Australia is campaigning to get more people to use the bicycle for transport. Unlike in many other countries, women and older people in Australia are less likely to cycle, and the government is keen to change this.

The Cycling Promotion Fund encourages Australians to get into cycling as a way to stay healthy and help the environment.

But those aren’t the only benefits - bicycle use in Australian cities rose by an average of 22% between 2001 and 2006 and a new study by the Cycling Promotion Fund has calculated that this saved the government an impressive $227.2m AUD (US$217m) every year in healthcare costs. Via Treehugger

There is more to Hungarian cooking than the famous goulash.

Expand your knowledge with Food and Beverages in Hungary, a cooking blog written by Nóra from Gyál near Budapest.

Photo: Cottage cheese basket with strawberry by Nóra

There are a lot of cakes here… I don’t know whether this is because cake is very important to Hungarians or because she is mother of two small children who like to eat cake (maybe you can tell us Nóra!)

Read more:
More on food around the world from Topics of the World.

As the use of English as language of global communication is on the rise, an increasing number of conversations in English happen between non-native speakers.

English is the second most spoken language in the world, and it is estimated that by 2020 native speakers will make up only 15% of those using or learning the language.

Photo: The Chinglish Files by olr

According to Wired magazine the massive numbers of Chinese speakers using English in daily life is leading to an English of the future which will take on more and more aspects of Chinese translation quirks. Others believe that Chinglish’s days are numbered.

With increasing use of English as lingua franca between different nationalities (as opposed to conversations with at least one native speaker), it was inevitable that the ‘international English’ used would evolve into a pared down, simplified version of the language. And a native speaker in a room of non-native speakers has to adapt or risk not being understood by the rest of the group.

It remains to be seen whether Chinglish will grow in strength or blend into other versions of ‘international English’ as China-based English speakers come into contact more and more with the outside world.

Read more:
Next week we will be posting an interview with Oliver Lutz Radtke, author of the book Chinglish: Found in Translation

The Syrian city of Aleppo, near the Turkish border, is an atmospheric place to discover Syrian culture.

Photo: Skylife magazine

Aleppo is historically a trading town, once one of the silk road towns on the famous route which brought silk from China to Europe. In a fitting way for such a cultural crossroads, bargaining is carried out in Arabic, Turkish, French or a mixture of the three languages.

Turkish Airlines magazine describes a bus journey to this ancient city.

“they have an average of three years more education than their parents, a worse job and a lower standard of living”

The Observer explains how a generation of well-educated young professionals in several European countries are realising that they cannot hope to achieve the quality of life enjoyed by their own parents.

In contrast with the fast growing economies of developing countries such as India and China, in Western Europe growth is slowing, and job markets have been stagnant for several years. Rising inflation, high property prices and low wages mean that young people find life increasingly difficult.

In France they are called the ‘baby losers’, in Spain they are ‘Mileuristas’ and in Italy ‘Milleuristi’ (meaning those who earn 1000 euros per month)

According to the Observer, the closed job markets of these countries is a major obstacle. Inflexible labour laws encourage those who have jobs to hang on to them at all costs, at the expense of younger job seekers.

These are certainly not the poorest people in Europe. But it is a disappointing situation for a generation which grew up believing that a good education is the key to a good future, and now cannot find a job that pays the bills.

Multicultural.co.uk is a website written for UK businesses, to help them work better with multicultural employees and customers. However if you’re just interested in learning more about how people of different cultures and religions think and behave, you will also find some useful information here.

In particular, you can follow short online courses to learn about the major faiths (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism) and country-specific courses on China, Russia and India. At the end of each course there is a downloadable pdf guide.

The country courses contain many cultural tips such as:

• Chinese people may find it difficult to say ‘no’ even if they mean it. It’s unlikely you’ll ever hear a Chinese person saying something like ‘speak your mind’
• Indian names often do not follow the same pattern as western names. Some Indians use their occupation, caste or even ancestral village as a sort of surname
• Russians prefer to eat a hot and substantial meal at lunchtime

An interesting read if you want to learn more about any of these cultures or religions, and will also come in useful for anyone planning to visit or do business in Russia, India or China.

