Archive for July, 2008

Foreign Service Institute (FSI)

What is the FSI? (It) is the Federal Government’s primary training institution for officers and support personnel of the U.S. foreign affairs community, preparing American diplomats and other professionals to advance U.S. foreign affairs interests overseas and in Washington. Now one of the jobs of this department is to develop complete and comprehensive language courses [...]

July 31, 2008  Tags: ,   Posted in: Africa, language  One Comment

Is Swahili a Pidgin?

A blog that I read recently had a post that described the east-African language of Swahili, as a pidgin. Here is a quote: …my mother was born in East Africa (Uganda) and I wanted to feel a trace of what she once knew. Being under this sky, on this land, the pidgin that is Swahili [...]

July 21, 2008  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Africa, Linguistics, language  6 Comments

Wierd street signs

I never really thought about it, but I always assumed that the purpose of roads signs were to convey some unmistakable and urgent message. I mean, most signs I run into are all pretty self explanatory. That was until I ran into this gem… I have no idea what message this street sign is trying [...]

July 19, 2008  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Miscellaneous  No Comments

Eritrean blogosphere

I stumbled onto a very interesting blog today. Issayas’ blog (መአዲ ኢሳያስ) It has a lot of good articles (much more interesting then my blog posts) that relate to Eritrea in various ways. Including interviews with: Washington DC Eritrean film makers Eritrean artists and developers Not to mention tons of travel stories and photos to [...]

July 10, 2008  Tags: ,   Posted in: blogoshpere  No Comments