Jose Carillo's Forum

NEWS AND COMMENTARY


The Forum makes a weekly roundup of interesting commentary from all over the world about the English language and related subjects. To read commentary from a particular country, simply click the indicated country link. To go out of that country’s commentary section, simply click the country link again and choose another country link.

Philippines

Open a book—and get to know us
By Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, July 27, 2012—Anyone would have beamed with pride watching the Filipino talents in children’s literature in the limelight at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content held at the end of May in Singapore. This was organized and hosted by the National Book Development Council of Singapore headed by R. Ramachandran and the tireless Kenneth Quek. It was as counterpart and partner agency that the National Book Development Board was invited, with NBDB executive director Andrea Pasion Flores and myself in attendance.

Rama’s best credentials as festival director is not his marketing or organizational ability, though that was apparent, but his background as librarian. It is his association with and affinity for books that inspired him to develop this fairly young festival (two years old) from the Asian Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference which ran for 10 years. Then, his brainchild to mount a 4-day conference—a day for teachers, a day for parents, and the weekend for writers and illustrators. For this, the second such conference, Rama wanted an Asean country in focus—and the Philippines emerged as its first focus because of the fairly impressive growth in publishing.

Taking center stage as representatives of the children’s book industry were Jomike Tejido, who had an enjoyable session with children and parents doing his own paper foldabots, and Russell Molina, who invited the audience who knew little of Philippine children’s books with this come-on: Open a children’s book and discover our thousands of islands, hundreds of stories, pieces of our culture. With that introduction (truly an advertising mind at work here), Molina also highlighted the harsh reality of childhood for many of our young, who turn “seasonal orphans” with their parents working abroad. Thus the prevalence of stories representing these issues. “We don’t live in castles” but we have such stories to tell, too.

Full story...


“I(’)mpossible”
By Rowena M. C. Cos, 2nd prize winner, UN Essay Writing Contest

The future that I want may well be impossible. The future I want may well be unreachable. To dream of it is the only thing I can do because the future I want is hard to get: the future where we all exist and matter in a world that exists and matters to us.

What of this future, this mythical experience where man and woman coexist with nature and life in peace and harmony? What of it is but impossible if today all around me there is anything but this? In a world where the greater many have next to nothing and the little few have the bounty, in a world where marital bonds are given little more importance and significance than a plastic cup acquired and disposed off after the beverage in it is consumed, in a world where the disposed cup travels byways and highways with no particular destination in mind for it, in a world where people grow thin and faint in lands rich and great as others exploit it for overflowing tables half of food on which goes untouched, in a world where melting poles offer potable water yet thousands die of thirst, in a world where material consumption rules and runs the lives of many with no thought for the before and after of the things that they consume, in a world where humans are the center and the core of everything else yet are unaware of anything but themselves, in a kind of world like this, what is there to expect and hope for?

Today, man is aware of everything but the world around him. Today, man is caring of everything but those completely detached from himself, but these things that he thinks are disconnected from him are really infinitely a part of him, even in the littlest and seemingly most insignificant of ways; but he doesn’t know it, or at least he doesn’t realize it. Today, this is man. Tomorrow, what will he be?

Tomorrow, man will wake up. He will rise and open his eyes and see. Not just look, he will see his surroundings. His eyes will open wide and take in everything there is: he is not alone…

Full story...


Starting from where the teachers are
By Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, July 13, 2012—At the recent Bridging Languages Workshop in Baguio City, I was deluged with requests from the participating teachers for a more rigorous Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) training regimen. The teachers were particularly concerned with practical issues like how to produce home-grown (and therefore contextually sensitive) teaching and reading materials, and how to actually develop greater fluency in their own languages. I surmise that their apprehension grew from the fact that teaching in a mother tongue-based program requires a vastly different set of skills, many of which they apparently do not have at the moment.

According to Dr. Dennis and Susan Malone, the leading MLE consultants from SIL International, a critical problem is that in most countries, there are too few certified teachers from local language communities who have the level of fluency needed to use both languages in the classroom. Without the advantage of MTBMLE, many of the students who do not speak the school language have done poorly in primary school and have not been able to progress through secondary school.

The Malones aver that effective and sustainable MTBMLE programs require teachers who are fluent in speaking, reading and writing both their students’ mother tongue and the official school language.

To help overcome this serious shortage, they propose these courses of action:

1. Incorporation of MTBMLE into regular 2-, 3-, or 4-year teacher certification programs. In this program, pre-service teacher trainees may focus on MTBMLE. Individuals learn how to read and write the local language fluently and how to teach their students to do the same. They learn effective second language acquisition (2LA) theories, how to apply the theories in the classroom, and how to use the local language effectively as the initial language of instruction. On completion of the program, these pre-service teachers will have achieved the same educational qualifications as mainstream teachers with the additional qualification for teaching in MTBMLE classrooms.

Full story...


The future I want
By Gerriane Faith B. Rizon, 1st Prize, UN Essay Writing Contest

There are stories everywhere we look. There are stories that we laugh over, stories that break our hearts and stories that make you long for things imagined. I, for one, love the stories my father tells. After dinner, when the dishes are all piled up waiting to be washed and we’re all sitting together stretching our legs, my sister and I beg him for a funny story from his childhood. He does so with gusto, reenacting certain parts and adding sound effects to make the story come alive. The setting for most of his stories centers around his childhood home. In his own words, it was situated beside a brook where his older sisters would wash their clothes. During his childhood their house was the only one for miles around and as night came on, the darkness crouching right outside their door would give him the creeps. In the safety of daylight, he and his friends would go fly kites in the field surrounding their house or borrow the family bike and explore the city. Can you imagine something so idyllic? How many times I’ve wished that I could have seen my father’s childhood home as it was before. Of course, the house still stands there with my aunts and uncles living nearby. But they are not the only ones living there anymore. A lot of people have moved in to the neighborhood, so there’s not much left of the grassy field. In fact, there’s not much space left, period. So many houses have been built around my father’s family house that winding alleyways are what you have to walk on to reach the main road. No fields are there for children to fly their home-made kites and more often than not, their kites end up hanging limp and entangled in the electric wires up above. There’s no clear garbage disposal system, so the brook has become a handy dump site. The waters that run through it now are dark and little more than a trickle during hot summer days. No one comes to splash around and cool themselves in the brook’s waters anymore. I laugh over my father’s stories but my heart breaks whenever I visit his childhood home and see how far it has fallen from being the clean, fresh place I have always imagined it to be…

Full story...


The fate of our mother languages
By Randy David, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, June 21, 2012—This school year, when public school teachers begin using 12 of the country’s mother tongues as languages of instruction in the first three years of grade school, they may find that employing the local language for writing and reading won’t be as easy as speaking it. They have to persist and not give up easily.

Our languages have suffered immensely from our failure to regularly use them for written communication. One can imagine how difficult it must have been for the Department of Education to produce mother tongue-based teaching materials overnight for the new K+12 basic education program. This is not the fault of our languages. It is, rather, the result of the confused language policy of a political system torn between two social tasks—the building of a national community and rapid economic development. Except for the rare writers and culture-bearers who continued to express themselves in their mother tongues, hardly any educated Filipino today uses the local languages in their written form.

Tagalog has survived as a written language mainly because it had been mandated to be the base of Filipino, the national language.  Even so, it can hardly be regarded as the principal language of the literate Filipino. That place belongs to English. Proof of this is the almost total absence of foreign books translated into Filipino. It is bad enough that only a few literary and scholarly works are published in Filipino or in any other Filipino language. Worse, not one of our local languages is used as a medium for transmitting the knowledge and literature of other cultures.

Compare this with the situation in other countries. While English has become the world’s most widely spoken second language, everywhere in Europe, people prefer to read English and American works in their French or German or Italian or Dutch translations…

Full story...


Filipinos top 2012 English index
By Queena Lee-Chua, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, May 27, 2012—While professors (including myself) decry the decline in English language skills of our students, Global English’s Business English Index 2012 begs to differ.

Global English, an English language instruction company in California with clients such as Cisco, General Motors and Procter and Gamble, tested 108,000 employees in 216 companies in 76 countries.  The tests, conducted in 2011, included comprehension of English, and its usage in various media such as e-mail, phone, presentations.

First, the bad news.  On a scale of one to 10—one, as the lowest, indicating the employee uses only basic English while 10, as the highest, means the employee communicates like a native English speaker—the average score was 4.15, down from 4.46 the year before.

Most global workers can deal with basic information, but cannot perform more complex tasks that require nuanced understanding of the language.

Now for the good news:  We are at the top!  The Philippines was the only country to score at the intermediate level (7.11), followed by Norway (6.54), Estonia (6.45), Serbia (6.38), Slovenia (6.19), Australia, Malaysia, India, Lithuania, Singapore and Canada.

Global English president Tom Kahl was quoted as saying, “Addressing English skills gaps and ensuring that employees can immediately perform at the necessary proficiency level should be viewed as a strategic imperative for multinational businesses as enterprise fluency, the ability to seamlessly communicate and collaborate within global organizations, can deliver significant financial upside.”

The worst performing countries were Armenia, Cote d’Ivoire, Taiwan, Honduras, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Brazil.

Full story...


Reading with ‘K’
By Roberto S. Salva, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, June 4, 2012—In K + 12, the new basic education program, the Department of Education is not introducing a formal science class until the third grade. It wants the children to focus on learning how to read first.

Filipinos in the science community are aghast. Children’s natural curiosity should be cultivated and molded, as early as possible, toward formal scientific investigations. On Facebook, a friend questioned the competence of those behind the design. “Don’t tell me they are still wasting children’s time with ba be bi bo bu, ka ke ki ko ku,” she wrote.

A Filipino scientist now teaching in Georgetown University also complained about the late introduction of formal science classes. He suggested that if the children are to be taught reading, they should be taught to read in English as materials in the language abound.

In his book, Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read, Prof. Stanislas Dehaene reestablishes the best route to learn to read, and that is: learning first the sounds of each letter and combination of letters. Various studies had earlier proven this, but Dehaene, acknowledged as the leading authority in the neuroscience of language, uses his research into the brain to emphasize it.

We learn to read by first learning the “babebibobus” and “kakekikokus,” the connection between written letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes).

Full story...


Language of the spirit
By Jason Baguia, Cebu Daily News

CEBU CITY, June 3, 2012—Last Friday, before Mass ended at Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in downtown Cebu City, a lay minister announced that Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma has green-lighted the Catholic faithful’s gradual adoption of the new English translation of the words of Holy Mass starting today, the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity.

I have been reading stories about this translation of the Mass from its original Latin text since early in the last decade, when the work began under our last pope, now Blessed John Paul II and ended towards the close of that decade under Pope Benedict XVI.

The translation process was meticulous, involving primarily the popes, bishops of the English-speaking Catholics, Vatican departments like the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Disicipline of the Sacraments, the church commission called International Committee for English in the Liturgy and lay liturgical experts.

In a nutshell, the members of the Catholic hierarchy saw the need for a new English translation of the Roman Missal because the one we have been using since soon after the Second Vatican Council are more translations of the thought behind rather than literal English renderings of the Latin texts.

This does not mean that the hierarchy is nitpicking, imposing on believers the use of an English version of a text in language considered dead. Rather it shows that our popes, the bishops and the rest of the hierarchy care to teach us to use words that elicit greater reverence for the Mass and highlight the content of our faith.

Further, in this era of what the pope calls the “dictatorship of relativism,” a translation of the words that we pray at Mass needs to be faithful to the original to be more effective in helping us elevate our lives to God.

Full story...


Filipinos: Best in business English
Editorial, The Manila Times
 
MANILA, April 28, 2012—Just as the heat wave has been making more and more Filipinos wish they were Germans, Canadians and Scandinavians, comes news to make us proud of ourselves, reminding us that we have many other things to be thankful to God for.

Our country tops the 2012 list of the world’s best in Business English proficiency.

Not only the best in the world. The Philippines is also the only country—out of 76 countries whose 108,000 workers in global companies were assessed through an online test by the GlobalEnglish Corporation—that scored above 7.0. Our score of 7.11 identifies our proficiency as that of a “BEI” or a Business English Intermediate level. GlobalEnglish says ours is a “BEI level within range of a high proficiency that indicates an ability to take an active role in business discussions and perform relatively complex tasks.”

The other countries in the top five and their scores in parenthesis are Norway (6.54), Estonia (6.45), Serbia (6.38) and Slovenia (6.19). None of them surpassed the 7.0 score to achieve the BEI level.

In the GlobalEnglish Corporation test and assessment a score between 4.0 and 7.0 indicates proficiency in Business English “below an intermediate level, indicating an inability to take an active role in business discussions or perform relatively complex tasks such as presentation development and customer or partner negotiations.”

Is this why the Philippines is supposed to have taken over India as the world’s primary hub for call centers and BPOs?

After the Philippines, Norway, Estonia, Serbia and Slovenia, the next high scorers are Australia, Malaysia, Indian. Lithuania. Singapore and Canada.

The 10 worst scorers are Armenia, the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire), Taiwan, Honduras, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Brazil.

Full story...


Why knowing many languages is good for Filipinos
By Benjamin Pimentel, Inquirer.net

SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 4, 2012—I grew up learning Tagalog at home. And while I was exposed early to English because of television, it was not until I was around five that I had to use it.

And I still remember the dread I felt when I started going to school and had to communicate with my teachers and other school staff in English.

One incident I’ve never forgotten: I had to go to the school clinic and was worried sick about having to swallow some pill but could only express that concern by muttering incoherently: ‘Do I – ah –inom gamot?’

But with more TV and more exposure to books in school, I eventually grew more comfortable with English, just like many other middle class Filipino kids who grew up in Manila in the 1970s.

In Manila and other major city centers, at least, it’s rare to find a Filipino who speaks only one language. Most people are bilingual. Many are even fortunate to be multilingual.

My father speaks Bicolano, and my mother Ilocano, in addition to their knowledge of English and Tagalog. My wife has Waray for a third language.

I have at different points in my life tried to add a third tongue to my arsenal.

Full story...


After Noynoying…boboing
By Marlen V. Ronquillo, The Manila Times  

MANILA, April 1, 2012—A few years back, this was our standing in the global university rankings. UP and Ateneo had permanent slots. Not very high on the list but decent enough. La Salle and UST popped in and out of the list. Our universities were not exactly Todai [University of Tokyo-Ed], but some were good enough and competitive enough.

On business schools, the AIM was ranked top-tier. There was no year that it was out of the top-ranked MBA schools in the Asian region . It was not INSEAD but there was no question that it was one of Asia’s best. It attracted a lot of bright young men and women from around Asia who wanted to move ahead in their private or public careers.

How are we ranked now? We are not ranked anymore by some of the prestigious entities that rank universities across all continents. The Philippines does not have a single university in the WUR List of the Top 400 universities for the current school year and the list was only released recently. We had none last year in the WUR ranking either.

The AIM is no longer on the Top Ten list of great Asian MBA schools. After years of flying high, the AIM seems to no longer care on where it stands in the regional ranking of top MBA schools. The brand AIM is no longer the sought-after school of ambitious management and finance people in the region.

And what has been the reaction to this recent harvest of shame?

The big-name in the academic community said they did not submit the papers required by the rankers, meaning, they took the option of not getting ranked. That was odd and unexpected behavior, really. In this country, a university that gets three passers in the accounting board exams out of hundreds of examinees, buys newspaper ads to announce the “feat(?).”

Full story...


Filipino creative writing in English
By Elmer A. Ordoñez, The Manila Times

MANILA, March 31, 2012—In 18th century England, literature meant all forms of writing to include philosophy, history, verse, narrative, essay and drama appreciated by literate audiences in a society marked by commerce and growing industrialization. From the emergent middle classes, who were excluded from the court literature of the aristocracy, evolved the novel as their own form of entertainment and edification within their “castles.”

The antecedent of the novel as home reading may well be King James I Bible and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress which were the best sellers of the 17th century—now overtaken by the 18th century novel.

