Spanish as a ‘Language of Interracial Mixing and Understanding’
At last month’s inauguration of Spain’s newest Cervantes Institute extension in El Paso, Texas, Luis García Montero, the institute’s director, said the goal was to promote Spanish as a “language of interracial mixing and...
Portuguese Exam Record in U.S.
The U.S. online Portuguese exam, part of the National Examinations in World Languages (NEWL), had its highest number of registrations (345) this year. “Despite the restrictions and constraints arising from the current pandemic situation...
Afrikaans Goes to Court
The University of South Africa—locally known as UNISA—the largest university system in the nation, has been working on phasing out Afrikaans as a language of instruction since 2016, a move that has been met...
Quantifying Chinese Learning Growth
More than 70 countries and regions had incorporated the Chinese language into their national education system by the end of last year as the language’s global influence continued to spread, officials from China’s Ministry...
Virginia Launches ASL support for COVID-19 Call Center
More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals across America are still struggling with a lack of access to information on public health measures and vaccination efforts. The state of...
Cervantes Counters Spanish Sexism
On International Women’s Day last month, Spain’s Instituto Cervantes and publisher Penguin Random House launched the Guide to Non-Sexist Communication (Guía de comunicación no sexista) in Spanish, designed to help prevent discrimination against women...
Move to Egalité for French in Canada
Since its adoption of the Official Languages Act in 1969, Canada has been an officially bilingual country—that is, the nation has recognized both English and French as its official languages on a federal level....
Pakistan Set to Make Arabic Mandatory
After a near unanimous vote, the Senate of Pakistan has adopted a new education policy requiring students in the capital city of Islamabad to learn Arabic from grades one through twelve. While the policy...
White House Relaunches Spanish Website
In his first day in office, President Biden’s administration relaunched online Spanish-language communications that had been previously discontinued under the Trump Administration. The Trump Administration was the first in two presidencies not to maintain...
US Looks to Taiwan for Chinese
Through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), the U.S. and Taiwan have launched the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, which is aimed at “expanding access to Mandarin and English language instruction, while safeguarding academic freedom.” The move comes after...