ATA Newsbriefs

China has approved a new law that claims to help promote “ethnic unity,” but critics say it will further erode the rights of minority groups.

On paper, the law aims to promote integration among the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, through education and housing. But critics say it cuts people off from their language and culture. The law mandates that all children should be taught Mandarin, starting before kindergarten and continuing until the end of high school. Previously, students could study most of the curriculum in their native languages, including Tibetan, Uyghur, or Mongolian.

“The law is consistent with a dramatic recent policy shift to suppress the ethnic diversity formally recognized since 1949,” Magnus Fiskesjö, an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University, said in a university report. “The children of the next generation are now isolated and brutally forced to forget their own language and culture.”

The National People’s Congress in Beijing argues that teaching the next generation Mandarin will help their job prospects. Government officials also state that the new law is crucial for promoting “modernization through greater unity.”

The law provides a legal basis to prosecute parents or guardians who may instill what it describes as “detrimental” views in children that would affect ethnic harmony. The law also calls for “mutually embedded community environments” that some analysts believe could result in the breakup of minority-heavy neighborhoods.

“This focus on development and prosperity is telling,” Ian Chong, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore, said. “It’s easy to read this language as meaning that minority languages and cultures are backward and impediments to advancement.”

BBC (3/12/26) By Laura Bicker

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A new group of volunteers is helping more fans feel part of the crowd during athletic events at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

American Sign Language (ASL) students, under the guidance of experts from the Deaf and Native Hawaiian communities, are partnering with UH Mānoa Athletics to sign the national anthem, cheerleader chants, and the university’s fight song at games. The effort gives spectators who are Deaf and hard-of-hearing a way to experience moments many fans take for granted in a state where demand for ASL services far outpaces the number of available interpreters. This is the first known partnership of its kind between ASL students and the university’s athletics department.

ASL volunteer signer Pumehana Holmes, an English major who grew up with two Deaf parents, said the goal is simple: making sure Deaf fans feel included. “I hope that the Deaf community is able to see themselves being supported and that they’re not invisible in the crowd but are wanted in the crowd,” Holmes said.

The effort also reflects a broader need across the state. Hawaiʻi faces a critical shortage of ASL interpreters. According to the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health, there are approximately 2,800 ASL users in Hawaiʻi and an estimated 500 visitors each day who rely on interpreting services. There are currently about 30 ASL interpreters across all the Hawaiian Islands. Only 23 are credentialed by the State of Hawaiʻi, with a handful of others holding national credentials.

To help address this gap, UH Mānoa has already expanded ASL coursework and is also planning to expand interpreter training opportunities for students interested in the field.

For student volunteer Sabrina Gill, the experience also helps build awareness among hearing fans. “Having student interpreter volunteers and interpreters is really important for building more access into our UH Mānoa community,” Gill said. “But it’s also important for hearing people who might not know sign language just to have more visibility and awareness of sign language,” Gill said.

University of Hawaiʻi News (3/17/26)

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The Bennington Writing Seminars, the MFA in Writing Program at Bennington College, announced the launch of a new dual-genre concentration in literary translation. Applicants and current students studying fiction, nonfiction, or poetry will be able to add literary translation as a secondary concentration, lengthening the program from four to five terms.

“Bennington College has a great history as a center for the translation of literature,” said Bennington Writing Seminars Executive Director Mark Wunderlich. “We are happy to now offer instruction in literary translation in our graduate writing program. Students will now be able to spend two terms studying with some of the finest translators in the field and leave with a fully translated work.”

Bruna Dantas Lobato, a Bennington College alum and Bennington Writing Seminars faculty member and National Book Award-winning translator, designed the program to enable students to engage with a global literary community.

“We translate literature to engage with the world and its many languages, to be in conversation with and open to modes of thinking and being besides our own,” Lobato said. “Literary translation is the rewriting of a literary text in a new language and all the transformations that act entails, as the text travels to a new cultural, linguistic, and aesthetic context. Translation broadens and deepens our understanding of humanity and language, shows us there are more possibilities beyond our reach, and pushes us to challenge our own perspective. It’s thanks to translation and translators that readers aren’t cut off from the rest of the world, living in intellectual isolation.”

Bennington Banner (3/6/26)

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The Government of the Northwest Territories of Canada recently announced a new pilot to train the next generation of Indigenous language interpreters at the Legislative Assembly.

Under the Interpreter Career Pathway Program, participants who are fluent in one of the territory’s eight official Indigenous languages will receive training over the next year.

Agata Gutkowska, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, said that while more work is necessary, existing initiatives—including the Mentor-Apprentice Program and the Interpreter Career Pathway Program—motivate speakers of different fluency levels to become more advanced. “These programs also equip interpreters with advanced skills for other fields, including the healthcare system and the courts,” Gutkowska added.

Advocates have been calling for training and certification programs for Indigenous language speakers since the closure of the government’s Language Bureau and Aurora College’s Interpreter-Translator Program in the 1990s.

Eleanor Bran, a retired Dene Zhatıé (South Slavey) interpreter, said she is happy the program will help train new speakers. “It will give them the incentive to go out there and train and learn,” she said.

Bran added that translating for the Legislative Assembly requires an understanding of technical language and specialized terminology. “We might be excellent in our native language, but when it comes to the English language, you have to be well-versed.”

Elizabeth Biscaye, a former director of the Language Bureau and a Dëne Sųłıné (Chipewyan) speaker, said that formal training is beneficial even for those who have a natural talent for interpreting. “You can always tell the difference,” she said.

CBS (03/27/26) By Yumna Iftikhar

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