The United States is the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world after Mexico, but as the language becomes more widely used, as it interacts with the more dominant English and is casually exchanged in global forums like Facebook and Twitter, the opportunities to mangle it are spreading like a virus. Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/19/2075762/language-lovers-aghast-over-sloppy.html#ixzz1EWJUWaRT Scholars fighting […]

A presentation by Steven Pinker.

“I do think that the language to a large degree opens up and closes down many possibilities as to what a poet can express or not express,” [Burns] said. “It’s not just the translatability of occasional words: It’s the whole feel, tone, history, even the ‘savings bank’ of ideas themselves in each language.“   In […]

Organized by the Open Boat Students’ Society, University of Lodz, Poland. Deadline for submission of abstracts (in English or Polish) and registration is April 1, 2011.  The conference is scheduled for Saturday, May 28, 2011. Click here for more information.

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | Translation Conference: The Traveling Text.

“The inability of rural Latinos to communicate well in English increases their isolation,” [Willey] added.   The immigrants among us – Carmi, IL – The Carmi Times.   Contributed by Michael Powers.

Some Mexicans worry about a proliferating usage of slang terms once considered too coarse for common use. They blame the looser talk on television and radio, as well as social changes that have given Mexican women equal access to colloquialisms, even raunchy ones.   Mexico, language: Mexican slang is salty, creative and, for some, too […]

“When you travel be aware of what you’re saying and who you’re saying it to. Sometimes we all speak the same language whether we know it or not.” MILFs Or ‘MmmKays’: American Slang Gets Lost In Translation. Contribution by Michael Powers.

“…Most of the interpreters who are currently working in this language combination — specifically Arabic into English — and who are native speakers of English do not have the linguistic and cultural knowledge of Arabic to interpret correctly and accurately at this high level of diplomatic interpreting,” says Shuckran Kamal, a senior Arabic translator at […]