Language

Arthur and the Invisibles Rating -- PG What it's about -- A boy resolves to rescue his grandpa and find the family fortune in the tiny, underground world of fairyfolk. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Animated underground sprites, A Bug's Life-like action. Good lessons/bad lessons -- You're never too young to be someone others can depend on. Violence -- Animated, not graphic. Language -- Clean. Sex -- None, though Madonna voices a hot cartoon princess. Drugs -- None. Parents advisory -- A bit complicated for a cartoon children's fantasy, but the characters are cute.

While Brian Grodsky toured China, he navigated the eastern coast, reaching Shanghai with only a few words of Chinese at his disposal. But this seasoned traveler finally hit the language barrier hard over a simple dinner order in Beijing. After a day of sightseeing, Grodsky sat down to order a chicken dish from a small, brightly lit, home-style Chinese restaurant. He thought all was well until his waiter returned with a huge cooked chicken accompanied by a dainty pair of chopsticks. "All I wanted was a chicken dish!"

OAKLAND, Calif. -- There was intense criticism from around the country and skepticism at home when Oakland school officials decided in 1996 to teach classes using ebonics, a speech pattern that the school board deemed a second language for many black students.Today, ebonics -- also known as black English -- is still used as a teaching tool in the classroom, and Oakland school officials say that the strategy, meant to help children move from the language they hear on the street to the standard English they'll use in school, works.

The ground under our feet used to be dependable. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever," the Preacher assured us. Then we discovered that the earth is a set of tectonic plates, perpetually on the move.Those of us in school when schools still troubled themselves with English grammar and usage feel the same way about the language. We learned rules presented to us as eternal: Educated people spoke and wrote English thus, and there could be no two opinions about it. Then dictionaries turned descriptive, telling us how all manner of people used the language rather than how it ought to be used.

WASHINGTON -- Seeing the floor littered with stompies, the drissy wowser told the janitor to stop kicksin' and clean up before the bagmen arrive for the toenadering.Huh?What sounds like gibberish is actually foreign English -- words used by folks in other countries who share the language with Americans, but with their own linguistic twists."Stompies" are cigarette butts in South Africa. New Zealanders use "drissy" as adjective meaning "frantic." A "wowser" is an Aussie with a puritanical disposition.

Miriam Isaacs, a professor on a quest to save a dying language, wrote the Yiddish phrase schoen madel on the blackboard and asked, "What's that?One of her students said "beautiful girl," and the linguist responded with a touch of Yiddish humor of the kind that has cheered the world for centuries: "Right. Many a child has been afflicted with that saying. Usually they want something from you when they tell you that."A humorist -- such as Leo Rosten, author of "The Joys of Yiddish" -- Isaacs doesn't pretend to be. But her occasionally light approach helps advance a serious personal mission in Elementary Yiddish 101, a new for-credit course she offers to a tiny few at Baltimore Hebrew University."

JERUSALEM - It was a dead language, an 8,000-word relic. And as 19th-century Jewish pilgrims began settling the hills and valleys of what would become Israel, the status of Hebrew seemed like that of the crumbling Roman aqueducts strung across the landscape - interesting to study but unfit for restoration.Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, felt that way, wanting no part of a language that you couldn't even use to buy a train ticket. Use German or English, he said, or both.That left it up to lingual zealot Eliezer Perlmann, who arrived in Jerusalem from Lithuania in 1882, changed his name to Ben Yehuda and took up the cause of Hebrew.

In terms of the "language" used by the president of the United States in his videotaped grand jury testimony of Aug. 17, 1998, nothing is actually heard that can be held to reasonably fall outside the established definition of "Bill Clinton."Not, at least, as "Bill Clinton" has been defined and understood by American voters, who apparently embraced the definition on Nov. 3, 1992, and reaffirmed their understanding of the definition on Nov. 5, 1996. Let the record show that on these occasions American voters respectively elected and re-elected "Bill Clinton" the office of president of the United States, "Bill Clinton" having already defined himself as a man with a flair for language, a gift for rhetorical flourish and a certain capacity for verbal legerdemain.

In Anne Arundel County middle schools, sixth-graders can take a buffet-style language class, trying a taste of French, Spanish, Russian, German, even sign language, to see which, if any, they want to study more later."

In Anne Arundel County middle schools, sixth-graders can take a buffet-style language class, trying a taste of French, Spanish, Russian, German, even sign language, to see which, if any, they want to study more later."