With the advent of the Romantic Period, poets like Coleridge upheld the primacy of the “imagination” in literature, hence, imaginative or creative writing as now taught in the academe in the genres of poetry, fiction, and drama. The essay which covers many forms then and now was not included in the literary canon except for the familiar essay such as Charles Lamb’s and the famous essays of Samuel Johnson and satires of Jonathan Swift. Unless imbued with the elusive quality of “literariness” the discursive essays found in the journals and newspapers belonged to another category – journalism. Now we have all kinds of terms used – mass media, for one, reflecting current technologies developed in print, broadcasting, and cyberspace .

I hazard these pompous remarks as preface to what I call the alienation of the Filipino writers in English, particularly, those who write fiction, poetry, and drama. Who reads them? Only the few, the teachers and students of literature in the universities and colleges, and perhaps some of their alumni who have established themselves in mass media, advertising, business, and politics. Now there is this new kid in the block – “creative non-fiction” which when you look at it closely could mean autobiography/biography/essay.

Creative writers use their talents in winning cash prizes in literary contests, writing copy for advertising or political propaganda, ghost writing for politicians, publishing, or even morphing into business executives or captains of industry…

Full story...


The return of the mother tongue
By Randy David, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA,  March 15, 2012—Something is about to happen in Philippine education that may have a deep and enduring impact not only on the intellectual development of Filipino children but on their relationship with their communities as well. The Department of Education announced recently that from June this year, when the new school year opens, any of 12 major local languages spoken in different regions of the country will be taught as a subject and used as a medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3. This crucial shift, known as “Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education” (MTB-MLE), is part of the K+12 basic education reform program. The new scheme has yielded positive results in 921 schools across the country where it has been piloted.

The DepEd says: “Local and international studies have shown that using the language used at home (mother tongue) inside the classroom during the learners’ early years of schooling produces better and faster learners who can easily adapt to learn a second (Filipino) and third (English) language.” This is an insight that has long been documented by teachers at the University of the Philippines Integrated School. But it has taken a while for it to gain traction in an educational system that remains bonded to the English language.

The 12 mother tongues that will soon be harnessed for classroom use are Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, and Chabacano. The mother tongue of a given region will be employed in all learning areas, except in the teaching of Filipino and English subjects. Filipino will be introduced during the first semester of Grade 1 to develop oral fluency, while English will be offered as a subject in the second semester of Grade 1. I am not familiar with the specifics of the program, but I expect that provisions have been made for those schools in which most of the students come from migrant families whose mother tongue is different from that spoken in the region.

Full story...


Creative writing in academia
By Butch Dalisay, The Philippine Star

MANILA, March 19, 2012—Like I noted last week, I was in Chicago recently to give a report on creative writing programs in the Philippines, particularly in UP, before the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), the world’s oldest and largest such organization. The following figure boggles the mind, but more than 10,000 attendees — students, teachers, and professional and aspiring writers — signed up for this 20th annual conference, which tells you something about the enormous interest in creative writing within academia itself. I kept asking myself, where do all these people come from, and why do they all want to be writers? Of course, the same thing could have been asked of us, and I was there to provide some answers. Here’s part of what I said in our panel on “Internationalizing the MFA.”

As an academic discipline, creative writing is fairly new, compared to other branches of instruction in the arts, say painting or music, which have had a long and unquestioned tradition going back centuries. Schools of music and fine arts have proliferated around the world, the best of them attracting top-quality students in the same way that MBA programs have become de rigueur for talented and ambitious business professionals.

For writers, however, graduate programs and degrees have often been seen as a non-essential option, something that very good writers did not need to do, arising from the common impression that writing is largely self-taught, self-sustained, and does not need the supervision and guidance of a mentor. Even within departments of English and languages, where creative writing may have been taught as an elective subject and where CW programs remain subsumed, creative writing has suffered under the suspicion of being a frivolous, easier way to a diploma, in contrast to the presumably more honest labors of traditional research and criticism.

More recent theory and practice, however, have rescued creative writing from its seeming illegitimacy. Increasingly, universities have become aware of the value of artistic creativity, embodying creative writing into their offerings as a discipline on its own — in many cases, from the undergraduate to the doctoral level.

Full story...


Dimsum and the wisdom of the youth
By Ed Maranan, The Philippine Star

MANILA, March 19, 2012—For a Filipino teenager in the last year of high school or in any year of college, representing the country at the annual English-Speaking Union International Public Speaking Competition (IPSC) in London could be a life-changing opportunity.

In 2004, her winning the grand finals of the speechfest in the heartland of the English world, over a field of more than 60 articulate youngsters from as many countries, turned winsome, waif-like but debate-toughened Patricia Evangelista, all of 17, into an international celebrity—and a national idol—with her impressive speech entitled “Blonde and Blue-eyed,” a celebration of love of country with a novel twist. That must have been the most crucial five minutes (the time limit for the speeches) in her young life. The theme of the competition that year was “A Borderless World”.

Headed by Ambassador and Mrs. Edgardo Espiritu, our small Filipino delegation that accompanied Patricia to the grand finals was nearly just as nervous as the contestant, while the board of judges deliberated on what must be one of the toughest decisions to make in the world of competitions. The eight finalists represented different styles of delivery and creative approaches to the competition theme, all radiating confidence on the stage. But only one had to stand out. As the auditorium exploded in cheers and applause at the mention of Pat’s name as first-place winner and obvious audience favorite, the true-blue Filipino lass was tearfully calling her mom on her cell phone.

Our participation in the English-Speaking Union came quite late in our history as—I don’t know when this popular boast came to be born—“the third largest English-speaking country in the world,” so it was anomalous that until 2002, we were not a member of the English-Speaking Union headquartered in London. With a lot of help and spadework from our kababayan Loline Lualhati Reed, chairman for years of the prestige-laden Overseas Women’s Council in the UK and who held individual membership in the ESU, Ambassador Cesar Bautista initiated talks for our ESU membership. In no time at all, we produced a champion speaker.

Full story...


Pleasures of reading
By Ana Marie Pamintuan, The Philippine Star

MANILA, March 21, 2012—Many years ago, Yoly Crisanto bonded with her only son by reading books together. This was until the boy discovered online games, and Ragnarok triumphed over the printed word.

This was frustrating for Yoly, who told us yesterday that “reading books can help in our transformation.”

Yoly, Globe Telecom’s head of corporate communications, was therefore elated when she managed to revive her son’s interest in books in his teenage years. This was after a heart-to-heart talk, she told me, and, OK, perhaps it was forced by circumstances – certain books were required reading for her son in high school. Still, she was pleased to introduce her son to the works of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe.

Anyone reading books should also be good news for the founder of the country’s most successful bookstore chain. Socorro Ramos – “Nanay” to many – told me that last year, National Book Store started feeling the competition posed by e-books.

National still enjoys robust sales, with Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008), a young adult novel about a post-apocalyptic world, selling 75,000 copies within just three weeks of its release in the Philippines. Ramos received a plaque of appreciation from the publisher after the Philippines recorded the highest sales of the novel in Southeast Asia.

Ramos herself has read the novel and is looking forward to reading the next two in the trilogy, Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). The two novels are among a stack of about 10 books, by both Filipino and foreign authors, that Ramos has lined up for her reading.

Full story...


Young Blood: Disconnection notice
By Gabriela Victoria A. Timbancaya, Philippine Daily Inquirer

March 24, 2012—Until very recently, I have lived under a metaphorical rock.

It is with shame that I admit that I have not watched the news, international or otherwise, in months. I hardly read the papers anymore, not even the comics page. In fact, the first time I saw Gloria Arroyo in a neck brace last year, which was actually the first time I heard that she was not quite well, was on my news feed. There was a photo that was edited to show the former President decked out in a Naruto costume with a Konoha headband on her forehead. Before that, I had no inkling of the political drama that was unfolding in the national media. I was unaware of anything of national concern, for that matter.

It is with shame that I admit all these things because it is not as if I do not have access to television or newspapers. I have all this and the Internet at my disposal. I should be able to keep up with what is happening to the world around me, but for some reason I find it so difficult. There must be something wrong when you are oblivious to current events but can log in to Facebook with your eyes closed.

I was not raised to be like this. At home, my parents would regularly read the newspaper delivered to us on a subscription every day. Our meals together were almost always spent with the table facing the TV set, which was always tuned to a news channel. In high school, we had assignments in which we would take a news article and react to it. Where I study now, rallies are commonplace and almost everyone has a firm stand on whatever issue is hot. Having said all this, I cannot justify my ignorance and indifference.

Full story...


United Kingdom

Don’t talk garbage! ...or why American words are mangling our English
By Christopher Stevens, DailyMail.co.uk
 
May 30, 2012—The most delicate tool ever invented is the English language. It is endlessly rich, subtle, mellifluous and diverse — a vast mechanism built from 220,000 words, perfectly formed components that work together like jewelled cogs.

To wreck that mechanism deliberately — and to teach our children to do the same — would be worse than obscene. But that is what is happening.

A survey of 74,000 short stories written by British children has revealed that Americanisms are destroying traditional British words.

Like the grey squirrels that were introduced into the UK from the U.S. 130 years ago — and have almost wiped out our indigenous (and much lovelier) red squirrels — American words are infectious, destructive and virulent. And they are taking over.

A recent survey into children’s literacy found that American phrases have made their way into the English language American words are designed to be easy to use. They are simple to say and spell. They combine nouns and verbs, labels and instructions, so that they are convenient to pick up and apply. A country of immigrants, speaking a dissonant babel of Yiddish, Italian, Gaelic, Dutch, Norwegian, German, Polish and Russian, needed a common tongue.

Take sidewalk, for instance: it refers to that part of a road (the side) reserved for pedestrians (who walk). Two simple words are compounded to replace a third, pavement.

Full story...


Native English, alas, is degenerating into a global dialect
By Mary Dejevsky, Independent.co.uk

May 30, 2012—It is easy to believe that, as native English speakers, we have a stupendous advantage over those who have to learn the lingua franca of our age. But there’s a price to be paid for speaking the world’s most widely spoken language from birth, and it is that you are vastly outnumbered by those who speak it as a second (third, fourth or fifth) language. And while they bawl out their Eurovision songs, present their learned papers, or chatter away in their multi-national groups, you – the native speaker – are the odd one out. You can – mostly – understand them, but unless you adopt a measure of English bilingualism, they can find it nigh impossible to understand you.

Now I should start by apologising to all those who find that my efforts to communicate in a foreign tongue grate on their ear – at least I try. But I’m starting to find the ubiquity of a lowest-common denominator English a bit tiresome. A few years ago, one strain of it was branded Globish (English in 1,500 words), and – of course – it’s the possibility of reducing English to such basics that has made it so adept a means of communication. Increasingly, though, I find myself hankering for the sort of English which, say, makes the sequence of events clear by recognising a pluperfect tense, expresses diffidence or conditionality with the subjunctive, and inserts the correct tense after “since”.

Many professional linguists would doubtless say that there is no such thing as correct usage, only custom and practice, and they would add – with a gentle rap on my knuckles – that language changes, as all living things are wont to do. But it would just be so, well, relaxing to be able to include the occasional subordinate clause and use idiom and irony in public discourse from time to time without the risk of being misunderstood.

Full story...


Technology can sometimes be wasted on English language teaching
By Nik Peachey, Guardian Weekly

May 15, 2012—We are now 12 years into the new millennium and technology has become a prime element of almost all English language teaching (ELT) conferences and journals around the world. Yet, when we look for real improvements in student performance and effective use of technology by teachers, I think that the results are pretty disappointing.

I have spent the past 10 years doing technology-focused training work, materials writing and conference presentations and it still saddens me to see how much resistance and cynicism exists among teachers to the introduction of technology. But is it their fault? I don’t think so. Even as an enthusiastic and experienced trainer, I can see that once technology gets into schools, things start to go wrong.

Investment in technology has often been equated with investment in hardware. In many ways this is the easy fix: throw money at the challenges that technology integration poses. For example, education ministries around the world have been willing to invest in expensive interactive whiteboard (IWB) technology without really considering the benefits inside classrooms. Having made the investment, teachers are often left to sort out how to use IWBs in a pedagogically effective way, often with very little training or support. Meanwhile managers can wash their hands of the problem and report back that they have done their part in integrating technology.

The willingness of many schools to invest heavily in this hardware is rarely matched by a similar, and comparably smaller, financial commitment to provide adequate broadband connectivity to classrooms…

Full story...


Huh? US and British English to collide at Olympics
By Stephen Wilson, Sports Illustrated

LONDON, April 6, 2012 (AP)—The lorry driver taking kit to the football pitch was so knackered he pulled into the lay-by near the petrol station for a quick kip.

Huh?

For American readers, that translates as: The truck driver delivering uniforms to the soccer field was so tired he pulled into the rest area near the gas station for a nap.

As George Bernard Shaw once observed, England and America are two countries divided by a common language. That trans-Atlantic linguistic divide will be magnified by Olympic proportions this summer when an estimated 250,000 Americans come to town for the London Games.

Yes, the Internet, television, movies, global travel and business have blurred language differences, and many people in the U.S. and U.K. are familiar with those bizarre figures of speech from both sides of the pond.

Yet important differences remain, prompting this rough guide to just a few of the potential colloquial conundrums that await baffled American visitors to the old country. (A caveat: This is not a definitive, all-inclusive list and doesn't take into account different spelling, accents, Cockney rhyming slang or expletives!)

Full story...


The history of 7 bizarre English words
By David Crystal, HuffingtonPost.com

March 27, 2012—If you can tell the history of the world in 100 objects, as the British Museum’s Neil MacGregor did in 2010, then it ought to be possible to tell the history of a language in a similar number. But, as with objects, it isn’t enough for each word to be interesting in its own right. It has to tell a story. And each of these individual stories should add up to the history of the English language as a whole.

I needed principles on which to base my selection. The obvious one is chronological. The history of English is traditionally divided into periods: Old English, from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in 449 AD until the 11th century; Middle English from then until the 15th century; Early Modern English from then until the 18th century; and Modern English thereafter. It’s important to choose words that show the passage of time in this way, and give us a real insight into social history.

But, at any one time, English is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres, and dialects. In particular, the words we use when we speak aren’t the same as those we use when we write. Far more people speak a nonstandard variety of English than speak standard English, and their story must be told too. Nor must we neglect the commonest everyday words, such as slang, cant, and taboo words. There can’t be any pussy-footing, if you’re a serious linguist. The rude words are just as much a part of our linguistic history.

Professional words, such as those associated with the law, medicine, religion, and academia, provide another historical strand. Of the million+ words in English, three-quarters belong to the various domains of science and technology. And the global spread of English has to be represented. Around a third of the world’s population use English now, and one of the consequences has been the emergence of international dialects, each with its own local vocabulary. The process started when British and American English diverged, but it has continued since with many “new Englishes” in Australasia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Full story...


Let creativity into the language class
By Chaz Pugliese, Guardian Weekly

March 13, 2012—Creativity is not an optional extra for a language teacher, something off the wall to do on a Friday afternoon perhaps. Rather, creativity should be the teacher's best friend.

For too long English language teachers have worried about finding the best method, the quickest, most efficient way to teach languages. But this quest for a pedagogic holy grail, however noble, is destined to fail, and for many reasons, not least because there are far too many variables flying around.

There’s simply no best method. There can't be any top-down, one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach that does justice to the complexity of learning a language. I would like to suggest that far from being panacea, principled, creative methodology can go a long way towards making the practice of teaching a second language more effective, and certainly much more enjoyable for both learners and teachers.

So what do we mean by “creativity”? It is best defined as a cluster of skills to fashion a product or idea that is original and is culturally valued. In other words, according to researchers, for an idea or product to be considered "creative" it should be new and useful.

But say the word “creativity” and inevitably a few imposing figures come to mind: Leonardo da Vinci, Beethoven, Einstein, to name but three. These extraordinary individuals would certainly encompass the notion of creativity. However, the creativity I am referring to is the so-called c-type creativity, also known as the everyday type, as opposed to the C-type creativity of the geniuses mentioned above. The bad news is that this latter type cannot be learned. The good news is that the everyday type can be.

So why is creativity a necessity in the classroom? First off, because creativity is valued and appreciated by our students…

Full story...


