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Linguistic, cultural and political differences make interpretation difficult, but analysts also point to factors like the target audience. " ‘Never right’: why there’s a war of words over Beijing’s English translations
Linguistic, cultural and political differences make interpretation difficult, but analysts also point to factors like the target audience Jane Caiin BeijingandMeredith Chenin Hong Kong
Published: 6:00am, 28 May 2025Updated: 9:29am, 28 May 2025
America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio has made clear that he does not trust Beijing’s English translations of Chinese officials’ words – he says they are “never right”. The China hawk has instead urged his colleagues to go back to the original Chinese version of statements put out by Beijing to get a more accurate understanding of what is going on. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, appears to be the most powerful diplomat under President Donald Trump. He is the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the national security adviser and secretary of state positions at the same time, making him the point man on China over the next four years.
Rubio has been blunt about his distrust of China. During his secretary of state confirmation hearing in January, he highlighted the importance of referring to the original Chinese to understand the words of President Xi Jinping.
“Don’t read the English translation that they put out because the English translation is never right,” he said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been blunt about his distrust of China. Photo: AFP
The subject of translation came up again later that month, when Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone. Wang reportedly told Rubio to “hao zi wei zhi” – an idiom Beijing translated as “act accordingly” in its English readout of the call. It was more stern in foreign media reports on the meeting – Reuters translated it as “conduct yourself well”, while Bloomberg’s translation was “conduct yourself properly”.
Advertisement Adding to the confusion, Rubio denied Wang had even given him any warning. “The translator that was on the call did not say anything to me that I felt was over the top. But then they put out these games – they like to play these games,” Rubio said in an interview on The Megyn Kelly Show, according to a transcript released by the US Department of State. “They put out these translations where it says one thing in English and then it’s translated in a different – they use a different term in Mandarin – so like ‘He was warned not to overstep himself’. They never said that.” Accurate translation is a difficult task given the linguistic, cultural and political differences between the United States and China. Analysts also point to other factors, such as the target audience for the messaging. But one thing is clear – understanding what the other side is saying is more important than ever amid a 90-day pause in the US-China tariff war and with key areas on the table for negotiation, from electric vehicles to semiconductors and rare minerals. Xiaoyu Pu, an associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, said the linguistic, conceptual and political differences between the countries could lead to gaps in perception and interpretation. He said some Chinese political phrases were “highly idiomatic, historically rooted or symbolic”, and that made them challenging to translate directly. Why Wang Yi’s message to Marco Rubio may have been lost in translation
‘There are limits’: the problems with China’s bid to patch things up with Europe
In further high-level exchange, China and US say channels remain open
Pu noted that there was also a difference in political communication styles. He said Chinese official discourse could be vague and ambiguous, whereas Western diplomatic language tended to be more direct and precise. He said there was also some flexibility with translation that could be used strategically for different audiences. “As one Chinese concept can be translated into different English terms, sometimes Chinese officials intentionally emphasise the Chinese meaning for a domestic audience while translating the idea into English for an international audience,” Pu said. He pointed to the idiom used by Wang as an example, saying it was intended for a nationalistic domestic audience, while the official English translation was more moderate. According to Pu, Chinese concepts could sometimes also be interpreted by foreign translators in the West in ways that fit their country’s political climate, rather than genuinely adhering to the original Chinese meaning. Interpretations of an idiom used by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have varied. Photo: AFP
Pang Zhongying, a visiting senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said Rubio seemed to have “inherited” a distrust of Beijing’s translations from other China hawks like Robert Lighthizer. Lighthizer, the US trade representative and architect of the trade war with China in Trump’s first term, wrote in his 2023 book No Trade Is Free that: “There is often a major difference between what China says in Chinese to its people and the way it officially translates those words into English for Western audiences. “Routinely, the harsh, combative language is watered down. It thus is important to look to an unofficial and candid translation to determine what is being conveyed,” he said, citing an interpretation of Xi’s report to the 2022 Communist Party congress provided by Kevin Rudd, the former Australian prime minister and a China expert who speaks fluent Mandarin.
Pang said political distrust was at the heart of “misconception or disinformation” given that both sides had a large team of professional translators to draw on. He said one way to reduce the problem was by increasing face-to-face communications so that misunderstandings could be cleared up. That was especially important given the range of issues expected to be negotiated by Beijing and Washington following the trade war truce agreed in Geneva earlier this month, he added.
Sabine Mokry, a researcher at the University of Hamburg’s Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, said the criticism of Beijing’s English translations reflected a deep-seated mistrust that had become one of the defining features of US-China relations. She said the remarks were “a bit overblown”. “It speaks to a common perception – or misperception – that we don’t know anything about their [Chinese authorities’] intentions and they hide everything,” she said. Mokry analysed the official English translations of foreign policy documents released by Beijing from 2013 to 2019. According to her study findings, published in 2022, almost half of the documents contained differences between the English and Chinese versions, and most of those differences potentially altered the intended meaning. But she said the two versions were not entirely different, and the key messages remained largely consistent because the official translations were “carefully crafted” to align with Beijing’s political objectives and diplomatic priorities. Mokry found that the Chinese version usually signalled stronger and more assertive intentions while the English version came across as softer, since they targeted different audiences. “The question is more about how the US government and also governments around the world can build up enough capacity to deal with the original Chinese texts instead of just relying on the official English translations,” she said. Mokry said machine-learning tools could help to identify translation differences but it remained crucial to have experts available who could work with the original Chinese statements, point their colleagues to the nuances and add the interpretive context that went beyond linguistic skills. To do that, she said it was important to understand the institution issuing the document and its role in the political system. How are Chinese citizens feeling the effects of the US-China tariff war? How are Chinese citizens feeling the effects of the US-China tariff war?
According to Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based think tank, the historical and cultural differences that shape the values of Chinese and Western societies – and the way concepts are expressed and decoded – are the main reason for misperceptions when it comes to translation. Wang said Chinese civilisation was rooted in agrarian traditions such as cultivating one’s plot and favouring modesty, while Western cultures, influenced by nomadic and expansionist histories, tended to emphasise individualism, mobility and global outreach. He noted that some of the terms used in Chinese political messaging could be hard for international audiences to grasp. But he said instead of just communicating those unfamiliar phrases Beijing could create new terms and concepts that might gain international acceptance if there was clear context and the ideas were framed in more globally relatable ways. Wang gave the example of Beijing’s renamed trade and infrastructure strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative.
Advertisement When it was launched in 2013 it was known as One Belt, One Road. But that caused confusion because it was not a road but sea routes linking China’s southern coast to East Africa, the Mediterranean and Latin America, while the “belt” refers to a series of overland corridors connecting China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It quietly became the Belt and Road Initiative in 2015 – a name that is now recognised globally – with the Chinese name left unchanged. Wang said further efforts from both China and the US were needed to boost exchanges in education and tourism, ease visa restrictions, and allow more access for foreign media to promote mutual understanding. He said far more Chinese had studied in America than Americans in China since the reform and opening-up began in the 1970s. According to Wang, that imbalance, with a limited number of Americans learning Chinese, had a serious impact on how well they could understand each other. “Chinese people are much more familiar with the United States than Americans are with China,” he said"
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3311936/never-right-why-theres-war-words-over-beijings-english-translations
#metaglossia_mundus
Researchers across Africa, Asia and the Middle East are building their own language models designed for local tongues, cultural nuance and digital independence
"In a high-stakes artificial intelligence race between the United States and China, an equally transformative movement is taking shape elsewhere. From Cape Town to Bangalore, from Cairo to Riyadh, researchers, engineers and public institutions are building homegrown AI systems, models that speak not just in local languages, but with regional insight and cultural depth.
The dominant narrative in AI, particularly since the early 2020s, has focused on a handful of US-based companies like OpenAI with GPT, Google with Gemini, Meta’s LLaMa, Anthropic’s Claude. They vie to build ever larger and more capable models. Earlier in 2025, China’s DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup, added a new twist by releasing large language models (LLMs) that rival their American counterparts, with a smaller computational demand. But increasingly, researchers across the Global South are challenging the notion that technological leadership in AI is the exclusive domain of these two superpowers.
Instead, scientists and institutions in countries like India, South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are rethinking the very premise of generative AI. Their focus is not on scaling up, but on scaling right, building models that work for local users, in their languages, and within their social and economic realities.
“How do we make sure that the entire planet benefits from AI?” asks Benjamin Rosman, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and a lead developer of InkubaLM, a generative model trained on five African languages. “I want more and more voices to be in the conversation”.
Beyond English, beyond Silicon Valley
Large language models work by training on massive troves of online text. While the latest versions of GPT, Gemini or LLaMa boast multilingual capabilities, the overwhelming presence of English-language material and Western cultural contexts in these datasets skews their outputs. For speakers of Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Xhosa and countless other languages, that means AI systems may not only stumble over grammar and syntax, they can also miss the point entirely.
“In Indian languages, large models trained on English data just don’t perform well,” says Janki Nawale, a linguist at AI4Bharat, a lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. “There are cultural nuances, dialectal variations, and even non-standard scripts that make translation and understanding difficult.” Nawale’s team builds supervised datasets and evaluation benchmarks for what specialists call “low resource” languages, those that lack robust digital corpora for machine learning.
It’s not just a question of grammar or vocabulary. “The meaning often lies in the implication,” says Vukosi Marivate, a professor of computer science at the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. “In isiXhosa, the words are one thing but what’s being implied is what really matters.” Marivate co-leads Masakhane NLP, a pan-African collective of AI researchers that recently developed AFROBENCH, a rigorous benchmark for evaluating how well large language models perform on 64 African languages across 15 tasks. The results, published in a preprint in March, revealed major gaps in performance between English and nearly all African languages, especially with open-source models.
Similar concerns arise in the Arabic-speaking world. “If English dominates the training process, the answers will be filtered through a Western lens rather than an Arab one,” says Mekki Habib, a robotics professor at the American University in Cairo. A 2024 preprint from the Tunisian AI firm Clusterlab finds that many multilingual models fail to capture Arabic’s syntactic complexity or cultural frames of reference, particularly in dialect-rich contexts.
Governments step in
For many countries in the Global South, the stakes are geopolitical as well as linguistic. Dependence on Western or Chinese AI infrastructure could mean diminished sovereignty over information, technology, and even national narratives. In response, governments are pouring resources into creating their own models.
Saudi Arabia’s national AI authority, SDAIA, has built ‘ALLaM,’ an Arabic-first model based on Meta’s LLaMa-2, enriched with more than 540 billion Arabic tokens. The United Arab Emirates has backed several initiatives, including ‘Jais,’ an open-source Arabic-English model built by MBZUAI in collaboration with US chipmaker Cerebras Systems and the Abu Dhabi firm Inception. Another UAE-backed project, Noor, focuses on educational and Islamic applications.
In Qatar, researchers at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Qatar Computing Research Institute, have developed the Fanar platform and its LLMs Fanar Star and Fanar Prime. Trained on a trillion tokens of Arabic, English, and code, Fanar’s tokenization approach is specifically engineered to reflect Arabic’s rich morphology and syntax.
India has emerged as a major hub for AI localization. In 2024, the government launched BharatGen, a public-private initiative funded with 235 crore (€26 million) initiative aimed at building foundation models attuned to India’s vast linguistic and cultural diversity. The project is led by the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and also involves its sister organizations in Hyderabad, Mandi, Kanpur, Indore, and Madras. The programme’s first product, e-vikrAI, can generate product descriptions and pricing suggestions from images in various Indic languages. Startups like Ola-backed Krutrim and CoRover’s BharatGPT have jumped in, while Google’s Indian lab unveiled MuRIL, a language model trained exclusively on Indian languages. The Indian governments’ AI Mission has received more than180 proposals from local researchers and startups to build national-scale AI infrastructure and large language models, and the Bengaluru-based company, AI Sarvam, has been selected to build India’s first ‘sovereign’ LLM, expected to be fluent in various Indian languages.
In Africa, much of the energy comes from the ground up. Masakhane NLP and Deep Learning Indaba, a pan-African academic movement, have created a decentralized research culture across the continent. One notable offshoot, Johannesburg-based Lelapa AI, launched InkubaLM in September 2024. It’s a ‘small language model’ (SLM) focused on five African languages with broad reach: Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, isiZulu and isiXhosa.
“With only 0.4 billion parameters, it performs comparably to much larger models,” says Rosman. The model’s compact size and efficiency are designed to meet Africa’s infrastructure constraints while serving real-world applications. Another African model is UlizaLlama, a 7-billion parameter model developed by the Kenyan foundation Jacaranda Health, to support new and expectant mothers with AI-driven support in Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Xhosa, and Zulu.
India’s research scene is similarly vibrant. The AI4Bharat laboratory at IIT Madras has just released IndicTrans2, that supports translation across all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Sarvam AI, another startup, released its first LLM last year to support 10 major Indian languages. And KissanAI, co-founded by Pratik Desai, develops generative AI tools to deliver agricultural advice to farmers in their native languages.
The data dilemma
Yet building LLMs for underrepresented languages poses enormous challenges. Chief among them is data scarcity. “Even Hindi datasets are tiny compared to English,” says Tapas Kumar Mishra, a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela in eastern India. “So, training models from scratch is unlikely to match English-based models in performance.”
