Decades after the government almost fully eradicated the use of Chinese ‘dialects’, they are now bemoaning the fact that most Chinese Singaporeans simply don’t have much competence in or passion for Mandarin.

For me, Mandarin is as far away a language as say, Korean. I speak Mandarin and read Chinese because I was made to do it, but it might as well be Korean.

Malay has much more cultural relevance to me than Mandarin. My ‘mother tongue’ is not Mandarin even though I’ve been told that it is (it’s Teochew).

Also we don’t have great Chinese teachers.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/today/voices/mother-tongue-difficult-chinese-language-education-schools-learning-students-5419631

#Languages #Singapore #TootSea

Decades after the government almost fully eradicated the use of Chinese ‘dialects’, they are now bemoaning the fact that most Chinese Singaporeans simply don’t have much competence in or passion for Mandarin.

For me, Mandarin is as far away a language as say, Korean. I speak Mandarin and read Chinese because I was made to do it, but it might as well be Korean.

Malay has much more cultural relevance to me than Mandarin. My ‘mother tongue’ is not Mandarin even though I’ve been told that it is (it’s Teochew).

Also we don’t have great Chinese teachers.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/today/voices/mother-tongue-difficult-chinese-language-education-schools-learning-students-5419631

#Languages #Singapore #TootSea

One particular feature I love about Fediverse: follow interests through hashtags and speak to folks all over the world with no language barriers thanks to translation feature on clients. Condition, to set correct language while posting. And of course, be pertinent when using hashtags. For example, I won't use "accessibility" or "a11y" hashtag here as I'm talking about #fediverse #languages - mention @FediTips

One particular feature I love about Fediverse: follow interests through hashtags and speak to folks all over the world with no language barriers thanks to translation feature on clients. Condition, to set correct language while posting. And of course, be pertinent when using hashtags. For example, I won't use "accessibility" or "a11y" hashtag here as I'm talking about #fediverse #languages - mention @FediTips

"Scala 3 / Match Types"

Scala has a neat new feature, resembling TypeScript's "conditional types", but more powerful.

https://alexn.org/blog/2025/10/25/scala-3-match-types/

#Languages #Programming #Scala #Scala3 #TypeScript

I've been to #Italy and had conversations with cool #Damanhur friends about this, can confirm it's actually true. Italian and Greek remain the two most #binary #languages I'm aware of. Don't get me started on how that impacts #culture- those tropes exist for a reason 😜

I'm going to tell you a very darling dialect word and about Finnish buses.

When Finns wait at a bus stop, there's this code where everyone is pretty far set apart, and trying to mind their own business. (Used to be staring into the void, now it's bothering phones and listening to music or books etc.) But this leads to there being a need and herd instinct for one person, usually the one closest to the direction the bus is coming in from to spot it first, or farthest for best viewing angle, to keep an eye on the arrival of the bus. The bus schedules are very seldom quite accurate and it would be bad to miss one if distracted.
If they're of a specific tribe of Finns, namely tamperelainen from Tampere, they'll vocally inform everyone of the bus coming instead of doing a sullen loud shuffle to alert everyone or a jaunty "noni" like in some regions father up north.

The phrase "now it is coming" is "nyt se tulee" but when you say it in that dialect, it becomes "nysse tulee."
And thus Nysse is bus because Nysse is what is coming.

#Finnish #Languages #Tampere

I'm going to tell you a very darling dialect word and about Finnish buses.

When Finns wait at a bus stop, there's this code where everyone is pretty far set apart, and trying to mind their own business. (Used to be staring into the void, now it's bothering phones and listening to music or books etc.) But this leads to there being a need and herd instinct for one person, usually the one closest to the direction the bus is coming in from to spot it first, or farthest for best viewing angle, to keep an eye on the arrival of the bus. The bus schedules are very seldom quite accurate and it would be bad to miss one if distracted.
If they're of a specific tribe of Finns, namely tamperelainen from Tampere, they'll vocally inform everyone of the bus coming instead of doing a sullen loud shuffle to alert everyone or a jaunty "noni" like in some regions father up north.

The phrase "now it is coming" is "nyt se tulee" but when you say it in that dialect, it becomes "nysse tulee."
And thus Nysse is bus because Nysse is what is coming.