Why is “literally” such a troublesome word?
By Vanessa Barford, BBC News Magazine

March 12, 2012—Nick Clegg says people who pay incredibly low rates of tax are “literally in a different galaxy,” highlighting what is arguably one of the most commonly misused words in the English language. But why is the word so troublesome?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in its strictest sense, literally means in a literal, exact, or actual sense.

Yet nowadays the idea of an album “literally flying off the shelves” and recipes “literally taking no time at all” barely raises an eyebrow in some quarters.

So is using “literally” in this manner wrong—or can one word be used in contradictory ways?

English language specialist Prof Clive Upton, from the University of Leeds, says the most “strait-laced” take on the word is its original sense, which is first recorded in 1429 in the Oxford English Dictionary.

But he says the colloquial use of word—which is used to indicate that some metaphorical or hyperbolical expression is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense—is well established.

“If you look at the Oxford English Dictionary, literally was first used in this sense in 1769. There are lots of examples since then, for instance Mark Twain used it in the Adventures Tom Sawyer in 1876 when he wrote ‘Tom was literally rolling in wealth’.”

Full story...


United States

US “plain English” activists combat “gobbledygook”
By Fabienne Faur, Agence France Presse 

WASHINGTON—Why not say “change” rather than “effect modifications”, or “publish” rather than “promulgate”, or “pay” instead of “remunerate”? So say plain speaking advocates fighting to end “gobbledygook”.

Winning such a battle “would benefit everyone,” said those gathered in Washington last week for a three-day conference aimed at banishing jargon from laws, application forms, public notices, and even user manuals for television sets.

The event was organized in the US capital by “Clarity”, a worldwide group of lawyers, top managers and heads of government services who argue for the use of plain language in place of legalese.

And it drew people from 20 countries, including Australia, France, Qatar, Estonia, and the Scandinavian nations.

“How can you have a democracy when the citizen does not understand what the government is saying,” said Annetta Cheek, board chair of the Center for Plain Language, at the event.
“It’s becoming a more and more common perception in all sectors, that they have to be more inclusive in their communication.”

The United States in 2010 adopted a law encouraging the simplification of administrative language.

The Swedish government, meanwhile, employs five lawyers to write its laws in simple language, and Portugal has introduced similar measures.

Full story...


Press 1 for English: Will America become a multilingual nation?
By Michael Snyder, RightSideNews.com 

May 27, 2012—The quickest way to divide people is to have them speak different languages.  America has always been a nation of immigrants, but one of the things that has always united us as a nation has been the English language.  In the past, it was always understood that if you wanted to thrive in the “land of opportunity” that you had better learn English and learn it well. 

Unfortunately, times have changed. Today, many radical activist groups are actually referring to the English language as a “tool of oppression” and are demanding that special accommodations be made for those that do not wish to learn the English language.  But what languages are we supposed to accommodate?  Overall, there are 325 different languages spoken at home in the United States today.  So which of those languages should receive special treatment?  How far are we really going to take all of this? 

Someday, instead of your telephone telling you to “press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish,” it may tell you to “press 323 for Italian, 324 for Arabic or 325 for English.” Yes, that is kind of a ridiculous example, but we really should examine where all of this is headed.  Is America destined to become a multilingual nation where we all struggle to understand one another?

This debate can become very heated.  The first thing that both sides should acknowledge is that everyone deserves to be loved and respected no matter where they are from and no matter what the color of their skin is.  If someone speaks English that does not make that person better than someone who speaks Spanish and vice versa.  Every single person on this planet is extremely valuable no matter where they come from and no matter what language they speak.

Full story...


Why the government can’t write in plain English
By Leon Neyfakh, BostonGlobe.com    

April 15, 2012—Over the past several days, Americans have been concluding a painful spring ritual, checking their math, signing their checks, and putting the finishing touches on their tax forms. Some of us will have spent weeks wincing at all the schedules and mysterious numbers, and doing our best to follow along as the instructions commanded us to “enter code type ‘7,’” “check box 32b,” and “see Form 6198,” like some kind of nightmarish choose-your-own-adventure.

Tax forms might be the most confusing documents some Americans have to face all year. But they’re bracingly simple compared to what lies behind them: the baroque federal regulations that describe how US tax code is supposed to work. Like so many of the innumerable “regs” enforced by our federal government — concerning everything from fuel efficiency standards to chicken farming to the number of hours an airline pilot is allowed to spend in the air — the IRS rules are a monument of bureaucratic language and jargon, virtually inaccessible to anyone without a law degree and vast stretches of time.

When we hear about federal regulation these days, it’s typically in the context of a partisan debate over whether there is too much of it or not enough. But to the side of this age-old shouting match is a group of people who believe that the most important question regarding the American regulatory system is not about quantity, but quality.

For them, regulations are the real voice of government, the way it most directly affects the lives of Americans. And so it matters how clearly these rules are written, they argue: When the IRS, the EPA, the FDA, and the CDC speak in incomprehensible gobbledygook, it amounts to a genuine threat to democracy. If it’s impossible for voters to understand what the government expects of them, how can they make informed decisions, let alone make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do?

These haters of bureaucratic jargon march under the banner of the plain language movement, and since the 1970s, they have been working to convince the government to embrace the virtue of clarity.

Full story...


Language Wars: AP Accepts Modern Usage of “Hopefully”
By 500words’s Blog, Salon.com

April 18, 2012—I’ve long been a language descriptivist. I love the fluidity of the English language, how, like a river, it cuts its path around obstacles, sometimes doubles back on itself, occasionally floods over its banks (in literary terms, this would be the writing of Faulkner), and occasionally recedes down to a trickle (Hemingway or your average 15-year-old texter) and gets its strength from tributaries of other languages, like French and Latin. Living in a city with a large Spanish-as-a-first–language population, I know English to be constantly moving and changing and evolving at the behest of its speakers.

So I was pleased to read today that the modern usage of “hopefully” has been accepted by the AP Stylebook. I was even more delighted that, after telling the American Copy Editors Society (pausing to note that ACES does not close up copy editor, although I do: copyeditor), it released the news on Twitter. I’ve become a huge fan of Twitter.  People who complain that Twitter is nothing but meaningless drivel and inconsequential musings by the morally and intellectually shallow are not following the right Tweeters.  (In addition to following the AP Stylebook (@apstylebook), I also follow Fake AP Stylebook (@FakeAPStylebook)—so I get the facts and the fun.)

“Hopefully,” the AP Stylebook tweet reads, “you will appreciate this style update announced at #aces2012. We now support the modern usage of hopefully: it’s hoped, we hope.”

“AP Stylebook seeks to destroy American way of life by accepting ‘hopefully,’” trumpets a blog headline at MNDaily.com.

The linguistic wars are alive and well among language nerds. Those like me, who are more relaxed about the way the language is changing, vs. those who prefer a solid foundation of rules that they can use to verbally smack children and tiresome dinner partners.  The exhilaration of the brawl reminds me of an old English-major joke:

Full story...


Learn a language for business or pleasure
By Manya Chylinski, Boston.com (Blog)

If you grew up speaking English, chances are you’re not fluent in a second language, especially if you grew up in the United States. To experience more of the world—for business or pleasure—a second language really comes in handy. The best way to learn a language is to start speaking it right away, no matter how little of it you know.

The world around us does not all speak English. There are over 170 languages in the world with more than 3 million first-language speakers. If you like to travel or want to conduct business in the non-English speaking world (even right here in Boston), now is the time to get started.
It isn’t as hard to become fluent as memories of high school French or Spanish homework would have you believe. There are many people (including Benny the Irish Polyglot whose philosophy I am following) who believe that the best way to become fluent is to immerse yourself in and start speaking the language immediately. That’s how I’m learning Polish. (Full disclosure: I’ve been studying Polish about two months and am not yet fluent.)

For my purposes, fluency is the ability to give a presentation or hold a conversation about a topic that interests you in your target language, and understand the other participants when they speak to you or ask questions. This is not fluency designed to help pass an exam or meet other specific requirements, though it could lead to that.

Immersion is the key to learning a language rapidly. Think about it. If you did not know a single word of Chinese, but suddenly found yourself spending several months in a small city in China with no English speakers, you would learn to speak Chinese.

Immersion is how children learn their first language. But adults have an advantage over children: experience in the world, which puts words and their meaning in context. So, shopping for food in that city in China isn’t all that different from shopping for food here.

Full story...


The Stone Forum: Arguing About Language
By Gary Gutting, The New York Times (Blogs)

April 15, 2012—Today I’m going to hopefully beg a question which will incentivize the reader to share their views.  Yes, I’m writing about English grammar and usage.

Debates about linguistic norms typically set traditionalists against revisionists. The two sides are particularly entrenched because each is rooted in a fundamental truth: the traditionalists are right that the rules are the rules (for instance, pronouns do need to agree in number with their referents), and the revisionists are right that language does change over time (nouns can come to be used as verbs).

There will always be a tension between sticking to and violating linguistic rules.
The two fundamental truths are reconcilable because language is both our creation and our master.   We humans invented and continue to reinvent our language to meet various needs, but language can serve these needs only if, at any given time, we conform to most of what has been already devised.  Therefore, although we as an evolving species make language, it is also imposed on each of us individually.  There’s a sense in which we speak language and a sense in which, in Mallarmé’s famous phrase, “language itself speaks.”

As a result, there will always be a tension between sticking to and violating linguistic rules.  We can, however, often fruitfully discuss emerging linguistic innovations if we keep in mind three main goals of language use: effective communication, pleasing expression and moral solidarity.

Language is, first of all, a tool for saying as well as possible what we intend to say.  For this purpose, it makes sense to avail ourselves of all the resources offered by our language at a given time.  Traditionalists are on their strongest ground when they are defending against changes that deprive us of useful linguistic tools… 

Full story...


Life-long love affair with English language begins
By Mary Cook, EMC Lifestyle
 
April 12, 2012—Mother said it was a day to remember. Father said it was a day Mother took leave of her senses, and he threw in “a fool and her money are soon parted” as well. It was a phrase he used often. Like the day Mother spent a whole quarter on a long distance phone call to her friend in New York, when a three cent stamp would have done just as well!

The excitement started long before that special day, however. It all began when Mother decided what our family needed was a big dictionary. Just like the one that sat on the corner of Miss Crosby’s desk with the bible.

Mother had a continuing love affair with the English language, and she thought every new word we could learn would be like as she called it “a jewel in our crown.” I was never able to figure that one out. Even my older sister Audrey wasn’t sure exactly what Mother meant either, although she was reasonably sure every new word would have a lot to do with whatever success we would reach when we were all grown up.

At any rate Mother decided what our family needed was a big black Webster Dictionary. There was an ad in the Philadelphia Enquirer, and it would cost next to nothing, and be shipped free any place in the world. And so it was up to every one of us, she said, to get the money. Father said we weren’t to count on him. What earthly good was a dictionary when your main concern was getting the wheat planted, the cows fed, the milking done, and any other number of farm chores?

His argument was lost on Mother and we five kids. That night there was no sitting around the kitchen table leafing through Eaton's catalogue. The boys whittling would have to wait. The job that night was to see how much money we could all come up with.

Full story...


The pros and cons of cyber-English
By David Gelernter, The Wall Street Journal

March 25, 2012—Social networking, texting, email and digital messages have borrowed the keys to the English language and are joy-riding all over the landscape, smashing body panels and junking up the fancy interior. Many thoughtful people are worried. But it’s good for English to get shaken up occasionally—by people who are using it in new ways, not by academics ordaining from on high.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, email saved the personal letter from extinction by moving it online. Email-writers have leaned heavily for decades on abbreviations, which suit this quick-and-casual medium. Thus the celebrated “lol,” “laughing out loud,” and many others.

When the young members of Generation-i use their phones to send text messages, the small keyboards make typing awkward and abbreviations even more important: “b4n” (bye for now), “cu” (see you). Texters, social-network posters and emailers are all prone to write (as their messages go zipping and hurtling back and forth) in sharp-edged shards and slivers of language.

Abbreviations and fragments are a language’s normal response to stress. Medieval language is dense with abbreviations, because writing material was expensive and books could be published only by copying. Today the stresses are different but the response is familiar.

When you are forced to compress your message into fewer words, each word works harder, carries more meaning on its shoulders and, accordingly, becomes more important and interesting. Digital English is no good for poetry or novels, but on balance it’s refreshing.

Smiley-faces are another story. Painfully cute hieroglyphics (happy-face, sad-face) have littered email for years; they are the empty beer bottles in the literary flower garden…

Full story...


Online jargon doesn’t harm the English language
The Utah Statesman

March 26, 2012—We’ve created a new language through social media. Language used when sending instantaneous messages and posts on Pinterest or Twitter shouldn’t need to read the same way an essay does. However, for those who are adamantly against shortened words and sentences without periods, we respect your need to be grammatically correct at all times.
This idea was brought to our attention by an Idaho professor who visited campus last week and said social media are ruining the English language, but what is the English language? Since its beginning, the English language has been transforming constantly — new words are added and new rules developed to contain the chaos that is English. Too many objects and ideas needed names, and it seems the word-inventors ran out of ideas, which is why we have words like “to” and “too.” But why did we need the word “too” in the first place when the word “also” exists? Beats us.

At what point does a language become ruined? We believe that many elderly people would agree the English language was ruined with the invention of rap music. It’s all relative, really. A problem does exist when a social media user fails to capitalize sentences in employment cover letters due to poor tweeting habits. People can’t be that daft, can they? We prefer to think optimistically about our generation.

The English language is not a part of our culture capable of being ruined — it’s been around for centuries and will be here for centuries to come. Anyone who cares enough to be an educated member of society will be forced into English classes in high school and college. Hopefully, they will listen during these classes and realize that being able to use proper English, and explain one’s ideas and feelings with these skills, is the only road to take if you want anyone to take you seriously.

Full story...


English not just for those whom use it right
By Bart Mills, LimaOhio.com

LIMA, Ohio, March 22, 2012—As a semiprofessional slinger of syllables, it is sometimes assumed that I possess some level of expertise in English language usage. Such assumptions are typically made by persons unfamiliar with this writer. However, one could say said persons are correct in their assumptions.

That last bunch of sentences (or “paragraph”) was a perfect example of the sort of high-falutin’ English using I’m capable of. The bit with the “said persons” and using “one” instead of “you” is right out of the textbooks. And the stuff where I refer to myself as “this writer,” that's just classic.

Lest you (or, “one”) assume I am tossing all this fancy usage stuff around just to show off, assume again. While one might hope that such exemplar usage would serve to improve one’s standing among the occasionally antagonistic retired teacher set — or, as I like to refer to them, Whom-Mongers — it is by no means my primary purpose. My goal is merely to illustrate my capacity for fancy language stuff so as to better make my case against said fancy language.

Or, in English, I know the rules so I can darn well break them if I choose.

If this little tirade sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve written similar tirades before. I figure about once every three or four years, some retired English teacher will ring me up, driven mad by my colloquial abuse of the prepositional noun or the like, and I'll feel the need to publicly defend my own, unique use (or abuse) of style.

Not that all Whom-Mongers are retired teachers. There are also Whom-Monger lawyers, doctors and video store clerks. Generally, Whom-Mongers are a loosely knit group bound by their reverence for the language, their insistence on fitting the word “whom” into polite conversation and, more often then not, unused undergraduate degrees in English Lit.

Full story...


Hey, it’s your language
By John E. McIntyre, The Baltimore Sun 

BALTIMORE, March 21, 2012—Janet Byron Anderson (@janetbyronander) tweeted this morning, “Tell someone you’re a linguist and they say, ‘Oops! Better watch my language’. Please don’t watch it. We value your syllables.” English majors and copy editors, when they are incautious enough to identify themselves in public, get the same half-embarrassed, half-defiant response.

Really, you should talk as you like. That’s your right. Sweet land of liberty.

No effort to establish an English Academy has ever gotten anywhere, and all such efforts amount to nothing more than magnets for cranks. There are various pieces of legislation, enacted and proposed, to make English the official language of some jurisdiction or another, but they do not and cannot specify what kind of English is acceptable, and would be unenforceable if they attempted to.

