Episode 3.4: #DontSayHashtag

The Gradlings Podcast

At 275 million speakers and growing, French remains a global force to be reckoned with. So why is there so much fuss over 'protecting' the French language? Gyula, a PhD candidate in French Linguistics at UIUC, is working towards helping understand French prescriptivist attitudes in our globalizing world. Specifically, Gyula uses computational and statistical applications to study French in social media and news items to see what French speakers actually use to communicate. In this insightful chat, Gyula and the GradLings tackle a huge variety of topics including, but not limited to: the Prescriptivist Police, shy academics, academic fangirling, and how much do you tip Noam Chomsky. Tune in and find out what #DontSayHashtag is all about!