The Fight Over Language, From Haiti to Kyrgyzstan
The Fight Over Language, From Haiti to Kyrgyzstan
Reads on one of the most powerful tools of imperialism.
Mandarin language teacher Liu Mei gestures at the blackboard at the Confucius Institute in Sierra Leone during a class for students in Freetown on Oct. 15, 2024. Saidu Bah/AFP via Getty Images
In the coming weeks, Flash Points will have a new name: The Reading List. Expect continued curated guides to the best articles in the magazine. Each Sunday, I’ll take you on a little tour through our archives; on Wednesdays, my colleague Audrey Wilson will send out a companion email to help you navigate trends in the current news cycle.
For now, let’s turn to a subject that is often overlooked in headlines of war and conquest: the imperial tool of language. The in-depth essays and reporting below explore the geopolitics of ongoing fights over language, shedding light on the cultural and linguistic dimensions of imperialism and resistance, both past and present.
In the coming weeks, Flash Points will have a new name: The Reading List. Expect continued curated guides to the best articles in the magazine. Each Sunday, I’ll take you on a little tour through our archives; on Wednesdays, my colleague Audrey Wilson will send out a companion email to help you navigate trends in the current news cycle.
For now, let’s turn to a subject that is often overlooked in headlines of war and conquest: the imperial tool of language. The in-depth essays and reporting below explore the geopolitics of ongoing fights over language, shedding light on the cultural and linguistic dimensions of imperialism and resistance, both past and present.
Students attend Lagos University in Lagos, Nigeria, on March 10, 2016.Frédéric Soltan/Getty Images
Who Speaks English?
The world is long overdue for the abandonment of the unstated but powerful hegemony that exists around the great imperial languages of centuries past.
A small market on Song Kul Lake, Kyrgyzstan, in July 2024. Haley Zehrung photos for Foreign Policy
Russian Won’t Be Kyrgyzstan’s Lingua Franca for Long
The war in Ukraine is leading to a linguistic backlash in Russophone Central Asia as young people embrace their mother tongues.
An undated image of a Tibetan prayer flag at the Pema Osel Ling retreat center in California. Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Tibetans Fight to Keep Their Language Alive
The diaspora is preserving Tibetan as Chinese oppression grows at home.
Students look at booklets at their desks on the first day back to school at the National School of Tabarre in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Sept. 5, 2016.HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images
Haiti’s Foreign Language Stranglehold
Around 90 percent of Haitians speak only Haitian Creole. So why is school mostly conducted in French?
About 500 pupils and their parents protest against the language education reform in front of the parliament in Latvia on Feb 10, 2005. ILMARS ZNOTINS/AFP via Getty Images
Latvia Is Going on Offense Against Russian Culture
The Baltic nation is taking cultural cohesion into its own hands—and risking backlash.
Chloe Hadavas is a senior editor at Foreign Policy. Bluesky: @hadavas.bsky.social X: @Hadavas
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