The singing and the gold: A memorable evening
By Elmer A. Ordoñez, The Manila Times

July 3, 2011—The Department of English of the University of the Philippines marked the end of its centenary celebration with an evening of recognition of alumni, students, and teachers since its founding in 1910. More than a hundred names cited for distinguished achievement in literature and distinguished service to the university and the nation were posted at the lobby of Bahay ng Alumni last Sunday. ’Twas an embarrassment of riches.

But by no means is the honor roll a definitive listing. Drawing it up has been fraught with many risks, particularly sins of omission. The awards committee has to work on the listing again before posting it in the English department website. Suffice it to say that the department has produced many distinguished and world-renown writers, educators, and leaders as well in diplomacy and public service. Many are icons in literature and critical studies not only in English but in Filipino and other Philippine languages as well.

Historically the UP English department had been a crucial instrument in the “benevolent assimilation” policy of the new colonizers at the turn of the 20th century, along with the Philippine Normal School founded earlier (1904) than the UP The teaching of English, then its adoption as the medium of instruction and official language, has shaped the Filipino mind and psyche, with effects manifest to this day. But to paraphrase Gemino Abad, while English has colonized us, we have colonized the language.

In early decades American professors dominated the English department. By the late twenties writers in English shed their apprenticeship and struck on their own…

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“How did you begin to write? And why in English?”
By Danton Remoto, The Philippine Star 

June 20, 2011—Friends and strangers alike would ask me that question. But the notion of beginning still surprises me until now.

As a child, I loved to draw, to memorize in my mind’s eye images of the passing day. I also loved to read — I would finish reading my English textbooks in one week, when we were supposed to read them for the whole year.

I read ravenously and I read everything — the ingredients in a can of soup, the newspaper my father bought every day, the Philippine Journal of Education my mother subscribed to, the 10-volume Children’s Classics that an uncle had given to us.

I grew up in Basa Air Base, Pampanga, in a small white house with sloping roof and French windows. My father was a soldier, when soldiers were still honorable, and my mother taught music in school. The Distance to Andromeda and Other Stories by the peerless Gregorio Brillantes was the first book I bought with my own money. Listen to the reasons why he writes, spoken in the third person, perhaps to give the memory a measure of objectivity:

“The answer... was tied up somehow with the town in Tarlac where he was born, and the acacias beside the house where he grew up, the sounds that wind and rain made in them. In that house, its rooms suffused with a clear white light in his memory, he learned that words, combinations of them, could unlock the doors to fancy and fable: the strange lands visited by Gulliver, Lord Greystoke shipwrecked on the African shore...”

Memory is the mother of all writing, it has been said, and many of my memories are tied up with the books I read in English, or imprinted on my mind in English…

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Journalism as if Earth mattered
By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, Philippine Daily Inquirer

June 22, 2011—I can’t resist this one, so let me say something about the matter before I proceed to the intended subject of today’s column.

When another round of fishkill occurred in Taal Lake a few days ago, was it a fisheries official who said that it was not a fishkill but “fish mortality”?  A grouchy copy editor would have red-penciled it were it not a direct quote, an example of jargon, euphemism, even obfuscation, that could be a story in itself.

In a how-to-write monograph that I often use when speaking about writing, veteran editor Edward T. Thomson, presents basic guidelines. One of them is “avoid jargon.”  He advises: “Don’t use words, expressions, phrases known only to people with specific knowledge or interests. Example: a scientist, using scientific jargon, wrote, ‘The biota exhibited a 100 percent mortality response.’ He could have written: ‘All the fish died.’”

Another advice: Choose short words instead of long ones. “Kill” is four letters while “mortality” is…

In his “How to write with style,” best-selling novelist Kurt Vonnegut points out that the longest word in Hamlet’s “to be or not to be?” (by Shakespeare) is three letters.  Imagine Hamlet saying instead: “Should I act upon the urgings that I feel, or remain passive and thus cease to exist?”

Vonnegut adds: “James Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story ‘Eveline’ is this one: ‘She was tired.’ At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do.”

And so, with hearts breaking, let us say, “All the fish died.”

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Big dreamer
By Lyndon John S. de Leon, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Last night I finally had the guts to re-open “Bobby.” You might think I am crazy, but yes that is the name I gave to my scrap book. I guess those dried santan flowers which were once red, those fastfood receipts, those Juicy Fruit wrappers, and those old letters from a friend now resting in between the pages of Bobby prove that I am one sentimental junkie. So I turned the pages and saw my past unfold before my eyes. And it was on the the final page that I felt the deepest sadness, bitterness and regret. That page contains two envelopes:  one from the registrar of the University of the Philippines Manila, the other from the office of Sen. Mar Roxas.

For the record, I was one high school student who excelled in academics. Not a nerd, but not cool either – just one big dreamer. And two years ago, my big dream brought me to the UPCAT testing center in Ilocos Sur, as one among more than 60,000 graduating high school students who aspired to study at the University of the Philippines.

