The year of the pig will soon be upon us! This year’s Lunar New Year falls on February 5th, and we are helping you to prepare by bringing you traditions from all over Asia. Lunar New Year, otherwise known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, is the most important holiday of many cultures that have heavy Chinese influence. We talk about traditions from some of these places like South Korea, Vietnam, and Bali, and give you some tips for what you should and should not do (or eat!) to ensure your luck is good for 2019!
In Language News this week, scientists are training machines to translate Ancient Sumerian! The result is that soon, we will be able to understand many more 4,000-year-old texts. To date, only 10% of those discovered have been translated by manpower, but with machines, we will learn much more about the ancient culture that invented the wheel!
Check out some of the resources we used this week:
- This week’s Language News: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/scientists-using-machine-learning-to-unlock-oldest-languages
- Encyclopedia Brittanica’s explanation of the origin of LNY: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lunar-New-Year/media/1436292/223918
- Korean LNY: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=941952
- Vietnam’s LNY: http://www.lafairy-sails.com/en/blog/all-about-traditions-of-tet-the-vietnamese-lunar-new-year.htm
- Lucky foods to eat in China for LNY: https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-food/chinese-new-year-food.htm
- Bali and Japan’s LNY: https://asiasociety.org/celebrating-new-year-asia
- Chinese New Year taboos: https://chinesenewyear.net/taboos/
Finally, the promised videos on the Korean new year game, yutnori, and a Chinese lion dance!
Leave us your Lost in Translation moments in the contact section, leave us a review on iTunes, and tell your friends! See you next week!
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