A lingua franca, also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.
Mira Nair is an Indian-American filmmaker based in New York City. Her production company is Mirabai Films. Among her films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion–winning Monsoon Wedding, and Salaam Bombay!, which received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.
An optician is an individual who fits glasses or contact lenses by filling a refractive prescription from an optometrist or ophthalmologist. They are able to translate and adapt ophthalmic prescriptions, dispense products, and work with accessories. There are several specialties within the field.
Yuu Watase is a Japanese manga artist. She debuted in 1989 at the age of 18 with the short story "Pajama de Ojama" and has since published more than 50 volumes of one-shots and long-running manga series. One of her most popular titles is Fushigi Yûgi. In 1998, Watase won the 43rd Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōjo (girls') category for Ceres, Celestial Legend. In 2008, she began her first shōnen (boys') serialization, Arata: The Legend.
Cinema Paradiso is a 1988 coming-of-age dramedy film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
Nigerian Pidgin, also known simply as Pidgin or Broken or as Naijá in scholarship, is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria. The language is sometimes referred to as Pijin or Vernacular. First used by British colonists and slave traders to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century, in the 2010s, a common orthography was developed for Pidgin which has been gaining significant popularity in giving the language a harmonized writing system.
The Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is the lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 96 percent of the country's population, and it unites the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Krio is the primary language of communication among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad, and has also heavily influenced Sierra Leonean English. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creole people, or Krios, a community of about 104,311 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, Canada, United States and the British Empire, and is spoken as a second language by millions of other Sierra Leoneans belonging to the country's indigenous tribes. English is Sierra Leone's official language, and Krio, despite its common use throughout the country, has no official status.
Anna "Nan" Shepherd was a Scottish Modernist writer and poet, best known for her seminal mountain memoir, The Living Mountain, based on experiences of hill walking in the Cairngorms. This is noted as an influence by nature writers who include Robert Macfarlane and Richard Mabey. She also wrote poetry and three novels set in small fictional communities in Northern Scotland. The landscape and weather of this area played a major role in her novels and provided a focus for her poetry. Shepherd served as a lecturer in English at the Aberdeen College of Education for most of her working life.
Kireedam (transl. Crown) is a 1989 Indian Malayalam-language action drama film directed by Sibi Malayil and written by A. K. Lohithadas. The film stars Mohanlal, Thilakan, and Parvathy Jayaram, along with Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Mohan Raj, Murali, Sreenath, Kundara Johny, Cochin Haneefa, Jagathy Sreekumar, Philomina, Usha, Jagadish, Maniyanpilla Raju, Mamukkoya, Oduvil Unnikrishnan, and Kanakalatha in supporting roles. The music for the film was composed by Johnson.
Juba Arabic, also known since 2011 as South Sudanese Arabic, is a lingua franca spoken mainly in Equatoria Province in South Sudan, and derives its name from the South Sudanese capital, Juba. It is also spoken among communities of people from South Sudan living in towns in Sudan. The pidgin developed in the 19th century, among descendants of Sudanese soldiers, many of whom were recruited from southern Sudan. Residents of other large towns in South Sudan, notably Malakal and Wau, do not generally speak Juba Arabic, tending towards the use of Arabic closer to Sudanese Arabic, in addition to local languages. Reportedly, it is the most spoken language in South Sudan despite government attempts to discourage its use due to its association with past Arab rule.
Ramanaa is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, stars Vijayakanth, Simran and Ashima Bhalla in lead roles. The film is about a man named Ramana who decides to abolish corruption completely with the help of his ex-students who are working in various government offices. The film released on 4 November 2002. It received positive reviews from critics and became a superhit. It was awarded the 2002 Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film and A. R. Murugadoss won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer. The film was dubbed and released in Hindi as Mar Mitenge 3 in 2015.
Panchatanthiram is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language black comedy film co-written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The story is written by Kamal Haasan with the dialogues by Crazy Mohan. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Jayaram, Ramesh Aravind, Sriman, Yugi Sethu, Simran and Ramya Krishnan, with Urvashi, Aishwarya, Sanghavi, Vidhya Venkatesh, Devayani and Nagesh in supporting roles. It loosely adapts from the 1998 film Very Bad Things with new elements added to it.
"The Lady with the Dog" is a short story by Anton Chekhov. First published in 1899, it describes an adulterous affair between an unhappily married Moscow banker and a young married woman that begins while both are vacationing alone in Yalta. It is one of Chekhov's most famous pieces of short fiction, and Vladimir Nabokov considered it to be one of the greatest short stories ever written.
Yugi Sethu is an Indian actor, filmmaker, writer, and television presenter who has worked in the Tamil film industry. He has been conferred doctorate (PhD) in cinema by the Madras University in July 2015, for his Thesis entitled: 'Development of a new box office predictability model'. He has appeared in a few films in main and supporting roles and has contributed to films as a screenwriter. He has hosted close to 1,000 TV talk shows, [Nayyandi Darbar,Sethuvudan Darbar, Yugiyudan Yugiyungal, etc...] and has been a jury since inception for popular Star Vijay TV Movie Awards.
A. Sethumadhavan, popularly known as Sethu, is a Malayalam fiction writer. He has published more than 35 books. He won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 2007 for the work Adayalangal. He received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awards in 1982 and 1978 for his works Pandavapuram and Pediswapnangal; and Vayalar Award for Adyalangal in 2006. He also won Odakkuzhal award for his novel Marupiravi. Sethu's other literary works include Velutha Koodarangal, Thaliyola, Kiratham, Niyogam, Sethuvinte Kathakal and Kaimudrakal. He also served as the chairman and CEO of the South Indian Bank. In 2022, he won the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, highest literary honour of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi.
When Marnie Was There is a 2014 Japanese animated psychological drama film co-written and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, produced by Studio Ghibli and distributed by Toho. It is based on Joan G. Robinson's 1967 novel of the same name.
Oru Naal Iravil is a 2015 Indian Tamil language thriller film edited and directed by Anthony in his directorial debut. A remake of Joy Mathew's successful Malayalam film Shutter (2012), the film stars Sathyaraj in the lead role. The film is presented by A. L. Vijay and produced by A. L. Azhagappan and Sam Paul. The film opened to rave reviews on its release.
Dark Glasses is a 2022 Giallo film directed and co-written by Dario Argento, in his first directorial work since Dracula 3D (2012). From a screenplay written by Argento with Franco Ferrini and Carlo Lucarelli, Dark Glasses stars Ilenia Pastorelli as an Italian escort who is attacked and blinded by a serial killer in an attempted murder. While escaping the attack by car, she meets a young Chinese boy who assists her in her lack of sight. Argento's daughter, Asia Argento, appears in the film, and also serves as the film's associate producer.
Varada Sethu is a British actor, best known for playing Detective Sergeant Mishal Ali in BBC television series Hard Sun (2018), Cinta Kaz in the Disney+ Star Wars series Andor (2022–present) and Belinda Chandra in the BBC-Disney+ co-production Doctor Who (2025–present). In 2010, Sethu won the Miss Newcastle beauty pageant competition.
