As I began to write last time, waiting for my connecting flight back to California from the February 22-24 4th International Workshop on Linguistic Landscape, I had departed for this gathering in Addis Ababa with two conceptual questions and one applied question in mind. First, for the linguistic landscape workshop participants–a [...]

Multilingual Literature submission deadline: 12/15/09!

One reason I’ve decided to research language use and identity for my dissertation is because I find that my own identity is constantly in question, both by myself and by others. As an American living in the United States, my linguistic identity should be simple. I should only speak one language, English, and be indifferent [...]

I’ve just come down to San Diego for my first-ever AERA (American Educational Research Association) conference, and there’s much to write about. Actually, with probably around 10,000 people spread across 4 giant convention centers and hotels, there’s way too much going on to capture anything more than a tiny fragment. But one thing [...]

I discovered a really cool multilingual wiki (pronouncing) dictionary called Forvo.com. The site contains pronunciations of over a hundred thousand words in 207 languages.

Check it out!

Ever wondered how people say “Get Well Soon!” in multiple languages? I have…so here’s a taste…

Afrikaans Word gou gesond!
Armenian (Eastern) Լավացի’ր: (Lavacir) Առողջացի’ր: (Arogh.jacir)
Bengali শিগগিরি স্বাস্থ্য ভালো হোক। (Shiggiri shastho bhalo hok)
Bulgarian Оздравявай бързо (Ozdravjavaj bãrzo)
Catalan Que et milloris
Chamorro Puedi homlo hao ti apmam
Chinese
(Cantonese) 祝您盡快恢復健康 (jūk néih cheuhnfaai fuìfuhk gihnhòng)
快啲好番呀 (faaidi hóufàan a)
Chinese
(Mandarin) [...]

Ravi, a gifted young peacock-fan seller from the slums of Mumbai, is a GENIUS. He picked up bits and pieces of 13 different languages from tourists he sells to…watch it!

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.

“Western technology companies have misunderstood the linguistic landscape of India, where English is spoken proficiently by only about a tenth of the population and even many college-educated Indians prefer the contours of their native tongues for everyday speech,” according to Quillpad creator Ram Prakash, the New York Times reports today. In the last [...]

While I was wading through the myriad book exhibits at the carnivalesque MLA conference in San Francisco (7000+ people here, they say), I happened across the very cool-looking Multilingual Anthology of American Literature: A Reader of Original Texts with English Translations published in 2000 by the New York University Press, edited by Marc [...]

Ajit Balakrishnan, the CEO of Indian’s fifth largest web portal, Rediff.com, argued recently that data collected over the last decade suggests no evidence that Indian Internet users “want Indian languages.” He went on to state that “practically all of the 300 million young people who aspire to something in this country aspire [...]