46 articles
Education
Watch: TikToker teaches how to count in Vietnamese with epic rap
A TikTok channel has gone viral for teaching viewers how to count from one to 100 in Vietnamese using a catchy rap tune. Key points: ...
Bryan Ke
Culture
Filipina developer creates AI app to fight language extinction in the Philippines
A Filipina developer is promoting language appreciation and fighting language extinction with an artificial intelligence (AI) platform calle...
Ryan General
Government
New NJ law requires state documents be translated into 7 languages
A new bill in New Jersey requires state agencies and departments to translate documents into the seven most-spoken, non-English languages in...
Korean now 6th most popular language studied on Duolingo: report
Korean has climbed up the global rankings of the most popular languages studied on Duolingo in 2023, the company revealed in its annual repo...
Health
Bilingual brains are better at ignoring distractions, study suggests
Researchers from the University of Florida suggest that individuals who speak two languages may have better cognitive abilities in ignoring ...
Michelle De Pacina
Social Media
Video: Korean woman, Bhutanese man go viral for speaking fluent Bengali
A Korean woman and a Bhutanese man have gone viral for their conversation in fluent Bengali. Going viral: Instagram user Luna Yogini can be ...
City College of San Francisco apologizes for ‘improper’ withdrawal of Cantonese program
The City College of San Francisco (CCSF) has issued a formal public apology following its “improper” withdrawal of a Cantonese certificate p...
Carl Samson
San Francisco to offer free Mandarin classes for fifth year
San Francisco’s public libraries are offering free Mandarin classes for adults and children this summer. Key details: The classes will be of...
Business
Nail spa bans staff from speaking Vietnamese in front of customers, docks up to $100 from pay
An unidentified nail spa has sparked outrage on Instagram for banning its technicians from speaking Vietnamese in front of customers. A copy...
Feature
Bilingualism may help protect against dementia, study reveals
A new study suggests that bilingualism can help maintain memory in older adulthood. In the study “Linking early-life bilingualism and...
Does this viral video of Filipinos failing to pronounce English words point to an ‘educational crisis’?
A viral video of Filipino children attempting to pronounce a set of English words has sparked an online discussion on whether it is indicati...
2nd-generation immigrant creates live translation app to communicate with his Chinese parents
Joshua Gao, a 24-year-old tech entrepreneur from Toronto, created a chat app that can accurately translate slang and idioms into multiple la...
Black student studying in China goes viral for his response to a racist video
A Black student studying in China has gone viral on social media for his condemnation of a racist video on TikTok. The New York City-born s...
The grain of life: How rice is cooked in 6 different Asian countries
As a staple food throughout much of Asia, rice holds significant historical and cultural worth. Language in particular can reveal valuable i...
Ines Shin
Harvard to offer its first-ever Tagalog language course in its nearly 400-year history
Harvard University will be offering a course on the Tagalog language for the first time in its history, starting in the 2023 to 2024 academi...
California bill seeks to include accent marks on vital documents
A bill that would allow diacritical marks on important documents, such as birth and marriage certificates, is seeing movement in California....
Video pointing out similarities between Korean and Hindi goes viral
An Instagram video explaining the similarities between Korean and Hindi words has gone viral. Uploaded by Jiwon (@korean.g1) on Feb. 6, the ...
Iris Jung
San Francisco’s Chinatown to introduce multilingual parking pay stations
San Francisco’s Chinatown can expect a new multilingual upgrade to their parking pay stations next week. On Feb. 2, the San Francisco...
Stanford pulls IT language guide that brands ‘American,’ ‘brave’ as ‘harmful’ words
Amid massive backlash within and beyond its academic community, Stanford University has backpedaled on a language initiative that deemed wor...
Language barriers prevent many AANHPI from accessing quality health care, study finds
An analysis conducted by the Urban Institute revealed that language barriers are preventing many Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific ...
Indian PhD student finds simple solution to puzzle that’s baffled scholars since 5th century BC
An Indian PhD student at the University of Cambridge has solved a grammatical puzzle that has eluded Sanskrit scholars since the 5th century...
Chandler Treon
Fact check: ‘Filipino’ refers to both an identity and the national language of the Philippines
Claims that the term “Filipino” is not a language and solely refers to the identity and/or nationality of citizens of the Republic of the Ph...
Editorial Staff
Canada
‘Why do we have to bend over backward?’: Man lectures women for not speaking English in Canada in TikTok video
TikTok user Donna Damaso posted a clip to the platform of a man subjecting a group of Asian women to racist remarks at the Brighouse statio...
Videos
‘I want to communicate with the world!’: Vietnamese woman’s efforts to learn English go viral on TikTok
TikTok user @usukoo posted a now-viral video in which a woman from Vietnam practices her English for a homework assignment. Uploaded on Ma...
Daniel Anderson
China
Chinese woman develops unique numeral code to communicate with her husband after he loses ability to talk
A Chinese woman invented a unique numeral code to communicate with her husband, who lost the ability to speak after a sudden heart attack an...
Rebecca Moon
‘Extremely not correct’: Chinese alphabet printout purportedly given to third graders goes viral
A viral tweet posted by a parent in Irvine, California, shared an alleged printout their third-grade child brought home from school showing...
Sarah Yukiko
China aims to have 85% of its citizens speaking Mandarin by 2025
An order issued Tuesday by China’s cabinet said use of Mandarin, the country’s national language, needs to be more widely adopted, threateni...
Jiselle Lee
News
American College Students Want to Learn Korean More Than Ever Because of K-Pop
The number of students learning Korean in universities throughout the United States has increased almost exponentially over the past 10 year...
Scottish Man Wakes Up From Coma Only Able to Speak Malay for 24 Hours
A Scottish crash victim stunned physicians when he opened his mouth to speak in Malay — and only Malay — after waking up from a 24-hour coma...
Sports
Japanese Soccer Star Drops F-Bomb After Mispronouncing a Word
Famous Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda apologized for his adorable slip up during an interview in Australia last week when he mispronou...
Opinion
Why I Used to Dread Learning Chinese Until I Went to College
During middle school, students are expected to have minimal exposure to a language other than English. I had Spanish and French for two hour...
Grace Wang
Kenya Will Start Teaching Mandarin in All Primary Schools Starting 2020
To better pave the road for trade and connection with China, Kenya is preparing to teach Mandarin lessons in classrooms starting next year. ...
Memes
New Character That Means ‘Poor’ and ‘Ugly’ is Extremely Relatable to Chinese Millennials
A newly-created pessimistic character is garnering attention from Chinese millennials and the younger population, saying that it perfectly d...
Asia
Cambodian Teen Who Speaks 15 Languages Invited to China to Sing
A 14-year-old Cambodian vendor who speaks 15 languages is getting a sponsored trip to China for an interview and a unique opportunity to pro...
Entertainment
Spanish YouTuber Shares How She Learned Fluent Korean Without Any Classes or Programs
A Spanish YouTuber who now lives in Seoul, South Korea recently revealed how she was able to learn Korean without taking any formal classes....
Uncategorized
‘Chinglish’ Phrase ‘Add Oil’ Officially Added to the Oxford English Dictionary
One of the most perplexing yet ever-present phrases used across China entered the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary this month. The di...
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