The peevers who write about language operate under an assumption that written English is superior to spoken English, is more correct than spoken English, and that the dialect called standard written English should be the way people both write and speak. Codswallop.*

Nothing is more democratic than English. It is what its speakers and writers collectively make of it over time, and that includes you.

Now, as with the exercise of any liberty, there are social constraints, as there are, say, with dress. A woman who chooses to wear those low-riding jeans that display buttock cleavage may have some difficulty being treated as a professional in the workplace, as might man with a mullet. In school or on the job or in social circumstances, you will encounter conventions that you will be expected to observe.

And in writing, of course, you will be expected to observe whatever conventions are appropriate for audience, occasion, and publication. 

Full story...


India

Making fun of English
By Rrishi Raote, Business-Standard.com

NEW DELHI, July 28, 2012—Will you believe me if I say that I watch Nigella Lawson’s TV cookery programmes for the language content rather than the hostess’s admirable chest and habit of licking her fingers? Or that I watch BBC’s Top Gear for its hosts’ English rather than the expensive cars and tire smoke?

No? I didn’t think so. Well, both statements are at least partly true. Because I have also paid attention to the important things, I can tell you the ingredients of most of Nigella’s dishes. They are: butter, flour, cheese, chocolate, sugar, cream, biscuit crumbs, chorizo sausage, sherry and... things like that. I have also paid attention to the cars on Top Gear: for instance, the Bentley with an engine taken from a Second World War Spitfire fighter plane, and any number of Aston Martins, Bugattis, Lamborghinis, Ferraris and other powerful creations.

But I’d venture a guess and say that nobody would have paid either of these shows as much attention if they didn’t also offer some entertainment to the language centres of the human brain. Sure, both shows are good to look at, and neither is apologetic about its appreciation for things fattening or bad for the environment. Along with these lowbrow reasons, however, is the fact that hearing language used in new ways in otherwise familiar settings (kitchens, cars) produces a good feeling, a feeling that here is something that I didn’t know, that I can use. Perhaps you are in the habit of inventing apparently silly new phrases to express your state of mind, like “I feel coffee-esque, let’s go have a cup” — well, thanks to these Englishmen and women on TV you will learn that this can be a legitimate and even respectable use of language. Then you can set off to explore this new aesthetic…

Full story...


Miscommunication will end when English and other languages coalesce
India Times.com

July 27, 2012—Circa 2512 will there still be as many major languages and countless smaller ones or will everyone communicate and converse—not always synonymous activities—in a blended, universal lingua franca?

If the latter is what we are headed for, Indians should not be disheartened by this week’s revelation that over half of 55,000 engineers tested for proficiency in English, currently regarded as the language of science and commerce, are not conversant with common words used in the workplace and 25% did not even have school-level fluency.

Our engineers, after all, should not be the only ones named and shamed for their inarticulation; there is plenty of evidence that scarcely a category or profession in India does not fall short of its presumed fluency in English.

In their defence, however, it could be said that as long as they continue to understand each other in English dialects such as Officialish, Bizlish, Techlish, Legalish, Medlish, Socialish and Journolish, not to mention Hinglish, Benglish, Punjlish, Tamlish and more, it does not really matter what the purists think.

It does take a while for speakers of one dialect to talk to those using others, but they manage to do so eventually. At least they are better off talking in variants of English than if they had to parley in, say, Mandarin.

Full story...


Language exodus reshapes India’s schools
By Maseeh Rahman, Guardian Weekly

NEW DELHI, May 15, 2012—Dinesh Mandal, an illiterate villager from Bihar, came to India's capital city nearly three decades ago with a dream – to make sure that, unlike him, his son Umesh would get a proper education.

To make that possible, Mandal took up work in a home in the heart of Delhi, in an area built by the colonial British and popularly known after its chief planner and architect Edwin Lutyens. Lutyens’s Delhi not only has extensive quarters for household staff attached to its sprawling government bungalows; it also provides schools where the families of the poor working for top politicians and officials can get their children educated.

But Mandal’s dream has remained unfulfilled. His son Umesh failed to graduate from his local school, where he was taught in Hindi, one of India’s official languages. Though he finds work intermittently, he is at present unemployed. As a result, he has moved to a satellite settlement 50km away.

Mandal, though, hasn’t given up on wanting to educate his progeny – only the language has changed. He has kept back his three grandchildren – a boy and two girls – with him in his one-room tenement, and is now convinced that educating them in a school with English as the medium of instruction will emancipate his family.

“If my son Umesh had studied in an English-medium school, our life would’ve been different today,” said Mandal. “Now my grandson is doing that, and I’m doing all I can to ensure my two granddaughters also get admitted to an English-medium school.”

Full story...


Vietnamese would certainly be more at ease learning English from Indians
IndiaTimes.com

April 3, 2012—India’s handling of the language bequeathed by its former colonial master has been remarkably carefree. Far from being in awe of its supposed superiority and international appeal, we Indians have moulded it to our own needs, and often our grammar and pronunciation too. It has served us well.

Indeed, it could be why Vietnam has asked us to help teach them English instead of, say, people from a certain western nation that also has its own distinct version of the language.

While English is given an exalted status reluctantly by our political class no matter how much the average Indian covets fluency in it, the former French colony’s admiration for English is apparent, often amusingly so.

The latest child celebrity in Vietnam is not a singing star or mathematical genius or even the inventor of a circular chessboard for six players like Jaipur’s nine-year-old Hridayeshwar Bhati but Do Nhat Nam, who at 11 is basking in the glory of his bilingual autobiographical bestseller, How Did I Learn English?

Judging from average usage and articulation, very few Indians of similar age or at least of recent vintage would be able to assert a similar degree of absolute proficiency in English, particularly after just three years of instruction in the language like the Vietnamese boy.

Full story...


Afghanistan

Pakistanis thriving in Afghan market
By Ahmad Fraz Khan, The Dawn
 
KABUL, July 5, 2011—With the Americans and their subsidiary companies – construction, supplies, telecom etc. – now running the show, Afghanistan has emerged as another labor market for the Pakistanis.

Security in Afghanistan is precarious and even Kabul wears the look of a war zone. The Afghan officials waste no opportunity to show their dislike, even hatred, for anything Pakistani. Yet underneath the political tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the market appears to define and rule the relationship between Pakistani labor and their employers in Afghanistan. There are, according to unofficial estimates, over 70,000 Pakistanis working in different sectors – hotels, telecom and banking – and some are even running printing presses.

According to the Pakistanis working in and around Kabul, two factors – dollarization of the Afghan economy and prevalence of English language – have opened the Afghan market to labor from Pakistan.

The Americans, one way or the other, are pumping over $100 billion into Afghanistan. “Even if three to four per cent of this money trickles down to a common man, it is more than enough to lift his economy,” says Haris Ali, country head of Aircom International in Afghanistan. Artificially pegged to dollar, the Afghani has improved to 45 Afghanis to a dollar; meaning that an Afghani is almost worth two Pakistani rupees. This exchange rate, though artificial as per economists’ claims, has become major attraction for the Pakistani labor, he concludes.

Full story...


Zambia

A red card for “foul” language
By Percy Zvomuya, Mail&Guardian (Zambia)

October 28, 21011—In a classic essay, Politics and the English Language, writer George Orwell railed against bad English, imprecise ­diction and “general abuse of language.”

“Modern English, especially ­written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble,” Orwell wrote.

One cannot say the same about the Frenchman Arsene Wenger’s use of the English language. The fact that he's from Alsace—a a region that has, over the centuries, moved borders between France and Germany—must surely help.

Wenger, Arsenal’s manager, has conjured up new words, phrases, sayings—Arsenisms—that didn’t exist until he set foot in England. This was in a game afflicted with clichés and dull expressions.

Football has everything that Orwell railed against. Talk about dying and worn out metaphors, the game boasts plenty.

Some common football stock phrases such as “ring the changes” and “swan song” were even used as examples by Orwell in his famous essay.

How many times have we heard of a “coach ringing the changes”? Or, before a match between a big club and a smaller one, a player saying, “there are no easy games”? Or the game being a “game of two halves”?

Full story...


China

In battle to save Chinese, it’s test vs. test
By Brittany Hite, WallStreetJournal.com (blog)

September 29, 2011—Chinese students’ obsession with learning English is apparent. Chinese cities are littered with billboards and fliers for teaching institutes, and the demand for native-speaking teachers and tutors seems endless. For many, the TOEFL, or Test of English as a Foreign Language, ranks second only to the infamous gaokao college entrance exam as a driver of candle-burning study habits.

Worried that this preoccupation with English is contributing to a decline in native language skills, officials at the Ministry of Education are now trying to get students to return to their linguistic roots. How? By introducing another test.

The newly developed native-speaker Chinese exam measures listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and is meant to promote Chinese people’s “interest and ability in their own language,” Xinhua reports.

The National Education Examinations Authority, a body affiliated with the Ministry of Education, said it will promote the test to job seekers and college applicants before it is introduced nationally. It will be launched on a pilot basis in October in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Yunnan and Inner Mongolia, according to the Shenzhen Daily.

Despite the existence of dozens of local dialects, written Chinese is essentially the same across the country. The speaking portion of the new test will measure proficiency in Mandarin, often described as “standard Chinese” (putonghua).

Full story...


Japan

Rakuten’s English drive
Editorial, Japan Times

July 8, 2012—E-commerce giant Rakuten kicked its English policy into high gear last week, as English became the official language for the Japan-based company. Founder, chairman and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has promoted, or rather “forced,” English to become the company’s official language.

Though Rakuten is already the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world’s top 10 Internet companies, Mr. Mikitani knows that English is an essential component of the company’s future. To expand overseas with acquisitions, joint ventures and multilingual sales, Mr. Mikitani has pushed what the company calls “Englishnization,” a policy designed not only to make the company more smoothly operational in the global marketplace, but also to encourage employees to think within an international framework.

No matter that “Englishnization” is not a real word; the idea is a good one. Whatever changes a company doing business internationally will go through in the future, employees will need to work in more than one language.

Rakuten has invested in English lessons, time off to study and a system of both rewards and demotions to push its English policy. That tough approach to learning will be helpful in the real world of international business, where, to be competitive, employees need to be able to work directly in English — not rely on translators, dictionaries or a few English-speaking specialists.

A proactive English policy is a clearsighted and practical step toward a better workforce. Forcing employees to be competent in English means that employees can communicate comfortably and fulfill all their work requirements in English. Japan needs more employees who can engage in productive activity without hesitation or nervousness because of weak English-communication skills.

Full story...


English fluency and alligator pits
By AMY CHAVEZ, Japan Times

May 5, 2012—When I used to teach English at university, I was sure to leave an impression on my students on their first day of class. I’d tell them that as Japanese speakers, they could only speak with a mere 130 million people. But if they could learn English, they would be able to communicate with 500 million to 1 billion people. This is why you need to learn English, I told them. Heads invariably nodded, and students turned to each other and exclaimed “naruhodo!” (Indeed!). I had caught their attention.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The average person could never communicate with 130 million people, let alone 1 billion. Most people have meaningful interaction with only a few hundred. Perhaps thousands in an entire lifetime. You may reach millions via media such as TV or Twitter, but if one-way communication is all you’re after, you could get a translator to do that for you. Even Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara had people translating their message throughout the world via the media.

But one thing I learned as a teacher was that students were only as good as I expected them to be. If I expected them to do nothing, they would do nothing. Expect them to scale Mount Everest, however, and they would try, even with no specialized climbing skills. And they would get frostbite trying.

So it’s no surprise that I wake up sweating some nights. The nightmare is always the same: an irate student, forcing her twisted frostbitten fingers into a fist, and holding it to my face while screaming, “You promised me a bright future if I learned English! You said learning English would help my employability and that I'd gain an international perspective! You and your haughty institution lured me to your school with glossy brochures showing Japanese students sharing conversations with beautiful blue-eyed foreigners, suggesting that their beauty and worldliness would rub off on me, or that at least I'd get a date with one of them…”

Full story...


Speaking English: What’s to be afraid of?
By Mike Guest, The Daily Yomiuri

March 26, 2012—It’s the mid-1990s. I am relatively new to Japan, sitting next to Yukari on the train. Yukari is a colleague and friend but we fall silent, tired at the end of the work day. Other passengers don’t know that we are acquaintances. The seat on the other side of me remains conspicuously empty, even as the carriage begins to fill up elsewhere.

I decide to pop the question when we alight. “So why doesn’t anyone want to sit next to me?” I ask her. I can understand that passengers might be hesitant to sit next to someone who looks threatening, unstable or slovenly, but I am well-groomed and wearing my teacher clothes. I hardly look menacing, nor am I prone to big, bold, extroverted gestures. I look as mild as any passenger on the train. I’m not sweaty nor do I have gyoza breath.

“They’re probably afraid that you’re going to ask them something in English,” comes Yukari’s response. “And they don’t have confidence in their English.” This really baffles me. Why assume that I will ask them something? If I was staring at a map and looking around inquisitively that assumption might be warranted but I was being as self-absorbed as any local.

Anyway, why assume that if I did ask something, I would do so in English? This was the outskirts of Kansai, not Roppongi or Ginza. And even if I did ask in English, so what? If the local couldn’t help me all that would be needed would be to say, “Sorry, I can’t speak English,” even if rendered in Japanese. Not sitting next to me to avoid improbable scenarios of no real consequence seemed like an overreaction.

Full story...


Canada

There are deeper issues beneath Canada’s language flare-ups
By Celine Cooper, The Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL, July 24, 2012—Language has always played a central role in the organization of Canadian society. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Montreal, a city where historical battles for territory and resources between two competing colonial powers – English and French – continue to dominate our public debate on a daily basis. This is why the ongoing conversation about language and the Société de transport de Montréal is such an interesting one.

As we go about our everyday lives in the city, we do all kinds of mundane things. Ordering a cup of coffee, making a doctor’s appointment, sending an email at work, speaking to a salesperson at a retail store or buying a subway ticket probably don’t seem all that consequential at the moment we do them. But daily life is made up of small moments like these, and knitting them together helps us to understand how language helps construct the social relations that shape how lives are lived in Montreal.

Two recent events have sparked debate in the pages of The Gazette. Vaudreuil-Dorion resident Michael Dunning was alleged to have been mocked as a “maudit anglais” and told by two STM ticket agents at the Atwater station that “we don’t serve English people.” A few weeks earlier, Montreal Impact soccer player Miguel Montano claimed that he had been refused service at an STM ticket counter for not speaking French. He sent out a tweet in Spanish that translated to “They are so racist in Montreal.” (Perhaps not insignificantly, the Impact has lent Montano to a Colombian club until the end of 2012, as The Gazette’s Max Harrold reported last week. I have no idea if there is any link between Montano’s run-in with the STM and the Impact’s decision to send him out of Montreal, but these things are always worth asking questions about.)

Why does it matter so much, and to whom, whether the exchange in which one buys a subway ticket in Montreal is carried out in French or English?

Full story...


Montreal English: Borrowings, but not a dialect
By Peggy Curran, The Gazette

MONTREAL, July 20, 2012—A funny thing happened when Shana Poplack decided to count the number of French words native English-speakers in Montreal and Quebec City used in ordinary conversations about their lives in la belle province.

Even among the 10 per cent of young people most likely to toss French words into the mix, non-standard English accounted for 0.23 per cent of the words in their interviews.

It was, ironically, a story on language published in The Gazette that got Poplack, a sociolinguist at the University of Ottawa, wondering whether Montreal anglophones really did speak “an English like no other.”

In 1999, Alex Norris, a Gazette reporter who would grow up to become a city councillor with Project Montreal, wrote an award-winning series looking at the new Quebec anglo, those children of Bill 101. In one of his pieces, Norris suggested that contact between the city’s majority and minority languages was transforming Montreal English into a new dialect.

Poplack, who had spent time analyzing the impact of English on the French spoken on the Ottawa-Hull region, decided to see whether those claims stood up to scientific scrutiny. “It is much easier to say something based on perceptions than it is to do the hard, scientific legwork to prove or disprove it,” she said. “The only way to do it is by analyzing all the foreign words and all the other words that were used.”