Months passed, and then I received my letter from the registrar of  UP-Manila. I had made it, the only one from our school that did. I was ecstatic. But only for a moment. Once I finished reading the letter, I immediately realized that studying in UP was next to impossible. Being an Iskolar ng Bayan can be costly.

My life story would make a good material for “Maalaala Mo Kaya.” I was an only child. I remember being showered with all the earthly pleasures a child could imagine: school bags with wheels, toys that came with kid’s meals, etc. But then that chapter of my life ended abruptly when my father, who was working abroad, had to come home after being diagnosed with throat cancer. He died when I was 10. My mom and I were left alone. We were broke.

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Wanna learn English, anyone?
By Jaime FlorCruz, CNN

BEIJING, June 10, 2011—One of my first jobs in China was teaching English through songs on CCTV, China's national television station.

That was in 1979, when the People's Republic was just coming out of the tumultuous Cultural Revolution. Ordinary Chinese still wore drab Mao tunics, and top officials debated whether the foreign cultural influences seeping into China were "spiritual pollution."

Still, the CCTV station producers wanted to use national television to popularize English language, and they wanted a light program.

I was recruited to join a group of amateur musicians to produce "Let's Sing," a series of 30-minute specials to complement its weekly program, English on Sunday. Along with three Chinese performers, I would strum my guitar and sing English songs, including "Clementine", "Puff, The Magic Dragon" and "El Condor Pasa." Viewers learned new words, grammar and syntax as they learned the songs.

Station producers closely vetted the lineup of songs and narration we prepared. They vetoed a few, including Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind." We produced 10 shows, which aired for weeks and replayed many times. We became local celebrities, occasionally recognized and stopped in Beijing's shops and alleys. Even today, the odd Beijing resident occasionally stops me and says he or she first learned English through my TV show.

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Young Blood: Independent thinker
By Marla Viray, Philippine Daily Inquirer

June 14, 2011—There comes a time in your life so unique when you suddenly know who you are and what you want. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel, they say. It is a time when you stop grasping for random things that come your way. You get rid of all the accumulated clutter of the silly years that have gone by. You refrain from asking old questions and venture on finding answers to new ones instead.

My birthday falls on June 12, our country’s Independence Day. Since I turned 21 this year, I would like to think it was mine as well. But don’t get me wrong. I value the significance of our national holiday, although I find it nice that the entire country celebrates my birthday with flags instead of balloons and with patriotic songs instead of a birthday song.

My mom used to tease me that she almost named me Aguinalda, or Filipinas, or even Independencia. I am glad she used her better judgment and named me Marla. My sister Franz, who was born on Nov. 30, has not been as lucky. She is sometimes called Bonifacia or Andrea by friends and relatives.

It is no idle boast when I say that I have a relatively clear picture of my life already, at least career-wise. I no longer hope. Or maybe I don’t rely too much on hope. Fulfilling one’s dream is a process of grasping, realizing and knowing who you are and what you want. Knowing precedes achieving.
Still fresh out of college, I steadfastly pursue the profession I believe I belong to: journalism…

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To speak only English is to narrow your horizon
Editorial, The Observer

June 26, 2011—As the candidates on The Apprentice proved, faced with speaking a foreign language the British are losers

It was hardly music to the ears. Susan, Tom, Melody and colleagues from BBC 1's “The Apprentice,” described as “an entrepreneurial elite,” ventured in last week’s episode into Paris and briefly tried to engage the natives in their mother tongue. “Porcelaine?” said one of the team trying to coax the sale of a tea pot, starting out quite strongly before collapsing into: “Ah oui, fine bone china.” “Un mobile phone shop?” asked another.

For many in the UK, English is their first and only language. On grounds of functionality, why would they want to get their heads around the grammar, vocabulary and literature of foreigners?

They comfort themselves with the belief that “everyone speaks English” – when that’s not true of 75% of the world's population.

Andy Burnham, Labour MP and shadow secretary of state for education, said in a recent interview: “In parts of my constituency they struggle to see the relevance of learning French or Spanish. They are not going to go on holiday there, they don’t want to work there… they are being very rational when they argue that a language wouldn't necessarily place them in the strongest position when entering the workforce.”

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It may be baby talk, but we understand and speak it
By RUSSELL SMITH, Globe and Mail

June 29, 2011—My partner hands me a coffee. “Daydoo,” I say absently. She understands – without even realizing that I am not speaking English – and responds, “Weggum.” We have made no conscious choice to start speaking the idiolect of our two-year-old, but his language seeps into ours. If you live in France, you accidentally start speaking French. If someone very close to you says “toobee” for “excuse me” (and particularly if that person usually says “toobee, daddy,” in an impossibly cute way), and everyone in your little house—a world of its own—understands what “toobee” means, you may be charmed into thinking that “toobee” is the preferable formula for moving someone out of your way.

This is the opposite of what speech and language therapists counsel you to do, of course: You should repeat the garbled phrase in clear English so that the child will learn to correct his eccentric ways. One tries to do this, but the natural instinct to mimic one’s interlocutor runs both ways. This human tendency is surely crucial to the development of all communication: We adjust to and repeat the speech patterns of others in order to make them feel at ease.