Rosman agrees. “The big-data paradigm doesn’t work for African languages. We simply don’t have the volume.” His team is pioneering alternative approaches like the Esethu Framework, a protocol for ethically collecting speech datasets from native speakers and redistributing revenue back to further development of AI tools for under-resourced languages. The project’s pilot used read speech from isiXhosa speakers, complete with metadata, to build voice-based applications.
In Arab nations, similar work is underway. Clusterlab’s 101 Billion Arabic Words Dataset is the largest of its kind, meticulously extracted and cleaned from the web to support Arabic-first model training.
The cost of staying local
But for all the innovation, practical obstacles remain. “The return on investment is low,” says KissanAI’s Desai. “The market for regional language models is big, but those with purchasing power still work in English.” And while Western tech companies attract the best minds globally, including many Indian and African scientists, researchers at home often face limited funding, patchy computing infrastructure, and unclear legal frameworks around data and privacy.
“There’s still a lack of sustainable funding, a shortage of specialists, and insufficient integration with educational or public systems,” warns Habib, the Cairo-based professor. “All of this has to change.”
A different vision for AI
Despite the hurdles, what’s emerging is a distinct vision for AI in the Global South – one that favours practical impact over prestige, and community ownership over corporate secrecy.
“There’s more emphasis here on solving real problems for real people,” says Nawale of AI4Bharat. Rather than chasing benchmark scores, researchers are aiming for relevance: tools for farmers, students, and small business owners.
And openness matters. “Some companies claim to be open-source, but they only release the model weights, not the data,” Marivate says. “With InkubaLM, we release both. We want others to build on what we’ve done, to do it better.”
In a global contest often measured in teraflops and tokens, these efforts may seem modest. But for the billions who speak the world’s less-resourced languages, they represent a future in which AI doesn’t just speak to them, but with them."
Sibusiso Biyela, Amr Rageh and Shakoor Rather
20 May 2025
https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2025.65
#metaglossia_mundus
"OASIS Members Advance Digital Lexicography with an Interoperable Data Model for Dictionaries
BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, May 29, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Members of OASIS Open, the global open source and standards organization, have approved the Data Model for Lexicography (DMLex) Version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. Developed by the OASIS Lexicographic Infrastructure Data Model and API (LEXIDMA) Technical Committee (TC), DMLex v1.0 establishes a groundbreaking framework for internationally interoperable lexicographic work, advancing innovation in digital dictionaries, language services, and related industries.
“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved with DMLex v1.0. This is a lifechanging milestone for lexicography, paving the way for a new level of digitisation and for truly innovative applications,” said Michal Měchura, Chair of the OASIS LEXIDMA TC. “By providing a common framework for structuring and exchanging lexicographic resources, DMLex empowers language documentors around the world to manage their content more effectively, to collaborate and to build smarter language technologies.”
Lexicography has undergone a profound transformation in the digital age, with dictionaries now being compiled from language corpora and consumed through web platforms, mobile apps, and integrated into search engines, writing tools, and machine translation software. However, legacy data models have been hampering further innovation. DMLex v1.0 addresses these challenges by introducing a modular, IT-friendly, and content-rich data model designed to meet the needs of both lexicographers and technology developers. DMLex has been designed to be easily and straightforwardly implementable in XML, JSON, RDF, NVH, as a relational database, and as a Semantic Web triplestore.
OASIS encourages widespread adoption of DMLex v1.0 and invites feedback from lexicographers, developers, and other stakeholders to further enhance its capabilities. Participation in the LEXIDMA TC is open to all through membership in OASIS. For more information, read Michal Měchura’s blog post exploring the goals and impact of DMLex and visit the TC homepage (https://www.oasis-open.org/tc-lexidma).
About OASIS Open
One of the most respected, nonprofit open source and open standards bodies in the world, OASIS advances the fair, transparent development of open source software and standards through the power of global collaboration and community. OASIS is the home for worldwide standards in AI, emergency management, identity, IoT, cybersecurity, blockchain, privacy, cryptography, cloud computing, urban mobility, and other content technologies. Many OASIS standards go on to be ratified by de jure bodies and referenced in international policies and government procurement. www.oasis-open.org
Media Inquiries: communications@oasis-open.org"
https://cbs4indy.com/business/press-releases/ein-presswire/817153509/data-model-for-lexicography-approved-as-an-oasis-standard/
#metaglossia_mundus
Best Practices for Partnering With Interpreters in Clinical Encounters: A Multimodal Approach for Teaching Medical Students
Oluwagbemisola Ibikunle • Olivia Kahn-Boesel • Sophie Yu • Stephanie Wang • Dorothy Tolchin • Yarden S. Fraiman • Jennifer Kasper • Wudeneh Mulugeta • Ann-Marie Thomas • Jaeyoon Cha • Salma Batool-Anwar • Shari Gold-Gomez • Christopher Kirwan • EJ Jarvie • Kate Wasden • Daniele Olveczky • Rose L. Molina
"Abstract
Introduction: Effectively working with medical interpreters is a critical skill for all physicians. We partnered with interpreters, students, and faculty to co-design and co-teach an educational session to improve medical students' knowledge and confidence in working with interpreters.
Methods: The multimodal educational intervention lasted 120 minutes and included a didactic presentation, video role-play encounters, and a panel discussion with interpreters. The intervention was evaluated with pre- and post-session surveys. McNemar’s test was used to compare knowledge and confidence scores.
Results: A total of 161 pre-clinical medical students participated in the session. Students identified knowledge they learned, including the role of interpreters, the importance of not relying on family members as interpreters, the use of pre-encounter huddles, and appropriate physical positioning. After the intervention, the majority of students identified best practices for working with interpreters (n = 64 (57.7%), pre-session vs. n = 45 (71.4%), post-session; p = 0.04) and reported improved confidence working with interpreters (n = 73 (65.8%), pre-session vs. n = 60 (95.2%), post-session; p < 0.001).
Discussion: This innovative curriculum was unique in its interprofessional co-design and co-teaching approach and introduction of nuanced, contemporary clinical scenarios. Overall, this innovative curriculum was successful in enhancing student knowledge and confidence in working with interpreters.
https://www.cureus.com/articles/370649-best-practices-for-partnering-with-interpreters-in-clinical-encounters-a-multimodal-approach-for-teaching-medical-students#!/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Celebrating 30 Years of Dictionary.com Through the Words That Defined the Times
NEWS PROVIDED BY
IXL Learning
May 28, 2025, 8:15 AM ET
Words grow up, too. From "stream" to "hallucination," our language—and world—has evolved since 1995.
SAN MATEO, Calif., May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In 1995, the world met Toy Story, tuned into the O.J. Simpson verdict and embraced a new tech frontier known as the World Wide Web. That same year, Dictionary.com opened its virtual doors, becoming one of the internet's first destinations for word lovers, curious minds and anyone needing to settle a spelling debate.
Now, the world's leading online dictionary turns 30. And while it hasn't bought a house or started saving for retirement, it has redefined what it means to be the authority on language in a rapidly changing world.
"Over the past three decades, so many words we use regularly have evolved to take on completely new definitions," said Steve Johnson, PhD, Director of Lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning. "Words like cloud and stream no longer just refer to natural phenomena—they also reflect how we live and interact with technology. Through it all, one thing remains the same: language never stops evolving, and Dictionary.com never stops paying attention."
Taking on new meaning
To celebrate its 30th birthday, Dictionary.com is looking back at how far words have come—in technology, pop culture and how we describe our world. Throughout the last three decades, Dictionary.com has documented this evolution, growing alongside our language. Consider these examples:
Technology:
Stream (noun or verb)
Then: A flowing body of water, or a verb meaning "to run or flow"
Now: A verb in digital technology meaning "to send or play video, music, or other data over the internet in a steady flow without having to download it"
The rise of high-speed internet in the 2000s turned streaming from a tech experiment into an everyday experience. Today, we can binge-watch an entire series or replay our favorite songs with a tap. (Kids today will never know the pain of waiting for Saturday morning cartoons.)
Hallucination (noun)
Then: A false notion, belief or impression; delusion
Now: False information generated by a machine learning program, such as artificial intelligence, presented as if it were true
Once confined to psychology textbooks, hallucination now sits at the heart of conversations about artificial intelligence—especially when AI chatbots "make things up." The term even earned the title of Dictionary.com's 2023 Word of the Year.
Pop culture:
Ghost (noun or verb)
Then: The spirit or soul of a dead person
Now: a verb meaning "to disappear from communication," especially in reference to dating
People have been getting dumped forever, but ghosting adds a modern twist. With social media, dating apps and DMs, there are endless ways for someone to vanish without a trace. Mysterious, much like the original ghost.
Lit (adjective)
Then: bright, full of light
Now: "intoxicated" or a term of approval meaning "amazing, cool"
Even in the early 1900s, people described themselves as lit after a few too many drinks. Today, it's a go-to word for anything exciting or fun—whether you're at a party or just hyping up your group chat.
These shifts reflect more than evolving definitions. They show how language mirrors the spirit of the times—from everyday lingo to coding breakthroughs. For more throwbacks and linguistic insights, check out the full anniversary editorial article here: https://www.dictionary.com/e/booyah-dictionary-com-is-30-a-trip-back-to-1995/
Charting a new course
Since its founding, Dictionary.com has grown from a useful tool into a cultural touchstone. It has tracked the rise of internet slang, unpacked buzzy headlines and spotlighted the words that help us make sense of everything from viral memes to major world events. Today, it continues to shape how we think, talk and connect through language, with features like Word of the Day and Word of the Year leading the conversation.
That mission expanded in 2024, when IXL Learning acquired Dictionary.com and formed Dictionary Media Group. The group encompasses Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, SpanishDictionary.com, FrenchDictionary.com, inglés.com, Vocabulary.com, ABCya, StudySpanish.com, Multiplication.com and HomeschoolMath.net. Together, these sites reach over 500 million people around the world each year.
About Dictionary.com
Words define every aspect of our lives, from our ideas to our identities. Dictionary.com aspires to empower people to express themselves, learn something new and find opportunities through the power and joy of language. With 96 million visitors each month, Dictionary.com is the premier destination to learn, discover and have fun with the limitless world of words and meanings. Dictionary.com helps you make sense of the ever-evolving English language so you can put your ideas into words—and your words into action.
Press Contact
Joslyn Chesson
IXL Learning
press@ixl.com"
https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/business/press-releases/cision/20250528SF97228/celebrating-30-years-of-dictionary-com-through-the-words-that-defined-the-times/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Réécriture des classiques au théâtre Théâtronome : forum des chercheurs francophones en arts du spectacle
Du 20 Avril 2026 au 21 Avril 2026
À : Lublin, Université Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Pologne - voir sur une carte
Voir sur Twitter
Publié le 28 Mai 2025 par Eloïse Bidegorry (Source : LOSSEROY Gilles)
« Réécriture des classiques au théâtre »
Après un premier colloque à Łódź les 18 et 19 avril 2024 sur l’engagement politique au théâtre, le groupe de recherches Théâtronome : Forum francophone des chercheurs en arts du spectacle organise un deuxième volet de réflexion, à l’Université Maria Curie-Skłodowska de Lublin, les 20 et 21 avril 2026 sur le thème « Réécriture des classiques au théâtre ».
Dans notre époque qui mise sur la nouveauté et où l’obsolescence guette rapidement toute création nouvelle, la notion de réécriture pourrait sembler galvaudée. Cependant, elle est consubstantielle au théâtre, né de la réécriture de poèmes épiques et de chants religieux. Des pères fondateurs de la tragédie grecque aux classiques français du XVIIème siècle, c’est encore par la réécriture que voyagent Andromaque, Phèdre, Harpagon et tant d’autres personnages qui nous sont désormais familiers. Rarement en ligne directe ; souvent par une réécriture latine. La Médée d’Euripide est passée par les mains de Sénèque et des frères Corneille (pour ne citer que les plus connus) avant de devenir notre contemporaine sous la plume d’Heiner Müller et sa Médée-Matériau (Medeaspiel, 1974, Les Editions de Minuit, 1985, traduction Jean Jourdheuil et Heinz Schwarzinger). Avant lui Giraudoux, Anouilh, Cocteau, Sartre et bien d’autres ont poursuivi cette transmission tout en l’affirmant comme création à part entière.
Ce colloque se propose d’interroger la réécriture à l’intérieur même du théâtre, et plus particulièrement dans le champ des productions dramatiques françaises ou traduites en français, et francophones.
La réflexion se concentrera sur les reprises des textes classiques antérieurs, qu’ils soient classiques au sens canonique comme la Lysistrata d’Aristophane réécrite par Matéi Visniec (Lysistrata mon amour, L’Espace d’un instant, 2023), historique comme le Dom Juan de Molière décliné par Julia Haenni en Don Juan. L’homme épuisé (Don Juan. Erschöpfte Männer, Inédit, L’Arche éditeur, traduction Julie Tirard) ou classiques car ils ont marqué l’histoire récente du théâtre comme l’Ubu Roi de Jarry que se réapproprie Emmanuel Genvrin dans Votez Ubu colonial (in : Tout Ubu colonial, Séguier, 1995). Il sera donc question ici de proximité et de distance : temporelles, historiques, culturelles, linguistiques. Mais aussi de l’écart par lequel le « réécrivain » en s’emparant d’une œuvre « étrangère » fait acte de création originale.
