How to kowtow ON TWITTER, a friend asked “Twenty years from now, how many Chinese words will be common parlance in English?” I replied that we’ve already had 35 years since Deng Xiaoping began opening China’s economy, resulting in its stratospheric rise—but almost no recent Chinese borrowings in English. Many purported experts are willing to […]

IT HAS been just a bit over three years since our 1990s-era Johnson column in the newspaper was revived as this blog. Johnson’s format is now about to change again—to become, once more, a column. This time it will be hosted online, on our sister blog Prospero, which covers cultural matters. If you haven’t already added […]

WHEN using any kind of translation helper—dictionary, Babel Fish or Google Translate—remember that if you don’t know the target language, you should always have a native speaker take a look at the final product. Otherwise, your results might be as flamboyantly incompetent as those in this shop window, which I passed not long ago in […]

  THE music video “Ek Sur”, more popularly known as “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”, was released on India’s Independence Day in 1988. It was a small contribution to the country’s herculean post-independence task of building a unified national identity. The song’s lyrics were written in all 14 languages recognised by the constitution at the time. […]

JOHNSON has touched on Arabic and its variety quite a few times over the years, but we have never really addressed a critical question directly: what is “Arabic” today, and is it really even a single thing? A short and simplified version of the story follows: the prophet Muhammad wrote (or received from Allah directly) […]

JUST twenty years ago, a language student removed from live practice or in-person classes had to rely on books or cassette tapes. Those were tough times: learners needed exceptional motivation, and got little feedback on their progress. Later on, websites providing textbook-style grammar lessons would pop up, making access easier but still giving little in […]