2011

S1.E1 ∙ Kina tvingar Tibet byta språk.

Sat, Mar 19, 2011

In its quest for linguistic unity in China, the Chinese state is becoming increasingly uncompromising. With an active language policy, they try to get everyone to communicate in national Chinese and write in simplified characters. At the East Asian Museum, we meet the curator Si Han, who tells us why it is so important that all Chinese speak the same language. But a monolingual China is not everyone's dream. Above all in Tibet people protest against politics. Tensin Tsundue tells how people in Tibet are forced to introduce national Chinese as the school language and the only official language. In New York's Chinatown, the Cantonese dialect is still the most viable. Can the Chinese language policy reach this far? We meet Kim who is fighting for the Cantonese to survive.

0 /10

S1.E2 ∙ Arktiska språk och Ladino

Sat, Mar 26, 2011

We meet Leonore Grenoble, who researches Arctic languages, and the musician Hayati Kafé, who is fluent in the Ladino language. What is his view on Ladino and does he think that the language that has lived for thousands of years will survive? In New York there is an organization that documents endangered languages. It has been shown that unexpectedly many languages survive in the metropolitan jungle.

0 /10

S1.E4 ∙ Svenskan hotas i Finland

Sat, Apr 09, 2011

If the anti-Swedish Sannfinländarna (The Finns Party) win the election, they threaten to remove Swedish as an official language in Finland. Markus Lyra, until recently ambassador to Sweden, believes that the Swedish language is part of the Finnish culture and the people's soul. Others believe that Swedish only costs unnecessary money.

0 /10

S1.E5 ∙ Att klassas som ett minoritetsspråk

Sun, Apr 03, 2011

Being classified as a minority language could be the salvation for Europe's small languages - if they are spoken in an EU country. Ann-Helen Laestadius talks about the importance of language for her Sami identity.

0 /10

S1.E6 ∙ Språket som vapen

Sat, Apr 30, 2011

With the war in the Balkans in the 1990s, language differences began to be cultivated to show the differences between the area's ethnic groups. Already in early antiquity, language was connected with a collective sense of identity. But must multilingualism and language differences lead to conflicts?

0 /10

S1.E8 ∙ Tekniken tar över

Sat, May 07, 2011

According to the Bible, God created the confusion of languages as a punishment for man's arrogance. Today, with the help of technology, we are getting better at bridging the world's language barriers. But do tools like Google Translate make us understand each other better or worse? We meet linguistics professor Philip Resnik in a conversation about language and new technology. Translators Monica Silverstrand and Brian Hobbs talk about how the art of translation is affected by the new technology. We also visit the Colombia University Language Center in New York.

0 /10