Ce sont ces perspectives que le colloque de Lublin se propose de considérer, selon les axes suivants :
- Mythe
- Epopée
- Adaptation
- Satire
- Politique
- Réception
- Traduction en français
- Création
- Ecriture
- Auteur
- Metteur en scène
- Appropriation
- Francophonie
- Interculturalité
Quelques repères bibliographiques
-Dobson Michael and Rivier-Arnaud Estelle (dir), Rewriting Shakespeare’s Plays For and By the Contemporary Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars, 2017.
-Gauvin Lise, Van den Avenne Cécile, Corinus Véronique et Selao Ching (dir.). Littératures francophones, parodies, pastiches, réécritures, Lyon, ENS Éditions, 2013.
-Genette Gérard, Palimpsestes, La littérature au second degré. Paris, Seuil, 1982.--Hubert Marie-Claude (dir), Les Formes de la réécriture au théâtre, Presses universitaires de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2006.
-Lanteri Jean-Marc, Revue des Sciences Humaines no. 342, « Les réécritures de Shakespeare aux XXème et XXIème siècles », 2022.
-Schnyder Peter (dir), Métamorphoses du mythe, Réécritures anciennes et modernes des mythes antiques, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2008.
-Steiner George, Les Antigones, Gallimard, 2011.
Les propositions (200 mots maximum) sont à soumettre au plus tard 19 décembre 2025 à l’adresse : reecritures2026@gmail.com
Comité d’organisation
Renata Jakubczuk, Université Marie Curie- Skłodowska, Lublin
Sylwia Kucharuk, Université Marie Curie- Skłodowska, Lublin
Gilles Losseroy, Université de Lorraine, Nancy
Responsable :
Renata Jakubczuk ; Sylwia Kucharuk ; Gilles Losseroy
Adresse :
Lublin, Université Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Pologne "
https://www.fabula.org/actualites/127916/reecriture-des-classiques-au-theatre-theatronome-forum-des-chercheurs.html
#metaglossia_mundus
• Versant : Fonction publique d’État
• Type de recrutement : Enseignant Contractuel type second degré • Date de prise de fonction : 01/09/2025 • Durée du contrat : 1 an • Support : PRCE 0579 • Diplôme minimum requis : Master • Prise en charge partielle des frais de transport domicile-travail (transports en commun) • Forfait mobilités durables domicile-travail (en fonction du nombre de jours d’utilisation dans l’année) • Accès aux restaurants et cafétérias du CROUS avec tarif privilégié
Nantes Université est un établissement public d’enseignement supérieur et de recherche qui propose un modèle d’Université inédit en France unissant une université, un hôpital universitaire (CHU de Nantes), un institut de recherche technologique (IRT Jules Verne), un organisme national de recherche (Inserm) ainsi que Centrale Nantes, l’école des Beaux-Arts Nantes Saint-Nazaire et l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes.
Ces acteurs concentrent leurs forces pour développer l’excellence de la recherche nantaise et offrir de nouvelles opportunités de formations, dans tous les domaines de la connaissance.
Durable et ouverte sur le monde, Nantes Université veille à la qualité des conditions d'études et de travail offertes à ses étudiantes, étudiants et personnels, pour favoriser leur épanouissement sur tous ses campus de Nantes, Saint-Nazaire et La Roche-sur-Yon.
Profil enseignement
Nous souhaitons pour l’année 2025-26 recruter un·e contractuel·le 2nd degré à profil « Langue de spécialité, traduction et civilisation » pour couvrir les besoins en enseignements spécifiques dans la filière LEA. Ces besoins concernent prioritairement la langue de spécialité dans les domaines économiques et le monde de l'entreprise. L’enseignant·e pourra être amené·e à enseigner la civilisation américaine et/ou britannique dans le cadre de cours de Cultures et Sociétés, ainsi que la traduction orale. Une partie des enseignements pourrait être dispensée au Centre universitaire départemental de La Roche-sur-Yon.
Profil recherché
• Formation et/ou qualification : Bac+5 ou équivalent ; diplôme d’anglais ou d’enseignement de l’anglais langue étrangère de préférence
• Expériences antérieures bienvenues pour occuper le poste : 2 ans d’enseignement de l’anglais langue étrangère
Compétences et connaissances requises
Savoirs généraux, théoriques ou disciplinaires :
Il est attendu du/de la candidat·e une bonne connaissance de ces domaines (langue de spécialité, traduction, cultures et sociétés américaines et/ou britanniques).
Savoir-faire opérationnels :
Le/la candidat·e sera amené·e à utiliser la plateforme Moodle de l’université et les TICE en général.
Savoir-être :
Le/la candidat·e travaillera au sein d’une équipe pédagogique et participera au travail collectif. Le/la candidat·e sera également invité·e à participer à la réflexion sur les dispositifs existants afin de contribuer à leur amélioration et à leur pérennisation.
Consulter le descriptif détaillé du poste
Limite de réception des candidatures : 15 juin 2025
Commission de recrutement : 26 juin 2025
Prise de fonction souhaitée : 1er septembre 2025
Contact pédagogique :
Nom et prénom : VOLLE Agnès – TIRTAINE Cecilia
Adresse mail : agnes.volle@univ-nantes.fr ; cecilia.tirtaine@univ-nantes.fr
Dossier de candidature :
Envoyez votre candidature (CV + lettre de motivation obligatoire + copie du dernier diplôme – le tout en un seul fichier au format PDF) exclusivement par mail à agnes.volle@univ-nantes.fr et cecilia.tirtaine@univ-nantes.fr
Merci de préciser en objet du message : Candidature contractuel·le second degré « anglais LEA »"
https://www.univ-nantes.fr/universite/recrutement/nantes-universite-recrute-pour-le-pole-humanites-un-e-enseignant-e-contractuel-e-second-degre-anglais-de-specialite-traduction-et-civilisation
#metaglossia_mundus
"Call for Partnerships | Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme
UNESCO is pleased to announce the launch of a new Call for Partnerships by the Social and Human Sciences Sector.
28 May 2025
UNESCO is pleased to announce the launch of a new Call for Partnerships by the Social and Human Sciences Sector, as part of our ongoing commitment to promoting intercultural dialogue, peacebuilding and youth empowerment across the globe.
The Intercultural Dialogue Team is leading the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme, which aims to empower Young Leaders to advance intercultural dialogue and peace through training, grants, and mentorship to support community projects. Each year, UNESCO produces new knowledge resources, connects grassroots action to policymaking within a global dialogue event and publishes an Insights Report, while a dedicated alumni network ensures sustained engagement and long-term impact.
The objective of this Call for Partnerships is to identify an Implementation Partner - a not-for-profit entity which has been actively operating and registered as such for at least two years. The scope of the work will involve supporting the administration and follow up of a grant portfolio of USD 1,500,000 for 3 years/500,000 USD per year, specifically:
Strengthening the resources, knowledge, and skills of 50 Young Leaders from across all regions of the world - through annual grant of USD10,000 per grantee, training, mentorship, and coaching - to implement impactful projects using intercultural dialogue to solve problems within their communities;
Enhancing the insights available to policymakers on how to apply intercultural dialogue as a strategy and a tool for solving real social challenges, using data and learnings from the actions of Young Leaders and consolidating into an annual 'Insights Report';
Bolstering networks between Young Intercultural Leaders through the design, creation, and animation of an Alumni Network.
We invite qualified entities to apply for the opportunity to support a new flagship initiative under UNESCO’s mandate by visiting the call which is now published on the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM).
Estimated start of activities: August 2025
Deadline for submission: 19 June 2025 at 23:59 (Paris time)
Full call and submission details are available here."
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/call-partnerships-youth-peace-unesco-intercultural-leadership-programme
#metaglossia_mundus
"Kenya's Ngugi wa Thiong'o, champion of African expression
Nairobi (AFP) – During his imprisonment, Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o decided he would never write in English again, a defiant move that helped put literature in African languages firmly on the map.
Issued on: 28/05/2025 - 21:53
Modified: 28/05/2025 - 21:50
...His decision in the 1970s to abandon English in favour of his native Kikuyu, as well as Kenya's national language Swahili, was met with widespread incomprehension at first.
"We all thought he was mad... and brave at the same time," said Kenyan writer David Maillu. "We asked ourselves who would buy the books."
Yet the bold choice built his reputation and turned him into an African literary landmark.
The softly-spoken writer also lived a life as dramatic as his novels.
His criticism of post-colonial Kenya -- describing the violence of the political class and the newly rich as "the death of hopes, the death of dreams and the death of beauty" -- brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities.
'Decolonising the mind'
Born James Ngugi into a large peasant family in Kenya's central Limuru region on January 5, 1938, he spent the first 25 years of his life in what was then a British settler colony.
His early works were heavily influenced by his country's battle against colonial rule and the brutal Mau Mau war of 1952-1960.
In his first collection of essays, "Homecoming", he described himself as a "stranger in his home country".
But his anger would later extend to the inequalities of post-colonial Kenyan society, incurring the wrath of the government.
In 1977, Ngugi and fellow writer Ngugi wa Mirii were jailed without charge after the staging of their play "Ngaahika Ndeenda" ("I Will Marry When I Want").
It was then that he decided to write his first novel in Kikuyu, "Devil on the Cross", which was published in 1980.
Ngugi and Ngugi wa Mirii's 'I Will Marry When I Want' was banned for years for years and the authors imprisoned © Tony KARUMBA / AFP
He had already abandoned his "English" name to become Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
"I wrote it on the only paper available to me, which was toilet paper," he told US radio broadcaster NPR.
Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience, before a global campaign secured his release from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in December 1978.
As early as 1965, Ngugi's novel "The River Between" embarked on a critical examination of the role of Christianity in an African setting.
"If the white man's religion made you abandon a custom and then did not give you something else of equal value, you became lost," he wrote.
He went into self-imposed exile in 1982 after a ban on theatre groups in Kenya, moving first to Britain then to the United States.
In 1986, he published one of his best-known works, "Decolonising the Mind", a collection of essays about the role of language in forging national culture, history and identity.
'A Kenyan Tolstoy'
When Ngugi returned home on a visit in 2004, he was mobbed by supporters at Nairobi's airport.
"I have come back with an open mind, an open heart and open arms," he declared.
Days later, he and his wife were attacked by armed men: she was raped and he was beaten up. It was not clear whether robbery was the sole motive or whether the assault was politically motivated.
Margaretta wa Gacheru, a sociologist and former student of Ngugi, described him as a national icon.
"To me he's like a Kenyan Tolstoy, in the sense of being a storyteller, in the sense of his love of the language and panoramic view of society, his description of the landscape of social relations, of class and class struggles," she said.
In addition to fiction, the father-of-three, who became a professor of comparative literature at the University of California Irvine, also published essays and three memoirs.
His most recent book was the genre-defying novel-in-verse "The Perfect Nine", which he translated into English in 2020.
It recounted the founding of the Kikuyu people, blending folklore and allegory.
From widening economic inequality to the lingering trauma of racism, the issues raised in the play still persist in Kenya and beyond, a fact not lost on its creator.
"I am an activist, I want to see change," Ngugi told AFP.
"I hope we can continue striving for that world. We cannot give up.""
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250528-kenya-s-ngugi-wa-thiong-o-champion-of-african-expression
#metaglossia_mundus
Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’
The Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who was censored, imprisoned and forced into exile by the dictator Daniel arap Moi, a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature and one of few writers working in an indigenous African language, has died aged 87
...
Born in 1938, while Kenya was under British colonial rule, Ngũgĩ was one of 28 children, born to a father with four wives. He lived through the Mau Mau uprising as a teenager, during which the authorities imprisoned, abused and tortured tens or even hundreds of thousands of people.
...
“In prison I began to think in a more systematic way about language,” he told the Guardian in 2006. “Why was I not detained before, when I wrote in English?” He decided from then on to write in Gikuyu, that “the only language I could use was my own”.
Released in 1978, exile followed in 1982, when the author learned of a plot to kill him upon his return from a trip to Britain to promote his novel Caitani Mutharabaini, translated as Devil on the Cross. He later moved from the UK to the US, where he worked as a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine, and headed its International Centre for Writing and Translation.
Ngũgĩ continued to write in Gikuyu, despite his troubled connection with his homeland; an arrest warrant was issued for the fictional main character of his 1986 novel Matigari, which was also banned in Kenya. Returning to Nairobi with his wife Njeeri for the first time in 2004, two years after the death of Daniel arap Moi, Ngũgĩ was greeted by crowds at the airport. But during the trip, men wielding guns broke into their apartment, raping Njeeri and beating Ngũgĩ when he tried to intervene. “I don’t think we were meant to come out alive,” he told the Guardian two years later.
His novel Wizard of the Crow, translated by the author into English in 2006, returned to the subject of African kleptocracy, being set in the imaginary dictatorship of the Free Republic of Aburiria. He said the “most beautiful sentence in the entire novel” was “a translation from Gikuyu by the author”.
