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"If you grow up being told that one of your first languages, Singlish, is actually a bad version of an already existing language, you kind of get this sense that “I'm just bad at language,” says Bibek Gurung, a former linguist who grew up in Singapore speaking Singlish with his family and friends, while schools and the government tried to quash it. "Language is a fundamental human skill. And to just have this sense that you're bad at this very fundamental skill really does a number to your self esteem and your abilities to communicate in general." Find out more about the episode and read the transcript at theallusionist.org/singlish. Content note: this episode contains references to corporal punishment of children. And there is one category B swear. Come to the Allusionist meetup in Vancouver BC on 20 October 2024! Information is at theallusionist.org/events. To help fund this independent podcast, take yourself to theallusionist.org/donate and become a member of the Allusioverse. You get regular livestreams with me and my collection of reference books, inside scoops into the making of this show, and watchalong parties - this month we're enjoying Merchant Ivory films, the current seasons of Great British Bake Off and the Canadian version, and Taskmaster featuring my brother Andy. And best of all, you get to bask in the company of your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community. This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, with music and editorial assistance from Martin Austwick of palebirdmusic.com. Find @allusionistshow on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Xitter, Threads, Bluesky, TikTok, etc. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk about your product or thing on the show, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by: • Quince, high quality clothing and homewares at prices 50-80% lower than comparable brands. Go to Quince.com/allusionist for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.• Rocket Money, the personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions and monitors your spending. Go to rocketmoney.com/allusionist to save money and lower your outgoings.• Home Chef, meal kits that fit your needs. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering Allusionist listeners eighteen free meals, plus free shipping on your first box, and free dessert for life, at HomeChef.com/allusionist.• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire/new home for your cryptic puzzle that takes months to solve. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist.• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothing essentials, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase. Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionistSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We discuss the basics of creole languages. What does the word creole mean? How do languages change and how are creoles formed? What is a pidgin language? What are common characteristics of creole languages? What is the largest creole language? How many creole languages are there? Why does it matter?
We first interviewed Professor Michel DeGraff back in season 1; he now returns for another episode, diving deeper into issues of culture and identity. He talks about his childhood in Haiti, where he was punished at school for speaking his own mother tongue, and where he was taught by his teachers and even his parents that Kreyòl was not “a real language.” After doing early work in natural language processing that led him to question widespread assumptions about language, Prof. DeGraff shifted his academic focus to linguistics. He now begins each iteration of his course 24.908 Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities by asking his students to write linguistic autobiographies that describe the languages they grew up speaking and examine their own attitudes about language. In addition to discussing that course, he talks in this episode about his efforts to draw attention to language's role in perpetuating imbalances of power. As an added bonus, we hear from two students from 24.908, discussing how Prof. DeGraff helped cultivate trust in the classroom, and how that trust freed the students to enrich each other's understanding of the world by sharing personal experiences and insights.*English Translation of Prof. Michel DeGraff's Kreyòl Statement: So, my fellow countrymen,There's something that is very VERY important to understand:we must understand the origins of prejudices against Kreyòl.We must also remember that Dessalines said, so clearly,that everyone is human. And he also knew that,if everyone is human, then every language is a perfectly normal language.So Kreyòl, too, is a perfectly normal language. That's why he said, since before 1804,that Kreyòl is our own language,so we don't need to always look for other languages to speak.Yes, we must remember, if we did not have Kreyòl as a language,we could never have succeeded in making this revolutionthat gave us an independent Haiti.Kreyòl was the language of the revolution.So, today, we must useKreyòl too as language of instruction.It is this language that will allow all children in Haiti to access quality education as their right.Relevant Resources:MIT OpenCourseWare The OCW Educator Portal Professor DeGraff's faculty page 24.908 Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities on OpenCourseWare The MIT-Haiti Initiative Chalk Radio Season 1 episode with Prof. DeGraffNY Times op-ed by Prof. DeGraff Linguistics and Economics in the Caribbean (article by Ianá Ferguson) Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions (https://www.sessions.blue/) Connect with UsIf you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We'd love to hear from you! Call us @ 617-715-2517On our site On Facebook On Twitter On Instagram Stay CurrentSubscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter. (https://ocw.mit.edu/newsletter/) Support OCWIf you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep these programs going! CreditsSarah Hansen, host and producer Brett Paci, producer Dave Lishansky, producer Show notes by Peter Chipman