Furthermore, there is a great emotional and egotistical appeal to secret languages – languages spoken only between lovers, for example. We all love code words. And is it a coincidence that lovers’ talk is so frequently baby talk? Our speaking two-year-old dialect is a form of bonding. So now I call out in the supermarket, unconsciously, that I am going to get a carton of “mowkie” and that we might have “pida” for lunch, and I don’t care who hears it.

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On the perils and delights of translation
By Kamila Shamsie, The Guardian

June 25, 2011—Some years ago a friend phoned and said, “You'd better sit down.” She and her Italian boyfriend had been arguing about who died at the end of one of my novels. He had asked her to read the final page of the novel aloud – “OK,” he said. “In the English version, you're right; in the Italian translation, I’m right.”

Attempts at clarification ran into confusion – my Italian publishers insisted the “right” person had died; the Italian boyfriend was adamant that wasn’t the case; an Italian-speaking friend said he could see how someone might read it either way. But as I found myself considering the possibility of a “new” Italian ending, I discovered that I wasn’t upset by it – if anything I was strangely pleased. I found myself re-thinking the oddness of that reaction last week during the three-day long Festival of Writers in Florence, which was structured around the Premio Gregor von Rezzori – a translation prize set up five years ago in memory of the great writer of that name by his widow, Beatrice Monti, who orchestrated the prize and the festival with the same energy and imagination she brings to bear on her writer’s retreat, Santa Maddalena, where I’ve been a fellow this last month.

Over the three days, in lectures, interviews and private conversations, writers considered their relationship to the individual sentence. ‘What else does a writer have but sentences?" Zadie Smith asked in the opening lecture of the festival, entitled ‘Why Write?’  

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I’m losing my Canadian English
By Rebecca Connop Price, Globe and Mail

WALES, June 20, 2011—English, I have learned, isn’t just one language. Depending on where you live in the English-speaking world, words can develop new meanings or spiral into new directions.

When I prepared for my move to Britain, I didn’t think my English would be much different from that of my British peers. I was wrong. My job as a writer and editor has forced me to examine these differences closely, and it has made me realize just how much language can create – and change – your identity.

I have found, to my great distress, that I am beginning to forget what I, as an English-speaking Canadian, should be saying or how I should pronounce it. When I left Canada at 23, having spent a wonderful four years in Ottawa and, before that, having grown up among the mountains in northern British Columbia, I felt strongly rooted to our great nation. I’m now married to a Brit, and as the years go by, I have begun to notice those roots becoming increasingly fragile. At 30, I’m heartbroken that I have left Canada, and that Canada is starting to leave me.

Before moving to Wales as an exchange student, I took a seminar on how to adapt to life in a foreign country. I was cautioned by the instructor at Carleton University that the people most likely to feel culture shock were actually the people who went to Britain, not those who moved to the different cultures of say Chile or Italy…

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Too much of our language has become a no-go area
By Cristina Odone, Telegraph.co.uk

June 12, 2011—For two years at my sixth form college in north Oxford, I was a “wop”. The pretty and posh girls who lived in my house thought it a perfectly descriptive label — I was Italian, wasn’t I? — and if it had a derogatory whiff about it, too bad: as a new girl I should learn my place. If I’d tried to get matron on side, she would have scolded me for being so wet. In 1979, only words like “wog” and “nigger” were morally loaded.

Today, much more of the English language has become a no-go area. “Coloured” as a term to describe Asians is unacceptable, “handicapped” is frowned upon and “gipsy” is not on. A Lefty who hears the word “chav” will bridle at the “class hatred” of the term; soon, the term “toff” will be a sign of discrimination, too. Which is why when Scope, the disability charity, reports that almost half of disabled people face discrimination on their way to and from work, I worry.

“Discrimination” is a loose term, and Scope uses it to include verbal as well as physical attacks. I would want to see any able-bodied nasty who assaults someone in a wheelchair charged. But there is a difference between shoving a disabled person and calling him a “spastic”. When police witness the former, they should prosecute; when they hear the latter, they should issue a warning, not a warrant.

Magistrates’ courts used to issue an order called “binding over to keep the peace”, which put offenders on notice that a repeat performance would land them in real trouble.

But once police start investigating insults, danger lurks…

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Language skills no piece of cake
By Matt Hodges, China Daily

June 26, 2011—What annoyed me the most about Avatar—aapart from its lame attempt to go 3-D —was hearing Sam Worthington’s character describe learning the language of the Na’vi as something easy and routine. It’s just about memorizing words, he says, whereas most adults his age would argue that getting bilingual this late in the day sounds more like the precious mineral they are trying to rid the planet Pandora of: “unobtainium.”

Granted, there are people, like former marine Jake Scully, who’s not exactly what you call an ordinary learner. The guy can ride phoenix-like aliens on his first attempt. It took me longer to figure out how to turn on my washing machine.

But for the vast majority of us, it will never be as easy to process vast landscapes of new information post-puberty as it was before we had hair sprouting in the most bewildering of places.

