Podcast Summary

Part One- Persian Insult

This part of the podcast was about how Iran's leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said many things that people were shocked to hear, including a saying in Persian that meant "the bogeyman snatched the boob." This started a lot of controversy in the country of Iran asw well as around thw world and many people question if Ahmadinejad's language was appropriate during his important speech. He also made insults to the United States on our government and he is scheduled to speak again in front of the world in a month or so, so that will be interesting.

Part Two- Inuit Dialect

This part was about how a linguistic antropologist named Stephen Leonard from Cambridge University in England is going to go live in a remote area in Northwest Greenland for a year to learn about the Polar Inuit's culture. Only about 1,000 people live in this community and they speak a language called Inuktun, which is the northernmost dialect in the world. Stephen is going to document the language of the Polar Inuit and translate it back to English to see what it means. This will be a challenge for him as well as the Polar Unuit since global warming is affecting their hunting and they might have to migrate to southern England in about ten to fifteen years.

Part Three- Foreign Language Films in the United States

This part was about how foreign language films are not doing so well in the United States. Foreign language films made a lot of money in the US at one point but have dramatically decreased since then. The truth is that people in the United States do not want to sit through a two hour movie that is in a different language because it would be too hard to understand. Foreign filmakers say that if they put enough action like martial arts into their movies, people will pay enough attention to the movie to pay and see it. Until this happens, US citizens will stay away from foreign language films.

Part Four- Urdu Directions

This part was about how the language Urdu in India has the same word for terms that have to do with direction, like go straight and turn right. Sofia Javed explains how it is hard to get around with someone who speaks Urdu because you will not know what way they want to go. For example, a guy was with someone who spoke Urdu in Dubai and when they got to a roundabout, the man would say the urdu word that meant go straight and turn right. The guy who was driving turned right and the man kept saying the Urdu word for go sraight, but the other guy thought he said turn right. They made many wrong turns that day and Sofia said if the man added a verb to the Urdu word, it would have been easier to understand. It just goes to show how it is difficult to get somewhere if you speak Urdu.