Parlez-vous polyglotte?

Isabelle Paré, 24 août 2018 (Le Devoir) Ici, on se brûle la langue régulièrement. La partie de sumo à laquelle se livrent le français et l’anglais sur le ring cosmopolite de Montréal figure toujours, pour tout politicien sensé, en haut du palmarès des sujets à fuir comme la peste en campagne électorale. Là où la polémique du « Bonjour-Hi » est devenue une affaire d’État, le sujet fait invariablement exploser le baromètre de la sensibilité collective et fait l’effet du poil à gratter sur le délicat équilibre du vivre ensemble. Mieux vaut donc tourner sept fois l’organe de l’élocution avant de causer diversité linguistique. Or, il en est que la dualité linguistique n’égratigne pas, ou prou, voire ennuie comme un cheveu sur la langue par sa banalité. Toute une délégation d’ici et d’ailleurs converge cette semaine vers Montréal, une légion entière de poly-amoureux des langues qui auraient volontiers vendu leurs chemises pour être nés aux temps bibliques et se faire citoyens de la tour de Babel. Nouba polyglotte Montréal accueille ces jours-ci le LangFest, un rendez-vous qui réunit pour la première fois dans la métropole des polyglottes du monde entier, des athlètes de la diphtongue qui collectionnent les langues comme d’autres les…

LangFest: The Power Language Index

The below is my presentation at LangFest 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfNaP_ySFrE There are over 6,000 languages spoken in the world today, but some 2,000 of them count fewer than a thousand speakers. Moreover, just 15 of them account for half of the languages spoken in the world. Which are the world’s most influential languages? The Power Language Index (PLI) is a measure of a language’s efficacy by measuring its influence in 5 domains (“opportunities”): (1) geography, (2) economy, (3) communication, (4) knowledge & media, and (5) diplomacy. Altogether the PLI uses 20 (cardinal) indicators to arrive at an assessment of the power of over 100 languages. Dr Kai L. Chan is a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD. Previously he was a special adviser to the UAE federal government on competitiveness and statistics, where he focused on that country's positioning on global performance indices. Prior to his stint in the UAE, Dr Chan served as an associate and the in-house economist for a consumer finance merchant banking firm in Manhattan. Before that, he worked in the Singapore office of a global management consulting firm. Chan’s expertise/research cover education, income distribution, migration, government & policy, and performance measurement. He is the creator of the Power…

LangFest: Interview with Dr Kai Chan

The below is an interview I did for the 2018 edition of LangFest (a polyglot conference) in Montreal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM-2-xtowvs Bio: Dr Kai L. Chan is a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD. Previously he was a special adviser to the UAE federal government on competitiveness and statistics, where he focused on that country's positioning on global performance indices. Prior to his stint in the UAE, Dr Chan served as an associate and the in-house economist for a consumer finance merchant banking firm in Manhattan. Before that, he worked in the Singapore office of a global management consulting firm. Chan’s expertise/research cover education, income distribution, migration, government & policy, and performance measurement. He is the creator of the Power Language Index, Gender Progress Index, and Intelligence Capital Index. Dr Chan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto and PhD from Princeton University. Kai grew up in Toronto, Canada, but currently resides in Montreal. He speaks English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin and German, and is currently learning Russian. Copyright 2018 - LangFest.org

Toronto Star: Let Toronto’s diverse voices speak on TTC

Letter to the Toronto Star (August 6, 2018) Why are Toronto transit users letting Seth Rogen speak for them?, August 2 Instead of importing a monolingual voice for the TTC, Toronto should embrace its diversity by making multilingual transit announcements. To celebrate our bilingualism we could add French as a secondary announcement on, say, the weekends, while on the weekdays we could rotate among the hundreds of languages spoken in the city, perhaps coinciding with cultural holidays. All this could be done using the voices of actual locals. This would be empowering to the many communities that call Toronto home. Kai L. Chan, Montreal © Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. 1996 - 2018 Letter as it appeared in the Toronto Star.

LangFest: Lunch with Tetsu and Joey / Dîner avec Tetsu et Joey

The below is an interview I did with the organisers of LangFest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVjgOx7o0iw #LangFest18 www.kailchan.ca Our special guest this week is the man who created the Power Language Index, Dr. Kai Chan.

