Language is always changing, but when it does, how do we spell it? Greg Dickson reckons the form toats is the way to go. Wholeheartedly.
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Creative Australia lends extra support to Indigenous languages, but is it enough?
The Federal Government’s new Creative Australia policy includes an announcement of nearly $14 million in new funding for Indigenous languages support, over four years. While it’s a welcome announcement, Greg Dickson isn’t quite jumping up and down about it.
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Federal Government ready to “Recognise” Indigenous languages (but it’s kinda old news)
There was a bit of hoo-hah in Parliament House this week when Julia, Tony and co. made a minor song and dance about constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their languages. Greg Dickson writes that it’s good news but actually kinda old news… with shiny branding. He explains the recommendations and the clever work that was done by the expert panel over twelve months ago.
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Is “Stevo” not Aussie enough for the new Macca’s ad?
The tennis and Australia Day both have the capacity to drive people nuts every January. McDonald’s new ad campaign, with its plethora of ockerisms is doing just that, writes Greg Dickson. But spare a thought for “Stevo” who seems to have been written out of the ad to make way for a couple of white guys.
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That’s so gay
What’s the harm in casually using the phrase ‘that’s so gay’? Nothing particularly sinister is meant by it and no offence is usually intended. 1,500,000 tweets give a different impression. Greg Dickson writes that homophobic language negatively affects gay people regardless of speaker’s intentions:
READ MOREPolyglot pollies where you least expect them: Gold Coast’s multilingual mayor
…perhaps Queensland’s reputation for slightly loopy politicians is a tad unfair. Kevin Rudd is nothing if not impressive in the way he can scuttle off to China and chinwag in the local lingo. I couldn’t think of any other Australian pollies capable of such professional displays of bilingualism. Until I discovered this…
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How not to report on Indigenous education
Greg Dickson writes… On Monday I got a phone call out of the blue from a journalist from The Australian. Initially, I felt a bit chuffed being cold-called by a big newspaper. I soon realised however that the journo was asking me about stuff that wasn’t really my area of expertise. She wanted to know [...]
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Ngurrju! Manymak! Pupuni! NT drops First Four Hours in English policy
Over three years ago, the Northern Territory government introduced a policy mandating English-only lessons for the first four (out of five and a bit) hours of school per day, despite widespread criticism. But as Greg Dickson has discovered, the government may have finally retracted the policy.
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Karri-borlbme kun-wok ~ Learning language
Greg Dickson writes: We’re very happy to spread the word about a great new initiative from Western Arnhem Land that gives us all the chance to learn a bit of an Aboriginal language: Bininj Gunwok*. Through the Bininj Gunwok Language Project, you can now subscribe to an email list and receive regular bits of vocab, grammatical info [...]
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Clear focus on Indigenous languages is rather fuzzy
The Federal House of Representatives Inquiry into language learning in Indigenous communities visited Darwin this week, and the Northern Territory government had a hard time defending its first-four-hours-in-English policy. Greg Dickson explains.
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