Apparently they call this benchmark age the Critical Period Hypothesis, and it may be related to the delayed development of the pre-frontal cortex in young children. Or maybe it’s just that, as you get older, fast cars and fast women are a lot more appealing than playing hangman.

I certainly noticed the difference. Even though I can recall tons of random and useless French vocabulary from junior-school tests, it took me three weeks to remember the words for “how much” in Mandarin at age 30…

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The booming market for English teachers in China
By Michelle V. Rafter, SecondAct.com

June 16, 2011—If you're considering teaching overseas as a way to see the world and enjoy an encore career, look east to China.

Private schools there are on a hiring tear because many Chinese parents want their children to learn English to thrive in a global economy. China is becoming the fastest-growing private English education system in the world, according to a survey by Disney English, a Magic Kingdom subsidiary that runs 22 Chinese academies that teach English to preschoolers. Another recent study says that China's private education market is projected to grow 45 percent between 2009 and 2012.

Some English language programs in China are soliciting people 40 and older to teach. Their ranks include the Teacher Ambassador Program, a joint venture between United World College, a chain of 13 international colleges and schools, and the U.K.-based Ameson Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes East-West cultural and educational exchanges.

The program, called TAP for short, currently is hiring recruits with bachelor's degrees and prior teaching experience to work in high schools in 13 Chinese cities this fall…

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Examining university English entrance exams
By Mike Guest, The Daily Yomiuri

It’s easy to find commentary about university English entrance exams. The Internet is full of prospective and past students, as well as teachers, going over the minutiae of just about every such test in the country. A lot of criticism of these exams can also be found—much of it justified—as many are poorly written. After all, many committee members are not familiar with good testing practices and might even be placed on the entrance exam committee unwillingly.

Surprisingly though, very little is written about how to design such exams so they are valid and reliable. Administrators tend to say little on the matter, merely exhorting test makers to avoid mistakes on the exam. Test makers, meanwhile, rarely reveal their identities, a cloak of secrecy which allows little discussion as to how to make tests better. Yet this is precisely what many test makers need since preparations start as early as June. So, perhaps it would be useful to talk today about what makes a good English entrance exam.

Let’s start with the big picture. What is the purpose for giving such an exam? Answering with, “because it’s always been done,” “because it makes students study” or “because it generates income for the institution” is unhelpful. Since a test is valid only if it succeeds in meeting its purpose, an absence of clear purpose leads to exams that lack validity—meaning the most worthy examinees won’t necessarily succeed.

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Competition and cultural mores
By Helene J. Uchida, The Daily Yomiuri

July 1, 2011—Q: I have taught English in primary schools in South Korea and have noticed students are super competitive in class. I wonder if this is the same in Japan. I also would like to know how a teacher should deal with competition in class. Should the teacher encourage it or discourage it?—N.M.

A: We all know that culture has a paramount influence on education and that competition is a very strong factor in Asia. How we as teachers guide our students and conduct our lessons can feed into culture or complement it. I personally prefer to complement it.

I do not encourage individual competition in class because I believe each child is unique and enters the classroom with his or her own learning curve. I prefer to focus on helping students move forward at their own pace. Some may move faster than others, but I have learned over the years that speed is never the determining factor of English success. Very often slow and steady does win a race.

I do welcome gentle group competition for fun when we do warm-ups or play games for two reasons: One, group members are connected by their desire to succeed. Two, when one team wins or loses, no one loses face since the activity was played for fun. In essence, I do not make a big deal over who won or lost because I believe all the participants are winners.

In his book No Contest: The Case Against Competition, Alfie Kohn, author and lecturer on education, states his belief that cooperative learning leads to higher levels of self-esteem than competitive settings...

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Are school librarians expendable?
Room for Debate, The New York Times

June 27, 2011—Carol Simpson is a former school librarian and school library administrator. She currently practices school law in Plano, Tex.

Faced with extensive budget cuts from lawmakers, administrators are forced between a rock and a hard place.

There are mandates for class size, special education and English language learning, for example. The librarian has no such protection.

When state law requires certain student to teacher ratios, administrators’ hands are tied when they are told they must eliminate a specific number of campus positions. Federal law mandates personnel-intensive services for students with special needs and English language learners, and multiple meals a day for economically disadvantaged services.

None of those positions may be eliminated. Who, then, may an administrator cut? Cutting fat must eventually yield to cutting bone.

Research shows that students are poorly prepared to cope with the volumes of information that confront modern students. School librarians are highly skilled in locating, evaluating and organizing information in multiple formats. In most states, school librarians are also certified and experienced classroom teachers. They are ideal choices to teach students (and teachers) the skills needed to manage information overload.

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What did you say?
Highlands Today

June 26, 2011—I love the English language. It's so alive — always growing and changing. It's the most expressive, most versatile and most adaptable language in the history of mankind. But it also needs protection against those who are endangering its future.

Because English has become the one true international language, it is also the most abused. People who learn it as a second language continually mix words, phrases and syntax from their native tongues into English. For the most part, that's understandable and forgivable.

