News
What was the First Language? Just ask Pharoah Psammetichus
Man has long been fascinated in knowing what the first language was. The Egyptian ruler, Pharoah Psammetichus, thought it was Phrygian - he had the scientific evidence to prove it.
Google Translate Takes Off in Ten More Languages
Google Translate adds ten more languages, including Malagasy, Sinhalese (සිංහල) and Kazakh (Қазақ тілі) - to its increasing list of languages you can translate to or from.
Listen to Dinka - on Australian radio!
If you want to hear what Dinka sounds like, tune into SBS - Australia's first Dinka language radio broadcaster. Widely spoken in South Sudan, there is an increasing Dinka community in Australia as well.
Google world record smashed!
Bangladesh gets moving and address a record-breaking 700,000 words to Google Translate in one single day!
Australia's latest Asian singing sensation
Australia's not well known for producing pop stars for an Asian market. So sometimes it's up to the individual to make it happen. Werribee's Hba Hae, aka Star Boy, is singing to the Karen community around the world.
Language without words around the world: thumbs up people?
It's easy to communicate without speaking through the mouth - you can use body or your eyes instead.
NSW increases support for Community Language schools
Community languages schools play a vital role in supporting all communities as well as Australia's social fabric and language ability. The NSW government, on the eve of the state election in NSW, has announced an increase in funding to Community Language Schools.
International Mother Language Day
Each year UNESCO celebrates International Mother Language Day - to encourage everyone to speak and their own languages, not just national or official languages.
Melbourne's Oromo community launches new Oromo books
Melbourne's Oromo community launches language books to support the Oromo language in Australia and around the world.
Australia to join Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 - a chance for languages
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is the world's largest music event - bringing together in competition over 40 European nations, and for the first time, now also Australia. The ESC is a festival of sound, and colour - but also language. Each year hundreds of millions of viewers get to pick their favourite song. This year it's held in Vienna. Will Australia send a singing language ambassador to represent it?
Automatic language translating: how good is it? We still need humans!
Google translate app gets an update but how good is it? Should language teachers be worried? Not on your nelly (if you know what I mean) The Economist reports on the update but shows that reliable automatic translation is still a long way off.....
New York City expands its bilingual schools program
New York City Education Department to Add or Expand 40 Dual-Language Programs - it already has 150 of them - because it's good for kids and for the city.
Monolingualism a risk to New Zealand
The value of multilingualism is highlighted in New Zealand as concerns are expressed about knowing only English and insufficient language learning in schools.
How many languages do people speak in Europe?
In which European Union country do residents speak the most languages? And the winner is.... Luxembourg - it's little and it's very multilingual!
Do you speak Dothraki, Na’vi, Elvish or Klingon? You are not alone...
We're not making this up. Actually we are: Dothraki, Na'vi, Elvish and Klingon are conlangs - artificially created languages and they are booming......
Frozen's Let it go is irresistible in 25 languages.
The Disney movie Frozen has broken box-office records around the world, and the associated smash hit 'Let it go' sung by Queen Elsa has hypnotized children and adults alike. It sounds even better in lots of languages.
Nigel the parrot spoke English, now he speaks Spanish
Parrots are smart birds known for the language mimicry skills. Well, Nigel the English-speaking parrot spent 4 years on the fly and came back speaking Spanish.....
Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, speaks fluent Chinese in Beijing.
Mark Zuckerberg surprises his audience in Beijing by speaking fluent Chinese. Who knew he could speak Chinese or why? Turns out he's been learning Chinese for love (and for money).
Speaking another language is like having a superpower.
The cognitive benefits of multilingualism are many - including knowing words you wish you had just at the moment.
The most important words?
Being able to say 'Hello' and 'Thank you' in the local language is essential when you're travelling.
