MetaFilter posts tagged with education and language

Goodbye, "Leih Hou Ma," Hello "Ni Hao Ma!"

zarq — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:57:09 -0800

"Chinatown" communities across the United States (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco) are undergoing a shift in linguistic identity, as recent immigrants are more likely to natively speak Mandarin (the official spoken language of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,) instead of Cantonese. Also see these anecdotal reports about similar changes in Vancouver and Oakland, CA. Good news for the tri-literate: signs like this may soon become commonplace. :) The Language Atlas of China The PopUp Chinese Podcast and Arch Chinese site provide basic Mandarin lessons. Also see: Mango, ZhongWen and LiveMocha

Please Call Me Hararie

netbros — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:54:40 -0800

Japanese Element Symbols is an introduction for non-Japanese to the Japanese language through Kanji symbols, its alphabet, elements of Japan's culture, and what to expect on the culinary front.

English as a Shouted Language

divabat — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:10:31 -0800

"Conquer English to Make China Stronger!" is the philosophy of Li Yang, founder of the Crazy English school (and style) of language, described by some as "English as a Shouted Language" for its main method of shouting English words in public to overcome shyness. Li Yang has achieved Elvis-like popularity in China, not just through his public lectures but also through the sales of books, media, teaching materials, and a memoir titled "I am Crazy, I Succeed". Li Yang's unorthodox methods - which include encouraging students to "lose face" and cope with embarrassment on the way to success - have earned him fame and fortune, including headlining the 5th Beijing Foreign Language Festival and being the main English teacher for China's Olympic volunteers. Li Yang's secret to success: "... to have them continuously paying—that’s the conclusion I’ve reached."

Wordchamp: hover over a foreign-language word and get its definition

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:42:30 -0800

Wordchamp lets you view foreign-language web pages with definitions in your language as mouseovers (registration-only). When you've registered, you can enter a language pair and a URL into Wordchamp's "Web Reader" and a definition will pop up when you hover over a word. It's sad that it's registration-only, and I can't vouch for the quality of the dictionaries; but I've found it quite useful in making some sense of web pages in different languages.

Theory of science communication

Gyan — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:51:53 -0800

Belief and knowledge - a primer on science communication

The end of cursive?

stbalbach — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:03:05 -0800

The end of cursive? When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2006, just 15 percent of the almost 1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive. The rest? They printed. Block letters. "Cursive -- that is so low on the priority list, we really could care less. We are much more concerned that these kids pass their SOLs [standardized tests]."

Learning and Loving it

kozad — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:43:30 -0800

Next step: English Video helping kids learn roman script

Meet the newspeak, same as the oldspeak

Mr. Six — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 00:40:27 -0800

When taking lessons in English from the BBC, be sure to follow up with remedial "playground-speak"

Naughty!

growabrain — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 23:39:59 -0800

There are 7 words you can't say in kindergarden. Caution: contains foul language and political thought.

subpixel — Sat, 06 Jan 2001 17:49:36 -0800

Welcome back, state's rights. As if Dubya's comments following his "ethnic" Cabinet appointments wasn't enough retrograde logic -- roughly: if blacks and hispanics (would only?) work hard and make the right choices in life -- he's now using language that has been used to mask agendas based on race from before the Civil War through the fight against integration. And it looks like that fight ain't over, if you read "states rights" in today's context to mean the right to spend public funds on getting (primarily) white kids out of (primarily) black schools.

rschram — Tue, 24 Oct 2000 13:36:30 -0800

I challenge you to help me learn Tok Pisin
Mi laik i harim Tok Pisin. Olgeta manmeri i tokim long Tok Pisin long Papua Niugini. Mi laik i lukim na stap long PNG! That was some poor Tok Pisin. Tok Pisin is a Melanesia pidgin language extensively used in Papua New Guinea. Help me learn more! Post links for Tok Pisin language learning here!

mrmorgan — Tue, 14 Mar 2000 19:41:11 -0800

First it was safety scissors. Now we can all sleep safer knowing we are safe from dangerous words. Weren't schools rewarding honor students at some point, or is my memory bad? (via obscurestore)