boy wizard

Word champ

10-year-old arpan Sharma can boast of knowing 11 languages, including English. The primary school student from The Blue Coat School, Edgbaston, Birmingham, has recently qualified for the final of a national language contest for the second year. Arpan speaks Hindi, his mother tongue, at home and learnt French, Spanish, German and Italian at a school. At home, Arpan has been using interactive, multimedia CD-ROMs for learning Thai, Swahili, Polish and Chinese Mandarin and is now studying the Lugandan language of Uganda. Although he knows 10 foreign languages, Hindi is what he likes most as he finds it “very different”. He said that he loves languages and is very keen on learning them. Once he grows up he wants to become a doctor and practise around the globe. All the best, Arpan.

hi-tech

Tribals for forests

Pygmies in northern Congo will now use hand-held GPS (Global Positioning System) devices to save tombs, water areas, hunting grounds and medicinal plants from loggers. They will use the GPS sets with icons signifying important areas and trees that should be preserved. Once they click on a particular icon, the site will be treated as ‘sacred’ and saved from the loggers. This initiative is the outcome of a partnership between logging company Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB) and northern Congo’s Mbendjele Yaka people.