“Besides improving my skills in English language, the program helped built confidence in terms of my ability to interact with people”, says Aleena—a grade 9 student.  For another student, Sidra, the Access Program proved helpful in studies as she explored English grammar through the program which helped her do good in studies. 

As part of its marketing, Sodastream created a campaign to show the cooperation between Arabs and Jews in the factory. In its initial phase, the company posted several untranslated versions to Facebook. But after requests from the Swedish and Jordanian embassies – which wanted to use it for their public diplomacy efforts – Sodastream translated the clips to English and Arabic and paid for their promotion.

The TEA Programme in Pakistan, sponsored by the US Department of State, has sent more than 150 Pakistani teachers to the United States since 2012. The programme has been designed to build on teachers’ existing expertise and equip them with a better understanding of lesson planning, methodology, and the use of technology in teaching. Programme participants develop these proficiencies, while also learning about diversity and culture in the United States.

Last Wednesday, Canada officially launched its national Twitter accounts in French and English as part of an integrated diplomacy strategy. (...) It wasn’t long before the first wave of criticism appeared. Not over anything related to international diplomacy. Rather — because this is Canada — the brouhaha was over language.

As languages go, English is a notoriously promiscuous one, borrowing caricatures from Italian, chutzpah from Yiddish and faux pas from French. And yet despite the English-speaking world’s deep and wide confluences with Chinese culture, for some reason, few Chinese words have lately entered the English-speaking world’s vocabulary.

Organizers of the Rio 2016 Olympics on Thursday revealed plans to provide language training for more than a million people ahead of the event. Brazil ranks behind many of its counterparts in the language learning stakes, comparative international studies show, and few people speak English outside major cities.