He continued to translate his own works from Gikuyu, and was nominated for the international Booker prize in 2021 for his epic novel-in-verse The Perfect Nine. He was the prize’s first nominee writing in an indigenous African language and the first author to be nominated for their own translation...
Ngũgĩ had nine children, four of whom are authors: Tee Ngũgĩ, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ, Nducu wa Ngũgĩ, and Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ.
“Resistance is the best way of keeping alive,” he said to the Guardian in 2018. “It can take even the smallest form of saying no to injustice. If you really think you’re right, you stick to your beliefs, and they help you to survive.”
Richard Lea and Sian Cain
28 May 2025 20.50 BST
https://lnkd.in/eJtcd_H6
#metaglossia_mundus
Le monde des lettres africaines est en deuil. L’écrivain kényan de renommée mondiale Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o est décédé ce mercredi matin à l’âge de 87 ans, a annoncé sa fille, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, dans un message émouvant publié sur Facebook : « C’est avec le cœur lourd que nous annonçons le décès de notre père, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, ce mercredi matin. Il a vécu une vie bien remplie et s’est bien battu. »
Figure majeure de la littérature africaine et icône intellectuelle mondiale, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o laisse derrière lui une œuvre puissante et engagée, qui a profondément influencé des générations de penseurs, écrivains et militants à travers le monde. Auteur prolifique, plusieurs fois cité parmi les prétendants au prix Nobel de littérature, il s’est imposé comme un fervent défenseur de la décolonisation culturelle et linguistique du continent africain.
Un écrivain enraciné dans son peuple
Né en 1937 dans une famille de paysans à Limuru, près de Nairobi, Ngũgĩ a été profondément marqué par la colonisation britannique et l’insurrection Mau Mau (1952-1960), événements fondateurs qui nourriront son engagement politique et littéraire. Ses premiers romans, écrits en anglais, dénoncent avec vigueur les injustices de la société postcoloniale kényane.
Mais c’est en 1977, à la suite de l’emprisonnement provoqué par l’une de ses pièces de théâtre critiques envers les élites, que Ngũgĩ opère un tournant décisif : il choisit d’abandonner l’anglais pour écrire exclusivement en kikuyu, sa langue maternelle. Ce geste audacieux devient un acte politique et culturel majeur. « Je crois tellement en l’égalité des langues. Je suis complètement horrifié par la hiérarchie des langues », confiait-il encore en 2024 dans un entretien à l’AFP depuis son exil californien.
Un legs inestimable pour l’Afrique et le monde
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o a consacré sa vie à la décolonisation de l’esprit, concept qu’il a théorisé et défendu avec rigueur dans ses essais. Pour lui, la reconquête des langues africaines était indissociable de la reconquête de la dignité et de l’identité. « Il a revitalisé les langues africaines, longtemps dénigrées comme étant incapables d’exprimer la modernité », affirmait le professeur Evan Mwangi de l’université Northwestern.
Comparé à Shakespeare, Dante ou Tolstoï pour avoir su magnifier sa langue maternelle dans la littérature, Ngũgĩ laisse une empreinte durable sur les lettres mondiales.
Un hommage unanime
Les hommages affluent depuis l’annonce de son décès. L’ancien président du Sénégal Macky Sall a salué, sur les réseaux sociaux, « une figure emblématique de la littérature africaine et ardent défenseur de la dignité de nos peuples », ajoutant : « L’Afrique perd une conscience éclairée, le monde une voix majeure. »
Le député Guy Marius Sagna a lui aussi exprimé sa reconnaissance : « Merci beaucoup Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o de nous avoir aidés à “Décoloniser l’esprit”. »
Un héritage vivant
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o s’en va, mais son œuvre, traduite dans de nombreuses langues et étudiée à travers le monde, continuera d’inspirer les combats pour la justice, la souveraineté culturelle et la reconnaissance des voix africaines dans leur diversité.
"Le célèbre écrivain kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o est mort
Nairobi (AFP) – Le célèbre écrivain kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o, plusieurs fois cité comme un possible prix Nobel de littérature, est mort mercredi à l'âge de 87 ans, a annoncé sa fille sur Facebook.
Publié le : 28/05/2025 - 23:01
Modifié le : 28/05/2025 - 22:59
"C'est avec le coeur lourd que nous annonçons le décès de notre père, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, ce mercredi matin", a écrit Wanjiku Wa Ngugi. "Il a eu une vie bien remplie et s'est bien battu."
Considéré comme l'un des écrivains les plus influents d'Afrique de l'Est, il est l'auteur d'une oeuvre reflétant la terre et le peuple dont il était issu, sans suivre les traces de la tradition occidentale.
"Il a revitalisé les langues africaines"
Emprisonné par les autorités kényanes en 1977-78, notamment pour avoir écrit des pièces de théâtre qui s'attaquent aux élites de son pays, il décide d'abandonner l'anglais pour écrire dans sa langue natale, le kikuyu, un choix radical mais capital dans une oeuvre marquée par la lutte contre les inégalités.
L'écrivain kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o lors d'une séance de dédicaces pour célébrer le jubilé d'or de son premier livre "Weep Not Child", le 13 juin 2015 à Nairobi © TONY KARUMBA / AFP/Archives
C'est d'ailleurs dans sa cellule de la prison de haute sécurité de Kamiti que Ngugi wa Thiong'o a fait son premier roman en kikuyu "Caitaani Mutharaba-ini" ("Le Diable sur la Croix").
"Je l'ai écrit sur le seul papier dont je disposais, du papier toilette", a-t-il un jour raconté.
"Je crois tellement en l'égalité des langues. Je suis complètement horrifié par la hiérarchie des langues", affirmait-il en 2024 dans un entretien avec l'AFP, de Californie, où il vivait en exil.
Cette décision avait à l'époque suscité l'incompréhension. "Nous pensions tous qu'il était fou (...) et courageux à la fois", raconte l'écrivain kényan David Maillu : "On se demandait qui achèterait les livres".
"Il a revitalisé les langues africaines, longtemps dénigrées comme étant incapables d'exprimer la modernité de manière intelligible", estimait Evan Mwangi, professeur de littérature à l'université américaine de Northwestern.
"Il fait ce que d'autres écrivains majeurs de l'histoire ont fait : écrire dans la langue de leur peuple plutôt que dans celle de l'élite", poursuivait-il, citant les exemples de Shakespeare, Dante et Tolstoï.
"De la mortalité à l'immortalité"
"Ayant déjà gagné sa place dans l'histoire du Kenya, il passe de la mortalité à l'immortalité", a écrit mercredi la branche kényane de l'ONG Amnesty International sur X.
"Ngugi wa Thiongo, un géant littéraire et un érudit de renom, un fils du sol et un grand patriote dont les empreintes sont indélébiles", a de son côté réagi Martha Karua, une dirigeante de l'opposition au Kenya, sur le même réseau social.
Né dans une famille de paysans de la région de Limuru, non loin de Nairobi, Ngugi wa Thiong'o a été marqué dès sa jeunesse par la colonisation britannique et l'insurrection locale Mau Mau entre 1952 et 1960, cruciale dans la marche vers l'indépendance finalement obtenue en 1963, qui influenceront ses premières oeuvres.
Il s'est volontairement exilé en 1982 après l'interdiction des troupes de théâtre au Kenya, s'installant d'abord au Royaume-Uni, puis en 1989 aux États-Unis, où il a enseigné la littérature comparée à l'université californienne d'Irvine.
En 1986, celui qui a abandonné son prénom occidental, James, a publié l'un de ses ouvrages les plus connus, "Décoloniser l'esprit", un recueil d'essais sur le rôle de la langue dans la construction de la culture, de l'histoire et de l'identité nationales.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o est retourné au Kenya en juillet 2004, après que Daniel arap Moi eut quitté le pouvoir.
Quelques jours plus tard, le couple a été violemment attaqué dans son appartement : sa femme a été violée, lui a été passé à tabac. Il n'a pas été établi si cette agression était de caractère criminel ou politique."
https://www.france24.com/fr/info-en-continu/20250528-le-c%C3%A9l%C3%A8bre-%C3%A9crivain-kenyan-ngugi-wa-thiong-o-est-mort
#metaglossia_mundus
"Translation: The Hidden Meanings Behind Emojis That Are Dividing the GenerationsPublished on May 28, 2025By Doug Montero
A smile emoji is not always a symbol of happiness — at least not for Gen Zers, who are more likely to use it to express sarcasm or disdain.
In fact, there’s a huge emoji generation gap between baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z, who are between 13 and 28 years old.
For millennial Sara Anderson, a 31-year-old cheerleading coach, the smiley face emoji adds “lightness” to her messages, she told The Wall Street Journal.
But Gen Z intern Hafeezat Bishi said she was shocked when her older colleagues used the smile emoji in emails. “I had to remember they are older, because I use it sarcastically,” Bishi told The Journal. She explained that she uses it more to “side-eye” a comment, rather than to express joy.
While people over 30 take them at face value — a smile is a smile — emojis have much different meanings for younger “digital natives,” who grew up using technology.
Take the thumbs-up emoji. Millennials, Gen Xers and boomers use it to signal agreement, but for younger people, it’s seen as snarky or disparaging.
Ingram Publishing / Newscom / The Mega Agency
Another disconnect comes with the sparkle emoji. Older users use it to express excitement or celebration, but for Gen Z, it denotes sarcasm or mockery.
For them, the fire emoji doesn’t refer to a literal fire or heat but to communicate that something — or someone — is hot, as in desirable.
Younger people also take advantage of emojis’ double meanings to conceal potentially “sinister” messages, warns Amit Kalley, founder of the organization For Working Parents.
To hide references to drugs, they may use a tree, leaf or branch emoji to represent marijuana, a snowflake for cocaine and a money bill for MDMA.
So, the next time you add an emoji on a message to a Gen Zer, think twice — it might not have the meaning you intend."
https://www.nationalenquirer.com/lost-in-digital-translation-the-hidden-meanings-behind-emojis-that-are-dividing-the-generations/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Beyond words: A deep dive into nonverbal communication
May 27, 2025, by Bob Curley
In Japanese culture, a geisha is a traditional entertainer, highly respected for her skill in dance and singing. In the West, however, “geisha girls” are often wrongly viewed as women of the night — a massively insulting stereotype and cultural faux pas.
It’s the kind of erroneous assumption students in Bryant’s “Intercultural Communication” course are learning not to make.
In a classroom exercise organized by Emi Kanemoto, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of the Intercultural Communication Program in the department of Communication and Language Studies, students are shown a series of images depicting human interactions. They are then challenged to describe, interpret, and evaluate the nonverbal personal and cultural communication cues they see.
When an image of a bowing woman impeccably clad in a silk kimono comes up, student evaluators use descriptors like “formal,” “polite,” and “friendly” — descriptors that reflect what’s actually in the image — without falling back on cultural assumptions or stereotypes.
The nonverbal communications exercise is one facet of Kanemoto’s GEN201 class, a general education course that all Bryant students are required to take. The requirement is unique to Bryant, says Kanemoto, whose teaching journey in the United States began when she emigrated from Japan about a decade ago. Yet, while it may be rare, the class is important.
“In the work setting, you have to work with people from other cultures, even within the U.S.,” Kanemoto notes. “Navigating these spaces is important not only in the workplace, but in your personal life, as well.”
Course goals include teaching members of the dominant culture to avoid committing microaggressions and improving their respect for marginalized communities. But the class also helps international students and other members of minority communities thrive in a sometimes unfamiliar and confusing cultural environment.
“In class we do a lot of self-reflection,” says Kanemoto. “We learn about other cultures, but also about ourselves.”
Unpacking stereotypes and oversimplifications are part of the learning process, as is unlearning attitudes about culture, race, gender, sexuality, national origin, and more, she says.
“Students gain language to call out someone or explain issues, such as how to respond to microaggressions,” Kanemoto says. “We learn about idioms and metaphors and how to navigate them. It helps students to live in a diverse space. We use knowledge to empower one another, as well as ourselves, to create an inclusive society.”
Lily Kimball ’27, a Biology major and Human Resource Management minor, sees the course as especially valuable for students who may have been relatively sheltered prior to college.
“For some students who come to Bryant, it’s their first interaction with people from different cultures,” she says. “It’s important not to see one culture as being better than another, while at the same time respecting your own.”
Kanemoto, who was inspired to pursue intercultural education through personal conversations with members of marginalized communities, says the general education requirement for students reflects a deep commitment to diversity at Bryant.
“Bryant has a culture change happening on campus,” she says. “I want to be part of the change.”
Language isn’t the only way people communicate; equally (and often even more) important are nonverbal cues such as hand gestures and eye contact, which can differ widely from culture to culture.
Examples of nonverbal communication, Kanemoto says, include:
Proxemics: the physical space and distance people use in communication. When people refer to their “personal space,” they are defining proxemics. U.S. visitors to the Mideast may find that conversations with locals can get a little too close for comfort, for example.
Chronemics: how we refer to and perceive time. This includes behaviors like punctuality and willingness to wait. Experiencing “island time” on vacation, for instance, is a classic example of chronemics.