The culture and food of Penang in Malaysia has been heavily influenced by immigrants. Inputs from mainland China, and more recently India and Sri Lanka have blended with local Malay flavours to make up this unique and world famous cuisine.

For immigrants life here opening a street food stand is an accessible, low-investment way to make a living. However life is tough - many work from 6am to 10am to earn enough to keep themselves and save some money for their families.

The first episode in the street food series from Al Jazeera explains the story of Penang street food (to watch online follow the link from the article).

Photo: Cathryn on pbase

Future programmes will look at tapas traditions in the Basque country of Spain, London’s famous Brick Lane, New York, Nairobi, Beijing, Cairo and Jerusalem. If the first programme is anything to go by the rest will definitely be worth watching.

The modern day silk road country of Kazakhstan continues to develop a thriving arts scene. But how important is classical music in a society which is busy discovering other advantages of globalisation?

The International Herald Tribune describes some of the challenges faced by young Kazakh musicians. As do musicians all over the world they eschew better-paid careers in other sectors. However they face an additional cultural challenge - learning to take risks after growing up in a regime which encouraged conformity and punished mistakes.

The musicians have faced some difficult decisions in comitting to perform increasingly technically challenging pieces in public:

“Having been raised in a Soviet-style system that taught them to obey orders and, above all, to avoid mistakes, they feared they would fail publicly and spectacularly”

Like many others in the region, they are embarking on an extraordinary journey of cultural transformation.

What are the most widely spoken languages in the world? Or, if you are contemplating learning a second language, which will get you the most new conversation opportunities for your effort?

The following list shows number of people speaking a language either as their first or second language. It is taken from Nicholas Ostler’s ‘Empires of the Word’, a detailed (and long!) history of the main world languages.

1. Mandarin Chinese (1,052m)
2. English (508m)
3. Hindi (487m)
4. Spanish (417m)
5. Russian (277m)
6. Bengali (211m)
7. Portugese (191m)
8. German (128m)
9. French (128m)
10. Japanese (126m)
11. Urdu (104m)
12. Korean (78m)
13. Wu Chinese (77m)
14. Javanese (76m)
15. Telugu (75m)
16. Tamil (74m)
17. Yue Chinese / Cantonese (71m)
18. Marathi (71m)
19. Vietnamese (68m)
20. Turkish (61m)

It would be interesting to know how the popularity of these languages is evolving. These figures are nearly 10 years old so in that time the Chinese speaking population has probably increased by around 40 million, for example. Rate of population increase must be the strongest factor in determining whether a language is currently moving up or down this list.

I suspect this list may under-estimate the power of English by not counting those who speak English very competently and use it on a regular basis, but have learnt it as their third or even fourth language. That may sound improbable if you are a native English speaker, but for some it is a necessity. As one example, This post on A Wide Angle View of India blog explains that in many parts of India children grow up learning three languages, of which one is English.

English is currently the most popular choice as language of international communication, but will there come a point where another language becomes so widely spoken that it overtakes English as second language of choice? It may happen sooner than you think.

Update: from the discussion in the comments it is clear that compiling a list like this involves some difficult decisions (such as whether or not Arabic should be included). As an alternative view, this post from The Linguist Blogger incorporates different sources of information as well as Ostler’s list.

More like this:
Is Chinglish the future of English?: most English conversations do not involve a native speaker
Languages fight for global dominance: more about the prospects for English as language of international communication
Gestures say so much: multiple language speakers are more likely to gesticulate when speaking
International Mother Language Day: the importance of learning in the mother tongue

Image from 5.12 China: The song of miracle by Coco Wang. (Published by Paul Gravett)

Chinese writer and artist Coco Wang was so overwhelmed by the tragedy of China’s recent earthquake that she created a set of incredibly moving comic strips to try and retell some of the stories to the rest of the world.

The stories are all based on accounts of the rescue work collected from newspapers. They highlight the bravery, kindness, tenacity and ability to smile in the face of hardship of the Chinese people following this disaster.