HONG KONG: New repository of statistical information on China

A university library in Hong Kong is aiming to open up new fields of research on China by building the world's most comprehensive repository of statistical information on the country.

Chronicle of Higher Education

New translation tool launched

Researchers now have a tool offering translations of open-access material in nine major languages.

WorldWideScience.org was launched in 2007 by the British Library and the US Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information to provide a single portal - www.worldwidescience.org - to carry out federated searches of multiple open-access scientific databases around the world.

The alliance now encompasses about a dozen national libraries and research organisations, and the database links to 400 million pages of research in 65 countries. The search engine has expanded its users from fewer than 8,000 in January 2009 to nearly 96,000 in April 2010, while the languages employed by users have risen in number from 71 to 114.

Times Higher Education

Integrating sustainable development in higher education

Sustainability Education
Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education
Edited By Paula Jones, David Selby and Stephen Sterling

This book includes a chapter on languages, linguistics and area studies by John Canning

Earthscan publishing

French is a useless language: learn Arabic and Mandarin instead says former minister

Chris Bryant, who served as minister for Europe under Gordon Brown, used a speech in the Commons to highlight the waning value of the French tongue, which has traditionally been the first foreign language taught to British schoolchildren.

Mr Bryant, now a shadow Foreign Office minister, said that young people should be pointed towards languages that were more useful for business.

Telegraph

Discussion about languages in the House of Lords

A discussion about modern foreign languages took place in the House of Lords on 8 June 2010.

The following peers contributed to the debate.

Baroness Coussin (Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages)

Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Government Spokesperson, Department for Education 2010- )

Baroness Sharples

The Lord Bishop of Chichester

Lord Wright of Richmond

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

Baroness Walmsley

Lords Hansard 8th June 2010

ISRAEL: First Arabic-Language College Hopes to Bridge Differences in Opportunity

After a decade-long struggle for official recognition, Israel's first comprehensive Arabic-language college of higher education will open its doors here in October.

Chronicle of Higher Education

Pedants’ revolt aims to protect English from spell of txt spk

An Academy of English is being formed by the Queen’s English Society, to protect the language from impurities, bastardisations and the horrors introduced by the text-speak generation.

France has L’Académie Française, Spain the Real Academia Española, and Italy the Accademia della Crusca — august institutions that uphold the rules of their languages. English, however, has no such bastion against corruption and continuously mutates as new words develop, or fall out of use, grammar changes and the intricacies of punctuation go in and out of fashion.

The Times