Talk is Golden by KanTalk.com

Indians speak English with an unique accent. AFP has reported the latest trends:

“In India, speaking English with an American accent is no longer the preserve of call centre workers. Children, business people and the elderly here are now seeking a US twang.

The phenomenon has spread from the Indian offshore operations boom in the late 1990s to a wider cross-section of society, whether to help them get on in business, communicate with family State-side or just show off.”

For the complete article, click here.

Here are some interesting–or disturbing–statistics about the foreign langauge education in the U.S.:

If you feel that English spelling is hard, don’t be discouraged. It’s not easy for a native English speaker either, according to the Times’s recent article English Spelling: hard to learn, full of oddities and a glorious portal to history. Here is the excerpt:

There is no point in pretending that English spelling is easy. But then neither is water-skiing, nor horsemanship, nor playing the guitar, nor doing tricks on a skateboard. And the rewards are curiously similar: precision, communication and aesthetic satisfaction. English words are not dull products of an isolated and narrow monoculture: they reflect the kaleidoscope of history. They are eccentric, wayward and playful, thumbing (with that crazy b in the middle) their nose at dull phoneticists. No vowel sound depends on only one letter: we have peep and leap, weird and police, ski and key and people; we have truth and fruit and tomb and blue.

For the full article, click here.

Forget about language, the baby is so cuuuute!

It’s plain, but he speaks fast.

A new study on foreign language studies among the U.K.’s college students reveals that it’s not so cool for native English speakers to learn another language now than a decade ago, according to the report by the Independent:

Overall, the figures show the number of students accepted on to language courses has slumped by almost a quarter during the past decade.

The researchers, from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and the University of Stirling, say there was a “steep decline” in the first half of this decade – with overall numbers tumbling by 20 per cent. Since then, French and German have continued to fall – although the decline has been partially offset by a rise in those studying newly-available languages such as Mandarin and Arabic.

The Britons have probably told themselves: Hey, since everyone else is studying English, why bother?

For the complete article, visit here.

That speaking good English is the secret to success, reported by the Daily Mail:

For generations, the French have fiercely guarded their language against the horreurs anglais.

But France’s education minister yesterday admitted for the first time that the secret to success is speaking better English.

Xavier Darcos claimed poor English is now a ‘handicap’ because all international business is conducted in the language, and said French schools would offer extra lessons during the holidays.

For the complete article, read here.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) issued a new rule. It asks the top women golf athletes not only to excel at putting the golf ball to 18 holes, but also demands that their spoken English be on a par.

Sophie, an English speaker, interviewed some people on the Beijing’s streets in Chinese to ask what their English name were.

What Barack Obama will ask the immigrants do if he’s elected?