Kinesics: body movements such as nodding or hand movements that are sometimes (but not always) accompanied by speech. Eye contact — or lack thereof — is also part of kinesics. Sustained eye contact is generally viewed as attentiveness in Western cultures but avoided in some Asian cultures as a sign of respect in certain social interactions.
Haptics: the use of touch in communication. Some U.S.-centric examples of haptics include functional-professional touch (a doctor touching a patient); social-polite touch (a handshake or a pat on the back); friendship-warmth touch (hugging or a kiss on the cheek); love-intimacy touch (kisses between lovers); and sexual-arousal touch. Touch rules and customs vary widely among cultures: Islamic communities, for example, generally frown upon touch between genders, but view behaviors like men holding hands in friendship as acceptable.
Paralanguage: verbal and nonverbal aspects of speech that influence meaning, including tone, intensity, pauses, and silence. An extended pause to emphasize the meaning of a word or statement is one example. Culturally, speaking loudly is a type of paralanguage that can be viewed as authoritative in Western countries; in some parts of Asia, it’s considered rude or, in Japan, a sign of loss of control in some contexts."
https://news.bryant.edu/beyond-words-deep-dive-nonverbal-communication
#metaglossia_mundus
"AI learns languages in a similar way to humans
News article 28 May 2025 07:00
In a study, researchers tested having AI agents play a communication game with each other to mimic how humans develop language. They had an AI agent communicate a colour via a symbol, and the receiving AI agent would try to recover what colour the symbol corresponded to. Both agents received a common reward if the colour was successfully recovered. The researchers also let the AI models learn from each other over generations. The overall result was a system for naming colours that were similar to human colour language, even though the AI agents had never come into contact with such. Illustration: Chalmers University of Technology | Emil Carlsson | Mia Halleröd Palmgren
An AI system that learns language autonomously develops a language structured in the same way as human language. And just as we humans learn from previous generations, AI models get better when they take advantage of the knowledge of older relatives. This is shown by a study from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, which explores the mechanisms behind human language and provides important knowledge for the development of the AI of the future.
Portrait of Emil Carlsson, Photo: Chalmers University of Technology | Almerängs fotografi
AI-based language models like ChatGPT are getting better and better at mimicking human language and are increasingly being used as a tool for producing text. But the same types of models can also teach us to better understand how human languages have evolved.
In the study, the researchers explored an AI system for evolving languages by using two different methods in a previously untested combination. On the one hand, reinforcement learning was used – where the right actions are rewarded and thus reinforced – and on the other hand, the researchers let the AI models learn from each other over generations.
"We discovered that the AI models reached something that is structured in the same way as human language, and that language learning worked in a similar way to human language. Thus, the study provides important insights about how AI models work, but also a greater understanding of how human languages evolve," says Emil Carlsson, who at the time of the study was a doctoral student at Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg.
All languages strive to be efficient
According to an influential theory in cognitive science*, all human language is shaped by the need to be able to communicate effectively. At the same time, a balance is needed: as a tool, the language must be informative but also simple enough for us to learn. And the more information that needs to be communicated, the more nuanced the language needs to be. A classic example is that languages in colder climates often have more words for snow and ice than languages in warmer climates.
To test the theory and investigate how language becomes efficient, the researchers created AI agents - different AI models - that played a communication game with each other.
The AI agents were shown a colour and a list of symbols that initially have no meaning. As the agents interact, these symbols come to be associated with certain colours and used to communicate the colour to the other agent.
"The reason we used colours is that there is so much data on how the colour spectrum is named in different languages, including data from isolated languages that have never been exposed to other languages. The categorisation of colours varies between languages, both in terms of the number of words and which part of the colour spectrum the words describe," says Emil Carlsson.
Rewards and generational exchange yielded results for language development
The experiments involved one AI agent communicating a colour via one of the symbols in the list, and the receiving AI agent would guess which colour the symbol corresponded to. Both agents received a common reward when they made progress in their communication. The closer they got to a common designation of the exact colour shade that the receiving agent got, the more points were awarded.
In the next step, new "generations" of AI agents were created, while the old AI agents were phased out. The new AI agents got to see the dialogue and the language that the previous generation had managed to develop. After that, the new AI agents got to play the same communication game with each other.
"The idea was to let the AI agents first learn a language from previous generations and then further develop it by communicating with each other. Just like two small children who learn by listening to mum and dad talk and then continue to broaden and develop their own languages," says Emil Carlsson.
Provides knowledge about how language develops
The result was a system for naming colours that were similar to human colour languages, despite the fact that the AI agents had never come into contact with them.
"The interesting thing was that it was precisely the combination of the problem-solving in the game, together with the fact that the AI agents learned from previous generations, that led to effective language that resembles human language. When the AI agents only communicated with each other to solve the game, the languages became too complex. We also tried to let the AI agents only learn from previous generations, without having to deal with the problem-solving aspect of the game, and then the languages became far too simple," he says.
According to Emil Carlsson, the results indicate that our ability to communicate and learn from each other is crucial for how languages develop over time.
"When we only learn something from another person, without perhaps understanding the benefits of it, our tendency to develop the knowledge decreases. But when we actually have to use what we have learned to solve problems and move forward, that's when structured and effective languages can be created," he says.
He hopes that the results will contribute new insights and ideas in language research, as well as research in AI and computer science.
"This is knowledge that can help us better understand the mechanisms behind human languages, but also understand how large AI-based language models work. This can pave the way for being able to guide the development of AI in fruitful directions", says Emil Carlsson.
More about the research
The study Cultural evolution via iterated learning and communication explains efficient color naming systems has been published in the Journal of Language Evolution. The authors are Emil Carlsson and Devdatt Dubhashi at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Terry Regier, UC Berkeley, USA.
The study is part of the thesis Reinforcement Learning: Efficient Communication and Sample Efficient Learning, which Emil Carlsson has presented at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg.
More about the cognitive science studies in the study
The cognitive science theory that the study is based on, "efficient communication", measures the efficiency of language in a strictly mathematical way. According to the theory, All languages strive to be efficient. This means that, on the one hand, we want an informative language, on the other hand, a simple language, as this creates less effort and is easier to learn. According to efficiency theory, language strikes the perfect balance between these two parameters, and it can be different for different languages and cultures, depending on the needs involved.
For more information, please contact:
Emil Carlsson, PhD at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg,Sweden, emil.carlsson@sleepcycle.com, 072 177 22 44
Devdatt Dubhashi, Professor at the Division of Data Science and AI at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden dubhashi@chalmers.se, 031 772 10 46"
https://www.chalmers.se/en/current/news/cse-ai-learns-languages-in-a-similar-way-to-humans/
#metaglossia_mundus
"Daniel Mendelsohn Book Event -
Jun 19, 2025 | Translator of The Odyssey
Erik Rostad, Neighbor
JUN
19
Event Details
Thu, Jun 19, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Landmark Booksellers | Franklin, Tennessee, 114 E Main St, Franklin, TN, 37064
Join Landmark Booksellers on Thursday, June 19th, at 6 PM for an unforgettable evening with acclaimed author and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn as he presents his new translation of The Odyssey. Mendelsohn will share insights into his groundbreaking translation, participate in a Q&A session, and engage in a discussion about the enduring relevance of The Odyssey. He will then conclude the evening with a book signing, making this an ideal gathering for lovers of literature and classical storytelling. This event is a perfect complement to Landmark’s “Great Wall of the Great Books,” a curated display celebrating humanity’s most influential literary works, including Homer’s timeless epic."
https://patch.com/tennessee/franklin/calendar/event/20250619/14a67187-3f61-452d-9873-7577c5ab929e/daniel-mendelsohn-book-event-translator-of-the-odyssey
#metaglossia_mundus
"Speech recognition for interpreters
20/09/2025
On Saturday September 20, 2025 Josh Goldsmith, from Techforword, will be giving a one day training on “Speech recognition for interpreters”.
Here are the details:
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2025 from 09:00 to 17:30.
Location: Novotel Geneva, Rue Zurich 19, 1201 Geneva
Trainer: Josh Goldsmith
Training: Speech recognition for interpreters (see description below)
Participants: 20 (maximum number of participants)
Registration fee:
Members of AIIC: CHF 100.00 (EURO - 107.00)
Non-members: CHF 200.00 (EURO - 214.00)
About this event
Unlock the power of speech recognition and elevate your interpreting skills in this dynamic full-day workshop. Numbers, dates, names, and terminology can be particularly tricky, but cutting-edge AI tools can ease the stress, allowing you to focus on delivering top-quality interpreting. Through hands-on training, you'll explore the best speech recognition solutions for online and onsite meetings, simultaneous and consecutive settings. Get ready to test-drive industry-leading tools, refine your techniques, and gain practical insights
tailored to the needs of interpreters. Join us and discover how AI-driven speech recognition can transform the way you work!
About the trainer : Josh Goldsmith
Josh Goldsmith is a UN- and EU-accredited translator and interpreter and AIIC member working from Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan into English. He splits his time between interpreting, translating, and working as a trainer and researcher focusing on the intersection between interpreting, technology and education. As Founder and Geek-In-Chief at techforword, Josh shares tips about technology, translation and interpreting in conferences and workshops, academic articles, the AI in Translation and AI in Interpreting Summits, and at techforword insiders, the premier online community for tech-savvy language professionals.
Speech recognition for interpreters
Full-day workshop
Numbers, dates, names and terminology can be especially challenging for interpreters.
But cutting-edge speech recognition tools can help to decrease the stress around numbers and terminology so you can focus on delivering higher-quality interpreting.
Join us for this hands-on workshop and explore the ins and outs of speech recognition in interpreting.
After this session, you’ll know how to:
● Set up speech recognition for online and onsite meetings
● Pick which speech recognition tool to use
● Use speech recognition in simultaneous and consecutive settings
You’ll also get a sneak peak of the newest speech-recognition-powered approach to interpreting, Sight-Consec.
Session overview
● Part 1: Introduction to speech recognition
● How speech recognition works
● Sight translation vs interpreting
● Part 2: “Generic” speech recognition tools
● Built-in captions in Zoom and other online meeting platforms
● Market overview: Otter, Web Captioner, and other speech recognition tools
● Deep dive: Maestra Web Captioner for speech recognition in 20+ languages
● Pros and cons of working from a running transcript
● Part 3: Audio routing
● Software for audio routing in remote meetings
● Hardware for audio routing in onsite meetings
● Part 4: Speech recognition tools for interpreters
● The 3 major players: CymoNote, InterpretBank, and SmarTerp
● Speech recognition for numbers
● Speech recognition for named entities
● Speech recognition for terminology
● Force replace
● Part 5: Sight-Consec: Combining speech recognition with note-taking
● How to go from sight translation to Sight-Consec
● Bilingual Sight-Consec with CymoNote
● Automated consecutive note-taking with speech recognition
● How to annotate transcripts while interpreting to boost your interpreting
● What to note down – and what to leave out – in Sight-Consec
● Part 6: The future of speech recognition-enabled interpreting
● Recap: Pros and cons of speech recognition
● What does the future hold?
The interactive training will include ample time for hands-on testing of tools and discussion of speech recognition.
Please bring a laptop and a headset or USB microphone + headphones. You can also bring a tablet and stylus if you have one.
All tools that will be covered include a free trial.
Please note:
This proposal is subject to change depending on developments in artificial intelligence.
Nevertheless, the session will provide an overview of the most cutting-edge AI-powered tools for interpreters based on available applications, and will include examples that specifically cater to the interpreting contexts and languages used in Switzerland. Please note that the trainer speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese and can also provide examples in German and Arabic.
For registration please send an email to Melanie Klemm at training-ch@aiic.org.
https://aiic.at/client/event/roster/eventRosterDetails.html?productId=746&eventRosterId=9
#metaglossia_mundus
Abidjan, 28 mai 2025 (AIP) – La traduction des textes sacrés dans les langues ivoiriennes a été au centre d’une journée scientifique organisée le mardi 27 mai au Goethe-Institut d’Abidjan. Placée sous le signe de la coopération ivoiro-allemande, cette rencontre a réuni enseignants-chercheurs, linguistes, étudiants et diplomates autour du thème : « Les travaux de traduction des textes sacrés en Côte d’Ivoire : bilan et perspectives ».
Initiée par le Laboratoire dynamique des langues et discours (LADYLAD) de l’Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, en partenariat avec l’Office allemand des échanges universitaires (DAAD), la journée visait à faire le point sur les efforts de traduction des textes religieux en langues locales, tout en explorant les perspectives de ce chantier culturel et scientifique majeur.
Représentant le doyen de l’UFR Langues, Littératures et Civilisations (LLC), le professeur Aboua Abia Alain a salué la portée multidimensionnelle de cette initiative.
« Traduire un texte sacré, ce n’est pas simplement transposer des mots d’une langue à une autre. C’est interpréter une vision du monde, une conception du divin, des valeurs éthiques et une culture vivante », a-t-il souligné, mettant en lumière les enjeux culturels et identitaires liés à cette démarche en contexte ivoirien.
