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Lisa Lim
Lisa Lim has held professoriate positions at universities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Perth, including as Head of the School of English at the University of Hong Kong. She is currently Director of Engagement and Development for the UNESCO Chair in Environmental Leadership, Cultural Heritage and Biodiversity at VinUniversity, Hanoi, and a consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary. Her books include Languages in Contact (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and The Multilingual Citizen (Multilingual Matters, 2018).
Lisa Lim has held professoriate positions at universities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Perth, including as Head of the School of English at the University of Hong Kong. She is currently Director of Engagement and Development for the UNESCO Chair in Environmental Leadership, Cultural Heritage and Biodiversity at VinUniversity, Hanoi, and a consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary. Her books include Languages in Contact (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and The Multilingual Citizen (Multilingual Matters, 2018).
Languages Spoken:
English
An avatar was the earthly incarnation of a Hindu god, and seen in other religions. Today, it’s a well-known word in films and video games.
From Oxford’s ‘rage bait’ to Macquarie Dictionary’s ‘AI slop’, 2025 WOTYs show the influence of the virtual world on our daily lives.
Bamboo is used in everything from construction to food throughout Asia, and even lends itself to global concepts like the ‘bamboo curtain’.
Ecosystem loss and language erosion often occur in tandem. Thankfully, Cop30 marked an unprecedented effort to elevate indigenous voices.
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The Gen Alpha phrase ‘6-7’ was named word of the year by Dictionary.com. We look at its origins and how people use it to create community.
Inclusion of and support for diverse languages are crucial for fulfilling goals of tolerance, peace, justice and building a future together.
The naming of typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones may seem random but strict procedures govern their titles.
‘Typhoon’ is popularly ascribed to similar-sounding Cantonese and Mandarin words, but this is a more recent formulation.
Once the herald of Blackbeards and Jack Sparrows, the Jolly Roger is now being used by protesters as a symbol of justice and freedom.
Celebrated in the seventh lunar month, the Hungry Ghost Festival is a time to appease and honour ancestors and restless spirits.
With the chikungunya, Zika and dengue viruses all originating in Africa, their names have roots in languages from the continent.
From ‘blur like sotong’ to shiok, the use of Singlish, once explicitly discouraged, is now celebrated in Singapore – as it should be.
The Unesco-listed garment is proudly worn from Indonesia to Malaysia, its name revealing centuries of cultural exchange with Asia and Europe.
The fruit’s Chinese name gave us the English word ‘lychee’, while wordplay bestowed upon it auspicious connotations.
With Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Month in full flow, a look at ICH’s five main domains and the importance of linguistic heritage.
‘Whiskie shall put our brains in rage’, a phrase in a 1715 book, marked the first appearance in English of the term for the distilled drink.
Lisa Lim decodes the Latin terms that will pepper the coming conclave of cardinals in Vatican City to elect a successor to Pope Francis.
‘Easter’ is found in English and German but in most other European languages the word for the festival comes from old words for ‘Passover’.
The Netflix TV series introduced many to the language of toxic masculinity, from incel to red pills and blue pills. But misogyny is not new.
Lee Kuan Yew’s maxim that poetry was an unaffordable luxury was of its time. These days it is widely appreciated, and not just in Singapore.
US president’s revoking of a Clinton-era order to provide language assistance to poor speakers of English appears to flout a UN declaration.
Most people grow up hearing two or more languages spoken around them, yet many abandon their mother tongues for languages used more widely.
On Valentine’s Day hearts are everywhere – on cards, cakes, balloons and emojis – but when were they first used to symbolise love?
The root words of snake and serpent mean ‘a creeping thing’. Most snake sayings are negative, including a Singlish loan phrase from Hokkien.
It would not be very demure of you to whine about Gen Z/Alpha slang like ‘rizz’ or ‘skibidi’ – these are words shaped by shared experiences.
From Merriam-Webster’s ‘polarization’ and Oxford University Press’ ‘brain rot’ to Lianhe Zaobao’s ‘disaster’, prevailing moods are revealed.
‘Panda’, probably of Tibetan origin, was first applied to the red panda. Say it now and it’s taken to mean the black-and-white giant panda.
Many Korean words have recently been added to English, and ‘apeteu’ may follow them now APT is a global hit with music fans.
Proposed tariffs on US imports, particularly from China, stand to create ugliness, but there is beauty in the word’s dynamic history.