However, no one abuses the English language more than we native English speakers do. This happens, first of all, because our schools no longer teach real English grammar, spelling and usage as they once did. But it is also due to this age of instant communication where whatever is short and to the point, correct or not, becomes the norm.

This misuse of the language can become a real problem, and nowhere is it more detrimental than in advertising. It used to be the case that you wouldn't even be considered for any type of communications job unless you were a grammar and spelling expert. Not so today.

These days anyone who can speak English, no matter how poorly, can find employment as an advertising copywriter or even a television news reporter. The consequences are often sad and sometimes humorous. Here are just a few of the gaffs I've noticed lately.

Honda says of car shoppers: "To each their own." Though Honda is a Japanese company, I'd be willing to bet it was an American who wrote that inane slogan. Even my computer's spell check objected.

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Two events complete revival of English
By Harold Raley, Galveston Daily News

June 26, 2011—William the Conqueror had no love for the English or their language. As soon as he became king in 1066, he began to slaughter the English aristocracy, seize their estates and replace them with French-speaking mercenaries.

The Normans looked on the English as inferiors and their language as a barbarian tongue.

In time, French would influence English, but for the first 150 years after the conquest there was surprisingly little mingling of people and languages.

Except for Henry I (1100-35), no king married an English woman until the end of the 15th century. English seemed doomed.

Several unlikely events led to an English revival. To begin with, the Normans lost political control of Normandy in the 13th century and had to choose between their precarious holdings in France and those in England. Most chose England.

Then infuriated by Henry III’s marriage to a French princess and an influx of greedy Frenchmen who depleted the exchequer, the now anglicized nobility forced Henry to issue the Provisions of Oxford in 1258 in which he promised to reform the government.

The document was published not only in the customary French and Latin but also for the first time in English since the Norman Conquest.

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At Nathan’s, mastering the King’s English of Kings County
By Corey Kilgannon and Jeffrey E. Singer, The New York Times

June 27, 2011—For a group of Chinese students spending this summer working in New York City, learning English was challenging enough. But learning Brooklynese?

“In university in Beijing, I learned British English, but the people here in Brooklyn speak very differently,” said Li Xiaoshu , 23, an English-language major back home and one of roughly 20 college students from China participating in a work-abroad program through August at Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand next to the Coney Island Boardwalk.

“They do not pronounce the R’s at the end of the word,” Ms. Li observed as she served up hot dogs on Saturday to a throng of hungry customers, many of whom placed their orders in Kings County dialect.

A young man leaned in and said something that to fresh ears may have sounded like “Yugahtsawltnpeppa?”

Ms. Li paused momentarily but then brightened and said, “Ah, salt,” and handed over several packets of salt and pepper, and continued taking orders and serving hot dogs, fries, corn and soda.

The workers’ demeanor was cheerful, and they seemed to wear their yellow shirts and green hats with particular pride, including the name tags with the slogan “Serving up smiles since 1916.” They said they were cognizant of the history of Nathan’s at Coney Island, even though a manager confided, “When they first come in, they ask, ‘What’s a hot dog?’ ”

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9 ways to learn a new language in retirement
By Kathleen Peddicord, USNews.com

June 27, 2011—You could retire in many places overseas and, at least in particular cities and regions, get by without learning to speak the local language. In Ireland and Belize, for example, everyone speaks English. And in Paris, Panama City, Buenos Aires, and Istria, many of the locals speak enough English so that you could survive without making any real effort to communicate in their lingo.

In a place like Ajijic, Mexico, or Boquete, Panama, home to big and growing communities of retirees from North America, you could insulate yourself from the local population, make a new life among fellow expats, and avoid the language issue altogether. Some people live in these towns for years without acquiring more than a handful of local words. You could also count on a spouse, friend, assistant, or translator to fill in gaps in your fluency. But your experience of the place will not be the same as it would be if you made the effort to learn to speak with your new neighbors in their native language.

Even a little effort is appreciated. I wouldn’t say that I speak Spanish. However, before we moved to Panama, I worked to learn at least enough of the language to get around. I can say hello, good-bye, thank you, and please. I can give a taxi driver directions and order dinner in a restaurant where the waiter speaks no English. I can ask for help or for a beer at the bar. If you're thinking of retiring to a country where the language is something other than English, think about making the effort to speak the local language at least at this level. Here are nine tips for learning a new language:

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Black English: An underrated bilingualism
By Russell Evans, Chantilly.Patch.com

June 22, 2011—Heritage High School in Ashburn is a gorgeous school. The main hallway is reminiscent of a college hall with high ceilings and well-appointed floors and walls. Despite the school’s newness, there’s a sense of weight, a sense of importance to the building, most likely derived from its stately appearance.

When I taught Spanish at Heritage in early 2009, I appreciated how much the school reflected the growing diversity of Loudoun County. The school seemed dynamic. The energy beamed through the students, through their engagement and their appreciation of each other’s differences.