L’ambassadeur de la République fédérale d’Allemagne, Matthias Veltin, a honoré de sa présence cette rencontre, exprimant son attachement personnel au monde littéraire et académique. « La diplomatie et la traduction partagent une vocation commune : bâtir des ponts de compréhension entre les peuples. J’explique aux Allemands la Côte d’Ivoire, et aux Ivoiriens l’Allemagne », a-t-il déclaré.
Le professeur Edzard Lutz, spécialiste du texte biblique en hébreu, a quant à lui offert une perspective historique et philologique sur les traductions anciennes, illustrant leur importance dans la transmission du patrimoine religieux. Il a évoqué notamment le Codex Sinaiticus, un manuscrit biblique du IVe siècle, pour montrer que certaines traductions sont parfois plus anciennes que les copies conservées dans la langue originale.
Pour le directeur du LADYLAD, Kra Enoc, cette journée visait à dresser un bilan rigoureux et à définir de nouvelles pistes de recherche et d’action. « Il est urgent de traduire les textes sacrés dans des langues telles que le baoulé, le bété ou le djoula, mais cela suppose de relever de nombreux défis : méthodologiques, culturels, mais aussi financiers », a-t-il expliqué, appelant à un soutien accru pour mobiliser les ressources intellectuelles et logistiques nécessaires.
Des initiatives concrètes ont été mises en avant, telles que celles de l’Alliance biblique de Côte d’Ivoire et de la Société internationale de linguistique, qui œuvrent activement à la traduction et à la diffusion des textes religieux dans les langues nationales.
(AIP)
dg/sdaf/cmas"
Abidjan, 28 mai 2025 (AIP)
#metaglossia_mundus
"Karima Kim primée pour sa traduction coréenne de la Muqaddima : un pont entre civilisations
« Beaucoup plus qu’un livre d’histoire, la Muqaddima est un projet intellectuel pour une compréhension globale de l’urbanisme, des dynamiques du pouvoir et des transformations sociétales », a déclaré la Sud-Coréenne Karima Kim, lauréate du Prix Ibn Khaldoun pour la promotion et la recherche dans les sciences humaines 2025 (catégorie « International »), pour sa traduction de la Muqaddima en langue coréenne.
La professeure coréenne s’exprimait lors de la cérémonie de remise du prix organisée mardi au Centre des Arts, de la Culture et des Lettres, à Ksar Saïd, Tunis. Ce prix est attribué par la Chaire ICESCO « Ibn Khaldoun pour la culture et le patrimoine » de Ksar Saïd, en partenariat avec l’association Med21.
Le comité d’évaluation, composé des historiens Abdelhamid Larguèche (président), Latifa Lakhdar et Faouzi Mahfoudh, a également attribué deux autres prix : au Franco-marocain Mehdi Ghouirgate (catégorie « Méditerranée ») et au Tunisien Moncef M’halla (catégorie « Pays d’accueil »).
Deux prix honorifiques ont par ailleurs été décernés à titre posthume aux professeurs tunisiens Ahmed Abdessalem et Aboul-Kacem Mohamed Kerrou, en présence des membres de leurs familles respectives.
Dans son intervention intitulée La Muqaddima, un pont entre les langues et les civilisations, Karima Kim a affirmé que « la pensée d’Ibn Khaldoun dépasse son cadre spatio-temporel. Elle propose des outils d’analyse qui demeurent utiles à notre époque ».
Bien plus qu’un historien du passé, « en Corée, Ibn Khaldoun est aujourd’hui considéré comme un penseur contemporain, porteur d’une vision critique et d’un esprit ouvert sur l’autre ».
Elle a qualifié la Tunisie, pays natal d’Ibn Khaldoun, de « lieu de mémoire, mais aussi de pensée vivante et d’innovation ». Elle y voit un pays tourné vers l’avenir, guidé par la pensée khaldounienne « comme un flambeau vers de nouveaux horizons ».
Karima Kim est revenue sur les conditions ayant entouré sa traduction, entamée en 2005. Elle dit avoir été animée par un sentiment de devoir envers le lecteur coréen, afin de transmettre la profondeur de la pensée d’Ibn Khaldoun dans leur langue.
Cette traduction est le fruit d’un long voyage intellectuel et culturel qu’elle qualifie d’expérience personnelle, dépassant le simple cadre académique.
Professeure de littérature arabe à l’Université de Hong-Kong des études étrangères de Séoul, Karima Kim est spécialiste de la littérature de la maqâma et de la littérature arabe contemporaine de la diaspora. Titulaire d’un doctorat portant sur l’œuvre d’al-Jahiz, notamment Al-Boukhala (Les Avares), elle rappelle qu’al-Jahiz (Abû Uthmân Amr Ibn Bahr al-Basrî), érudit irakien du IXe siècle, fut une figure majeure de la pensée arabe.
L’idée de traduire la Muqaddima est née d’une conviction intime : cette œuvre constitue un pont entre civilisations et ouvre de nouveaux horizons pour le dialogue entre l’Asie de l’Est et le monde arabe.
Elle a toutefois reconnu les contraintes liées à ce travail, notamment linguistiques, lexicales, et culturelles. Le style dense, les références historiques et les contextes propres au monde arabo-musulman ont nécessité un équilibre rigoureux, dans le respect du texte original.
Cette traduction a nécessité six années de travail, soit davantage que le temps qu’Ibn Khaldoun lui-même aurait mis à rédiger son manuscrit.
La version coréenne de la Muqaddima a connu un grand écho dans les milieux académiques et culturels de Corée du Sud. Sa publication a été largement médiatisée, suscitant un intérêt croissant pour la civilisation islamique et la pensée arabe.
L’ouvrage sera au cœur d’une conférence filmée cet été dans le cadre des classiques de la littérature mondiale présentés à l’Université nationale de Séoul.
En 2020, la version coréenne figurait parmi les œuvres primées du prestigieux Prix Sheikh Hamad pour la traduction et la compréhension internationale, décerné au Qatar. Une reconnaissance pour cette œuvre monumentale née au sud de la Méditerranée et désormais traduite vers de nombreuses langues, dont le coréen.
Véritable vecteur d’interculturalité, « la traduction ne se limite pas à transmettre les mots, estime la professeure Kim. Elle est un outil pour comprendre l’autre et construire des ponts entre les esprits et les cultures ».
À travers cette œuvre, elle dit avoir voulu offrir un aperçu de la profondeur de la pensée arabe et de la richesse de sa civilisation.
Karima Kim a conclu en souhaitant que cette rencontre jette les bases d’un « dialogue constant entre Orient et Occident, entre langues et cultures, dans un esprit de compréhension et de respect mutuels ».
Par La Presse avec TAP
le 28 mai 2025
https://lapresse.tn/2025/05/28/karima-kim-primee-pour-sa-traduction-coreenne-de-la-muqaddima-un-pont-entre-civilisations/
#metaglossia_mundus
At the 30th book fair in Prague, Chytomo was entrusted with a special mission — to observe young authors and translators participating in the CELA program (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists). We listened to presentations of literary works in five different languages, participated in professional discussions, and witnessed initial pitches to international publishers.
What young translators and writers in Europe are focusing on: A summary of the CELA Program in Prague
27.05.2025
VICTORIA FESHCHUK
At the 30th book fair in Prague, Chytomo was entrusted with a special mission — to observe young authors and translators participating in the CELA program (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists). We listened to presentations of literary works in five different languages, participated in professional discussions, and witnessed initial pitches to international publishers.
We’ll also share more information and insights into the Czech perspective on publishing.
This article was produced with the support of the International Festival Book Arsenal in the framework of the CELA program.
Consortium of young voices
How can a young author find a translator? How can a translator connect with an author? How can they both eventually find a publisher, and then readers? These were the questions that inspired the organizers of the CELA program. Today, the initiative includes 11 festivals across 11 European countries, including Ukraine (Book Arsenal).
This year, the program brought together 165 authors, translators, and literary professionals for networking, synergy, and future publications.
RELATED: Book Arsenal 2025 has announced its program
The Ukrainian authors included Myroslav Laiuk, Anastasiia Levkova, and Eugenia Kuznetsova. The list of Ukrainian translators and literary specialists featured Oksana Ziobro, Iuliia Stakhivska, Khrystyna Vengryniuk, Oleksandra Laktionova, Olga Bondarenko, Larysa Dobra, Yuliia Stankevych, Olena Roman, Olha-Anastasiia Futoran, Máximo André Martynenko Shchehlov, and Onujec Ionela-Paulina.
As part of the program, Eugenia Kuznetsova attended events at the Prague Book Fair, and authors Yulia Lukovniak (Slovenia) and Magdalena Sodomkova (Czechia), with Czech translator and journalist Rita Kindlerová, are scheduled to visit the International Festival Book Arsenal. Chytomo will also have a conversation with Lukovniak and Sodomkova during the Book Arsenal.
When discussing the implementation of the CELA program in Prague, it’s important to recognize that Czechia is slated to be the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair next year. As a result, the country is actively preparing to promote and sell copyrights to international publishers. Given the limited number of literary agencies in Czechia, this process actively involves publishers, translators, and authors.
The CELA special program in Prague focused on networking with other exhibitions’ special projects, and its participants attended events of the Fellowship Program and the Central and East European Book Market program.
RELATED: Through Covid-19 and war: the story of Frankfurt comeback
“This year we managed to organise at least three meetings with Czech publishers for each author(s). It is a challenge to find Czech publishers who would be interested in publishing a new generation of authors from different countries,” Michala Čičváková, the director and project manager of CzechLit, said. CzechLit coordinated the participation of authors from CELA in the Prague exhibition program.
As part of her role at CzechLit, Čičváková builds connections between German and Czech publishers and provides grants to support the translation and publication of Czech books into various languages. Taking into consideration her experience with texts’ pitching, she notes that attracting foreign publishers can be a challenging task — even when a grant is already secured — because Czech books are often not seen as financially appealing projects.
RELATED: Jan Kravčík: When you lose the cultural war, then the nation is totally lost
Participants of the program in Czechia are emerging authors from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, and Spain: Luis Díaz, Ioana Maria Stăncescu, Gergana Galabova, and Kuznetsova. With the exception of Kuznetsova (“History of Ukrainian Borshch,” published by Vydavnytstvo in Ukrainian, has been published in Czech), these authors have not been translated into Czech, so building bridges is not easy. That is why the Czech CELA program resembles a mini-Frankfurt.
That’s where we make a second note about the broader context of Central and Southern Europe. In countries like Czechia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, working with a literary agent is considered a luxury, particularly for emerging authors. This point is affirmed by Bulgarian literary agent Gergana Pancheva from the Sofia Literary Agency.
“It’s my first time in Prague, and for me, the local contexts, publishers, and audience are all completely new and unknown. As a writer, I explore universal things, the relationships between men, so I hope to find my audience here and, if I’m lucky, publishers,” Luis Díaz, a program participant and Spanish author, commented on the way to his readings.
Other participants of the program work with a variety of universal topics. Romanian author Ioana Maria Stăncescu writes about trauma and difficulties of mother-daughter relationships, Bulgarian author Gergana Galabova read an excerpt about bureaucracy, and Kuznetsova wrote about war.
“CELA is definitely a career boost. My book is suddenly being translated into German, maybe another book will be translated into Serbian. And I find myself more confident and less doubtful about whether it makes sense to write at all,” Czech author Anna Lunakova said.
Translators’ networking
For translators, the CELA program offers a valuable opportunity to discover new authors to work with and, importantly, to connect with publishers.
Authors who participate in the CELA program say that the program is mostly translation-centric. First and foremost, workshops on pitching book excerpts to publishers were designed specifically for them. The translators were expected to actively conduct meetings with local publishers.
It is important to highlight that publishers had the chance to meet translators working with less common language pairs, such as Bulgarian-Czech, Romanian-Czech, and Croatian-Czech. This is a good impetus not only to take an interest in a particular work, but also to establish long-term cooperation. Czech publishers (just like most Ukrainian publishers) find it easier to publish English- and German-language literature, partly because of access to translations — if you want to publish Macedonian or Romanian literature, it’s a completely different story.
“Another challenge is to introduce translators. In general, in Czechia, the names of translators are invisible to readers. If we look at the covers of most books published in the Czech Republic, there are no translators’ names, except for a few publishers. We would like to emphasise that translators are literary artists, equal to authors,” Čičváková said.
RELATED: Eero Balk: Our elders warned us that the KGB might try to recruit us
Other participants at the exhibition spoke about the challenges faced by translators. Notably, Petr Vidlák, the Czech translator of Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk, said that he could not even afford basic groceries on his translation fees.
Most of the translators Chytomo spoke to in Prague juggle at least three or four professional roles: librarians, authors, managers, editors, or critics. Anna Lunakova, who was introduced as a writer for the CELA project, is also a translator, book reviewer, and project manager at Revue Prostor.
This, of course, was a major impetus for Czech translators to also participate in the CELA program. CELA participants included Markéta Cubrová, Adéla Mikešová, Klára Našincová, Jitka Zárubová, Anna Kostková, Bára Genserová, Věra Böhmová, and Petra Janků.
Kindlerová will talk more about the context of Czech translators during a public event at the International Festival Book Arsenal.
