As per my usual post-semester routine, I entered final grades on Saturday, spent Sunday feeling the vague apprehension and restlessness that comes when I’m not yet convinced that I don’t have to teach on Monday, and then I crashed hard on Monday. The cats were excited to have me sitting still for so long and took turns napping all curled up behind my knees. I feel I am now an expert on procedural crime dramas and advanced channel surfing.

Emerging occasionally and briefly from my headachy, bedraggled, shell-shocked fog, I did put together some links to some great sites and articles for your perusal.

First of all, Arnold Zwicky has compiled a fantastic collection of resources and blogs for linguistics and language topics. It’s been bookmarked on my computer and I do plan on referring to it on a regular basis.

Next up is a review of a new book called Chutnifying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish. It’s a fascinating look at the ways Hindi and English have merged in modern-day urban India, and how attitudes and usage are changing in reaction to technological advances and globalization.

In this next article in Harvard Magazine, Nell Lake discusses the ideas put forth by Marc Shell in an article called “Language Wars”, published in New Centennial Review. Shell has posited that language has been the direct cause of more conflicts than previously thought. He argues that traditional views too readily dismiss language as a trigger for conflict, pointing towards underlying racial or religious as the roots of the tensions.

Russell Burman, president of the Modern Languages Association (MLA) and humanities professor at Stanford University, proclaims “it’s a matter of national urgency” that every student in America to become fluent in a second language. He argues that monolingualism is impractical and short-sighted, and attacks political policy that cuts funding from language learning while “worrying about globalization” at the same time.

Finally, here is a website called Dr.Hurley’s Snake-Oil Cure, which is “a journal of fiction, photography, comic strips, art, reviews, opinions, and tonics, as well as a dash of everything else.” I found it a few months ago and forgot about it until this past week. There is some interesting reading over there.

Now, in a bid to push the rest of the Spring semester fog out of my brain, I return to my research for some other pieces I’m working on. I suspect there may be minor relapses of Monday’s thousand-yard stare, but I’m hopeful I’ll be up to speed in no time! In the meantime, check those sites out and tell me what you think!