Questions concerning the language (e.g., English, French, German, Chinese) of academic publications, presentations, transcripts, or other documents. For questions on style, use 'writing-style' instead.
Questions tagged [language]
231 questions
61
votes
7 answers
There is a language/cultural barrier between me and my supervisor, what can I do to improve this situation?
I am a PhD candidate at a university in Germany. My supervisor, along with all of my colleagues, are German. I am a native English speaker, hired for a position that does not require German. However, I can speak some German, although it is not as…
iamnarra
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14
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7 answers
Isn't English the common academic language?
In a question about university ranking, many people mentioned that language is a privilege for better ranking of English speaking countries.
Isn't a decent fluency in English the requirement for senior academic positions (regardless of native…
Jia
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11
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1 answer
Do language skills impair students' ability to assess their skill in other subjects?
I'm sure many of you have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect which basically states that people with low skills in a given area tend to overestimate their skill level relative to the general population. My question is how this capacity to assess…
Raketenolli
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10
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1 answer
Supporting ESL Graduate Students
I've had to support several ESL graduate students in the past. In general, they were smart and capable but really struggled with the reading and writing aspects of graduate work. They did complete the prerequisite ESL courses and passed one of the…
Darrin Thomas
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8
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3 answers
How to refer to a page number in a pdf?
Many times, the page number in pdf is different than the printed page number. How to make sure the other person doesn't get confused when we say "it's on Nth page".
user13107
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8
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3 answers
How do I read papers relevant to my research that are written in a language I do not know?
While looking for literature relevant to my research topic, I came across a number of papers in Russian. Russian is Greek to me. What should I do? Is there an online platform that may help me? What about Google Translate? How effective is it?
F. A. Mala
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7
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1 answer
Is it appropriate to use active and passive voice together in abstract?
I am writing an abstract for my manuscript (with my mentor), and the abstract includes active and passive voices together, as below:
In the present paper, we have proved [...] by using [...]. Some new results have also been obtained.
Is it a…
guest
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2
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5 answers
What is the best secondary language for an academic to know?
Let's say someone young (~PhD student stage, possibly earlier) wants to become a professor. He doesn't mind moving around and will go wherever the best offer is. He'll obviously need English, but he's also motivated enough to learn another language.…
Allure
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0
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1 answer
What language is "Solutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis" written in?
The article by Euler titled "Solutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis"(The Seven Bridges of Königsberg) is considered as the first work in both Topology and Graph Theory. However, in the original paper, I am not quite sure what language…
licheng
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Will Esperanto replace English as the new academic language?
There are already works in several academic fields written in Esperanto. Is it destined to become the new academic language, replacing English?
Esperanto is a constructed language that is easier to learn than English.
Geremia
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