Almost everyone uses language, so inevitably almost everyone thinks they are an expert in it. I don’t consider myself an expert, though most of my work requires at least language competence and sometimes actual skill, but I do follow the blogs featured on this feeds page.
(If you are wondering where the translation-related feeds have all gone, I have put them on their own page.)
Most of the blogs represented here are in English, most of the time, but don’t be surprised to find other languages used. Go with the flow – I occasionally find myself pleasantly surprised at how much I can grasp in languages I have never seen before.
Language On the Net
Language Log » Firestorm over Chinese characters
It began with a one page think piece by Ted Chiang in the New Yorker (5/16/16) that we describe and discuss here: "Ted Chiang uninvents Chinese characters" (5/13/16) That very quickly led to a withering critique against Chiang by Tom Mullaney, essentially accusing him of "(self-)Orientalizing" (which is meant to be pejorative, for those who are not familiar with the … [Link]
Language Log » Stone Service
I'm in Portorož, Slovenia, for LREC2016; and so far the most interesting linguistic aspect of the place is the sometimes-surprising mixture of languages on signs. For example: 
The longer explanation of the side of the van is in Slovenian — Restavriranje, brušenje, čiščenje in impregnacije naravnega kamna = "Restoration, grinding, cleaning and impregnation of natural stone". But the short version … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » desk staging
The practice of covering your desk with papers, completed work, and other important-looking papers to give the appearance that you are really busy when really you're surfing the net, watching YouTube vids and doing other non-work things. "My realtor taught me this trick of staging my house for sale so I tried it at work, I started desk staging so … [Link]
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