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December 24, 2024
 

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Domenico Maceri
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2006
English-only laws: a pain with little gain
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- "It gives the idea that any other language is excluded," stated Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in reaction to a recently passed amendment that would make English the "national language of the United States."
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2006
Foreign-language skills can help Americans fight terror
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- "Learning somebody else's language is a kind gesture," stated U.S. President George W. Bush, because it suggests "I care about you."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2005
Lack of English endangers immigrants
SANTA MARIA, California -- Imagine being a 12-year-old boy and interpreting for your mother. The doctor says your mother has a prolapsed uterus and you need to explain it to her in her language. Difficult? Embarrassing? Impossible?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2005
U.S. English-only laws harm immigrants
SANTA MARIA, California -- The Latino population has increased 500 percent in the past 15 years in State Rep. Courtney Combs' district, located between Cincinnati and Dayton. That has created a communication problem between residents and government officials, according to Combs, a Republican.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2005
One language isn't enough for any country
SANTA MARIA, California -- Almost 99 percent of Luxembourg's citizens can speak a second language, according to a European Union survey. At the other end of the spectrum are the British, only 30 percent of whom know a second language. In the case of Americans the figure is only 12 percent.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2005
The most dangerous civilian job in Iraq
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- In the translation world, the Italian phrase "traduttore, traditore" (translator, traitor) is used to suggest the inability to capture all the meaning in the original text and transfer it into another language because something inevitably gets lost in translation. Insurgents in...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2005
Call them illegal, but they're also heroic
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- "Being that you are an alleged expert in language, you should know the difference between legal and illegal," the reader stated in his e-mail, as he reacted angrily to one of my articles on immigration.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2005
Rise of Spanish does not predicate decline of English
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- Three major American television networks have been facing stiff competition for viewers from cable television and the Internet. One network that seems to be thriving without any serious competition, though, is Spanish language Univision.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2004
Kids of 'illegals' deserve their dream
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- A student of mine was upset because children of illegal immigrants qualified for lower resident fees to attend college in California.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2004
Americans don't want, but need, illegals
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- "We're giving our country away," said my friend with serious concern. She was talking about illegal immigration to Italy and how the new arrivals have no respect for the law and have no intention to integrate and will ultimately destroy the fabric of Italian society.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2004
National security rests on linguistic skills
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- English is without a doubt the world's lingua franca. It's spoken by more than 400 million people as their native tongue and many others speak it as their second language.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2003
More Americans ditch the lingual desert
SANTA MARIA, California -- Although America is a land of immigrants from all over the world, when it comes to language fluency one could easily say we suffer from monolingualism. An old joke goes something like this:
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2002
The World Cup: more than just a game
"Si, Senor, It's War" read the headline in an English newspaper a few days before the national team of England and Argentina met in their semifinal soccer game during the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. The headline was an exaggeration, of course. It was just a game. Yet, the Falklands War was fresh in...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2002
L.A. schools reject the trilingual challenge
SANTA MARIA, California -- Should a Spanish-speaking teenager living in the United States study English or Japanese? At first glance, that looks like a no-brainer. Learning Japanese would be interesting, perhaps even useful, but knowing English is essential.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2002
English in U.S. doesn't need protection
Twenty-six American states have already passed laws declaring English their official language. Iowa wants to make it 27.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2002
Unfounded fears of language pollution
SANTA MARIA, California -- Imagine ending up in jail for signing a petition requesting that your university offer foreign-language courses. It would be difficult to conceive of in most parts of the world, but it happened in Turkey. Seventeen Kurds were accused by a special security court of "promoting...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2002
Lingual skills key to global communication
You would think that four national languages would be enough. Not for the Swiss. Along with German, French, Italian and Romansh, English is making considerable inroads.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2001
Immigrants' uphill battle to learn English
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- The Asian immigrant was described as speaking in "halting English" even after 20 years of living in the United States. The reporter of the Central California newspaper seemed to suggest that 20 years of living in the country should have resulted in a strong command of the language....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2001
U.S. fear of bilingualism is unfounded
In Quebec, French signs by law have to be twice as big as their English translations. The top spot in the Los Angeles radio market belongs to KSCA-FM, a Spanish language station.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2001
Does Bush's Spanish presage a bilingual America?
In his efforts to reach out to the American Hispanic community, former Republican leader Newt Gingrich sent out a greeting in Spanish to mark Cinco de Mayo, Mexico's Independence Day. The message came from "El Hablador de la Casa," which Gingrich's staff thought meant "Speaker of the House," but in fact...
Bankruptcies and suicides rise as Japanese struggle with mounting debt
Lawyers estimate that personal bankruptcies in Japan are on track to reach the highest since 2012 this year.
Honda-Nissan megamerger in the works
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida (left), Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe (second from left) and Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, hold a news conference on merger talks on Monday in Tokyo.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?
Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Japan accuses Google of violating antimonopoly law
The Japanese antitrust watchdog said that Google forced smartphone makers to preinstall its search app on their devices, sources say.
Okinawa people stage rally against sexual assaults by U.S. servicemen
Sorane Sakihama, a 22-year-old college student, speaks at a rally in the city of Okinawa on Sunday protesting against sexual assaults by U.S. soldiers.
A brief history of ‘osechi ryōri,' Japan's edible tradition for the new year
Japan's traditional New Year cuisine has a long history, though modern developments have led to slight changes in the way things work.
Japan accuses Google of violating antimonopoly law
The Japanese antitrust watchdog said that Google forced smartphone makers to preinstall its search app on their devices, sources say.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
Is Japan finally ready to tap its abundant geothermal energy potential?
Steam rises from a geothermal plan in Yuzawa, Akita Prefecture. Despite its long history and potential, geothermal provided just 0.3% of Japan's overall energy mix in the fiscal year from April 2023

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?
By Kathryn Wortley

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