the top ten languages hardest to learn, according to “language enthusiasts”:

1. Icelandic
2. Russian or Mandarin
3. Arabic
4. Mandarin
5. Hungarian
6. English
7. Hindi
8. Cantonese
9. Chinese
10. Tamil

What are some of the hardest languages YOU have acquired? What made them hard?

Youki and I found this great multilingual rendition of “Happy Birthday” on Youtube that we wanted to share with our fellow FITizens:

Sublime, huh? We wish everyone born today-a day picked oh so randomly-a very happy birthday.

Oh, and Fitzy, unwilling to be left out, offered this.