Everyday when I drove off the exit from the Greenway, which I was sure had been completed several minutes before I got there, I knew my Spanish students were there to play ball.

***

During my teacher training, I was told to teach what’s relevant, not what’s interesting. I can appreciate the need to maintain curricular structure, but that doesn’t mean I'm good at it. At Heritage I was a “leave replacement” teacher, so it should come as no surprise that a number of my lessons went astray as we moved towards the end of our 75-minute block.

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The dictionary isn't the law. The law is
Language Johnson, The Economist

NEW YORK, June 14, 2011—Dictionary fetishism has returned to the news. Back when the Oxford English Dictionary admitted "LOL" and a few other internet-related neologisms to its collection, someone complained that the OED "is supposed to have dignity." I commented then that many people don't seem to know what dictionaries are for. They aren't for having dignity.

They also aren't for defining words so closely that America's Supreme Court should rely on them to determine the meaning of contested words. Yet that's just what justices are doing. This understandably alarms people like Jesse Sheidlower, an editor for Oxford's dictionaries. The lexicographer told The New York Times that "It’s easy to stack the deck by finding a definition that does or does not highlight a nuance that you’re interested in." Justice Stephen Breyer, for example, is a fan of the OED itself. Yet this is one of the more promiscuous dictionaries, highlighting as many different historical meanings and modern senses as it can by scouring the written corpus for different uses of a word. Its rank-ordering of senses is certainly not intended to be legally dispositive, so that the first sense listed can be used by judges across the ocean to enforce contracts or put people in prison.  In fact, as the Times points out, since dictionary-makers use sources like the Times to determine how words are used (ie, what they mean), the Supreme Court is, probably without knowing it, relying on the Times.  And the Times is writing about this, closing the loop.

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Lost in translation
By Dr. Andrea Hunter, Nikki Bozinoff, and Katie Dorman
Editorial, TheSpec.com

June 26, 2011—Immigrants, refugees can’t get adequate health care if they can’t be understood

Phuong Nguyen, a 36-year-old woman who spoke little English, died on April 21, 1995, after a 23-day saga at a B.C. hospital. Coroner Jack Harding found that Nguyen’s care had been complicated by significant language barriers and inadequate translation.

Nguyen had been unable to communicate her previous diagnosis of lupus to her health care provider. It was only once she was pregnant and suffered complications that her prior diagnosis became apparent. Nguyen’s health care providers explained the serious health sequelae (negative after-effect) of lupus and pregnancy to Nguyen, without the use of a translator. Less than a month later, her child died in utero and she succumbed to complications shortly after.

Similarly, on Aug. 20, 1986, 55-year-old Harbhajan Singh Chattu lost his leg and experienced kidney failure due to vascular complications that had been misdiagnosed as back pain. The misdiagnosis occurred because Chattu did not have adequate English language skills to describe his symptoms.

A B.C. Supreme Court Justice found Chattu’s physician negligent in his examination and diagnosis and awarded Chattu a $1.3 million settlement.

Sadly, decades after these incidents, medical translation services remain inadequate across the country, leaving thousands of people with health concerns literally lost in translation.

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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.

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Hindi bashers to buffs—Tamil students pick central language courses
By Basant Kumar Mohanty, Telegraph.India.com

NEW DELHI, June 27—A few months ago, the then M. Karunanidhi government set the Centre a condition for opening Navodaya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu.

It was ready to provide land for these schools, the DMK government said, but only if they began teaching in English and Tamil and not in Hindi.

The Union human resource development ministry did not agree and dropped the proposal. Navodaya Vidyalayas continue to exist in all the states and Union territories except Tamil Nadu.

Yet the current trend of Tamil Nadu students increasingly choosing to learn Hindi, with some even opting for Hindi as the medium of instruction, appears to make nonsense of the erstwhile DMK government’s stand.

More than four decades after the DMK rode an anti-Hindi agitation to power in Tamil Nadu, it seems the state’s people are increasingly jettisoning their perceived hostility towards India’s dominant language.

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Government schools pander to English craze
By Asha Krishnaswamy, Deccan Herald

BANGALORE, June 19, 2011—English is certainly becoming the language of choice for parents of school children across the State.

The recent decision of the State education department to carve out English medium sections in the existing higher primary schools seems to be in line with the demand- driven and need- based education  that parents aspire for their children.

Perhaps the craving for English medium learning explains the declining trend of enrolment from 6th to 8th  standards in Kannada medium government schools as opposed to the aided and unaided English medium schools where the enrolments have shown an upward spiral.

It may become unpalatable for pro-Kannada organizations and Kannada litterateurs to digest the hard fact that even in rural areas and tier II and tier III cities across the State, the demand for education in English medium is on the rise. There has been an overall shift of four per cent from Kannada to English medium private schools  from 2006-07 to 2009-10 at an average rate of 1.33 per cent per year.