Full story...


Furor over ‘hi’ describes another low point in Quebec’s language wars
By Don Macpherson, Postmedia News

June 4, 2012—The language critic of the Parti Quebecois is “very worried” about the latest sign that Montreal is being overrun by English.

The head of the government’s language watchdog agency, the Office Quebecois de la langue française, sees it as at least a possible “irritant.”

And the minister of culture in the Liberal government is “concerned.”

So what is the problem against which these people have united?

“Hi.”

That’s it. That’s the problem — that informal little English word “Hi,” when it’s used to greet customers in downtown Montreal businesses.

And not even when it’s used instead of “Bonjour.”

No, the people who are in charge of Quebec’s language policy, or might soon be, are concerned even when it’s used in addition to “Bonjour,” as in “Bonjour/hi.”

That’s the greeting that, in Montreal’s unique linguistic etiquette, is intended to let the customer know that he or she can be served in either French or English.

Full story...


Furor over ‘hi’ describes another low point in Quebec’s language wars
By Don Macpherson, Postmedia News

June 4, 2012—The language critic of the Parti Quebecois is “very worried” about the latest sign that Montreal is being overrun by English.

The head of the government’s language watchdog agency, the Office Quebecois de la langue française, sees it as at least a possible “irritant.”

And the minister of culture in the Liberal government is “concerned.”

So what is the problem against which these people have united?

“Hi.”

That’s it. That’s the problem — that informal little English word “Hi,” when it’s used to greet customers in downtown Montreal businesses.

And not even when it’s used instead of “Bonjour.”

No, the people who are in charge of Quebec’s language policy, or might soon be, are concerned even when it’s used in addition to “Bonjour,” as in “Bonjour/hi.”

That’s the greeting that, in Montreal’s unique linguistic etiquette, is intended to let the customer know that he or she can be served in either French or English.

Full story...


Let’s make better use of the English language
By David Bly, Times Colonist
 
MARCH 25, 2012—In his recent exhortation to University of Victoria students, suppose Justin Trudeau had shouted, “For Mohammed’s sake, vote!”

Or, “For Ganesh’s sake—” or “For Buddha’s sake—”

That would likely have created an uproar in multicultural Canada, and rightly so, for we believe in tolerance and respect for all cultures and beliefs, and such remarks would be considered bigoted and insensitive.

Trudeau himself would likely condemn such behaviour.

Yet his remark, “For Christ’s sake, vote,” is offensive to many people for whom Jesus Christ is the centre of their faith. He meant no offence, and that it wasn’t offensive to his audience is quite clear - his remark was greeted with applause and laughter, but some who read about it were offended.

Profanity creates a dilemma for newspapers - do you include cuss words in a quote or do you leave them out? Newspapers in this country generally follow Canadian Press style in that regard, and it suggests a careful approach, advising the printing of potentially offensive words only if they are deemed an essential part of the story. Sometimes, a questionable word is replaced with its first letter and dashes.

In coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in Duncan, one participant’s presentation was reported this way:

“This is my statement to Canada. Saying they didn’t know is a bunch of bull—.”

Full story...


A survey that sets up Quebec anglos to fail the integration test
By Jack Jedwab, The Montreal Gazzette
 
QUEBEC, March 23, 2012—One might have hoped that the considerable rise in knowledge and use of the French language among a generation of Quebec anglophones would have reduced insecurities about the French language.

Not so. In effect, the language laws failed to make anglophones sufficiently sympathetic to the plight of French and to get them to help make it the province’s common public language – or at least that appears to be the verdict of L’Actualité columnist Jean-François Lisée in his cover story for the current edition of the magazine (April 15, 2012), entitled “Ici, on parle English: Quel avenir pour le français a Montréal?”

Lisée implies that to be integrated into Quebec society it is not enough to respect the Charter of the French Language; one also has to promote its objectives.

To do so, he argues, anglophones must acknowledge the purportedly dire situation of the French language on the island of Montreal – to which, by the way, their use of English contributes.

A survey in January of 750 Quebec anglophones by the polling firm CROP for L’Actualité provides support for the notion of anglophones’ lack of concern about the health of French.

The survey found that 54 per cent of anglophones agreed with the statement that “given the power of globalization and of the English language, it is only a question of time before most work in Montreal will be done in English.” But the answer appears to have been built into the question.

Paradoxically, in another survey question, 65 per cent of anglophones disagreed with the statement “I hope that French remains the primary language in Quebec, but I think it’s a losing battle.”

Full story...


New Zealand

English in its most hideous form
By Gen Why?, The Daily Post

September 25, 2011—You know the situation. You’re on the bus or in the supermarket line, trying your best to fit into the general milieu when a couple of fabulously exotic descent sidle up beside you and begin to talk in hushed, foreign tones.

The words are a blur, but the tone is unmistakable. Those flowing, rich expressions with too much phlegm and not enough vowels are definitely, unnervingly, about you. It doesn’t sound good. Chins lower, eyebrows raise, and stifled giggles ensue. It is impossible to tell the theme of the conversation exactly but as you stare at them vacantly, you’re positive you can decipher the words “philistine numbskull” ... positive. Unfortunately, ridicule is transnational.

Like many of my Kiwi counterparts, I am hopelessly monolingual. My intercultural success begins and ends with occasionally being able to convince people I’m from Belfast on St. Patrick’s Day. This usually succeeds only with people who are too drunk to hear. But it’s not for lack of trying. Over the last 20 years I have dabbled with several languages in the hope of becoming urbane and sophisticated.

The journey started in Year 7, where I flung myself passionately into Mandarin because everything else was full. From a 12-year-old’s perspective, my two-year affair with the language was a success. Whether it was due to academic devotion or the fortnightly trip to the West End Chinese Smorgasbord is still a matter of debate.

Yet as much as I delighted in the joy of oriental cuisine it also took me years to comprehend that chicken nuggets weren’t, in fact, part of customary Eastern cooking…

Full story...


United Arab Emirates

A toast to public speaking
By Praseeda Nair, Khaleej Times Online

DUBAI, July 3, 2011—The two most frightening words in the English language for most high school students are public speaking, or so it seems from the sheer number of young people clamouring to join speech-heavy extracurricular activities, ranging from debate to Toastmasters clubs.

As a global communication and leadership training programme, Toastmasters International has over 260,000 members in over 80 countries across the world. Each region is divided into a numbered district and area, allowing for inter-club competitions and sessions to take place within a certain locale.

The latest addition to Area 40 in Dubai is the youth-based club, The Republic Toastmasters Club, headed by a former Gavel club member (an under-18 Toastmaster-affiliated programme), Anamta Farook.

“The common misconception people have of Toastmasters is that we only deal with public speaking. It’s not about memorising speeches, but more about how to think on your feet and communicate effectively, both in a group and one-to-one,” Anamta said.
Toastmasters clubs aren’t exclusively for the shy or for those battling stage fright. Some are reserved by nature, others self-assured and loud, but all of them share an interest in perfecting their formal speaking skills.

Full story...


Malaysia

English benefits children
By a Concerned Citizen, TheStar.com.my

PETALING JAYA, December 24, 2011—I have been reading about the plight and pleas of concerned parents for the English language to be reinstated in schools for the benefit of our children.

I support the move for the sake my children and children of friends and relatives and for all those who feel strongly about this issue.

What is so sinful or wrong to have our children speak English or learn subjects in English while in school?

Does mastering English make us:

> Less loyal to the country;

> Less proud of the country;

> Forget our mother tongue be it Chinese, Tamil or Bahasa Melayu;

> Country will not or stop to progress; and

> Less confused people or nation.

Does forcing the use of Bahasa Melayu to both teachers and school children guarantee that all will get superb results and be assured of places in foreign and local universities?

My concern is also over how our children, who have studied in Malaysia, gone to government schools and maybe colleges face the world’s challenges when they are short of knowledge in the most commonly used language in the universe?

And most families would have their children go abroad to earn a degree.

Full story...


English conquers all
By Nadiah Wan, TheStar.com.my

December 18, 2011—One piece of advice I would give to any aspiring Malaysian student is to improve their command of English. From my story, I hope you will see why.

There was nothing special about my upbringing beyond the fact that we spoke English at home. As a product of a multiracial marriage, English was a compromise between two cultures.

At school, I entered the pure science stream. I loved history and languages, but saw science as a way of deciphering nature’s own language or code.

I also actively sought to participate in everything from debates to sports meets. I learnt how to speak and present in public, and I learnt that determination, more than speed, is needed to win a long race. When I look back at my schooling years, it was those experiences I cherish the most.

After SPM, I was awarded a Public Service Department scholarship to study in the United States (US). For a student who enjoys both the humanities and the sciences, the American education system is perfect as it is flexible and allows students to explore different subjects.

At that time, Biotechnology was the “in thing” and I wanted very much to be part of this exciting new wave. To this end, I even obtained an internship to work in a lab at Universiti Malaya for a few months just to gain some research experience.

The application process to an American university starts a year before the application is due. The first obstacle is the SAT, which many find difficult due to the intricacies of the language and the biasness of the test towards English speakers. Therefore, to succeed, students must be as comfortable with English as any American student would be.

Full story...


The medium and the message
By Alex Cummins, TheStar.com.my

December 18, 2011—Love is said to be the most important word in English Language, although there are many who think that words like “sorry” or “you” are equally important. Whatever these words may convey, they are inevitably used in communication for without words, it will be impossible to love, worship, engage in business or social activities. We all communicate through a language and with our body with gestures and expressions of our eyes, hands or even our posture. We communicate from the time we are born, yet there are instances when our communication can go wrong.

With the exponential growth in recent years and with faster ways of communicating – mobile phones, e-mails, Web sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and services like Twitter, RSS Feeds, blogs and LinkedIn — all accessible by smart phones almost anywhere, surely communicating with others must be easier than ever before.

Yes, the choice of personal communication media, their ease of use and cheaper prices, all due to amazing technological innovation and market competition, provide opportunities hard to imagine just 20 years ago!

But the trouble is, if delivering the message has become so much easier, composing the message so that it is clear and accurate is as tough as it was many centuries ago. Even words of love, endearment and body language during an evening out can turn out to be disastrous and there will be many couples who can attest to that.

In the work place for instance, the use of accurate and appropriate communication is everyone’s business — from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to the security guard.

Full story...


Giving evidence: Articles of law
By Bhag Singh, TheStar.com.my

December 13, 2011—We all know that Bahasa Malaysia is the national language. However, if a person is called to court as a witness, must he give evidence using Bahasa Malaysia or can he choose to give evidence in any other language?

This issue bothers many people who are called up as witnesses to give evidence in a court of law. Sometimes the fear of having to use an unfamiliar language makes the witness reluctant to testify.

However, it ought to be noted that what the national language of the country is, and the issue of giving evidence in court, are two entirely different matters. So, too, is the issue of the conduct of proceedings in court. Such proceedings do not consist of giving evidence alone. Giving evidence is only part of the proceedings. In civil cases, it starts with cause papers such as a summons or writ of summons being filed.

Then the matter is called up, counsel addresses the court and the judge, having conduct of the matter, gives directions in relation to the proceedings.

The law with regard to the national language is set out in Article 152 of the Federal Constitution. Here it is provided that the national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in such script as Parliament may by law provide.

However, the same provision also stipulates that no person shall be prohibited or prevented from using language other than Bahasa Malaysia for official purposes or from teaching or learning any other language.

Full story...


English is global
By Bhavani Veasuvalingam, TheStar.com.my (Letter to the Editor)

December 4, 2011—The recent decision by the Government to allow the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) for students who have started learning the subjects in the language for a few more years, would be the most sensible thing to do.

The Medical and Allied Health industry is a good example of a field where much of the teaching texts and materials are in English. It has been the main language used in the sciences and will produce graduates who will think and act both locally and globally.

The Government has made many positive attempts to produce human capital and to prevent the current brain drain.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his “soft landing” announcement said it was not only a relief for parents and students who prefer the subjects to be taught in English but also to those involved in tertiary education.

I do agree that the universal use of English in Science would facilitate studies in scientific fields. I also support the call to make English a compulsory pass subject in the SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) examination and making English literature a compulsory subject.

These decisions if implemented in schools will make it easier for our youngsters to acquire a good command of both written and spoken English especially when they enter tertiary institutions.

When we talk about health professional education, we are also referring to the acquiring of knowledge through reading from medical and health journals by authors around the world.

Full story...


Helping English to grow
Dr K.H. Sng, TheStar.com.my (Letter to the Editor)

Kuala Lumpur, November 29, 2011—The debate will go on and on, and probably never end. Yet, we must ask this question again and again: “What is the position of the English Language for future Malaysians?”

Is there a role or place for the fluent use and mastery of the language for our future generations?

A quick scan across the globe can help us answer these questions.

Firstly, the command of any language is vital for anyone to communicate and excel.

It does not matter what language we use, provided we have access to good translations and correct interpretation in our reading, writing and communication.

Secondly, every country naturally focuses on the development of its national language or national languages, if more than one. This is necessary to ensure its nationals use and develop it to the fullest.

As far as Malaysia is concerned, Bahasa Malaysia is our national language.

Its place and position should never be doubted by any party.

As a language, Bahasa Malaysia is a very beautiful language. I am particularly amazed by its suffixes and prefixes, making it such a flexible and versatile language.

My concern for the national language is whether we have enough capable lexicographers to create and invent good and great words progressively.

One example of a shocking word that came and disappeared from normal usage was the word: “ketidakabnormalan,” which is meant to mean a situation of normality!

Full story...


Language of the sciences
By Datuk S. S. Subramaniam, TheStar.com.my (Letter to the Editor)

November 20, 2011—I have been a proponent of the use of both English and Bahasa Malaysia and have been closely following the PPSMI (the Teaching and Learning of Science and Maths in English) policy over the years.

I now observe with renewed interest the comments made by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as well as the view of others on the policy.

Most of the comments miss a very important aspect of PPSMI, in that there is a considerable difference between a graduate who qualifies as a Science, Engineering, Medical or Mathematics graduate compared to one who graduates with an Arts degree.

Starting out from an estate primary school and attaining both an engineering and accounting degree, I must say that I had to invest more time and effort especially for my engineering degree.

The success of the many advanced countries in science and technology is due to the importance given to produce graduates in the field compared to those seeking a degree in the arts.

Malaysia has been producing more arts graduates than those majoring in science courses.

A good number of our science graduates have migrated overseas for better job prospects, rewards and recognition.

With regards to the PPSMI, there is the view that urbanites are more inclined to support it compared to rural folk who would prefer their children learn Science and Maths in their respective mother tongues.

This is because of the mistaken belief that rural children are not capable of mastering two languages, as well as the bias of the policy-makers against English, which they consider as a colonial and foreign language.

Full story...


Whither English? Wither English?
By Lucille Dass, TheStar.com.my (Letter to the Editor)

November 13, 2011—Your articles under the headings “Revive the days when we mastered English”; “Key to better English”; and, more recently, “View English as a vital second language” and the “Importance of being earnest” are only a handful of distress signals filtered from the multitude of comments and views voiced on the subject for so long now.

Popular talk on the ground — at conferences and seminars, the workplace, the home, places of worship (with prayers being offered for the cause), in coffee-shops and shopping malls — has been, is, and will continue to be, on the subject of English.

Like many concerned educators and one who has experienced a sense of the rise and fall of English in the country, I voiced my anguish over the steady decline of English in the last three decades at an ELT (English Language Teaching) conference where I was invited as a keynote speaker.

Washing dirty linen in public? Hardly. Our soiled (English) linen has been hanging out to dry in full view of all and sundry for so long now. A stark reality. We have fallen out of grace and it’s a wonder that we didn’t feel seek redemption sooner.

Instead, we wandered and squandered precious recovery time, getting lost, like Alice in Wonderland, not knowing or really caring where we and our young were headed for, until rescued through concerted public assertiveness and aid.

The young today, teachers included, are simply products of an education system gone awry…

Full story...