“We all hold dear certain attitudes about language,” Professor Michel DeGraff says in this episode centered on his course 24.908 Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities. Those attitudes can be positive for ourselves and for others, DeGraff says, but they can also have negative effects. His goal is to make linguistics accessible to a broader audience, to connect language to issues of culture and identity, and to show how language prejudices are rooted in hierarchies of power. Specifically, he seeks to increase public awareness that the creoles of the Caribbean, like his native Haitian Creole (or Kreyòl), are fully developed languages worthy of as much respect as higher-prestige languages like French or English. To pursue this goal, he promotes dual-language education for Haitian-American students, and he himself speaks Kreyòl in as many public forums as possible—including in the videos on the OpenCourseWare site for his course, and at various points in this podcast itself! At the same time, as he explains, he encourages his students to examine their own backgrounds to see how their attitudes about the languages they speak have been shaped by explicit or implicit attitudes about culture and identity.Relevant Resources:MIT OpenCourseWareThe OCW Educator Portal Professor DeGraff’s course on OCWProfessor DeGraff’s faculty pageThe MIT-Haiti Initiative English / Haitian Creole dual-language kindergarten in BostonMusic in this episode by Blue Dot SessionsConnect with UsIf you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you! On our siteOn FacebookOn TwitterOn InstagramStay CurrentSubscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter.
For our 97th episode, we are joined by Sarah FitzGerald, a PhD student at Sussex University in Brighton, England, who studies Cameroon Pidgin English. Sarah explains to us the differences between creole–we’re not talking about Louisiana here–and pidgin languages and how they develop. Later, enjoy a quiz called “Language Stuff That I Think is Interesting”!. . . [Music: 1) Jovi, “Check Sense ft. Pascal (Produced by Kiloh),” 2015; 2) Frau Holle, “Ascending Souls,” 2017. Courtesy of Frau Holle, CC BY-NC 3.0 license.]
Kristang is a language spoken in Malacca, Malaysia and Singapore. But with almost 10 times as many speakers in Malacca than Singapore, how do things differ for the language in both cities? Find out in this episode of Language Stories. THE VIDEO Click here to watch the sister video to this podcast episode. (https://youtu.be/ueL41RZuU00) To keep track of future episodes in video form, click here to subscribe on YouTube. SUPPORT THE SHOW The best thing you can do right now to support the project is threefold, and if you've ever listened to any podcast before, I'm sure you'll be familiar with what I'm about to say! Subscribe - by subscribing to the Language Stories podcast in your favourite place and YouTube for the sister videos, you're going to keep up with all future episodes. Woop! Review - when it comes to the tech stuff, reviews are pretty important. Reviews help to tell iTunes that people like the podcast, and that helps to raise the profile so that new people can find it easily. Yay! Tell a friend - word of mouth still wins! If you know someone who would love Language Stories, tell them about it. And if they're new to podcasts, walk them through the process to subscribe them. Woohoo! To make it as easy as possible to share the podcast, click here to tweet about episode. SHARE YOUR STORY If you have a Language Story you'd love to share, or if you know someone that does, get in touch. I always love to hear from you! Your feedback helps to shape future episodes so thank you. Special Guests: Kevin Martens Wong, Melissa De Silva - Author, 'Others' Is Not A Race, Michael Singho - Author, Beng Prende Portugues Malaká, Philomena Singho - Author, Beng Prende Portugues Malaká, and Sara Frederica Santa Maria.
Kristang is a language spoken in Malacca, Malaysia and Singapore. But with almost 10 times as many speakers in Malacca than Singapore, how do things differ for the language in both cities? Find out in this episode of Language Stories. THE VIDEO Click here to watch the sister video to this podcast episode. (https://youtu.be/ueL41RZuU00) To keep track of future episodes in video form, click here to subscribe on YouTube. SUPPORT THE SHOW The best thing you can do right now to support the project is threefold, and if you've ever listened to any podcast before, I'm sure you'll be familiar with what I'm about to say! Subscribe - by subscribing to the Language Stories podcast in your favourite place and YouTube for the sister videos, you're going to keep up with all future episodes. Woop! Review - when it comes to the tech stuff, reviews are pretty important. Reviews help to tell iTunes that people like the podcast, and that helps to raise the profile so that new people can find it easily. Yay! Tell a friend - word of mouth still wins! If you know someone who would love Language Stories, tell them about it. And if they're new to podcasts, walk them through the process to subscribe them. Woohoo! To make it as easy as possible to share the podcast, click here to tweet about episode. SHARE YOUR STORY If you have a Language Story you’d love to share, or if you know someone that does, get in touch. I always love to hear from you! Your feedback helps to shape future episodes so thank you. Special Guests: Kevin Martens Wong, Melissa De Silva - Author, 'Others' Is Not A Race, Michael Singho - Author, Beng Prende Portugues Malaká, Philomena Singho - Author, Beng Prende Portugues Malaká, and Sara Frederica Santa Maria.
