I’m taking the weekend off with the family, but Happy New Year. 新年快乐! Beth

Manabu Nagaoka, Executive Producer at the Sesame Workshop, emailed today to say that they are premiering Season 2 of Fun Fun Elmo, the Mandarin language show on SinoVision during Chinese New Year. And even better for those of us in the United States, they’re uploading the First Season, all 13 episodes of it, onto their…

From the Chinese Language Initiatives Team. Have I mentioned you should subscribe to their newsletter? chinese@asiasociety.org ====== News and Opportunities from the Field Chinese Guest Teacher and Trainee Program: The College Board is accepting applications to host a guest teacher or teacher-in-training from China for the 2013–14 school year. Teacher Application Priority Deadline is January 30, 2013, and…

[Thanks for the Asia Society’s Chinese Language Initiatives group for the tip] Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations is excited to announce the official launch of ChinaFile, a new English-language online magazine on China. ChinaFile seeks to foster an informed, nuanced, vibrant public conversation about China and its place in the world. ChinaFile publishes original reporting and analysis…

From CNN. Neuroscientists have been discovering mounting evidence that being fluent in more than one language protects against age-related cognitive declines.  But there’s still the major question: Why? Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to get a closer look at the brains of both bilinguals and monolinguals, comparing how their activity differs during specific tasks. …

KPCC, the NPR-affiliate in Pasadena, Calif., recently produced a three-part radio series and accompanying web site about immersion schools in Southern California. You can find their web site, with lots of photos and interesting graphics, here. The links for the radio program are here for part 1, here for part 2 and here for part…