Going Public in Bear Market Is Risky Bet for Rosetta Stone

Online options, from free to pricey, abound

(NEWSER) - The days of chanting vocabulary words in a classroom and dozing off in the language lab are fading from memory as language instruction becomes increasingly available on the Internet. Freestanding smartphone apps are one option, and more structured instruction comes at a price—and sometimes no price at all. The New York Times looks at some of the numerous options. More»

Kummerspeck, and other great options

(NEWSER) - The German language is officially richer, thanks to its adoption of the English word "shitstorm." Now that we've given, it's time to take: Cracked argues that the English language is in desperate need of these nine foreign words, for which there is absolutely no English equivalent:

• Kummerspeck: Kicking things off with a word from our German friends, this literally means "grief bacon," or, in Cracked's translation, the extra pounds we pack on thanks to emotional eating.

Move could rock Silicon Valley model if successful

(NEWSER) - With what’s expected to be an almost $20 billion IPO looming, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus is starting to wish he hadn’t given out so much stock to attract early employees to his company. So he’s doing something unheard of: He’s demanding employees give their stock back or be fired, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move could rock Silicon Valley, whose startups have long relied on the prospect of stock wealth to lure talent. More»

Spanish, however, would benefit them

(NEWSER) - Nick Kristof and his family speak Chinese, and “let’s be frank,” he writes in the New York Times , “if your child hasn’t started Mandarin classes by third grade, he or she will never amount to anything.” Oh, actually … “just kidding,” continues Kristof, who disagrees with the current parental obsession with Chinese classes for Junior. With the Hispanic population in America surging and Latin America becoming increasingly important economically, Spanish is the language that is truly “essential” to learn. More»

Young people should be learning Chinese

(NEWSER) - Britain's former minister for Europe Chris Bryant—apparently feeling free to annoy the French now that his Labour party is out of power—described the French language as "useless" in a debate on language education yesterday. Young people, Bryant said, should be steered away from "useless modern foreign languages" like French and encouraged to learn Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. More»