In terms of numbers, the decrease is 6.28 lakh students during this period of which 2.02 lakh may be due to demographic changes. In case of the rest 4.26 lakh students, there may be a lateral shift to the private sector schools…

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Shift in policy on medium of instruction is imprudent

June 23, 2011—The government decision to give grants to English medium primary schools is not in the interest of Goan children in particular, and Goan society in general. Those who spearheaded the movement for English have failed to realize that primary education in Konkani is essential to empower Goan children to learn English better. This statement is based on the opinion of educationists affiliated to UNESCO and other renowned educationists.

While announcing the shift in the policy, chief minister Digambar Kamat said it will enable the poor to get enrolled in English medium schools which will empower them. In the same breath he said that English is just one of the options and that those who want to get their wards admitted in Konkani or Marathi medium schools have the choice to do so.

Many teachers and concerned parents, who have no faith in Konkani, have jumped to the conclusion that English at the primary level will help students tackle the challenges of the future. This attitude is not uncommon…

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English in India: No longer a colonizer’s tongue?
By Usree Bhattacharya, Times Of India

June 17, 2011—Among the list of demands made by yoga guru Baba Ramdev, at the center of a sensational political maelstrom in India, is the necessity for instruction in vernacular languages, a topic of debate with a long history in India. He first created waves when he came out in strong support of regional language instruction back in March, stating: "In no other country is a videshi [foreign] language the medium of instruction in schools, except in India. By trying to introduce English as a medium of instruction in schools there is a deliberate attempt by a few to destroy our culture, language and heritage." Through a particular kind of discursive posturing that taps into nationalistic sentiment, he aligns himself clearly in the vernacular camp in the debate.

First, he crafts the problem in the rhetoric of exceptionalism, as if it were unique to Indians. Even the most cursory review of the field of international education will reveal that this is a patently false claim (English, Spanish, and French, for example, find favor as media of instruction in many contexts where they may be considered "videshi," from Baba Ramdev's perspective). Second, conceptualizing English as "videshi" is problematic, given that it is Constitutionally recognized as the secondary official language; enjoys a considerable linguistic circulation as a second or third language; and has quite a bit of history within this land. However, none of this has the effect of rendering its colonial ("foreign"?) antecedents invisible: the term "videshi" clearly acts as a colonial marker…

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English can sometimes drive you crazy
By Peggy Tan, TheStar.com.my

June 29, 2011—CHOP! Chop! You need the teacher to chop on the form, then we can register for the course,” cried one student.

“Oi! Salah! Wrong lah. We not say chop but we have to get a stamp from our teacher! Aiyoh! You all ... so bad your English lah!”

“What news?” the Japanese man then greeted the teacher, grinning from ear to ear.

“No, you have to say Apa khabar? This is the Malay way of greeting each other. We cannot translate words directly from the Malay language to English,” explained the teacher to his foreign students in class.

Occasionally, a direct translation of Malay or Chinese to the English language can be disastrous. International travellers have relied on three primary methods of bridging the language gap: taking time to learn the local tongues; utilising a phrasebook; or engaging in a spirited display of improvised face pulling and sign language.

The Americans have invented the Phraselator, a hand-held device that translates 150,000 prerecorded commands and questions into 53 languages, including Russian, Tagalog and Arabic.

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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…

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Accidental tourist encounters language barrier
By Stephanie Katz, Timeslive.co.za

June 26, 2011—I’d been learning two Spanish phrases a day for two months in preparation for the 14 days of freedom I’d been granted by the good people who usually chained me to the desk.

It mattered little that two of those days would be devoted to kicking it cattle class on an aeroplane from the ’50s; nor was I concerned that another seven would be monopolized by the very American family vacation that I’d managed to avoid for the past four years by living in Cape Town.

In fact, I was even excited to see my parents . and my parents’ friends . and my parents’ friends’ children . AND my parents’ friends’ children’s children. I’d even learned a Spanish phrase in my eagerness, “Otra cerveza por favor.” (Another beer please).

First stop, Valencia. Neither a tourist hot spot nor off the beaten path, Spain’s third-largest city falls somewhere in between, and consequently has all the trappings of a mediocre middle child.

Luckily for us, though, our randomly selected holiday coincided with Las Fallas, or the festival of giant demonic carnival floats and three-year-olds with cherry bombs.

The festival lasts five days; the first four are devoted to the construction of ninots (floats) by each neighbourhood…

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Urdu vs. English: Are we ashamed of our language?
By Amna Khalid, The Express Tribune

June 21, 2011—Most Pakistanis have been brought up speaking our national language Urdu and English. Instead of conversing in Urdu, many of us lapse into English during everyday conversation. Even people who do not speak English very well try their best to sneak in a sentence or two, considering it pertinent for their acceptance in the ‘cooler’ crowd.

I wonder where the trend started, but unknowingly, unconsciously, somehow or the other we all get sucked into the trap. It was not until a few years ago while on a college trip to Turkey that I realized the misgivings of our innocent jabber.

A group of students of the LUMS Cultural Society trip went to Istanbul, Turkey to mark the 100th Anniversary of the famous Sufi poet Rumi. One day we were exploring the city when we stopped at a café for lunch. The waiter took our orders, and continued to hover around our table during the meal. We barely noticed him until he came with the bill, and asked us:

“Where are you from?”

