When people speak a language it keeps it from going extinct. That is the motivation behind the new interactive animated language site My Grandmother’s Lingo. The animation, created by the Australian public media network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), introduces viewers to the Marra language. Marra is an endangered aboriginal language that currently has only three fluent speakers. My Grandmother’s Lingo takes viewers through the story of Angelina Joshua, a real person of Ngukurr in southeast Arnhem Land who embarks on a journey to rediscover the language of her grandmother.

According to a national survey, the vast majority of Canadians support bilingualism and the objectives of the nation’s Official Languages Act (OLA). Nearly 90% of Canadians support the law, which affords English and French equal status as the official languages of Canada. The act also supports the development of English and French linguistic-minority communities.
“Canada’s gradual acceptance of linguistic duality has made us more open, more inclusive, and readier to welcome others in our society,” Canada’s commissioner of official languages, Graham Fraser, said in a news release.
Support for the act’s objectives was high across the country, ranging from 92% in the province of Québec to 83% in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The office’s director of communications, Robin Cantin, noted that support for bilingualism is higher now than it was ten years ago, the last time a survey of this kind was conducted. The survey was conducted in February and March among 1,000 Canadians over 18 years of age. The results have a margin of error at the national level of +/-3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

More Funds for French
In a historic decision, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ordered the Ministry of Education to create a separate funding envelope for francophone schools in the province. Mark Power, the lawyer representing the French School Board and the Federation of Francophone Parents of BC, says it is a constitutional obligation for the government to provide access to French education.
“This is the first time that a judge anywhere in Canada has ordered a Ministry of Education to set up a separate and distinct capital funding envelope that can only be accessed by the minority-language school board. This is unique, that’s trend setting, and that is a really major legal development.”
The plaintiffs were demanding at least 22 new French schools be built, but the judge ruled that only four communities do not have access to “appropriate minority language educational facilities,” and awarded the French School Board CAN$6 million for school bus service, saying the transportation system was “chronically underfunded.”
The judge also ruled there is no requirement in British Columbia to provide early-childhood education in French under the Canadian Charter, noting that French language instruction is not French immersion instruction—it does not teach English speakers French as a second language but teaches francophone students using French as a language of instruction.

The U.S. Department of State and Peace Corps have launched English for All, a new initiative highlighting the U.S. government’s commitment to helping people around the world learn American English. The U.S. government invests more than $200 million a year in English instruction programs, providing a gateway to opportunity for millions worldwide. English for All provides a unified brand to promote all English language teaching programs run by the State Department and Peace Corps. The English for All website (http://englishforall.state.gov/) will serve as a resource for foreign audiences interested in learning about the range of English programs supported by the U.S. government and for Americans looking to serve their country by teaching English abroad.
English for All is the culmination of this administration’s drive to promote English language skills globally. English language instruction programs include the State Department Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program, English Language Specialist Program, and English Language Fellow Program, as well as the Peace Corps Volunteer and Peace Corps Response Volunteer programs. The U.S government also provides online American English tools and resources for both teachers and learners, including.

www.facebook.com/AmericanEnglishatState.

The popular language-learning tool Duolingo that has long-offered free software for learners of all levels recently added a new feature to its arsenal: chatbots. Chatbots are algorithm-based bots that interact with humans naturally within conversation. This may sound very futuristic, but actually, chatbots are used frequently in emails from companies, customer service inquiries, and so on. The bots allow users to interact in intelligent conversations that seem like natural human conversation.

The new Duolingo chatbot, which is only available as the iPhone app, allows people to have text conversations in Spanish, French, and German. The bots have different personalities, so the conversation seems even more natural. Duolingo will also be adding more languages and personalities too, to make the app more diverse.

The chatbot option is a good choice for those who are learning a new language without anyone to talk to in that language for practice. It allows language-learners to practice their conversational skills. The app is also more flexible than similar previous software. Even though there are many ways to say something, many language programs only find it correct if users respond in the one specific way that the software is programmed to accept. The chatbots accept many responses, and the app corrects users along the way.

If you want to brush up your language skills in a conversation but have nobody to talk to, these chatbots may be just what you are looking for.

A survey performed by One Hour Translation, the world’s largest online translation agency, shows that 52% of U.S. respondents think that speaking English is sufficient for the next U.S. president, while 48% think the next U.S. president should speak a second language.

The survey was performed together with Google Consumer Survey among 1,000 participants across the U.S. When asked which language the next U.S. president should speak, Spanish topped the list with 27% of respondents; Chinese was a distant second with 6.5%, followed by Russian (4.3%), French (3.8%), Arabic (3.7%), and German (2.7%).