WorldView: A Language Blog

WorldView is a place for leaders in the fields of language education, global citizenship, immersion learning and other topics central to the Concordia Language Villages mission to address issues important to their fields.

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WorldView Good Reads: Off the Press for June 2019

By Dan Hamilton | Published: June 24, 2019

The Languages of Women’s Soccer: The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup is breaking new ground in this International Year of Indigenous Languages. For the first time ever, a three-woman commentary team are commentating on New Zealand’s matches in Bislama, a native language common in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
 

Asia 101: An Immersion Journey for Kids: 10 cities in 10 countries – what a summer vacation! 

Turkey’s Language of Whistles: Before cellphones, Turkey’s “bird language” helped farmers communicate across a vast mountain range. The whistling is based on Turkish, with each sound representing a syllable. Similar ways of communicating are known to have been used in the Canary Islands, Greece, Mexico, and Mozambique. What makes the language so remarkable is not just that people can have entire conversations by whistling, it affects your brain differently.

How to invent a word: Every morning, Iceland’s language planners begin their day by slipping into pairs of soft clogs. It’s their armor in their fight to save the Icelandic language from extinction. Led by linguist Ari Páll Kristinsson, they are working furiously to match every English word or concept with an Icelandic one—giving young Icelanders no excuse for depending on loanwords learned online.

6 Myths About Learning a Second Language: From the internet to the classroom, we’re bombarded with reasons as to why learning a second language is anywhere from challenging to impossible. You’re old or you’re too young; you’re too close to the language or you’re too far away. But is there scientific evidence for any of these claims? Here are some of the most common myths about second language learning.

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