Our education system does not serve the needs of the 21st century
By Feizrul Nor Nurbi, FreeMalaysiaToday.com (Letter to the Editor)

November 14, 2011—I refer to the FMT article, “Scrap PPSMI, future generations will suffer,” by Aziff Azuddin. I was born in the early 80s to a middle class family from a small town in Perak – not exactly a city kid. My parents didn’t speak in English at home, but in my early years I managed to pick up English in bits and pieces through the idiot box. Then came kindergarten when I was exposed more to the language.

Entering my school life in late 80s meant I had gone through my schooling years learning all subjects sans English in Bahasa Melayu. In school, from Standard One until Form Five, I was fortunate to be able to learn from English teachers who were passionate and made the lessons interactive and fun. I was certainly lucky in this sense when all around me the quality of English teaching were crumbling and getting worse day after day.

Bear in mind, I studied Math and Science in BM.

So, university life came a-calling, and immediately the medium of instruction was changed to English. I can almost hear your thought, “A-ha! This guy must have struggle!” but evidently, I did not. University life in English was really a breeze for me. Looking back, it was my strong grounding in the English language as taught by my English teachers that gave me the edge. For that I am ever so grateful to them.

So, what am I now? – a software architect working with a US-based MNC, travelling  all over Asia Pacific and handling customers the world over from a multitude of cultures and languages…

Full story...


Exploring the foreignness of the English language
By Dr. Lim Chin Lam, TheStar.com.my

November 11, 2011—Ever since I learnt to read, I have been fascinated by the written (and printed) word. It is awesome that a sequence of symbols can tell a story, describe the stuff of dreams and imagination, and lead one into a world of knowledge. The said symbols represent the script of a language.

English is classified as a West Germanic language, but it is written not in the Gothic alphabet of German but in the Roman alphabet developed from Latin.

English is deemed to have undergone three stages in its development. Old English (ca 450 to ca 1100 ), also referred to as Anglo-Saxon, was the language spoken in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066. Words native to the English plus those that came with the Anglo-Saxon invaders and colonists are largely of one syllable, most of which have evolved with change of spelling to their modern form, e.g. a, after, bed, boon, child, day, dog, eye, far, fern, give, head, knife, land, man, night, off.

Middle English (ca 1100 to ca 1500) was the English which underwent a profound change (in linguistics among other things) after the Norman Conquest (1066). There was an infusion of Norman French (Old French) into English. Latin and the Roman script were introduced during this period. While French itself is a Latin-derived language, there is a difference in the way words from Latin and French came into English. For example, the words exceed and succeed came from the Latin root-word cedere “to go, to yield” through French and entered Modern English as such. On the other hand, words such as intercede and precede, which were derived from the same Latin root, entered Modern English directly from Latin.

Modern English (after ca 1500) is the English of Shakespeare and those that came thereafter. Modern English expanded with words consequent upon the age of exploration and colonization.

Full story...


Forum: Here’s the crux of the matter—our schools have failed us
MalaysiaKini.com            

November 6, 2011—FREE YOURSAY: “I hope for once we should all be honest with our answer—an answer not based on political correctness, parochialism, expediency and personal interests.”

Loo Soon Fatt: Prof Abdul Aziz Bari, let’s be clear on this: nobody is against the national language. It had been made a compulsory subject and all students must obtain at least a pass to get a full certificate in all national school examinations.

Our students must be proficient in English if we want our new generation to compete in the globalised world where the universal language is English. What’s the big fuss if our students are good in both languages?

In fact, the more languages they know, the better. Our leaders must be pragmatic and far sighted if our country want to prosper. We must produce world champions instead of “jaguh kampong” (village champion).

David Dass: What we are advocating is bilingualism. We must recognise the importance of English as the language that gives us immediate and global access to knowledge and information as it develops.

We should avoid elitism that allows those with means to enjoy the advantages that English language proficiency gives and condemns the poor to all the limitations that a monolingual culture inflicts.

We must accept that without an environment for the use of English, there will be no motivation to learn the language. Bilingualism with English being one of the languages and Malay the other, will ensure that our children and grandchildren will be able to face the future with confidence. Malay will still be the national language.

Full story...


Voices of our young generation lost in tangle over PPSMI
Editorial, The Star

November 2, 2011—The raging debate over the Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) is unlikely to simmer down despite the Government’s unequivocal stand that there will be no policy reversal.

The protagonists have fought long and hard in a battle where, sadly, the real victims are our young generation, whose voices are not heard.

Those who speak on their behalf, from either side, must understand that there are long-term consequences when policy changes are made at this level, more so in the field of education.

The voices we hear in this newspaper, and in cyberspace, understandably, favour the English language proponents. To their opponents, their outreach is limited to urban, middle-class families where English is almost like their mother tongue, whatever their ethnicity.

Those who speak on behalf of the rest of the country, therefore, claim that simply in terms of numbers, reverting to teaching Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia is the obvious solution.

There are merits to both sides of the arguments but the battle continues not so much in terms of what is good for our children and our country in the long term, but what is politically expedient in the short term.

Full story...


No shame in learning English
By Hussaini Abdul Karim, TheSunDaily.my

SHAH ALAM, November 1, 2011—Last Friday, I heard on TV, the deputy prime minister saying knowledge must be obtained using the national language to ensure continuity. If in any other language like English, for example, he said, it would mean that only those who master that language would benefit, and if there were no more people in this country who could speak English, the knowledge will be lost. That was the essence of his speech. That was why a decision was made to abolish the teaching of maths and science in English (PPSMI) and have them taught in Malay.

During World War II, there were many languages used since countries involved each had their own languages. The main languages used, however, were English/American, French, German and Russian. In order to be able to communicate effectively, the American and British forces, as part of the Allied Forces, trained many of their people to use German, French and Russian.

The Germans and Russians did likewise, the main reason being to obtain information, and the best way to obtain information about the countries you are fighting is to know their language and perhaps also, their customs and culture. In the east, the all-conquering Japanese army recruited Chinese and Taiwanese soldiers who could speak Mandarin and a few other Chinese dialects as these were some of the languages the countries they invaded used. They also had soldiers, either Japanese or locals, who could speak other Asian languages such as Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Indonesian/Malay, English, etc.

Malaysians used to talk to leaders of English-speaking countries and address international leaders at international forums and seminars directly and without the help of interpreters; so it was puzzling to note that on a recent visit to a neighbouring country, whose official language is English, a senior official required the services of an interpreter.

Full story...


Scrapping the teaching of English: How “soft” will the landing be?
By Liong Kam Chong, TheStar.com.my

SEREMBAN, November 4, 2011—In scrapping PPSMI (the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English), the Education Ministry has given the assurance of a “soft landing.”

By that it means students “caught” in the transition will continue to be taught and examined in the English language (BI) and Bahasa Melayu (BM) or in the case of vernacular primary schools, in Chinese or Tamil.

According to the ministry’s Schedule of Transition, by 2012, primary Year 1 and Year 2 pupils will study the two subjects in BM only.

Years Three, Four, Five and Six pupils will be taught in BI and BM/Chinese/Tamil.

This bilingual approach will progressively be phased out with the last bilingual Year 6 pupils being the batch in 2015.

Similarly, for secondary students, by 2012, Form I will study in BM only whilst the Forms Two, Three, Four and Five will continue in BI and BM.

The last bilingual BI/BM Form 5 students will also be the batch in 2015.

But, what is actually happening on the ground? How soft is the landing indeed?

Full story...


Exploring English: Issues to address
By Keith W. Wright, TheStar.com.my

October 16, 2011—When teaching oracy and literacy skills to students for whom English is an additional language (EAL), teachers must know exactly what is required to be taught. The primary focus should be on their learners’ comprehension and the instruction must be logical and directional.

The teacher’s physical movement, gesture and expression are important as is the need for engagement, motivation and variation. Learning remains a partnership between the teacher and student.

However, the task for most EAL learners, unlike primary English speakers, is different. As they have not been repeatedly exposed to English outside the classroom or learnt the language unconsciously, deliberate and directed study is a necessity.

The features of natural language acquisition can be extremely difficult to replicate in a classroom. Unlike children in an English-speaking home, many EAL learners lack support and encouragement from a peer group or English-speaking parents.

Even the language of an EAL teacher requires attention to accommodate the language proficiency of learners.

Unlike learning situations where a commonality in primary language exists, adapting language to suit the learner is imperative.

Full story...


Hungary

English... too easy?
By Mary Murphy, Budapest Times    

October 1, 2011—If you can speak three languages you’re trilingual. If you can speak two languages you’re bilingual. If you can speak only one language you’re an American. – Author Unknown

As I continue to struggle on and off with learning Hungarian (I am now on my fifth teacher, all the others having given up fighting with my recalcitrant tongue), I was highly bemused to learn that minds within the Ministry of Education think that English shouldn’t be positioned as the first foreign language Hungarian students learn, as it is... wait for it... too easy!

Apparently, these great minds think that learning English as a first foreign language creates the misguided notion that all foreign languages are easy to learn, and when they find out otherwise, they’re discouraged. By their logic, if students were to study “languages with a fixed, structured grammatical system, the learning of which presents a balanced workload, such as neo-Latin languages”, which represent a lot more work, then they could learn the much easier to learn English almost as a by-the-way. Ergo, by learning more difficult languages first, Hungarians would become more multilingual. I beg to differ.

In Hungarian, the stress is always on the first syllable. That’s an easy rule to follow. In English, however, the stress often determines the meaning of the word. For instance, “permit” and “permit” are different; the former is a verb, “to allow,” the latter a noun, “a licence to do.” Same letters, same combination, different meanings. Or what about determining what the first syllable is?

Full story...


Native Hungarian talks about the differences between her native tongue and English
By Esther Kiss, WestSideToday.com

June 28, 2011—“Hello, my name is Esther” or “Szia, a nevem Eszter” in my native Hungarian.

They say that the English language is the hardest language to master; between verbs, adverbs, pronouns, nouns, conjunctions, punctuations, blah, blah, blah, there is definitely a lot to learn and very little of it is consistent, as is with the case with other languages. For starters: Hungarian uses a forty-four letter alphabet and English limits its vocabulary to twenty-six tools from which to make words.

The confusion between the two languages in which I function starts even farther back than that; in Hungarian, my native tongue is called “Magyar.” Whatever you call it, my first language is defined as a Uralic language and is spoken in many of the Baltic regions in Eastern Europe of which Hungary is a part.

While English is the most popular language in the world it has some idiomatic rules that drive non-native speakers… to study harder. For example prepositions do not exist in Hungarian/Magyar…

Full story...


Pakistan

A parliament of owls
By S Iftikhar Murshed, SanaNews.net

December 11, 2011 (SANA)—One of the quirks of the English language is that a group of owls is called a parliament. The bird is a symbol of wisdom but in Urdu an owl, or ullu, represents stupidity and a parliament of owls would translate as an assembly of imbeciles (ulluon ki majlis). This demonstrates how absurd literal translations of foreign phrases can be. The Urdu idiom has certainly been unfair to the hooting avian of the night so universally acclaimed for its sagacity.

The national legislatures in most countries, whether democracies, quasi-democracies or even dictatorships, are normally referred to as parliaments, though the formal nomenclatures may be as varied as National Assembly, House of Commons, Lok Sabha, Shura, Duma and Diet. That is where the similarity with an assemblage of owls ends. Parliamentarians worldwide are not distinguished by exceptional sapience, nor are they congenital idiots.

They are mostly men and women of average intelligence but with hugely inflated egos. This is where the Pakistani variety of lawmakers takes the lead. For instance, several members of the national and provincial assemblies insist on adorning the rear and front fenders of their cars with metallic plates bearing the inscription “MNA” or “MPA” in order to advertise their status.

Pakistani parliamentarians are unique in many respects and defy some of the established theories of political science. Their addiction to the phrase “supremacy of parliament,” which they articulate with the zeal of proselytising missionaries, is just one example. Yet in a constitutional democracy it is not the parliament but the constitution that is supreme.

Since 2007 Pakistan has had more than its share of crises and this year has been spectacularly eventful. The fury of these storms have scattered the attention of the nation hither and thither, as a consequence of which the several acts of commission and omission of members of parliament has faded from memory. These need to be revisited, especially as election year 2013 draws near.

Full story...


The death of English news in Pakistan
By Ovais Jafar, Tribune.com.pk (Blog)

LAHORE, December 1, 2011—During a job interview in Lahore, at the purpose built headquarters of a soon-to-launch news channel, I was asked how I felt about hosting an English language program to cater to the expats responsible for many important decisions.

My response back in 2008: the ones who matter already have the means to get the information they need. The idea of an English language news program was great, but not to satisfy the appetites of expats. It was important, first, to satisfy the needs of our own people.

The most common response to my idealism – as it was usually considered – was the fact that Geo English had not launched and Dawn News was a failing product from the get-go.

I still maintain, had Geo English launched, Dawn News would have understood the difference and gone Urdu a lot sooner and Express 24/7 would have never seen the light of day.

To understand why, it must be noted that from the team that was trained for Geo English, many became the faces of Dawn News. Many more worked behind the scenes as producers, reporters and copy writers.

When the time came for Express 24/7, it was launched – again – by most of the core team that was trained for Geo English (some of the ones who were part of the core team from NewsDayGeo’s first English bulletin – till GE’s death)

The people who went to Dawn were mostly foreign educated, western influenced individuals. The ones that fell in 24/7’s lap were the thoroughbred Pakistani brains.

Full story...


English a “deterritorialised” language today, says linguist
By Anil Datta, TheNews.com.pk

KARACHI, October 18, 2011—English today is a language of global access, a language of self-representation. Its role as a key to the study of literature and English (or British) culture is receding. This is because today literature as a subject doesn’t carry the lure that it did till about 27 years ago. It is on the wane, given the corporate and technological spheres of activity the world is marked by today.

These views were expressed by Dr Peter Grundy, honorary fellow at the Language Centre, University of Durham, UK, and a visiting professor of linguistics at the University of Vienna, Austria, while talking to The News at a local hotel on Monday. Dr Grundy is in town as one of the trainers at the just concluded Society for the Promotion of English Language Teaching (SPELT) conference.

He said that when he was a student at the university, there were a large number of students studying literature but today at the same university, the number had greatly dwindled.

Today, he said, the role of English was more to facilitate international interaction and tackling international economic issues, like the international job market and emigration. The global perspective of the language was undergoing a radical change, he said. As such, he said, the role of English today was less confined as compared to what it was when it was the key to just the study of literature.

“Today English is a ‘deterritorialised’ language. In the present-day digital world, it is a tool for communicating internationally,” Dr Grundy said and cited the Internet and other modern tools of information technology like the iPod and the mobile phone.

Full story...


Sri Lanka

Ten-year national action plan for a trilingual Sri Lanka
By Sajitha Prematunge, DailyNews.lk

June 23, 2011—Nearly 90 percent of Sinhala speaking people cannot communicate in Tamil and cannot communicate effectively in English. Whereas 70 percent of Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka cannot communicate in Sinhala. But the new Presidential initiative on a trilingual Sri Lanka plans to change this.

A salient feature of the Presidential initiative for a trilingual Sri Lanka is the redefinition of language. “The initiative will not promote Sinhala and Tamil as mere instruments of communication, but as a holistic cultural package,” said Presidential Advisor and Coordinator of the programme ‘English as a life skill’ and the initiative for a trilingual Sri Lanka, Sunimal Fernando. “Language is an expression of culture. Knowledge of Tamil culture will facilitate empathy and affection for its culture in the Sinhala people and thereby encourage people to learn the Tamil language. The same goes for Sinhala.”

Under the trilingual initiative Sinhala and Tamil will be promoted as vehicles through which modern ideas, views, technologies and modern sciences among a host of other subjects could be discussed, discoursed and debated. English will be promoted as a life skill for occupation, employment, accessing knowledge and technology and for communicating with the rest of the world. English is basically a tool for communication.

Full story...


Ireland

Lexicon as major system of English
By William Roger Jones, The Korea Times

September 29, 2011—Recently, I presented one strategy and addressed one classroom application of using The Korea Times in getting to know a word in that major system of English language named lexicon.

