Language Links I Love

A round up of the best language stories of the week:
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1. The future is here. These wireless earbuds interpret words being spoken to you in another language in real-time. International travelers will be thrilled to hear that the Pilot will be kicking off it's campaign on IndieGoGo on May 25th. Initial languages available will be English, Spanish, French and Italian with plans to expand to other languages soon. I would LOVE to try this out - this is definitely one thing to watch! 


2. Which part of the world do you think has more languages than anywhere else? 

New York City

​If you guessed New York City, you are correct. There are as many as 800 languages spoken in New York City, according to the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA). More specifically, Queens in it's five miles from Astoria to Forest Hills the languages spoken range from Greek, Filipino, Urdu, Indonesian, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Lithuanian, and others, including more obscure ones like Chavacano, Waray-Waray, Minangkabau, and Bukharian. This map of languages spoken in NYC was created by Molly Roy with help from the ELA.

Source: Aziz Ansari's Instagram

​3. How many languages does Aziz Ansari speak? I drooled over his Instagram feed while following along his full on immersion experience living in Italy while filming the second season of Master of None last year. Between the Vogue 73 Questions and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, I've heard him show off his language skills speaking SIX different languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Tamil, and of course, English. I'm impressed and love how Aziz proves that if you focus on the really important words that you absolutely need to know in another language, put yourself out there and try, you can learn how to communicate in another language in just a few months.


4. EU Leader,  Jean-Claude Juncker says (in English) that English is waning. This cheeky nod at Brexit was made when Juncker began his recent remarks in English and announced he'd be switching to French shortly, "because English is losing importance in Europe." The EU officially has 24 working languages but for practicality's sake, most business is done in just a handful of languages with English usually being the first choice. No time like now to get back into studying French!