COBOL, an old coding language that not many people know about, controls the world’s financial systems.
language
Posted inEditor's Pick
He, She, One, They, Ho, Hus, Hum, Ita
Amia Srinivasan on language and pronouns: “Language is a public system of meaning. No individual can unilaterally decide what a word means, or whether any given word, according to standard usage, truly describes them. And yet the definitions of words – as any lexicographer will tell you – depend on patterns of actual human usage, […]
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
The Adaptation of Language Evolution
Language has always changed, but the introduction of technology means it is adapting in ways we have never experienced before.
Posted inNonfiction
Dispatch from Puerto Nowhere
Robert Lopez examines what it means to be an assimilated American from Puerto Rico, and what was gained and lost in the process.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Keeping My Promise to Popo
As Anne Liu Kellor says goodbye to her Chinese grandmother in the hospital, she taps into buried memories and family trauma.
Posted inNonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
The Bonds Beyond Language
Twins have bonds that exist beyond words, and they fill the gaps left by what cannot be said.
Posted inNonfiction
Towards Chinatown
Faced with the possibility of losing of her mother, Melissa Hung contemplates another loss — of her mother tongue.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Talk Like an Egyptian
Cary Barbor traverses language, culture, and class to connect with her new family.
Posted inNonfiction
The Psychiatrist in My Writing Class and His ‘Gift’ of Hate
Rani Neutill recalls a literary workshop in which a white man critiqued her ability to write in “proper” English.
Posted inNonfiction
Lengua Tacos
Feliz Moreno searches for an answer to the frequently asked question ‘Do you speak Spanish?’ during a trip to Mexico.