Just a quick reminder. I’ll be holding at talk at Xindanwei in Shanghain this Friday. Here’s the summary from their site:

吴语对大多说上海人来说占据了他们每日与家人, 朋友交流的很大一部分. 方言的未来怎样? 是否有保存的价值? 就保护方言来说,现在做了什么? 来自Sinoglot的Kellen Parker希望你5月28日下午4点半到新单位来参与讨论. 说出你对这个9千万人都在使用的语言怎么看. 讨论以英语的形式展开, 不过也可以使用中文参与其中.

The dialects of Wu are a big part of life for most native Shanghainese, used for day-to-day conversations with family and friends. But what does the future hold for the dialects? Is there value in preservation? What’s being done now to protect the language? Sinoglot’s Kellen Parker hopes you’ll come join the discussion at Xindanwei on Friday the 28th at 4:30. Come give your opinions and reflections on the language of 90 million people. The talk will be in English but feel free to participate in Chinese.

We’ll be talking about a range of topics, all tied to the Shanghainese dialects of Wu, including standardisation, cultural identity, efforts at preservation and efforts at obliteration, to name a few. I’ll be speaking mostly English but feel free to contribute in Mandarin and I’ll do my best to not embarrass myself.

Hope to see you there.