Watch this kid from Dongbei rattle off impressions of Japanese, South Korean, Indian, English, French, Italian, Russian, and American people speaking English. We're not saying his accents are spot on by any means (nor devoid of clownish national stereotyping). But before you dismiss the talent, imagine trying to do all those foreign accents in Chinese! Or any other language than your mother tongue. more ›

If you're looking at phonemes, that is. Fengxian's Dondac dialect has 20 vowel qualities, and according to researchers at Fudan University who studied a total of 579 languages from 95 linguistic families, that takes the phonemic cake. more ›

Shanghai Airlines have announced plans to include passenger announcements in Shanghainese, as well as Putonghua and English, on a number of flights. The scheme is set to begin after Chinese New Year, with the local dialect making an appearance on flights arriving from Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in order to "give visitors a sense of the city's personality." more ›

With good friends like Pakistan, who needs to spend money building Confucius Institutes? more ›

Mandarin spoken with a Shanghai accent is now being "recorded for posterity," according to the Shanghai Language Committee Office. Not Shanghainese (which obviously is already considered a dialect0, but that hometown way of talking that causes cabbies to only understand "Hengshan Lu" when you pronounce it "Hengsan Lu" or "Panyu Lu" when you pronounce it "Fanyu Lu." Why bother with the protection? Because ""Shanghai-accented Putonghua has been influential in the city," one official said. more ›

China news hounds had already probably grasped this discrepancy already, but nothing drives home the point like a graphic! There are over 300 million Chinese people currently learning English, compared to the tiny lil' 60,000 Americans learning Chinese. Maybe it's time to up those numbers - after all, lest you be like the only kid in third grade who didn't learn pig latin, and thus the only kid every other kid was making fun of openly, you upid-stay ingbat-day. more ›

Via TheNextWeb: "China gained 36 million additional internet users last year meaning there are now over 440 million internet users in the country. English has long been the most widely used language on the internet but with Chinese Internet growth rising at the rate it is, it could be less than five years before Chinese becomes the dominant language on the internet."
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For anyone who has mastered a few basic Chinese commands and been stumped when your local street vendor doesn’t know what you’re saying since he speaks ‘Shanghainese’, you may be able to call his bluff next time! It seems that there are very few ‘pure’ Shanghai dialect speakers; whatever ‘pure’ means. The Shanghai government has had to rethink a recent recruitment drive to recruit Shanghainese speakers as they failed to find even a few qualified candidates. Of the 13 recruitment sites, only 2 found suitable candidates despite it being reported that there are over 14 million speakers of the dialect. The government are now turning to the media for help in preserving and researching the dialect. If you're looking to brush up on your Shanghainese then visit Shanghai City’s very own ‘how to guide’ - complete with sound clips! more ›

• Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap says China's block of the New York Times does not matter as much as it once did.
• Chris Gill of Shanghai Eye says he has it from a reliable source that the HSK, the Chinese proficiency examination for foreigners will be scrapped in two years.
• Jenny Leung of China Digital Times interviews Qi Hanting, the student who founded the Anti-CNN website.

We heard that Beijing has made an effort to rid the city of Chinglish in all public places. Finally the public education banners are also in English so the foreigners can get some proper education too! more ›

Liu Wenli is a bit of a celebrity in China. more ›