Today's episode is all about Pidgin and Creole languages with enthusiast Amarinder from the US. ===================
Researching Garifuna led me down the first of many internet rabbit holes from this Bonus Mini series. This time, it's all about different languages for different genders. Support The Show The best thing you can do right now to support the project is threefold, and if you've ever listened to any podcast before, I'm sure you'll be familiar with what I'm about to say! Subscribe - by subscribing to the Language Stories podcast in your favourite place and YouTube for the sister videos, you're going to keep up with all future episodes. Woop! Review - when it comes to the tech stuff, reviews are pretty important. Reviews help to tell iTunes that people like the podcast, and that helps to raise the profile so that new people can find it easily. Yay! Tell a friend - word of mouth still wins! If you know someone who would love Language Stories, tell them about it. And if they're new to podcasts, walk them through the process to subscribe them. Woohoo! To make it as easy as possible to share the podcast, click here to tweet about episode. Share Your Story If you have a Language Story you'd love to share, or if you know someone that does, get in touch. I always love to hear from you! Your feedback helps to shape future episodes so thank you.
Researching Garifuna led me down the first of many internet rabbit holes from this Bonus Mini series. This time, it's all about different languages for different genders. Support The Show The best thing you can do right now to support the project is threefold, and if you've ever listened to any podcast before, I'm sure you'll be familiar with what I'm about to say! Subscribe - by subscribing to the Language Stories podcast in your favourite place and YouTube for the sister videos, you're going to keep up with all future episodes. Woop! Review - when it comes to the tech stuff, reviews are pretty important. Reviews help to tell iTunes that people like the podcast, and that helps to raise the profile so that new people can find it easily. Yay! Tell a friend - word of mouth still wins! If you know someone who would love Language Stories, tell them about it. And if they're new to podcasts, walk them through the process to subscribe them. Woohoo! To make it as easy as possible to share the podcast, click here to tweet about episode. Share Your Story If you have a Language Story you’d love to share, or if you know someone that does, get in touch. I always love to hear from you! Your feedback helps to shape future episodes so thank you.
Programming Languages and Communication With Kerri Miller TableXI is now offering training for developers and products teams! For more info, email workshops@tablexi.com. Get your FREE career growth strategy information and techniques! (https://stickynote.game) Rails 5 Test Prescriptions (https://pragprog.com/book/nrtest3/rails-5-test-prescriptions) is updated, available, and shipping! Guest Kerri Miller (https://twitter.com/kerrizor): Senior Developer at TravisCI (https://travis-ci.org/) and Ruby Community Member. Co-Organizer of the Open Source and Feelings Conference (https://www.osfeels.com/). Blog (http://kerrizor.com/). Summary Why is Smalltalk the Elizabethan English of programming languages? Why has it been so influential, and how does the programming language you use affect the way you think about programming. On this episode, Kerri Miller and I talk about programming languages and communication, and what we've learned from our most recent programming language adventures. Notes 01:56 - Introduction Twitter Stream (https://twitter.com/kerrizor/status/974391130484752385) Creole Languages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language) Pidgin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin) 06:18 - SmallTalk is to Ruby as Elizabethan English is to Modern Day 08:11 - SmallTalk’s History Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (https://amzn.to/2JxTtss) Squeak (http://squeak.org/) By the way, I did get the Squeak history partially wrong. The original work was done at Apple, and when they went to Disney after that, they downloaded their Apple work as Open Source to continue. (It is possibly named Squeak because they were being wooed by Disney). The technical details are basically right, though. 17:55 - Thinking About Programming and Software Projects in a Flexible Way Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sapir-whorf-hypothesis) 22:01 - Object-Oriented Programming, Thinking, and Design The Overton Window (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window) 28:37 - Learning New Programming Languages, Concepts, and Techniques The Silmarillion by Tolkien (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion) Nothing is Something by Sandi Metz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMPfEXIlTVE) Much Ado About Naught by Avdi Grimm (http://www.virtuouscode.com/introduction-to-much-ado-about-naught/) Related Episodes Back in the Testing Weeds with Sam Phippen and Justin Searls (http://www.techdoneright.io/33) Ruby Tapas and Avoiding Code with Avdi Grimm (http://www.techdoneright.io/24) The Elm Programming Language With Corey Haines (http://www.techdoneright.io/17) Special Guest: Kerri Miller.
