Despite hundreds of years of violent colonial relations with Portugal, these nations all adopted Portuguese as their official language and collaborate with Brazil, Portugal, and East Timor to make up the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLC). The CPLC aims to foster diplomacy and political cooperation among member states and to promote the Portuguese language.

Russia appears striving to boost the demand for its language in North Korea, amid signs that the Cold War allies try to build up strong bilateral relations. Russia's Maritime Province of Siberia donated as many as 1,400 Russian books to North Korea, the Russian news agency Interfax said Wednesday. 

Intended to boost China’s “soft power”, the centres take the name of the peace-espousing sage. They tap into growing global demand for Chinese-language teaching. But they are also fuelling anxiety about academic freedom.

US secretary of state John Kerry invoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election tag line 'Sabka saath sabka vikas' at a Washington think-tank meeting before his India visit last week. While this may have been good diplomacy, investors and brand marketers are also trying to convey a greater cultural affinity. 

Once lauded as the jewel in the crown of China's "soft power" cultural diplomacy, Confucius Institutes have sprung up at hundreds of colleges and teaching institutions around the world. Partnering with local academic centers, their aim is to teach people to speak Chinese, as well as broadening people's experience of Chinese culture in general. But a recent warning from a group of U.S. professors suggests some 90 Confucius Institutes across the U.S.

There are plenty of reasons to learn Japanese. For one, the Japanese are Kings of "Soft Power", or cultural influence. The internet, videogames and children's cartoons are heavily influenced by the cute, cuddly touch of Japanese heritage. While some of this reaches us, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Beijing’s investments in Australia’s Chinese language media have had negligible impact on the broader Australian public, but they are earning high dividends among the Chinese-Australian communities targeted through an active public-diplomacy program that is highly strategic, clearly focused, and generously supported. 

Seomra ranga - "classroom", in Ireland's indigenous language - reads a cardboard sign tacked onto a door. A little further down the hall, a leabharlann is filled with books. It is a very Irish scene, but in a very unlikely place: East Belfast Mission on Newtownards Road. Across the street, a mural commemorates the Protestant paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force. Union Jack flags fly from lampposts in the shadow of the shipyards that built the Titanic.