Endangered Languages Week 2012 podcasts

Today is the 2nd May and my blog in 2012 has remained decidedly bare. Much of my time has instead been spent studying, exploring back alleys of markets, and discovering new foods, but for the most part, it has really been all about linguistics so far. This is not to say it hasn't been fun. Here are the most recent fruits of my labour, the production of podcasts to promote Endangered Languages Week at SOAS.

Enjoy!

Facts for Newbies
Language Landscape Web launch
Sand Drawings of Vanuatu - Mike Franjieh
Palatography - Jenny McCarthy
Scissor Dance of Peru - Jose "Pishtaco" Navarro

For more podcasts, visit soasradio.org

It's been a while. Britain's welcomed me back with the open arms of a banker embracing a new customer. It's good to be back. Observing, absorbing, getting back in touch with the anti-nature that is civilization. Realizing it's so easy to be absorbed by the hype of the media, new phone, new film, new tv, new underwear! Falling in love left and right with all the new actors, musicians, writers and artists who have popped up over the past year.  Feeling how detached the rest of the world is, how good Europe and the western world have it.

I was on a train today for five hours. I listened to conversations in different languages taking mental notes of patterns of code switching and creolization. It just happened. This is what I do now. I record languages for the greater good so that if one day a great natural catastrophe temporarily focuses the eye of the world on the islands of Micro-Polynesia, the deserts of Mongolia or the turtles of the Galapagos, those vocab and grammar books can be used to communicate with the natives.
http://www.hrelp.org/

Watch this space.