“Pakistan”

The waiter looked surprised, and then asked whether we had been brought up in England. We answered in the negative, telling him how Pakistan was where we all had grown up and spent out lives…

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Gripping translation of classics
By Dr Amjad Parvez, Daily Times

June 14, 2011—Living anywhere in the world, it is not easy to accept the fact that most of the world does not speak English. Also most of the best literature may not be written in English language. Thus all of us living in this globe have equal right to read and understand what others have created in their mother tongues. This situation necessitates that the best of translations are made available in all languages and for that purpose skilled writers must be prepared to work in the art of translation.

This is very difficult task as even a bad choice of translating a word from one language to the other can make hell of a difference. So, many believe that there is no such thing as literal translation especially while translating poetry in which not only the words but the sounds also plays an important part.

The most quoted example is that of translations of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables which when translated by a Hugo’s friend in 1862 and then by Norman Denny later entailed large portions of the translations being edited making the translated novel incomplete. When Julie Rose carried out her research, she found the translators’ contempt for Hugo. One therefore needs to be impersonal when in act of translation. Rose observed that one almost enters into a trance-like state to be able to sustain Les Miserables.

Abul Farah Humanyun gives his own recipe of translating works of other languages into another. He provides this recipe in his book titled Sunehri Kahaniyan, a recently published book containing translation into Urdu of short stories written in English, Hindi, Turkish, Chinese, Punjabi, Persian, German, Spanish and Bangla.

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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.

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Why Americans no longer say what they mean in plain English
By Lara Marlowe, The Irish Times

IRELAND, June 25, 2011—In the preface to Pygmalion , George Bernard Shaw famously wrote that every time an Englishman opens his mouth he makes another Englishman despise him.

This is less true in America, where social mobility and democracy have blunted linguistic markers, while in politics there’s a premium on imaginative language that makes an apathetic public sit up and take notice.

But Democrats are handicapped by their split electorate, explains Timothy Meagher, a fourth generation Irish-American and professor of history at Catholic University. Republicans tend to be white and working or middle class, while Democrats encompass the poor, ethnic minorities and Americans with university degrees.

“The language that appeals to educated Democrats is more formal, more academic,” says Meagher. “College professors love Obama, because his language is beautifully crafted. But other groups can find it alienating.”

Race further complicates Obama’s linguistic choices. In his efforts to be a “regular guy”, the president calls people “folks” and drops his ‘g’s. “If he indulges too much in colloquial English, it sounds like black argot,” says Meagher.

“It’s easier for white politicians to descend into folksiness.” Obama’s intelligence and Ivy League education can be a political weakness that make him appear distant and cold, Meagher explains. “Dropping his ‘g’s can seem hip and cool to blacks and young whites, but older whites, and especially middle-class whites, may hear language that conjures up images of poor blacks. Do white Americans see someone like them, or someone who crosses a boundary? He’s boxed in by American stereotypes.”

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Where are the English speaking Tanzanians? 
By Sharifa Kalokola, TheCitizen.co.tz

June 20, 2011—With countries such as Britain tightening up on the level of English language skills for international student visas, a significant number of Tanzanian students who look West for better tertiary education are having to invest a great deal more than others in improving language proficiency. But there are major concerns that the new generation is still not up to the mark when it comes to English language abilities.

By all indications, English is fast taking place in Tanzania as the language of trade, travel and diplomacy due to the free economy that has opened doors to foreign investment. This suggests that learning English may be as important to even young Tanzanians, who want to make it in the competitive labour market in the country.

However, while this fact has been known for a while now, it appears there is still slow progress as far as learning the country’s second official language is concerned. In fact, the old generation of scholars seems to be more proficient in the language than the new academicians.

“We need not underestimate the students as far as their English is concerned because we have a few of them whose command of the language is not that bad,” observes Faraja Kristomus, an assistant lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

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The classic English style of a true IPA

June 6, 2011—As an expatriate Pom who has lived in New Zealand for more than 16 years, I still occasionally get tripped up by the Kiwi language.

To me, Manchester is a rainy city in Lancashire, a dairy is a place where cows are milked, chips are hot and usually come wrapped in newspaper, lollies are fruit-flavoured icecreams on a stick, football is played with a round ball, and the word tasty describes anything flavoursome, not just a specific type of cheese.

And don't get me started on beer. While the rest of the world uses the term "draught" to describe any beer served on tap, here it identifies a specific style of sweet, mildly hopped, amber coloured lager that's uniquely Kiwi. Confusing, or what?

But what winds me up even more are some of the country's best-selling draughts, which are labelled as ales – or, worse still, as India pale ale!

India pale ale dates back to the 18th century, and was first brewed in England to be sent by boat to the troops serving in the sub-continent.

In the days before refrigeration, brewers knew the only way they could make a beer to withstand the rigours of the three to four-month sea journey was to make it very strong and hoppy – alcohol and hops both have antibacterial qualities – so that's the kind of beer they sent.

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