Mondeto
email us
  • Home
  • An Easy Language?
  • Global Education
  • Language Apprenticeship
  • What You Need
  • Online Resources
  • Contact Us

Podcast: From Esperanto to Mandarin: Understanding China through Language

13/10/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Deborah Fallows, linguist and author of Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love and Language, discusses the recent history and unique features of the Chinese language.
Click  on the podcast button to listen.


Picture
This is an interesting story in a lot of respects, but one angle that appealed to me is the idea that the dichotomies of ancient vs new, and natural vs designed, are not nearly as clear-cut as they might seem.

Deborah Fallows explains that not only is Mandarin "new" to the majority of Chinese people, whose families never knew it until a century ago, but that much of Mandarin itself, including simplified Chinese and pinyin, is deliberately designed and considerably younger than even that.
The power of the Chinese government to make changes and insist on their adoption is probably unrivalled in the modern world. Will it extend even beyond China's boundaries?

If you fancy an Esperanto to Mandarin adventure of your own, you might like to consider starting at the Chinese Island of Hai Nan Dao (sometimes written Hainan Dao), which means "South Sea Island". The island is about half the size of Tasmania and was traditionally used as a place to exile people. Now they've noticed that it is a lovely place to be in the Chinese winter- being on the same latitude as the Phillipines, and are promoting its use for tourism.


Picture
Every January-February, the Baza Esperanto Kursaro is held at the University of Hainan and turns raw beginners into capable speakers in that time. In 2012, this will be joined by a new "Esperanto University" in which professors from around the world, including China of course,  will deliver short courses in their own specialties, in Esperanto.
It all makes for a dramatically different summer holiday and very affordable- the entire month of food, accommodation and instruction costs only $600 per participant- it'll cost you that much to stay home :-)
Click the picture to visit the website.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Penny Vos

    See also: Childhood Blog 
    and Global Blog :-)

    Archives

    July 2016
    September 2015
    December 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010

    Categories

    All
    Esperanto
    Learning
    Popi
    Video

    RSS Feed

    Translate
    015