http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com How to learn foreign languages: advice from the Foreign Language Doctor Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:30:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ultimately, some linguists and computer scientists argue, technology will collapse the world's language barriers. Imagine walking down the street in Cairo, speaking English into your cell phone, and having your words come out in Arabic. That future might not be far off. Reliable and ubiquitous translation technology "is really only ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=841 One of the more shocking aspects of Japan to first-time visitors is just how low-tech the country really is.  While most of us imagine Japan as a neon-jungle, of sorts, replete with robots, and almost unimaginable electronics prowess, the truth is that much of the country's infrastructure, as well as ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=840 Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.Yet aged just 21 and now a university student in Hong Kong, Li already finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=839 Linguists all over the world have yet to live down the ill-informed ideas of Benjamin Lee Whorf, who 70 years ago claimed that language constrains thinking to the point of some cultures/people having no ability to conceptualize time lines, for instance.  The hypothesis was all-the-rage for a while, until common ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=838 Your weekend treat: everything you ever wanted to know about dating in Japan. The fun comes, of course, from the fact that everything here has a kernel of truth in it. Starts slow, but stick with it.... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=837  Happy news for Arabic learners at the American University in Cairo (which will soon include one of my current students!), via The Chronicle... Downtown Cairo isn't the easiest place for foreign students to get used to. It's crowded, noisy, and polluted; the traffic is dangerous; and women face sexual ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=836 For most of us, the squat toilet is nothing more than a staple of horror stories about old-fashioned French service stations or the exploits of adventurous backpackers in far-flung parts of India. But this basic form of plumbing, also known as a Turkish toilet or Nile pan, could be coming to ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=835 If the liberal media are suggesting we need to elect linguists who never make such silly mistakes, well then they have some explaining to do. Vice President Biden could barely pronounce the President's name for a few months and had difficulty counting the number of letters in the word "jobs" ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=834 Scientists have used a computer program to decipher a written language that is more than three thousand years old. The program automatically translated the ancient written language of Ugaritic within just a few hours. Scientists hope the breakthrough could help them decipher the few ancient languages that they have been unable to ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=833 Not a language related post, but nonetheless interesting.  The one child policy has long been reviled by many both inside and outside of China, and any adjustments to the policy could cause a seismic social changes in China... For years, China curbed its once-explosive population growth with a widely hated one-child ... http://www.foreignlanguageblog.com/?p=831