Brown-bag discussion Anne Arundel Community College President Martha Smith and community leaders will hold a panel discussion, "Looking to the Future - Anne Arundel County and Anne Arundel Community College" from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Sept 24 in the Cade Center for Fine Arts, Room 219 on the campus at 101 College Parkway in Arnold. Free. Information: 410-777-2407. Language classes Starting this month, the Center for World Languages at Anne Arundel Community College offers comprehensive eight-course sequenced foreign language instruction in nine languages.

Many middle-aged American Jews have identical memories of Yiddish - the language their parents spoke when they didn't want the children to understand. That's what Gila Haor remembers from her childhood in upstate New York. But at 33, she's trying to change things in her Pikesville household by speaking Yiddish as often as possible to her three daughters, ages 3 to 8. "It would make my grandparents - they are gone - so proud to know that I am speaking Yiddish," she says. Enthusiasts like Haor are few and far between.

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising Rating -- PG What it's about -- A boy learns he's the last in a long line of immortal warriors and that he's needed for the coming conflict with the forces of darkness. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Based on the Susan Cooper novels and full of movie magic, fantasy, nonviolent violence and starring good-looking leads. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Even an "invisible" child is capable of great deeds and sacrifice. Violence -- Vikings pillage; scary beings do scary things.

Hooked on Phonics found success in late-night infomercials in the 1990s, selling up to $100 million a year of packaged materials that were used to help teach children how to read. Then the once-successful marketing formula was scrapped when Baltimore's Educate Inc. bought the struggling brand in 2005 and turned it into a retail product sold at the likes of Target, Wal-Mart and Costco. Now, Hooked on Phonics is returning to its TV roots by promoting its products on airwaves around the world.

Mr. Woodcock Rating -- PG-13 for crude and sexual content, thematic material, language and a mild drug reference. What it's about -- A guy's mom is about to marry the gym teacher who tormented him all through middle school. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Seann William Scott and Billy Bob Thornton and lots of you-never-outgrow-middle-school slapstick. Good lessons/bad lessons -- More than a few good ones, the biggest being "Let go of your past" and don't judge your toughest teachers by how they made you feel at the time.

Stardust Rating -- PG-13 What it's about -- A star falls and a man promises it to his fickle girlfriend, only to discover the star is, herself, pretty cute. The Kid Attractor Factor -- A quick-witted fantasy for those in the process of outgrowing Harry Potter. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Your fantasy love may keep you from seeing the real thing, right under your nose. And even in alternate universes, safe sex is a must. Violence -- More than you'd like, as assorted princes are killed off. Language -- Very clean.

Heritage Baptist Church will host a citizenship class next week for qualified people who want to become citizens. Heritage Baptist Church and El Centro de Ayuda (Center for Help), a nonprofit organization that assists Latinos with job placement, education and legal issues, have joined forces for the project. The organization, on Forest Drive, sees about 4,500 clients a year and has struggled recently with funding. Yesterday, Mary Schumaker, the organization's founder, placed 700 "robo calls" to clients, in an effort to encourage people to sign up and learn how to become citizens.

In a typical week, Susan Green tries to find foreign-language interpreters for about a dozen of the cases unfolding in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Most involve litigants or witnesses who speak Spanish or Russian, or Chinese and Vietnamese. But increasingly, the requests from lawyers, judges and the court's assignment office are for speakers of languages she's never heard of. "When I see something like that, it really does make you wonder," Green said of a recent request for an interpreter in an African language called Ewe. "With some of these, I look it up on the Internet and see that it's spoken by 10,000 people in a little village."

Gracie Rating -- PG-13 What it's about -- In 1970s New Jersey, a girl decides to break the gender barrier on her high school soccer team. The Kid Attractor Factor -- A vivid version of high school, from the mistakes you make at that age to the idealistic stands you're willing to take. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Don't let narrow-minded people -- teachers, coaches, parents or classmates -- limit your life. Violence -- Onfield cheap shots. Language -- Some profanity. Sex -- Flirtation, nothing more.

A few words about the Rev. Jerry Falwell's finest hour. Some would say his life did not produce many such hours but, rather, a surfeit of regrettable ones. Like in 1958, when he preached that God meant for black Americans to serve white ones. Like in 1985, when he offered warm support to the apartheid government of South Africa and denounced Bishop Desmond Tutu as a "phony." Like in 1999, when he published an article warning parents that Tinky Winky of the toddlers' show Teletubbies was gay. Like in 2001, when he blamed abortion providers, gay rights proponents and the American Civil Liberties Union for the Sept.