OLF: Séminaire méthodologique sur les classements des langues

I spoke about the state of the French language, as described by its positioning in the Power Language  Index, at a meeting of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie in La Chapelle en Serval (near Paris). This was my first professional talk done in a language other than English (French). The slides can be found here.  

Diversifying Canada’s most diverse parliament

By Anna Desmarais. Published on Jun 1, 2018 3:00pm (The Weekender Weekender 22 2018) Even after Canada elected its most diverse parliament ever in 2015, there is more work to be done to ensure that the Green Chamber is representative of the Canadian population at large. In 2015, Canada elected its most diverse Parliament ever — but experts say more can be done in the upcoming election to encourage various forms of representation in the Green Chamber. The 42nd Parliament is represented by 47 visible minority MPs from various cultural backgrounds and 10 Indigenous MPs, smashing the previous record of 28 and seven MPs belonging to each respective group. [caption id="attachment_3636" align="alignleft" width="212"] Ziad Aboultaif became the first Lebanese member of Parliament when elected as the Conservative representative of Edmonton—Manning in 2015.[/caption] One of the new faces to emerge from the 2015 election was Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif, a prominent Lebanese business-owner representing Edmonton—Manning. Aboultaif decided to run for office to give back to the country he now calls home. On October 19, 2015, he became the first Lebanese member of parliament to represent a riding in Western Canada, winning a decisive victory with 47 per cent of the vote. “It…

KU Leuven: Internationalisation of universities and the national language

I spoke at KU Leuven at their symposium on "Internationalisation of Universities and the National Language" (4 May 2018). My talk was on the Power Language Index as it pertains to the dominance of English in the sphere of scholarly research (and thus the challenge of universities from the non-anglophone world that must work in English to be relevant and competitive on the global stage). The organisers compiled the presentations and published a book on the topics presented: "Internationalisation of Universities and the National Language: Language Policy Interventions and Case Studies"

FT: Trade dispute likely to harm not help the US

Letter to the Financial Times (April 11, 2018) From Kai L. Chan, Montreal, Canada Sir, Standing up for American interests and actually improving the lives of Americans are different things. The heterodox economics espoused by Peter Navarro (Opinion, April 9) are reminiscent of the mercantilism that held sway in the 16th century. The “help” that Mr Navarro and Donald Trump are pushing forth in the trade dispute with China are more likely than not to be welfare decreasing for the whole world. A similar kind of help, likewise from another Asian rival in the 1980s, came when the US government pressured Japan to impose voluntary export restraints on their car manufacturers. That led to unambiguous welfare gains to Japan at the cost of Americans, even as politicians thought they had done a favour for the American people. Kai L. Chan Montreal, Canada Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018. All rights reserved. Letter as it appeared in the FT.

WEF: Quels pays proposent le meilleur enseignement supérieur ?

[caption id="attachment_3437" align="aligncenter" width="1008"] Image: REUTERS/Cris Toala Olivares[/caption] 11 Oct 2017 Kai Chan Distinguished Fellow, INSEAD Innovation & Policy Initiative Les universités sont vitales si l’on veut mettre en valeur le capital humain. Ce sont des rouages essentiels dans l’économie mondiale du savoir. Si, autrefois, les études supérieures étaient réservées à une minorité, elles constituent aujourd’hui un pré requis pour entrer dans les classes moyennes, et plus encore pour appartenir à l’élite. La compétition entre les universités a donné lieu à la création de classements visant à déterminer les plus compétitives sur le plan international. Ces listes se fondent en général sur des indicateurs comme le nombre de publications de recherches, le prestige et la réussite des anciens étudiants. Bien que les diverses mesures produisent des classements différents, les meilleurs établissements universitaires sur le plan international sont souvent les mêmes d’un classement à l’autre. Le nombre d’établissements classés au niveau mondial d’un pays est donc invariablement utilisé pour évaluer la qualité de son enseignement supérieur. Cependant, cela ne prend pas en compte l’inégalité croissante au sein de l’enseignement supérieur. L’enjeu actuel : l'inégalité L’inégalité est l’un des plus grands enjeux de notre société. Mais le débat se focalise sur l’inégalité…