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Johnson: Mountains high enough and rivers wide enough
WHY do some places in the world have lots of small languages, and others have fewer, bigger languages? Earlier studies seemed to show that areas of high altitude, rainfall and temperature had high cultural and linguistic diversity. A brief glance in the direction of the geography and linguistic diversity of the Caucasus, central Africa or […]
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Johnson: Different tongues, common homes
IT’S not easy being a multilingual country. But that is no excuse for making it harder on yourself. Shortly after taking power following the ousting of Victor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s new government made the unforced error of revoking a 2012 law which granted the Russian language an official status (alongside Ukrianian) in regions where Russian-speakers predominate. […]
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Johnson: OK computer
JOHNSON’s first foreign-language class was typical: a gaggle of 14-year olds, hormones raging, are gathered in a classroom when Señora White strolls in. ¡Hola y bienvenidos a la clase de español! Puberty is a terrible time to begin a language. One’s own parents are embarrassing enough. But to repeat nonsense words with strange gurgling and burbling sounds […]
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Tweeting in style
“TWEETING” is a word we try to avoid in The Economist. But this hasn’t prevented us from sending out our style guide on Twitter, 140 characters at a time. To mark the 1,000th style tweet and the first anniversary of this feed, we have gone through all the messages to identify the most popular (as measured by […]
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Of Pulp fiction and James Bond
OLGA SOBOLEV is an academic at the London School of Economics who specialises in various aspects of Russian culture, including comparative studies of anglophone and Soviet literature during the cold war. She is the author of “The Only Hope of the World: George Bernard Shaw and Russia” (2012). Were there similarities between the literature on […]
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Johnson: What is a foreign language worth?
JOHNSON is a fan of the Freakonomics books and columns. But this week’s podcast makes me wonder if the team of Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt aren’t overstretching themselves a bit. “Is learning a foreign language really worth it?”, asks the headline. A reader writes: My oldest daughter is a college freshman, and not only […]