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Mandarin Myths – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education
There is no way Mandarin has two billion speakers. The government of the People’s Republic of China tends to overstate the figure for political reasons (because Mandarin is supposed to be the state’s...
View ArticleThe Languages of the World Cup – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher
Borges, in an interview, once said that he didn’t like soccer. “But it’s popular,” the interviewer said. To which the author of “Emma Zunz” replied: “Stupidity is also popular.” Too bad. He was an...
View ArticleThe Goldfinch and the Stewardess – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of...
The literary world has been engaged in a hearty dialogue over the merits and deficiencies of Donna Tartt’s massive novel The Goldfinch, which spent more than 30 weeks on The New York Times best-seller...
View ArticleThe (Melo)drama of English Grammar – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of...
On my desk is an 1846 copy of The Principles of English Grammar; Comprising the Substance of the Most Approved English Grammars Extant, With Copious Exercises in Parsing and Syntax; and an Appendix of...
View ArticleLanguage Anarchy – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher Education
As we all know, these aren’t idle questions for the English language today. True, there are countless software programs, books, websites, teachers, editors, and just plain busybodies straining to keep...
View ArticleCursing in a Second Language – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of...
Europeans cast their votes this week in a European Union parliamentary poll in which nationalist, Euro-skeptic parties are expected to do well—suggesting waning enthusiasm for the European project, and...
View ArticleThere Was No Committee – Lingua Franca – Blogs – The Chronicle of Higher...
English is becoming a global lingua franca not just for trade, industry, aviation, research, and entertainment, but also for higher education. We scarcely needed the conclusions of a new research...
View ArticleKeep Your Multilingualism to Yourself – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of...
Leeuwarden, Friesland, Netherlands — My assignment here in the pleasant Frisian city of Leeuwarden, in Holland’s only officially multingual province, is to debate Guillaume Thierry over whether...
View ArticleIllegal Immigrants and Marine Biologists – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of...
Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and pro-immigrant activist, was here at Brown University last week giving a lecture. In 2011 he outed himself as a person who (as he discovered...
View ArticleDinging for ‘Grammatical Errors’– Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher...
As many of us prepare to return to the classroom for the fall semester, it seems like a good time to talk about grammar and grading. Occasionally I poll students about how many of them have had their...
View ArticleThe New Journalism, Redux – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education
It must be coming on 15 years ago that I had a student named Todd in my “Feature and Magazine Writing” class. One of Todd’s stories for the class was about the engineering behind take-out coffee-cup...
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Time Traveler’s Language Guide – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher...
Excuse me, I was just talking with a guy from 6,000 years ago. Language, being learned rather than innate, has a natural tendency to change as each person learns it under slightly different...
View ArticleLesson 11 – Coffee Break German | Radio Lingua Network
Introduction We’re back with a new episode of Coffee Break German, the first in a new season of ten lessons which focus on practical German you’ll need on a trip to a German-speaking country. In this...
View ArticleAn Academic Matter – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Recently l’Académie française, the nearly 400-year-old body of savants charged with perfecting and protecting the French language, was in the news for having admitted as one of its 40 “immortals” a...
View ArticleLesson 01 – Coffee Break German | Radio Lingua Network
Introduction Welcome to this first episode of Coffee Break German, our new German course for beginners. In weekly episodes you’ll join native speaker Thomas who’ll be teaching learner Mark in gradual,...
View ArticleMeet the Coffee Break German team | Radio Lingua Network
We’re delighted to tell you more about the new course from the Radio Lingua Network. In Coffee Break German, you’ll be learning enough German to get by in a whole range of situations, for example if...
View ArticleStopping to Consider Language Acquisition – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of...
As is my wont, when I began reading Interpreting Imperatives by Magdalena Kaufmann (now at the University of Connecticut) I started with a part that many would probably skip: the preface. There are all...
View ArticleFlexiptivists of the World, Unite! – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher...
Some weeks ago, in discussing such “incorrect” idioms as not too big of a deal, can’t help but think, and I could care less, I suggested that I could care less whether or not people used them. That was...
View ArticleIllegal Immigrants and Marine Biologists – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of...
Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and pro-immigrant activist, was here at Brown University last week giving a lecture. In 2011 he outed himself as a person who (as he discovered...
View ArticleIllegal Immigrants and Marine Biologists – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of...
Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and pro-immigrant activist, was here at Brown University last week giving a lecture. In 2011 he outed himself as a person who (as he discovered...
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