Also, I mentioned that the major systems overlap. Especially, you can see this extended commonness in grammar, another major system having auxiliaries (morphology, orthography, and syntax). Grammar in its broadest sense refers to the rules of speech and writing of Standard English.

It is complex and includes using words in specific ways according to their parts of speech, and verb tenses and their agreement in sentence construction, as well as correct use of punctuation and mechanics, etc. This is the prescriptive grammar that we are taught in school to use if we wish to sound educated and painstakingly learn if we wish to receive a good grade from the English instructor. The Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language contains 1,800 pages and some 3,500 points requiring grammatical exposition, largely points to do with syntax.

The descriptive grammar such as what we really speak (nobody speaks textbook English), Ebonics and Chicano English, and the creative hybrid “new Englishes” such as Chinglish, Japlish, Konglish, Singlish, and Taglish, etc., although interesting and amusingly having communicative purposes we must suppress, for if displayed could very well hinder one's chances to obtain particular employment or to achieve a position of social status.

Full story...


Tanzania

Our sensitive relationship with the English language 
By Freddy Macha, TheCitizen.co.tz

LONDON, October 13, 2011—Last week we saw how various Africans with no single national language like us claim to manage European languages better than us. Let’s carry on with the contention.

I met this Zambian female, a Bemba who frequents the same gym. She had the best teeth I have ever seen.

“How come your teeth are so white? Are they real?”

She smiled even brighter than before.

“Ever since I set foot in London I have heard that question over and over again,” she said.

“So do you use some special Zambian toothpaste?”

She laughed: “Nooooh!  I have a beautiful heart and it shows in my mouth. I never lie.”

We kept on till we touched nationalities.

Was I Jamaican? She wondered. Ethiopian?

“I am your neighbour,” I hinted.

She stepped back.

“You are Congolese? I love Ndombolo.”

Full story...


Australia

The lost decade: learning Asian languages
By Greg Jericho, ABC.net.au

November 30, 2011—On the weekend, Julie Bishop appeared on Sky News and among other things talked about education policy.

As someone who has not always been Julie Bishop’s biggest supporter, it was rather intriguing to find myself nodding as she put forward the idea that the teaching of Asian languages be made mandatory in schools.

This desire for Asian language education is a rather interesting position for a member of the Liberal Party to take – especially a former education minister under John Howard – as it was the Howard government in 2002 (when Brendan Nelson was education minister) that cancelled the funding for the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Strategy (known in the language most favoured by bureaucrats in the public service – Acronymese – as NALSAS).

Kevin Rudd at the time was a newish foreign affairs shadow minister, but he was a long-time proponent of Asian language education. He also had a pretty close interest in NALSAS as the strategy was developed in 1994 on the back of the Council of Australian Governments Working Group on Asian Languages and Cultures report, “Asian Languages and Australia's Economic Future.” Rudd, then working for the Goss government in Queensland, was the author of that report.

When Nelson scrapped NALSAS, Rudd’s response was not exactly to take a Bex and have a lie down. He wrote Nelson a letter, the contents of which, rather nicely for us, found their way into the hands of Alan Ramsey at the Sydney Morning Herald

Full story...


New approaches to English language learning
By Navitas English, AsianCorrespondent.com

November 15, 2011—English has increasingly become the language of the global knowledge economy, with millions of students moving overseas to study English as a second language. Students’ reasons are often varied, ranging from the desire to explore another country or culture, gaining a competitive edge in the job market or starting on a pathway to academic study. With these diverse backgrounds comes a huge range of motivations and learning styles, which then have an impact on each student’s learning experience and their approach to studying.

This is a familiar challenge to English language schools in Australia.  Teachers often respond to the different needs of students with interactive learning activities, small group work and individual feedback. Also important is what the student does outside the classroom – and this is one area  where Navitas English really helps students to explore their individual needs.

As Lucy Blakemore, e-Learning Market Research Analyst from Navitas English explains, “during a number of qualitative research projects we’ve conducted over the last few years, we have found that whilst some students are very capable of directing their own learning outside the classroom, many others express uncertainty about how to achieve their goals through independent study. Students are always keen for guidance and advice about how to extend their learning – and teachers can point them towards resources they are unlikely to discover themselves.”

Working with research findings, student feedback and in consultation with experienced teaching staff, Navitas English is developing MyStudy, which focuses on three main components to assist students to understand their goals, motivations and how they learn best…

Full story...


Minding our languages
By Hugh White, Sydney Morning Herald

November 8, 2011—As Julia Gillard has said, this is the Asian century, and no country has more at stake in it than Australia. The countries of Asia are becoming more and more central to our future - economically, politically, socially, strategically, culturally. But as Asia becomes increasingly important to us, fewer Australians are learning about it. Nothing governments have tried in recent years seems to make any difference. It is time for some fresh thinking.

This is not a new problem. The number of Australians learning Asian languages and about Asian societies has been shrinking for years. The teaching of key languages such as Japanese and Indonesian is in danger of disappearing from secondary schools—the combined result of too few students and too few teachers. And with only a tiny handful of exceptions, the only students who learn Chinese at school are those of Chinese background.

The same thing is happening at universities. Asian languages are attracting fewer and fewer students, and those they do attract have not studied an Asian language at school, so their university courses start from scratch. That means the standard most can reach in a three or four-year degree program is pretty basic. In turn, that means the number of well-qualified teachers going into the secondary system is falling, which drives down the numbers who will start to learn Asian languages at school. A classic vicious circle.

Quite a lot of money has been spent trying to fix this problem. Back in his days as a Queensland state official, Kevin Rudd played a big role in trying to help the Keating government formulate a major national Asian language policy, and when he became prime minister he launched a scheme to make Australia the world’s most “Asia-literate”' society.

Full story...


What’s that you say?: Understanding in any language
By Julia Proctor, TheAge.com.au

October 31, 2011—I language is your love...

Then this might just be the degree for you. Linguistics is the study of communicative behaviour, both verbal and non-verbal, explains Randy LaPolla, La Trobe’s chair of linguistics. Students study the structure and design of language — including phonetics (that's the study of sounds) and syntax (the study of sentence formation). They look at how language relates to thinking and how it functions in society, as well as how language develops and changes, and how it is acquired and learnt.

Hang on, are we talking about the English language?

Linguistics is concerned with human language in general, as well as individual languages. During the course, examples are taken from English, but also from other languages. “Linguistics looks at the similarities and the differences in communicative behaviour in different societies,” says Professor LaPolla, who adds that understanding communicative behaviour helps in the understanding of other areas of human behaviour and shines light on different cultures and views.

Do I need to be multilingual to study linguistics?

There’s no requirement to study a second language alongside linguistics. Sometimes, students pair linguistics with subjects such as anthropology, English, education or law. However, many linguistics students also learn, or already speak, a second language. “Usually people who do linguistics are interested in languages generally,” says Professor LaPolla...

Full story...


South Korea

English proficiency needed in the globalizing world
By Kim Seong-kon, The Korea Herald

July 10, 2012—In Korea many people tend to mistake English professors for language and grammar instructors. That is why whenever people discover I am an English professor, they begin to ask many questions about what they can do to study and learn English. It never occurs to them that I am a scholar of English literature, not an English teacher. Even if they knew however, they would think, “English literature is written in the English language, so what difference does it make?”

One of the questions people ask me most frequently is, “How can I master English?” or “What’s the shortcut to learning English?” But as an English literature scholar, I am unsure of what to tell them. Though I am inclined to respond, “To be honest, I don’t know,” I do not want to disappoint them, especially after seeing their faces full of expectation. So I always try to conjure up something to satisfy their curiosity.

Most of the time, I tell those people, “There’s no shortcut to mastering English. I can only give you a piece of advice out of my own experience.” Then I provide them with three answers, which I believe are the most effective ways to learn a foreign language: enjoyment, motivation and immersion.

The importance of enjoyment in language acquisition cannot be stressed enough. You should learn English with pleasure, not pain. If you are a movie buff, for example, watching movies and television dramas is an excellent way to learn English. If you like music, listening to pop songs is another effective way to improve your English. If computer games are your thing, you can also learn English by playing games. I learned English by watching movies and listening to pop songs, both of which were my personal favorite pastimes.

Since then, 50 years have passed and now my own daughter speaks fluent Japanese thanks to her indulgence in Japanese games, animations and comics. Although no one forced her to study Japanese, she naturally acquired the foreign language while joyfully playing games, watching animations and reading comic books.

Full story...


Ukraine

Advice to foreign tourists: Don’t expect English-language service
By Olena Goncharova, Kyiv Post

Foreigners coming for the Euro 2012 football championships had better make room in their suitcases for a Ukrainian or Russian language guidebook. They’re going to need it, judging from this Ukrainian’s attempt to get around the city with a friend, both of us pretending to know only English. We visited theaters and cinemas, bookstores and cafes in order to find out who could communicate with us, and ranked the experience. In general, it was a disappointing one.

Although English is widely taught in schools from early childhood, the world’s most widely spoken language still hasn’t sunk in enough for many Ukrainians to be able to have even an elementary conversation.

So if you can read this, thank a teacher.

First we went to Taras Shevchenko National Opera House, a logical stop for a foreign tourist, and bought a ticket. After 10 minutes of queuing, one man tried to cut in front of us. He made the booking clerk nervous. The man’s mood brightened considerably after he heard us speaking English, and he began to smile.

“Hello! Do you speak English? We would like to buy two tickets for Iolanta on April 11,” I asked the clerk.

“On the 11th?” he asked in response.

Then he turned to the woman standing behind him. They started to point at the poster and asked us whether we want a ticket for April 11. We assured him that was the case and asked about the prices in the third row.

Full story...


Guam

Talayero Tales: The simple truth of the English-speaking Chamorro
By Ed S.N. San Gil, Pacific Sunday News

August 7, 2011—I am often asked "Why don't the younger generation of Chamorros speak their language?" I thought about this question for weeks trying to come up with an honest answer.

It is easy to blame someone or an event in our history for the cause of this problem. For years, Chamorros have pointed the finger at the Americans. After all, they were the ones who punished the young Chamorro generation for speaking our language in school back in the 1950s.

For every issue there are two opposing sides. The popular side is where blame can be directed. In this case, the Americans or statesiders are the ones we are pointing to. As I said earlier, the Americans required the young Chamorro generation to speak English in school. Most would argue this was "the" main reason for the decline of the Chamorro language.

If you are content with this reasoning, you need not read further.

For the sake of keeping the course of history straight, let us go back to the 1940s and the Japanese occupation of Guahan. During the war, my mother was but 8 years old. She told me how the Japanese soldiers would reprimand those who spoke any language other than Japanese. You have to take into account the occupation lasted about three years. Even with the threat of death, the Chamorro language thrived.

Full story...


Finland

Lessons in a common language
By Alicia Clegg, Financial Times
 
April 18, 2012—It is hard to imagine Gina Qiao, Lenovo’s talkative head of human resources, at a loss for words. But when her employer announced, following its acquisition of IBM’s personal computer division in 2005, that it was adopting English as the company language in place of Mandarin, she was speechless.

“It was the toughest time of my whole life,” she recalls in rapid accented English, punctuated by the occasional malapropism and mixed-up tense. “I couldn’t communicate. I couldn’t express my ideas. Because I couldn’t say anything, I just felt maybe I am not so smart.”

The feelings of frustration and loss of confidence that threw Ms Qiao off her stride are an increasingly unfortunate feature of a global marketplace that has elected English as the de facto language of international exchange. As managers create teams that straddle national borders, knit together companies that are merging and look for ways to speed up the sharing of knowhow, their attempts to impose a common language on a multilingual workforce can create winners and losers.

During a language transition, bilinguals are often called on to act as intermediaries linking headquarters and local operations, which puts them in a privileged position and can lead to job offers. But for those forced to master a whole new vocabulary and grammar just to hold down the job that they were already doing, a language change can feel like a professional step backwards from which it is hard to imagine ever recovering.

“(Companies) very much underestimate the psychological stress that a language change can cause,” says Rebecca Piekkari, professor of international business at Finland’s Aalto University.
In some cases this may be because the cosmopolitan elites that run them speak several languages already and mistakenly assume that their subordinates do too…

Full story...


Germany

How about German as the new lingua franca?
By Todd Buell, Wall Street Journal (blog)

September 1, 2011—Is learning German the key to success for European youth? The language of Goethe and Schiller arguably lacks the global reach of English, Spanish and French, but, these days educated people are expected to speak English proficiently.

Where students distinguish themselves is by what other languages they learn, and here is where German mightn’t be a bad idea due to the relative strength of the German labor market.

Combine that with Germany’s shortage of skilled labor and a young person with both English and German is in the driver’s seat when it comes to future employment (an Asian language wouldn’t hurt either, but first things first).

Data from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, show that 94.6% of students roughly between 15 and 20 years old were studying English in 2009, the last year for which complete data are available.

On average, a student at that educational level has learned 1.4 foreign languages. Since for most European students, the native language isn’t English, it suggests that a student knows his or her native language as well as English and then maybe one other language.

Among the other languages, 25.7% of EU students at this level are learning French and 26.5% German. For comparison’s sake, the figure for Spanish is 19.3%.

Full story...


Who’s the smart aleck that invented the English language?
By Valerie Close, Vinton Today

IOWA, August 31, 2011—I’ve had fun catching up with a neighbor “kid” I used to play baseball with, and well, I practically lived at their house during my childhood.

We talked briefly about spelling.

I notice all the time, I can write an article, proofread Dean’s articles, scan the e-mail that is sent in and THINK I caught all the typos.

I click the button to send it out for all of you to read and THEN I see a ton of spelling mistakes.

When I was in school, I prided myself on my spelling skills, and even entered a state contest, so sure of myself. I can't remember now where I placed, but I was good.

When we got married, Dean was a great speller too.

Even my friend agreed, that for some reason the ability to spell sometimes flees her grasp.

I think I’ve used Google more in the last year and a half to figure out how to spell a word.

For the longest time, in my teen years, for some reason the word, “Of” stumped me. It should be spelled “Ov.”

It used to be fun to teach the kids how to read, until I found now I just get frustrated trying to explain that even though a word SOUNDS like it should be spelled a different way, well, it’s not. NO, I don’t know why. NO, I don’t know WHO said it should be spelled that way, and NO you can’t spell it the way it sounds. Why? Because it’s wrong!

Full story...


Singapore

The language paradox: Speak English, can
By Ansel Ashby, Policymic.com

English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world; the most when native and non-native speakers are combined. It is the official language of the European Union, The United States, India, and many other countries throughout the world, in various slightly different forms. Recently the former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, said that American English would prevail over other forms.

Speaking English is a good skill to have, American or otherwise.

But what about all the non-native English speakers? Some linguists now estimate that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio as high as 3:1. For every native born English speaker, three more people are taught English as a second language. Lucky for us, the native English speakers, I mean; we can travel nearly anywhere in the world and get along just fine. Undoubtedly, that’s one of the main causes of the U.S.’s deeply entrenched monolinguism.

So if everyone speaks English, why learn another language? Please, translate: “Dis Guy Singrish Sib Eh Powerful Sia.”

Any guesses? It means: This person’s Singlish is very good.

Okay, how about this: “Order That The Objects Continuen Infecting Your mystery, Please Not To Touch.” Or: “Coffee Give Birth to a Child Condition”

The first example is Singlish. The commonly used pidgin English found widely in Singapore. Singlish loosely combines an English vocabulary with Mandarin sentence structures and syntax, not to mention a handful of words and phrases from Chinese, Malay, and Tamil.

Full story...


Singapore’s language battle: American versus “the Queen’s English”
By reddotrevolver, AsianCorrespondent.com

September 7, 2011—Known as a country in Southeast Asia with a highly educated workforce, Singapore is also one of the only countries in the region that uses English as a working language, and as a medium of instruction in schools. The ease of communication has established the country as the headquarters in Asia for many multinational companies.

A report by the Educational Testing Services (ETS) based on data from Jan-Dec 2010 shows that Singapore came in third in TOEFL (The Test of English as a Foreign Language) scores out of 163 countries. It is the only Asian country in the top three.