The Ukrainian book “Sheep Are Safe” by Kuznetsova was pitched to Czech publishers by its translator, Mikešová, who also participated in the CELA program. This was her first experience with presenting a book to foreign publishers.
“We managed to pitch the novel to Host and Větrné mlýny. They were genuinely interested and will now read an excerpt from the book in my translation,” Mikešová said.
RELATED: Ukrainian novel «Ask Miechka» was nominated for the European Union Literary Prize
Ukrainian perspective
“For me, as a Ukrainian author, any public event is an opportunity to talk about the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is primarily about promoting the Ukrainian narrative and resisting pro-Russian stereotypes among audiences. It is political activism, and I think that this is the mission of all Ukrainian authors now,” Kuznetsova shared in a conversation with Chytomo.
At the festival, Kuznetsova took part in two public events where she read her texts and engaged in discussions with other authors on topics such as literary sensitivity and responsibility, linguistic identity during war, and the experience of living in different countries.
“We need to talk about the war but in a somewhat lighter format. There’s a part of the audience abroad that associates Ukraine only with very difficult and traumatic experiences. Readers may consciously avoid this. After all, for some people, reading is just a leisure activity. I think it is crucial that Ukrainian literature, in addition to being conscious and informative, also provides something for the soul. And between the lines, we can write about what hurts us,” Kuznetsova said.
Photo credit: Svět knihy Praha, Jitka Hanusova, Jan Tichý
Translation: Iryna Saviuk
Copy editing: Terra Friedman King
"New Research Suggests Human Language Evolved More Than 135,000 Years Ago
By Emma Taggart on May 26, 2025
There are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, allowing humans to chat, tell stories, and share information. Being able to communicate our ideas is an integral part of being human, and a new study suggests we’ve been using language a lot longer than we initially thought—at least 135,000 years ago.
Despite each language having its own unique sound and structure, new research suggests that all 7,000+ languages spoken today may trace back to a single linguistic family tree. A team of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the American Museum of Natural History, the Department of Linguistics at University of São Paulo, and other international collaborators explored the genetics of ancient humans and uncovered that the capacity for language was likely embedded in our DNA long before our ancestors began migrating across the globe.
Miyagawa and his team looked at 15 different scientific studies, all using different methods, and noticed they all pointed to the same conclusion: humans started splitting into different groups about 135,000 years ago. This was based on studying things like our full DNA, Y chromosomes (passed down from fathers), and mitochondrial DNA (passed down from mothers). The researchers say that if language had developed after that split, then some human groups today might not have language, or they might communicate in a totally different way. But that’s not the case—all humans have language, leading the researchers to believe that language must have existed before humans spread out.
“Every population branching across the globe has a human language, and all languages are related,” explains Shigeru Miyagawa, a professor emeritus of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT. “I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.”
Some scientists believe that humans might have had the ability to use language a few million years ago, just by looking at how other primates (like apes) communicate. But according to Miyagawa, it’s not just about making sounds—it’s about having the mental power to combine words and grammar into a system that lets us express complex ideas. He says human language is special because it has two key parts: words, which are the names we give to things like “tree” or “run,” and syntax, which refers to the grammar or rules that help us put words together in a meaningful way.
Miyagawa suggests that humans had the mental capacity for language before they began using it to communicate. At first, it may have been a private thinking tool, but by around 135,000 years ago, it evolved into social communication. Evidence of this shift appears in archaeology around 100,000 years ago, with behaviors like carving symbols in caves and tombs.
“Language was the trigger for modern human behavior,” says Miyagawa. “Somehow it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 100,000 years ago.”
https://mymodernmet.com/human-language-history/?
#metaglossia_mundus
"Globalization, the process of increasing interconnectedness and interdependence among nations, has dramatically impacted the world in several dimensions, including economic, political, technological, and cultural. Although there is no denying that globalization has sped up a very worrying phenomenon—cultural erosion—it has also unquestionably produced enormous potential for growth, creativity, and intercultural communication. Cultural erosion is the term used to describe how traditional identities, values, languages, and rituals gradually deteriorate or vanish due to outside pressures. Cultures all around the world, particularly those of less prominent or indigenous people, are gradually being absorbed or supplanted by mainstream global—often Western—cultures in this age of globalization.
Culture is the foundation of individual and societal identity. It includes language, traditions, customs, beliefs, music, rituals, and collective ideals that have been passed down through centuries. However, as globalization progresses, these distinct cultural characteristics are frequently overwhelmed or supplanted by internationally dominant standards. This transformation is not usually forced; rather, it occurs gradually through a variety of channels, including media, technology, education, trade, and migration.
Mass media is one of the most powerful causes of cultural disintegration in the globalised world.
Western television shows, films, music, and internet content dominate worldwide airwaves and digital platforms, resulting in an increase in the adoption of Western lifestyles, fashion, language, and values. Local cultural forms, traditional storytelling, and indigenous music are frequently pushed to the sidelines, viewed as out of date or less enticing than new, global alternatives. As media consumption becomes more global, young generations, in particular, are growing up with influences that are frequently far removed from their own cultures. Language loss is another major cause of cultural decline. Language is more than just a means of communication; it carries a people’s philosophy, history, and identity
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As English becomes the main language of global business, research, and education, native and indigenous languages are dying at an alarming rate. Many children today are being raised to speak global languages instead of their mother tongues, particularly in urban areas and top educational institutions. This trend is especially hazardous because when a language dies, a major portion of the related culture goes with it.
Globalization fosters a consumer culture that prioritises material success, convenience, and standardized products. This has resulted in broad appeal of multinational brands, frequently at the expense of local crafts, traditional meals, and indigenous attire. In several nations, people are increasingly donning Western-style attire instead of traditional dress, and fast-food restaurants have supplanted many traditional cafes. As a result, the economic and cultural significance of indigenous commodities and customs is diminished, frequently leading to their demise or extinction.
Tourism, another result of globalization, can help or hinder cultural preservation. While technology provides a platform for displaying cultural heritage to the globe, it frequently leads to commercialization or even distortion of cultural practices. Traditions are occasionally changed or produced to meet visitor expectations, turning significant rites into empty shows. This commoditization robs culture of its authenticity and transforms it to a marketable commodity rather than a live, breathing way of existence.
Urbanization and migration patterns have also had a substantial impact on cultural loss. When people relocate from rural areas to cities or travel to foreign nations in quest of better opportunities, they frequently assimilate into the prevailing culture of their new environment. Traditional modes of living based on village groups and ancestral rituals are gradually fading. The cosmopolitan lifestyle in urban areas, affected by global trends, frequently hinders the continuation of cultural practices that are deemed to be outdated or unimportant.
Real-world examples highlight the concrete effects of globalization on cultural disintegration. The younger generation in India is increasingly drawn to English, Western clothes, and worldwide music, frequently at the expense of regional languages, traditional festivals, and classical arts. . Although India has one of the world’s most rich cultural heritages, contemporary media and global consumerism are fast transforming the social fabric. Similarly, in African countries, colonial history combined with globalization has resulted in the marginalization of native languages and practices. Western education and religion have superseded many indigenous ones, and traditional knowledge systems are typically rejected in favour of Western models. In Latin America, particularly in Brazil and Mexico, indigenous cultures are under pressure from American pop culture, resulting in the gradual extinction of native languages and customs.
The repercussions of cultural degradation are severe. One of the most serious consequences is the loss of identity. When traditional values, rituals, and languages are lost, individuals and communities may feel disconnected from their roots. This can lead to identity crises, especially among young people who feel torn between modern global influences and their traditional heritage. Social structures can also start to crumble. The loss of these cultural features might impair communal relationships, leading to increasing individualism and social fragmentation.
Furthermore, the loss of indigenous knowledge is a severe worry. Traditional societies often have extensive ecological, medical, and agricultural expertise that has been honed over generations. This information is frequently closely related to cultural behaviours and languages. As cultures deteriorate, so does this vital knowledge that could otherwise contribute to sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, as the world becomes more culturally homogenized under the effect of globalization, we risk losing the rich diversity that distinguishes human societies. . A homogeneous global culture may be efficient, but it lacks the vibrancy, complexity, and variety that local cultures provide.
Despite these problems, several initiatives are ongoing to protect and revitalise cultural heritage in the face of globalization. Government policies can help by identifying and conserving endangered languages, promoting traditional education, and sponsoring cultural preservation projects. International organisations like UNESCO have initiated projects to safeguard intangible cultural assets and promote awareness about the significance of cultural diversity. Surprisingly, the same technology that aids cultural deterioration can also be used for preservation. Traditional stories, crafts, music, and rituals can be documented and shared through digital platforms and social media. Educational films, podcasts, and mobile apps can help younger generations connect with their past in new ways.
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Educational institutions also have an important role to play. Schools and universities can incorporate cultural studies into their curricula, celebrate local festivals, and promote the usage of native languages. Bilingual and culturally inclusive education cultivates pride in one’s identity while also enabling for global involvement. Communities are organising local festivals, storytelling events, and cultural seminars to reconnect with their heritage. Involving adolescents in these projects guarantees that cultural information is passed down to future generations, not as historical relics, but as developing facets of identity. Tourism, when conducted correctly, can also aid in cultural preservation. Communities can profit economically from supporting ethical and courteous tourism while preserving the originality of local traditions.
Finally, cultural degradation caused by globalization is a major issue affecting cultures around the world. . While globalization offers significant chances for advancement and cross-cultural engagement, it must be negotiated carefully to ensure that local cultures are not destroyed in the process. Cultural diversity strengthens humanity and provides varied perspectives on the world. It is critical to recognise the significance of each culture and strive for a balance between accepting global trends and safeguarding indigenous traditions. Individuals, communities, governments, and international organisations can work together to conserve cultural identities and ensure that globalization serves as a bridge between cultures rather than an erasing weapon."
By Irfan Ali Khadim
May 27, 2025
https://minutemirror.com.pk/cultural-erosion-due-to-globalization-397567/
#metaglossia_mundus
"L’UE repousse encore la reconnaissance du catalan et du basque comme langues officielles
François David
Publié le mardi 27 mai 2025 à 17:20
Le vote a été reporté faute d’unanimité entre les 27 États membres. Plusieurs pays invoquent des doutes juridiques et le coût trop élevé de la mesure.
C’est un échec pour le gouvernement espagnol de Pedro Sánchez. Mardi 27 mai, les ministres européens ont décidé de reporter le vote sur le statut officiel du catalan, du basque et du galicien dans l’Union européenne. L’initiative n’a pas trouvé l’unanimité requise parmi les 27 États membres.
Comme le rapporte La Vanguardia, sept pays ont exprimé des doutes juridiques, techniques et financiers. L’Allemagne, la Finlande ou encore l’Italie ont demandé plus de temps pour examiner la proposition. Certains pays, comme la France, la Croatie ou Chypre, se sont aussi montrés sceptiques.
Trop cher, trop flou
L’argument principal ? Le coût. Selon une étude, cela pourrait coûter jusqu’à 44 millions d’euros par an. Tous les documents officiels de l’UE devraient être traduits dans ces trois langues. Les discours au Parlement européen aussi. L’Espagne a promis de prendre en charge les frais, mais cela n’a pas suffi à rassurer ses partenaires.
Autre point soulevé : le flou juridique. Le Conseil de l’UE s’interroge encore sur la nécessité éventuelle de modifier les traités européens, ce qui complique la procédure.
Une crainte d’effet domino
Les États craignent aussi un précédent. L’Europe compte une soixantaine de langues régionales ou minoritaires. Et si le catalan ou le basque deviennent langues officielles, cela pourrait ouvrir la porte à d’autres demandes.
Même si le catalan est parlé par environ 10 millions de personnes – autant que le suédois ou le tchèque – cela ne suffit pas à convaincre certains pays qui redoutent des conséquences politiques.
Derrière cette décision, il y a aussi des jeux politiques. La Vanguardia rappelle que l’Italie de Giorgia Meloni, proche du parti espagnol Vox, n’a aucun intérêt à offrir une victoire symbolique au socialiste Pedro Sánchez. Certains États préfèrent d’ailleurs éviter de prendre position publiquement, mais ils bloquent en coulisses.
Et maintenant ?
L’Espagne avait proposé une mise en œuvre progressive et promet de poursuivre son travail de lobbying pour convaincre ses partenaires. Ce dossier est important pour Pedro Sánchez : c’est un engagement pris dans son accord avec le parti catalan Junts, en échange du soutien à son investiture.
Mais pour l’instant, le catalan, le basque et le galicien ne deviendront pas langues officielles de l’UE. Le débat est simplement repoussé à plus tard. Et rien ne garantit qu’il aboutira."
https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/societe/l-ue-repousse-encore-la-reconnaissance-du-catalan-et-du-basque-comme-langues-officielles-8634000
#metaglossia_mundus
"Catholiques et protestants flamands s’entendent sur une bible commune
C’est une première depuis cinq siècles : à partir de l’Avent 2027, l’ensemble de la communauté chrétienne néerlandophone utilisera la même version de ses textes sacrés.
