The Japan Times interviewed me for a May 27, 2024 article on #bilingual#education (1st picture).
While the newspaper article is for paying subscribers, the reporter Eric Margolis agreed that the publication Bilingual Japan of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (#JALT) #Bilingualism SIG may publish the full interview. After that issue comes out next month, I will make the article available in research repositories.
The article is subtitled "Japan wants its next generation to be fluent in English. Culture and economic inequality stand in the way." What it means by #culture getting in the way is treated in my answer as to why the #English level in #Japan is relatively low (2nd picture).
The conclusion quotes part of my response to the common opinion that #foreign#languages are not needed in Japan (3rd picture). My complete answer also predicts that the increasing influx of foreign #tourists and #residents will change that complacent attitude.
Good news on open access to my works on bilingualism, the research area related to my teaching, child-raising, and using Japanese for over 40 years. I was interviewed by The Japan Times on #bilingual#education for a forthcoming paywalled article. It was a long interview, and usually a newspaper article uses only short passages from one individual. However, the #Japan Association for #Language#Teaching Bilingualism Special Interest Group (#JALT#Bilingualism SIG) would like to publish the full interview in its newsletter Bilingual Japan. Everyone should be able to read that as I back it up in research repositories. The tentative title is "English Education and Bilingual Education in Japan."
My publications on bilingualism have been backed up mostly at Academia Edu, which is not so easy to access anymore [any comment?], so I've added links to the original sources of articles, which are open access, at https://japanned.hcommons.org/bilingualism
If you’re a U.S. citizen registered to vote, and you speak English + another language that’s spoken by 5% or more of your local population (tip: in most cities, that’ll include Spanish), consider signing up as an #election worker.
The law requires that anywhere with 5% or more speaking a given language, every polling place needs at least one person who speaks that language.
In my area, the number of polling places is directly limited by English-#Spanish#bilingual poll workers.
Via reading about the theremin, I reached Wikipedia's page about the Sorbs. Out of curiosity I started reading it. Then I thought I'd rather read it in #German. So I went to the German Wikipedia page about the Sorben and read for a while.
When I was finished, it occurred to me that there are some subjects I prefer reading about in German vs. English. It depends on my original context for those subjects.
Enough to Say It's Far: Selected Poems of Pak Chaesam
This is the first English translation of selected poems by one of the most important and unusual modern poets of South Korea. In contrast to the strident political protests found in the poetry of many of his contemporaries, Pak Chaesam's work is characterized by intimate portraits of place, nature, childhood, and human relationships, and by indirection, nostalgia, and reflectiveness.
This video perfectly answers the many language related questions I’ve had about maybe someday moving to Quebec. It’s a great watch even if, like me, you’ll never realize the dream. 🥺
Our kid will start school next year. At the moment he speaks 2 languages equally good, but we started to notice that his German started to get better than his Hungarian. It's no surprise because he goes to a German speaking Kindergarten (we live in Austria).
Unfortunately the school in town doesn't offer Hungarian classes, but there is a bilingual school 10km away.
A revamped version of the Adventures Di Pinocchio, which will soon be up for grabs. I had a blast reading this aloud, in fact I think it would be great to find #bilingual readers who would like to recite parts of it.
A question for bilingual/polyglot people: Do you post both in English and in your other, native languages? How do you decide which one? I see my English posts get more reach, probaly because some people have filtered out other languages.
I find it easiest to post in the language whatever I feel like writing in. I don't give it much thought. How about you?
Turns out there’s a #BilingualJoke in The Princess Bride. After a guy yells “ho there!” at Inigo, he replies, “I do not budge. Keep your Joder.”
The letter d in #Spanish is often pronounced like a voiced “th,” meaning “ho there” and “joder” are pronounced nearly the same. (The stress is on a different syllable, but meh.)
So when the guy yelled “ho there!” Inigo heard, in Spanish, someone yelling “fuck!” and basically told him to fuck off in turn. #PrincessBride#movie#bilingual