Slang: ruining English since the 1930s

Social media round-up for June 17, 2016

Publishers Weekly had a wonderful list by author Daniel Saldaña of his recommendations of 10 Spanish books you should read that have been translated into English.
We watched this super cool video animation from Business Insider on how languages spread through Europe and parts of Asia over time.
There was an interesting linguistics report we read on the UCSC blog called “How do you say what you mean—without saying what you mean?”
How do languages evolve? We watched the lesson on it from TED-ed (the first we’d ever watched). Good stuff! Take a gander if the subject interests you – you might learn somethin’.
The Atlantic had an article on how different cultures view smiling, as a sign of (dis)honesty or (un)intelligence. Are you from a smiling culture or a neutral-face culture?
Sportive! There was a fun review of a book from the 1930s on the JSTOR Daily, the topic of the book was how fashion magazines talked in the 1930s – ruining the English language!
Itchyfeet posted a new cartoon – those tonal languages really can be hard for those new to them!
Can translation build the bridge between cultures that language learning couldn’t build? Engineering professor M Tomalin of Cambridge had an article on the role of translation in social inequality & social justice, on the Uni’s blog.
Are you someone who thinks the period should go away? We admit we just learned of this and couldn’t quite believe it when we read it. There’s more here in an essay on New York Times.
Shelter, food, life satisfaction? This infographic from The Independent on what people around the world value most was illuminating.
And lastly, a bit of a sobering essay on The Conversation US titled “The quiet battle to save multilingualism in Europe” worth a look.