Par William Bourton
Publié le 27/05/2025 à 17:19
Fin 2027, curés et pasteurs flamands liront des passages de la même Bible lors de leurs messes et offices. C’est la première fois en cinq siècles – depuis la Réforme – que les Eglises catholique et protestante néerlandophones vont utiliser la même traduction du Livre : la NBV21, pour Nieuwe Bijbel-vertaling voor de 21e eeuw (« Nouvelle traduction de la Bible pour le XXIe siècle »).
https://www.lesoir.be/678197/article/2025-05-27/catholiques-et-protestants-flamands-sentendent-sur-une-bible-commune
#metaglossia_mundus
Launched on 1 January, the four-year REVEIL project offers training across Luxembourg to combat racism and promote intercultural understanding, with the goal of challenging personal biases and fostering lasting behavioural change in both public and professional sectors.
"New training initiative against racism and for intercultural understanding opens across the country
Julie Thilges – adapted for RTL Today|Update: 25.05.2025 11:06
Launched on 1 January, the four-year REVEIL project offers training across Luxembourg to combat racism and promote intercultural understanding, with the goal of challenging personal biases and fostering lasting behavioural change in both public and professional sectors.
REVEIL stands for 'Renforcer la cohésion sociale par l’interculturalité et la lutte contre le racisme et les discriminations' in French, which translates to "Strengthening Social Cohesion through Interculturality and the Fight against Racism and Discrimination". After the completion of the project, a full evaluation will be conducted. The goal is to assess not only participant satisfaction, but also whether the training has led to tangible changes in attitudes and behaviours.
The project is led by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with the Luxembourg Integration and Social Cohesion Centre (LISKO) of the Luxembourg Red Cross and the association Centre for Education and Dialogue.
The initiative is rooted in the findings of a 2022 study by the Centre for Intercultural and Social Study and Training (CEFIS), which explored racism and discrimination in Luxembourg. The study found a clear need to raise public awareness and offer training in intercultural competence.
Training sessions and personal experience with racism
Since the start of this month, REVEIL training sessions have been open to the public, targeting sectors where multicultural interaction is common. The project acknowledges that racism remains an issue in Luxembourg's multicultural society, and aims to directly address it through structured, reflective learning.
Cécile Jérouville, from the Luxembourg Red Cross, explained that participants are invited to critically reflect on their own behaviours and assumptions, and are provided with materials and tools to challenge their thinking, expand their worldview, and embrace other cultures and ways of life.
Arline Sonita Tchagnang, a project officer at LISKO, offered a personal account of why such training matters. Having arrived in Luxembourg in 2016, she experienced racism and glottophobia – a form of discrimination linked to accent – while studying in the country. She also recalled being turned away from a job interview, where she was told outright: “We don’t work with people like you.”
Sector-specific training opportunities
Various sectors can benefit from the programme, including municipal authorities, youth and childhood services, and the social sector. These groups are offered both general training sessions and more targeted modules relevant to their field. Interested organisations or individuals can register online"
https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/2306883.html
#metaglossia_mundus
"The Mistake Europeans Make in Japanese Restaurants
Some common gestures in Asian restaurants in Europe can be perceived as cultural errors in Japan...
Sticking chopsticks in rice: a taboo full of meaning
In Japan, it is strongly discouraged, even shocking, to stick your chopsticks vertically into a bowl of rice. This gesture evokes a funerary practice: during Buddhist rites, a bowl of rice is placed with two chopsticks inserted in the center as an offering for the deceased. It is a powerful image, linked to death, mourning, and respect for spirits.
Reproducing this gesture in an everyday context, such as during a meal with friends or in a restaurant, is therefore extremely frowned upon. For the Japanese, this amounts to inadvertently invoking funeral symbolism in a moment of conviviality. It can even be perceived as a lack of respect or a basic ignorance of cultural codes.
Why this gesture remains common outside Japan
Outside of Japan, and especially in Europe, sticking your chopsticks in rice is often a practical gesture: you place them in the bowl while you pour yourself something else, or to take a break. For the uninitiated, it has no particular connotation. In many so-called "Japanese" restaurants (sometimes inspired by China or Korea), no instructions are given on the proper etiquette.
Furthermore, in Western culture, the symbolism of the meal is very different. We value autonomy at the table, and setting down cutlery in a practical manner is common. Without intercultural education, the symbolic significance of gestures escapes us. This is why this type of clumsiness is common, although it is never done with bad intentions.
What to do instead?
To avoid confusion or awkwardness, it is recommended to place chopsticks flat on a chopstick rest (called a hashi-oki), often provided in traditional Japanese restaurants. If one is not available, it is acceptable to place them parallel to the edge of the plate or bowl, in a neat and orderly manner.
Another elegant solution: roll up a corner of the paper napkin to create a small temporary support. This gesture demonstrates a willingness to adopt good practices, something the Japanese particularly appreciate in foreign visitors.
Other gestures to avoid at the table
Sticking your chopsticks isn't the only common cultural mistake in Japanese restaurants. Here are some other behaviors to avoid:
Rubbing chopsticks together: This implies that they are of poor quality, which can be offensive in a well-kept establishment.
Pointing at someone or a dish with your chopsticks: This is considered rude.
Passing food from one pair of chopsticks to another: this gesture also evokes funeral rites, particularly when the bones of the deceased are passed on.
Using chopsticks to move a bowl: they are not serving or object handling tools.
A culture of respect and harmony
What may seem rigid or excessive from a European perspective actually stems from a philosophy deeply rooted in Japanese culture: respect for the gesture, the moment, and each other. A meal is not just about eating, but a moment of sharing, balance, and gratitude. Every detail, down to how you hold or place your chopsticks, contributes to this harmony.
Adopting these gestures is a sign of understanding. It's also a mark of respect for the people who perpetuate this tradition, whether in an izakaya in Tokyo or a small family restaurant in Kyoto.
By learning to recognize and avoid these mistakes, we're not just demonstrating politeness; we're entering a culture of subtlety, where even the smallest detail has its place and significance. Respect isn't just expressed through words, but also through gestures, especially at the table."
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/the-mistake-europeans-make-in-japanese-restaurants/ar-AA1FkgBv
#metaglossia_mundus
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Linguistic, cultural and political differences make interpretation difficult, but analysts also point to factors like the target audience.
" ‘Never right’: why there’s a war of words over Beijing’s English translations
Linguistic, cultural and political differences make interpretation difficult, but analysts also point to factors like the target audience
Jane Caiin BeijingandMeredith Chenin Hong Kong
Published: 6:00am, 28 May 2025Updated: 9:29am, 28 May 2025
America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio has made clear that he does not trust Beijing’s English translations of Chinese officials’ words – he says they are “never right”.
The China hawk has instead urged his colleagues to go back to the original Chinese version of statements put out by Beijing to get a more accurate understanding of what is going on.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, appears to be the most powerful diplomat under President Donald Trump. He is the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the national security adviser and secretary of state positions at the same time, making him the point man on China over the next four years.
Rubio has been blunt about his distrust of China. During his secretary of state confirmation hearing in January, he highlighted the importance of referring to the original Chinese to understand the words of President Xi Jinping.
“Don’t read the English translation that they put out because the English translation is never right,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been blunt about his distrust of China. Photo: AFP
The subject of translation came up again later that month, when Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone. Wang reportedly told Rubio to “hao zi wei zhi” – an idiom Beijing translated as “act accordingly” in its English readout of the call. It was more stern in foreign media reports on the meeting – Reuters translated it as “conduct yourself well”, while Bloomberg’s translation was “conduct yourself properly”.
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Adding to the confusion, Rubio denied Wang had even given him any warning. “The translator that was on the call did not say anything to me that I felt was over the top. But then they put out these games – they like to play these games,” Rubio said in an interview on The Megyn Kelly Show, according to a transcript released by the US Department of State.
“They put out these translations where it says one thing in English and then it’s translated in a different – they use a different term in Mandarin – so like ‘He was warned not to overstep himself’. They never said that.”
Accurate translation is a difficult task given the linguistic, cultural and political differences between the United States and China. Analysts also point to other factors, such as the target audience for the messaging.
But one thing is clear – understanding what the other side is saying is more important than ever amid a 90-day pause in the US-China tariff war and with key areas on the table for negotiation, from electric vehicles to semiconductors and rare minerals.
Xiaoyu Pu, an associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, said the linguistic, conceptual and political differences between the countries could lead to gaps in perception and interpretation.
He said some Chinese political phrases were “highly idiomatic, historically rooted or symbolic”, and that made them challenging to translate directly.
Why Wang Yi’s message to Marco Rubio may have been lost in translation
‘There are limits’: the problems with China’s bid to patch things up with Europe
In further high-level exchange, China and US say channels remain open
Pu noted that there was also a difference in political communication styles. He said Chinese official discourse could be vague and ambiguous, whereas Western diplomatic language tended to be more direct and precise.
He said there was also some flexibility with translation that could be used strategically for different audiences.
“As one Chinese concept can be translated into different English terms, sometimes Chinese officials intentionally emphasise the Chinese meaning for a domestic audience while translating the idea into English for an international audience,” Pu said.
He pointed to the idiom used by Wang as an example, saying it was intended for a nationalistic domestic audience, while the official English translation was more moderate.
According to Pu, Chinese concepts could sometimes also be interpreted by foreign translators in the West in ways that fit their country’s political climate, rather than genuinely adhering to the original Chinese meaning.
Interpretations of an idiom used by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have varied. Photo: AFP
Pang Zhongying, a visiting senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said Rubio seemed to have “inherited” a distrust of Beijing’s translations from other China hawks like Robert Lighthizer.
Lighthizer, the US trade representative and architect of the trade war with China in Trump’s first term, wrote in his 2023 book No Trade Is Free that: “There is often a major difference between what China says in Chinese to its people and the way it officially translates those words into English for Western audiences.
“Routinely, the harsh, combative language is watered down. It thus is important to look to an unofficial and candid translation to determine what is being conveyed,” he said, citing an interpretation of Xi’s report to the 2022 Communist Party congress provided by Kevin Rudd, the former Australian prime minister and a China expert who speaks fluent Mandarin.
Pang said political distrust was at the heart of “misconception or disinformation” given that both sides had a large team of professional translators to draw on.
He said one way to reduce the problem was by increasing face-to-face communications so that misunderstandings could be cleared up. That was especially important given the range of issues expected to be negotiated by Beijing and Washington following the trade war truce agreed in Geneva earlier this month, he added.
Sabine Mokry, a researcher at the University of Hamburg’s Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, said the criticism of Beijing’s English translations reflected a deep-seated mistrust that had become one of the defining features of US-China relations.
She said the remarks were “a bit overblown”. “It speaks to a common perception – or misperception – that we don’t know anything about their [Chinese authorities’] intentions and they hide everything,” she said.
Mokry analysed the official English translations of foreign policy documents released by Beijing from 2013 to 2019. According to her study findings, published in 2022, almost half of the documents contained differences between the English and Chinese versions, and most of those differences potentially altered the intended meaning.
But she said the two versions were not entirely different, and the key messages remained largely consistent because the official translations were “carefully crafted” to align with Beijing’s political objectives and diplomatic priorities.
Mokry found that the Chinese version usually signalled stronger and more assertive intentions while the English version came across as softer, since they targeted different audiences.
“The question is more about how the US government and also governments around the world can build up enough capacity to deal with the original Chinese texts instead of just relying on the official English translations,” she said.
Mokry said machine-learning tools could help to identify translation differences but it remained crucial to have experts available who could work with the original Chinese statements, point their colleagues to the nuances and add the interpretive context that went beyond linguistic skills.
To do that, she said it was important to understand the institution issuing the document and its role in the political system.
How are Chinese citizens feeling the effects of the US-China tariff war?
How are Chinese citizens feeling the effects of the US-China tariff war?
According to Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based think tank, the historical and cultural differences that shape the values of Chinese and Western societies – and the way concepts are expressed and decoded – are the main reason for misperceptions when it comes to translation.
Wang said Chinese civilisation was rooted in agrarian traditions such as cultivating one’s plot and favouring modesty, while Western cultures, influenced by nomadic and expansionist histories, tended to emphasise individualism, mobility and global outreach.
He noted that some of the terms used in Chinese political messaging could be hard for international audiences to grasp. But he said instead of just communicating those unfamiliar phrases Beijing could create new terms and concepts that might gain international acceptance if there was clear context and the ideas were framed in more globally relatable ways.
Wang gave the example of Beijing’s renamed trade and infrastructure strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative.
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When it was launched in 2013 it was known as One Belt, One Road. But that caused confusion because it was not a road but sea routes linking China’s southern coast to East Africa, the Mediterranean and Latin America, while the “belt” refers to a series of overland corridors connecting China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
It quietly became the Belt and Road Initiative in 2015 – a name that is now recognised globally – with the Chinese name left unchanged.
Wang said further efforts from both China and the US were needed to boost exchanges in education and tourism, ease visa restrictions, and allow more access for foreign media to promote mutual understanding.
He said far more Chinese had studied in America than Americans in China since the reform and opening-up began in the 1970s. According to Wang, that imbalance, with a limited number of Americans learning Chinese, had a serious impact on how well they could understand each other.
“Chinese people are much more familiar with the United States than Americans are with China,” he said"
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3311936/never-right-why-theres-war-words-over-beijings-english-translations
#metaglossia_mundus