He’d sold two companies to Google by his mid twenties and now Luis von Ahn has created an app that he hopes will allow anyone with internet access to learn a language for free. This article is from theguardian.com by Lottie O’Conor. Luis von Ahn is a man of many titles: computer science professor, entrepreneur, […]
A new report shows a direct link between disappearing habitats and the loss of languages. One in four of the world’s 7,000 spoken tongues is now at risk of falling silent for ever as the threat to cultural biodiversity grows. This article is from theguardian.com by John Vidal. Benny Wenda from the highlands of West […]
The Language Festival is an ongoing campaign to showcase the importance of language learning in the UK. As part of our ongoing campaign to showcase the importance of language learning in the UK, we will be holding our second joint national Language Festival in partnership with the Guardian during October and November 2014.
Dictionary changes definition of geek to ‘a person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about a specific subject’. This article is from theguardian.com by Alexandra Topping. Once a slur reserved for eggheads and an insult aimed at lovers of computer programming, geek has been deemed the word of the year by the Collins online dictionary.
Keyboards are fine for communicating with machines, but handwriting captures the disconnected and chaotic patterns of real thought. This article is from theguardian.com by Andrew Brown. Swedish schools are considering whether to abandon the teaching of handwriting. They will continue to teach block capitals, but the subtleties of cursive writing will no longer be transmitted […]
New research suggests that language can both enhance and diminish the sensitivity of our vision. This article is from theguardian.com by Mo Costandi. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said that, “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world,” meaning that we can only understand the world through the language we use, and […]
Capitalism is altering our language – and Raymond Williams saw it coming more than 50 years ago. This article is from theguardian.com by Owen Hatherley. According to a report by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles, English has become a peculiarly capitalist language – though they don’t quite put it like that. They […]
Robot known as Kirobo is designed to be companion for astronaut Koichi Wakata. This article is from theguardian.com by Maev Kennedy. When the Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata arrives at the International Space Station in November, a companion will be waiting for him whose eyes will light up in recognition – literally. Kirobo, the world’s first […]