Papua New Guinea Language Toktok

Have you ever been confused by the different ways the same word is spelled (or spelt)? Like color and colour? Or center and centre? Listen and find out why this happens. To read the article this episode was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/should-i-write-colour-or-color/

One of the reasons so few Papua New Guineans work as United Nations public servants is that they do not have the necessary language skills. Listen and find out which languages you need to be able to speak to work at the UN.To read the article this episode was based on, go to: https://www.thenational.com.pg/what-languages-do-i-need-to-work-at-the-un/

Papua New Guinea is famous for being a small country with more languages than any other country? But why does it have so many? Listen and find out! To read the article this episode was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/why-does-png-have-so-many-languages/

Phonics has become a buzzword in teaching children to read English, but how does it work for Papua New Guineans? English is a second language here and children usually come to school not knowing how to speak English. Can phonics help them learn to speak the language they will use at school? Listen and see what you think! To read the article this episode was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/how-does-phonics-work-for-papua-new-guineans/

Have you ever heard PNG languages described as "primitive"? Do you think English is more developed than your language? Before you answer, listen to this!To read the article this episode was based on, go to: https://www.thenational.com.pg/how-primitive-are-png-languages/

Indonesia is Papua New Guinea's closest neighbour, but do you know what languages are spoken on the other side of the border? And how many? Listen and find out! To read the article this episode was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/what-is-the-language-situation-in-indonesia/

English is a terrible language for spelling and many students have a lot of difficulty in learning how to spell correctly. But English is the language of education in Papua New Guinea and we have to learn how to spell it correctly. What's a teacher to do? To read the article this episode was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/how-can-i-help-my-students-with-spelling-and-writing-difficulties/

For many centuries no one spoke Hebrew as a home language. It was known only through books and dictionaries. But now it is once again the home language of millions of people. How did this happen and what lessons are there for Papua New Guinea? To read the article this episode was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/how-hebrew-was-revived/

What does it mean we say two languages are related? How can we find out if two languages are or are not related? Listen and find out! To read the article this episode was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/how-do-we-know-if-two-languages-are-related/

Does your language have a dictionary? If it doesn't, do you want to know how to make one? To read the article this was based on, go to https://www.thenational.com.pg/can-make-dictionary-language/

What's it like to live in a country with more than 830 different languages? Where not many people speak only one language and most of us use two or three or four languages every day? Where most of us use Pidgin English to talk to each other in?   The country is Papua New Guinea.   I'm Professor Craig Volker and I'm lucky enough to live in Papua New Guinea. Together on this podcast, every couple weeks we'll spend five or ten minutes looking at language here ⏤ local languages, our pidgin languages,  and how we use (or don’t use) English. And once in a while we'll take a break and look at language elsewhere, and see what Papua New Guinea can learn about language issues beyond our borders. So Lukaut--Papua New Guinea Language Toktok is coming!

What is the International Decade of Indigenous Languages and why is it relevant to Papua New Guinea? https://www.thenational.com.pg/decade-of-indigenous-languages/