LangMedia’s Culture & Everyday Life materials were primarily developed between 1999 and 2012 as part of two projects, “Language By Country” and “CultureTalk.” These projects were supported with generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education’s International Research and Studies Program, National Security Education Program, and Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.
The videos, audio files, and associated transcripts were recorded and prepared primarily by Five College international students. They feature interviews, discussions, and authentic speech covering a wide range of topics and perspectives from more than 45 languages and countries.
The materials capture information authentic to their time and remain linguistically valuable, even while the video and audio quality varies. Some include colloquial language, local slang, and regionally specific speech patterns, and all reflect the stops, starts, grammatical errors, and hesitancies that come with everyday conversation.
The interviewers and interviewees chose the topics and were free to express ideas and opinions as they wished. A video’s inclusion in LangMedia does not represent endorsement of its ideas or opinions by funders or by the Five College Center for World Languages, Five Colleges, Incorporated, or its member institutions.