Fair Languages

“Computers are useless. They only give you answers”
Pablo Picasso

This quote by Pablo Picasso may seem obsolete in the 21st century – but is it?
The fact is that we now live in an age where we can take information for granted. There is no lack of information. In fact, many people complain of being bombarded by avalanches of information overload.

To make sure that we are all on the same page, let me say that certainly, most Germans speak decent or even good English and to a lesser degree other foreign languages. However, this doesn’t necessarily has an effect on their willingness to do business in another language.

We already learned that in the UK language learning is in decline and that only 9% of 15-year-olds in the UK are competent in the first foreign language they learn in school after seven years, whereas other European students at the same age show much higher competency, like 82% in Sweden.

Romanagri, have you heard of this language? It is a new language used by young people across India. The interesting thing is the evolution of this language is different from the other languages.

Maybe it’s human nature, but people often tend to make things more complex than it actually is. For many years, language scientists have assumed that language is like a Russian nesting dolls, made up of small parts in turn made of smaller parts. A new study done in Cornell suggests language is simpler than they had thought.

Another Friday, another funny language related video. Today’s clip comes from a Scottish comedy show called Burnistoun which I recently came across in a short documentary about Scottish television.

Italians speak one language. No, actually, they speak thousands of them. I will tell you more: Italian is a newborn baby compared to the thousands of languages spoken in this country.