However, students in Singapore are taught in British English, or “the Queen’s English,” since elementary school. To Singapore’s former Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, this poses a serious and imminent challenge.

According to Channel NewsAsia, Lee said:

“There is an intense worldwide competition for talent, especially for English-speaking skilled professionals, managers and executives. Our English-speaking environment is one reason why Singapore has managed to attract a number of these talented individuals to complement our own talent pool…”

Full story...


“Good English starts at home”
By Murali Sharma (letter), TodayOnline.com

September 5, 2011—Soon, Speak Good English campaign will be upon us. The fact that we have this campaign yearly speaks volumes for the determination, vision and hope that its organisers hold for future generations.

It is astounding that in Singapore, where we are surrounded with materials in English, many are still struggling with the language. From accent to pronunciation and grammar to vocabulary, the basics seem to have eluded a large number.

In a country where the English language envelopes our very existence in administration, street signs, television, radio, magazines, newspapers, etc, it is amazing how many have fallen by the wayside. So how can we improve?

Like all good things, good English should start at a young age, in the home. However, we are a polyglot society, with each race having its own ancestral language constructions. All these influences shape the English that we speak, and no two languages can coexist perfectly.

Full story...


Greece

Technology overkill absolutely killing the English language
By Loran Smith, Athens Banner-Herald

September 11, 2011—Any English teacher will tell you good grammar comes from practicing good grammar. When I have ever written anything I would later like to recall, it is because I was in too much of a hurry and failed to take a few minutes to proof what was written.

With a poor hand when it comes to writing, I realized years ago that a typewriter would be a treasured friend. Then along came the computer, and efficiency was heightened considerably.
I often have concluded that for technology to be best utilized, discipline is required. There was a time when a competent copy editor was a newspaper operation’s most valued asset.

In bygone days, the Athens Banner-Herald had one of the best, the late Dan Kitchens, who also taught at the Henry Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. At one time, he was the faculty adviser to The Red & Black, the student newspaper. He read every word in the paper and marked errors with a red grease pencil. When he met with the staff to offer his cynical critique, no one was spared. I have to believe it made the paper better and produced highly regarded reporters—who, later, as seasoned newsmen, paid tribute to Dan and his admonition that writers should make a determined effort to get it right before their work made it into print.

He once heard a network announcer on the “Today” show make a grammatical faux pas. He called NBC, got her on the phone and gave her unshirted hell for being so irresponsible.

If Dan were here today, he would be appalled at what seems to get by editors today. Further, he would have the greatest disdain for email sloppiness. Even between friends…

Full story...


Thailand

Learning English language in Thailand: Hype or necessity?
By Kuldeep Nagi, NationMultimedia.com

April 2, 2012—Lately there has been increasing debate about the status of English language in Thai society. Many arguments are made for and against the relevance of English language and its usefulness. Arguments made by Thai politicians take us back and forth about the role of English language and distracts us away from the realities of this new century. This nationalistic faction believes that imposing English language on Thai people is against their culture, heritage and their unique identity. The same group also argues that Thailand was never colonized so why bother to learn English. For them English is the language of the British colonies. It has no place in Thai society. Some others with a myopic vision believe that Thai peoples hould not be made to feel insecure and inferior because of all the hype about importance of learning English.

It is an historical fact that in the 17th century the British did not go around the world to impose their language; they went places with an intention to do trade. Later, they forcibly occupied many countries in Africa and Asia. And of course they occupied North America and USA as well. In their more than 300 years of history in Africa and Asia they conquered many countries. It was followed by the creation of their own system of education, transport, communication and governance…

Full story...


Nigeria

Local students and pidgin English assault

By Chidera Michaels, AllAfrica.com

October 3, 2011—At this point I was looking at two irreducible possibilities as sources of my relative’s problems: either he was a fraud who most certainly paid someone else to take his WAEC examinations for him or he was truly smart but was taught a parallel “English Language,” a language that has its own word meanings and rules of grammar distinct from those of regular English Language, a language that has somehow evolved in Nigeria.

But whichever of those possibilities was my relative’s problem, I was sure of one thing: my relative has a colossal problem on his hands that could frustrate his chances of obtaining quality education in this country.

And so I decided to dig a little deep to find out what the genesis of his problems may be by calling up a few people in Nigeria.

What I found out left a repulsively sickening feeling in my stomach.

I found out that corruption, a familiar Nigerian drumbeat which has eaten deep into every facet of her life, has dealt a devastating blow to her educational system as well.

Public education in Nigeria is now a ghost of its former self.

And its private counterpart (at every level), born out of the need to take the place of the collapsed public schools, is now perhaps Nigeria's newest and fastest-growing unregulated fraudulent machine.

Full story...


Iceland

Language of instruction
By Zoë Robert, IcelandReview.com

October 16, 2011—In June I attended a round table discussion at the Nordic House on the significance of English in Iceland. The seminar was part of a series of events to launch the Iceland branch of the English-Speaking Union (ESU) and was co-hosted by the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages.

According to a 2005 study of words used by speakers of the Scandinavian languages, the number of English words in use has doubled during the last 30 years and is now 1.2 percent.

With a reputation as a conservative language, Icelandic has fewer English loanwords than other Nordic languages, despite, according to the study, Iceland being the country in the region which uses English the most.

Apparently this is because of the long tradition of native language word formation since the 12th century and a strong puristic language policy.

According to Ari Páll Kristinsson, an expert on language policy and planning studies in Iceland who presented the study, basic Icelandic vocabulary has remained relatively unchanged for over a thousand years and for that reason it is easier to create Icelandic words than to adapt loanwords into the language system.

The study looked at the frequency of borrowed words and found that Icelandic borrowed just 17 words per 10,000 words, while Norwegian used 111 per 10,000.

Full story...


Bangladesh

Project English
By M. Shamsul Hoque, TheDailyStar.net

October 23, 2011—Bangladeshis, especially the youth, need to acquire and use new knowledge and skills for adapting to an information-based fast-moving world. And it is English that can best help them meet this need. But the English they are now learning (textbook contents through rote learning) mostly for examination requirements is not responsive to this need. They need to learn communicative English for this purpose.

So, our national curriculum at primary and secondary levels has been designed, textbooks have been developed and the majority of the teachers have been trained to facilitate Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). But despite all these initiatives, there has been a continuing decline in the standards of teaching and learning of English.

To reverse the situation, four ELT projects have been set up so far with government initiative, assisted by the Department for International Development (DfID) of the UK government. These projects are: Orientation of Secondary School Teachers for Teaching English in Bangladesh (OSSTTEB), Primary English Resource Centres (PERC), English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) Phase 1, and English in Action (EiA). The main goal of all these projects was to strengthen English language education.

The first three projects (1990-2002) helped develop national curriculums, textbooks and training courses based on CLT. They worked closely with the government officials and relevant professionals, but each of them worked separately as a project team. However, the impact of these projects was hugely impressive during the project periods but faded away after they were finished...

Full story...


Indonesia

The Indonesian language at 83: Looking back to look forward
By Setiono Sugiharto, The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA, October 29, 2011—The tremendous speed of the modernization of the Indonesian language, especially its lexicon, cannot be separated from the exhaustive work of past Indonesian scholars from two radically different camps: the conservatives and the modernists.

The conservatives’ central figure was the late Anton M. Moeliono, who contributed significantly to the modernization of the Indonesian lexicon. In an attempt to seek Indonesian counterparts to foreign terminology that dominated almost all domains, Moeliono, known as the guardian of the Indonesian language, was consistent in resorting either to the Malay language or indigenous Indonesian languages for reference.

He strongly believed that using Indonesian and its indigenous languages was one of the most effective ways to safeguard it from outside threats, such that Indonesian language users could take pride in their national language.

Moeliono’s legacy is now widely adopted by the Indonesian language users, including such words as rekayasa (engineering), penyelia (supervisor), tenggat (deadline), kudapan (snack), pantau (monitor), suku cadang (spare parts), and penyibak aib (whistle blowers).

However, not all the terminology he unveiled gained acceptance and became part of our daily communication. Words such as jasa boga (catering), warta merta (obituary), sengkuap (canopy), umpan tekak (appetizer), and pranata (institution) are hardly used in either spoken or written communication.

Full story...


Denmark

A little more English please
By Richard Steed, Copenhagen Post

COPENHAGEN, November 6, 2011—Is Copenhagen really an international metropolis or just another provincial Scandinavian city? That is the question I am asking myself right now, as I am beginning to wonder if Copenhagen is deceiving itself, thinking it is something it is not. There seems to be something of a paradox going on here.

I’ll give you an example of what I mean. I recently went for a job contract with a new English-speaking international website being launched here in Copenhagen. Even though it was aimed at an international audience, I didn’t get the contract because of my lack of Danish language skills. The Danish workforce launching the website decided my Danish wasn’t sufficient enough to be able to have meaningful conversations in the office.

In my view it was a strange decision. If I’m visiting my local doctor or dentist, then having a conversation in Danish makes sense, and that is something I try to do. But not working on an English-language project for the international market. This highlights to me the paradox facing this city. The Danes seem to want to have their cake and eat it too.

You could argue that I could have lied and said in the job interview that I was actively learning Danish, yet I don’t believe that is the right answer. Obviously I will carry on integrating myself and will try to speak as much Danish as possible. Yet I will never be fluent in Danish, and anyway, I make my money from writing in English.

Full story...


Namibia

Putting English language before literature
By Heziwell Mhunduru, Guardian Weekly

November 8, 2011—What keeps you motivated? The realisation that my learners appreciate my efforts, even though, generally, they are not yet where I want them to be in terms of English acquisition and use.

Best teaching moment? When a group of 17- to 18-year-old learners, who had been passive, began to participate in my lessons after some motivational work. The group had joined my class from other schools and they felt they were being overshadowed by longer-term students. It was small talk that really worked wonders and three of them even opted to join our higher-level class.

And worst? After I had given what I thought were clear instructions for a written class activity, I went out for a moment. When I came back, a student just burst into tears and said, “Sir, I don’t know what I am supposed to do.”

What have you learned? If shown trust, students can be trustworthy. They can also measure their own progress in learning English.

Biggest challenge? Teaching William Shakespeare’s King Lear to learners who have no literature background, let alone an insight into the English way of life. My students’ first language is Oshiwambo, so my methodology is to develop their English speaking, reading, writing and listening skills…

Full story...


Uganda

English came on a boat? If only we had the Somali pirates back then...
By Joachim Buwembo, TheEastAfrican.co.ke

DAR ES SALAAM, November 13, 2011—The Iganga Municipal Council in Eastern Uganda has resolved to ditch the English language and now conducts its official business in Lusoga! All council deliberations shall as of this month henceforth be done in the vernacular, apparently to enable councillors who are not competent in English to participate fully.

After the recent general election, these councillors caused embarrassment all around because they could not be sworn in in English. Iganga is the major town after Jinja on the highway to Mombasa, Kenya.

I am writing this comment from Dar es Salaam. When I first came here in 2004, I stepped on a live wire when I wrote a comment in the Monitor newspaper about the problems caused by the killing off of English in Tanzania. It was picked up from the Internet and many Tanzanians in the diaspora wanted to lynch me while many inside Tanzania supported me. Interestingly, the diaspora Tanzanians all posted their arguments in English, and I bet all their kids go to English medium schools.

I have since learnt to refrain from commenting in anti-English debates. Time vindicated me this year when a study conducted around East Africa found that Kenyan school kids do better in Kiswahili than Tanzanians! So when Kenya promoted both English and Kiswahili, the Kenyan kids ended up better in both languages than the Tanzanians who only promoted Kiswahili. Promoting English does not kill African languages.

Tanzanians, of course, speak rather more graceful Kiswahili than Kenyans. Even I, as a Ugandan, do that! Whenever I am in Nairobi, I meet Kenyans who think I know more Kiswahili than they do, which of course is not true…

Full story...


Kenya

“Linguistic famine” in Kenyan households diluting our culture
By Rasna Warah, Nation.co.ke

November 13, 2011—The Nation recently featured the story of a 16-year-old Kenyan girl who last year was the top student internationally in the English Language IGCSE “O” Level examination, a feat that she attributed to her parents who encourage her to speak only English at home.

Unlike many Kenyans who tend to be proficient in at least one, if not more, Kenyan languages, this child has been denied the privilege of learning an African language. (In an interview, she referred to English as her “first language” followed by French.)

The girl loves to read, which is commendable, and highly unusual, especially among her age-group, which tends to read only textbooks.

And because I know that she is probably going to read this column, I am going to ask her to read (and digest) the book, Decolonising the Mind, by Kenya’s most famous author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who refers to this book as “my farewell to English as a vehicle for any of my writings”.

In a lecture titled “Re-membering Africa” at the University of Nairobi in January 2007, Ngugi told his audience that by adopting foreign languages lock, stock and barrel, Africans are committing “linguicide”, which has killed their memories as a people, as a culture and as a society.

Ngugi derides Kenyan parents for discouraging their children from speaking their mother tongues, a phenomenon that has led to “linguistic famine” in African households.

Full story...


Russia

You don’t need to be crazy to teach English in Russia, but it helps
By Ilaria Parogni, Russia Beyond the Headlines

December 7, 2011—“Are you crazy?” is invariably the reaction that the English language teachers I met received when they told their family and friends about their plans to go to Russia and teach English. People in the West are not used to thinking of Russia as a country with good job opportunities, let alone a place to settle down. It is probably true that making the decision to become an English language teacher in Russia does require a fair dose of madness. But, as soon as teachers arrive in the country and start their new work experience, they realise that it’s extremely easy to get accustomed to the Russian way of life. In fact, most enjoy it to such an extent that they have no intention of heading back to their old life anytime soon.

English teaching programmes are a relatively new reality for Russia, a by-product of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, Pelevin’s Generation P was discovering the world of Pepsi Cola, Nokia phones and Marlboro cigarettes. The English language became a commodity, the access key to this new world. As Richard Moore, Managing Director of language service provider Language Link, recalls, “the sudden recognition of the value of the English language led to a situation in which everyone wanted it.” English language schools found fertile ground in Russia’s newly established market economy. This led to the creation of today’s army of native speaking English language teachers.

Teachers come from various countries and have extremely different backgrounds and levels of experience. For example, Tom, a 23-year old Liverpudlian who graduated in Russian and French at University College London, spent a term in Volgograd whilst at university, and is now working for Language Link in a private school in Moscow’s countryside. And John from Chicago, 70, was asked to work at the Liden & Denz Russian Language School in Saint Petersburg after retiring in 2007. He had already lived and worked in Russia for a few years before, and welcomed with enthusiasm this new challenge.

Full story...


Turkey

Ruminations on one language and one speech
By Ashley Perks, Today’s Zaman 

ISTANBUL, December 15, 2011—Most of the expats that I know or have known in İstanbul are, or were, English language teachers. They came from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia or New Zealand for the most part, and while some were just passing through, others like myself, settled down for the long haul and many have Turkish partners.

The global market for teaching English as a second or foreign language is huge and still growing, particularly in rapidly emerging economies like China. Although Chinese may be the first language spoken by the most people on earth merely because of the country’s huge population (1.5 billion and counting), the Global Village increasingly speaks English. Advances in technology, particularly in computer engineering and programming, have contributed to the unassailable hegemony of English as the world’s most commonly used language and the exponential demand for its acquisition. Even the French, so jealously proud and protective of their language that they have their own language police in the form of the Academie Française, have had to bite their collective tongue and get with the English-learning program.

There is no doubt that in Turkey, young people predominantly but also an increasing number of their elders are eager to learn English, and the main motivation seems to be the demand by employers for a significant competence in English either to secure a good position or to obtain promotion or preferment in career choices. This seems an obvious requirement in import/export, for example, and in banking and finance, manufacturing and tourism as well as the increasingly popular international relations sector. Most of the students I have had the privilege of teaching over the years have been eager and motivated and many have actually liked English as a language; some have even come to love its literature as well…

Full story...






Copyright © 2010 by Aperture Web Development. All rights reserved.

Page best viewed with:

Mozilla FirefoxGoogle Chrome

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional

Page last modified: 29 July, 2012, 5:00 a.m.