#Finnish #Languages #Tampere

Hey, anyone learning German: I just came across a lyric video of a song that might help getting used to ch having 2 different pronunciations - e.g. this song's chorus includes "ich brauch dich", with the 3 "ch"s being, in order, /ç/, /x/, /ç/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boh9Lbzm1Fk

#languages #German

Hey, anyone learning German: I just came across a lyric video of a song that might help getting used to ch having 2 different pronunciations - e.g. this song's chorus includes "ich brauch dich", with the 3 "ch"s being, in order, /ç/, /x/, /ç/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boh9Lbzm1Fk

#languages #German

In Morocco's High Atlas mountains, the Assinsg language replaces spoken words with sharp whistles. But the survival of the whistle language is under threat. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/25/world/society/morocco-atlas-whistle-language/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #society #morocco #languages

#programmation #languages
Attendez... Python a complètement explosé Java en tant que langage populaire ?
Je présume que c'est grâce/à cause de l'IA ?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/top-programming-languages-2025

Dwi'n caru hwn.

Ro'n i ar #Euskotren yn ddiweddar, y gwasanaeth trenau o fewn Gwlad y Basg.

Ar y sgrinau mae negeseuon i annog pobl i ddefnyddio'r iaith Fasgeg. Dyma un o'r dywediadau:

"Peidiwch â barnu'r dydd yn ôl y cynhaeaf a gynaeafwyd gennych, ond yn ôl yr hadau a blannwyd gennych"

Beth am rhywbeth tebyg yn Gymraeg, Trafnidiaeth Cymru?

#Cymraeg#Euskadi #languages #ieithoedd

Dwi'n caru hwn.

Ro'n i ar #Euskotren yn ddiweddar, y gwasanaeth trenau o fewn Gwlad y Basg.

Ar y sgrinau mae negeseuon i annog pobl i ddefnyddio'r iaith Fasgeg. Dyma un o'r dywediadau:

"Peidiwch â barnu'r dydd yn ôl y cynhaeaf a gynaeafwyd gennych, ond yn ôl yr hadau a blannwyd gennych"

Beth am rhywbeth tebyg yn Gymraeg, Trafnidiaeth Cymru?

#Cymraeg#Euskadi #languages #ieithoedd

php est mort, vraiment ?

https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/programming_language/ms/y

There is a term in Chinese I think about. Sometimes we say ‘this person 会做人 / 不会做人’ (hui4 zuo4 ren2 / bu2 hui4 zuo4 ren2)

Broadly, it’s like ‘this person knows how to be a person / doesn’t know how to be one’.

Sometimes it is applied to some unwritten rules like ‘know how to bring a fruit gift to an elder family friend’. Or like ‘bring a tasty treat to your mother in law if she really likes food and you’re at a shop that sells her fave snacks get her some’.

But more broadly it means ‘someone who thinks of other people’.

My grandparents / parents often said they didn’t care about what my accomplishments were or weren’t, as long as I knew how to ‘be a person’, and how to be kind. I feel that’s important to me too.

#Chinese#Languages

There is a term in Chinese I think about. Sometimes we say ‘this person 会做人 / 不会做人’ (hui4 zuo4 ren2 / bu2 hui4 zuo4 ren2)

Broadly, it’s like ‘this person knows how to be a person / doesn’t know how to be one’.

Sometimes it is applied to some unwritten rules like ‘know how to bring a fruit gift to an elder family friend’. Or like ‘bring a tasty treat to your mother in law if she really likes food and you’re at a shop that sells her fave snacks get her some’.

But more broadly it means ‘someone who thinks of other people’.

My grandparents / parents often said they didn’t care about what my accomplishments were or weren’t, as long as I knew how to ‘be a person’, and how to be kind. I feel that’s important to me too.

#Chinese#Languages

Language learners! I need your help!

I’m going into the classroom this week with 8 year olds to introduce them to French and want to impart some wisdom from all of us who have learned more than one language (all languages matter - also open to programming languages!)

What is something you’ve learned through learning a language - that is not about the language itself, but about learning it?

An example follows! 🧵

#askfedi #languages #language #languagelearning

'Language is “for” communicating, but when we come to such phenomena as #poetry and made-up names and languages, the function of communication and the construction of meaning become as impenetrable to intellect alone as the tune of a song. The writer has to listen. The reader has to hear. Pleasure in articulate sound, and in the symbolic use of it, is what moves the maker of a poem, and also the maker of a fictional language, even if her tongue is the only one that will ever speak it and her ear alone is tuned to it.'

- #UrsulaKLeGuin, Inventing #Languages (2014) #conlang #music