Belize isn't like the rest of Central America. Belize speaks English. But that's not the full story... The Video Click here to watch the sister video to this podcast episode. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YINiBfcF_S0) To keep track of future episodes in video form, click here to subscribe on YouTube. Support The Show The best thing you can do right now to support the project is threefold, and if you've ever listened to any podcast before, I'm sure you'll be familiar with what I'm about to say! Subscribe - by subscribing to the Language Stories podcast in your favourite place and YouTube for the sister videos, you're going to keep up with all future episodes. Woop! Review - when it comes to the tech stuff, reviews are pretty important. Reviews help to tell iTunes that people like the podcast, and that helps to raise the profile so that new people can find it easily. Yay! Tell a friend - word of mouth still wins! If you know someone who would love Language Stories, tell them about it. And if they're new to podcasts, walk them through the process to subscribe them. Woohoo! To make it as easy as possible to share the podcast, click here to tweet about episode. Share Your Story If you have a Language Story you'd love to share, or if you know someone that does, get in touch. I always love to hear from you! Your feedback helps to shape future episodes so thank you. Special Guests: Osmer Balam - Northern Belizean Spanish and Timothy McKeon - Creole Specialist.
Belize isn't like the rest of Central America. Belize speaks English. But that's not the full story... The Video Click here to watch the sister video to this podcast episode. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YINiBfcF_S0) To keep track of future episodes in video form, click here to subscribe on YouTube. Support The Show The best thing you can do right now to support the project is threefold, and if you've ever listened to any podcast before, I'm sure you'll be familiar with what I'm about to say! Subscribe - by subscribing to the Language Stories podcast in your favourite place and YouTube for the sister videos, you're going to keep up with all future episodes. Woop! Review - when it comes to the tech stuff, reviews are pretty important. Reviews help to tell iTunes that people like the podcast, and that helps to raise the profile so that new people can find it easily. Yay! Tell a friend - word of mouth still wins! If you know someone who would love Language Stories, tell them about it. And if they're new to podcasts, walk them through the process to subscribe them. Woohoo! To make it as easy as possible to share the podcast, click here to tweet about episode. Share Your Story If you have a Language Story you’d love to share, or if you know someone that does, get in touch. I always love to hear from you! Your feedback helps to shape future episodes so thank you. Special Guests: Osmer Balam - Northern Belizean Spanish and Timothy McKeon - Creole Specialist.
Jon and Russ discuss Episode Three ("Sunday Times"), the Munchiverse, stressed-out squirrels, pidgin languages, anti-Semites (again), and more! Tweet at 'em: @madaboutyoupod Tumble with 'em: madaboutyoupod.tumblr.com Facebook with 'em: www.facebook.com/madaboutyoupod/ And please subscribe and review them on iTunes! CREDITS Our show is hosted by Russ Feder (@russfeder) and Jonathan Marballi (@jonnymarbles) Our theme song is by John D Ivy (SoundCloud, YouTube) Our logo is by Nathan Diffee (@NathanDiffee) WATCH WITH US Buy the full "Mad About You" series on Amazon NEWS STORIES Fur Is Flying in Madison Square Park Chinese Agency Indicted in Jeans Import Scheme Apology for New York Telephone Brochure A Prowler Stops Lunch In Midtown OTHER SHOW NOTES Information Regarding the Production of "The Will Rogers Follies" That Lisa Saw Buy all volumes of The Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages (it's only $570, practically free!) ABOUT "MAD ABOUT YOU" "Mad About You" was a romantic sit-com from the 90s that aired on NBC from 1992 - 1999. It starred Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as Paul and Jamie Buchman, two newlyweds navigating their marriage and life in New York City. The show also featured Leila Kenzle and Richard Kind as Mark and Fran Devanow, their married friends, Anne Ramsay as Jamie's sister Lisa, and John Pankow as Paul's cousin Ira. Read more at IMDB