Spotted on the iTunes store:
Learn Chinese: Toy Story 3 – Disney Language Learning for iPad
• Start Learning Chinese with this Engaging, Story-driven App!
• Disney’s Proven Language Program, now on the iPad!
• Interactive features, Endless Replay and Classic Toy Story 3 Characters!
There’s an interesting article over at the BBC today: Is English or Mandarin the language of the future?
English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the future? If Mandarin Chinese is to challenge English globally, then it first has to conquer its own backyard, South East Asia.
Worth reading in full
Trailer for the 2008 documentary Mad About English (which I can’t find anywhere…)
Have you ever seen 10,000 students learning English from one teacher – all at the same time? Have you ever met a detective whose mission impossible is to arrest bad grammar? Or encountered a 74 year-old retiree who thinks nothing of ambushing foreigners on the streets just so he can practice his English? Or heard a Chinese policeman speak English in a New York Bronx accent?
If you haven’t, catch Mad About English! – the amazing story of 1,000,000,000 people and their MAD MAD MAD rush to learn English! As the clock ticks down to next month’s Olympics, China ‘s love affair with the English language has reached feverish proportions. With half a million or more visitors descending on Beijing for the Games, can the Chinese pull it off with their newly-acquired English? Mad About English! follows the inspiring and heart-warming efforts of a city preparing to host the world by learning a once-forbidden tongue.
