Kindle, Nook, Vook and other business and life outlooks
By Bong R. Osorio, The Philippine Star

It’s that time of year when we draw up an anticipated inventory of outlooks on the way we communicate. The list brings together tried and tested formulas and new concepts that will impact on our everyday business and life.

1. Remaining relevant. We have to continually heighten the desirability quotient of our products and services. Otherwise, more aggressive competitors can grab them from us. Slot in features and functions that will bring in niche elements that cater to the fast-changing and discriminating lifestyle standards of targeted consumers. The need to find differentiating marketing attacks that carry useful offerings to specific audiences who prefer practical products that are appropriate will be a staple. And if we suitably match the indicated needs, positive reception and benevolence will not be far behind. Having a competitive edge is vital and to survive the harsh competition, creativity coupled with a good nose for what’s in and what’s out are critical parts in our business arsenal.

2. Being heard. There is no stopping the sales pitches that will hit the airwaves, print pages and the Web in 2010, which is a national election year. Our product ads will compete with the political ad noise that will increase from February to May. During these months, it would be wise to use mass-media communication that cuts through or perhaps look for other channel opportunities that will ensure efficient delivery of our propositions amid the clutter. The importance of social media, mobile communication and interactive channels will grow even more and will require communicators to efficiently integrate messages given the multiplicity of venues that can be tapped to get in touch with markets that are now highly segmented.

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Txting Cld Help Kids Read Reg Eng
By Marisa Taylor, The Wall Street Journal

Will children who grow up in the age of excessive text messaging see their spelling and reading skills suffer as a result?

Not necessarily, according to a new study from the British Academy. In fact, in an examination of schoolchildren’s texting habits, the kids who used more “textisms” — abbreviations such as “plz” (please) and “l8ter” (later) — showed higher scores on some spelling, phonetics, reading comprehension and other English language competency tests.

“We have found no support in our research for the negative media and public speculation surrounding mobile phone use, text language and its effects on literacy development,” wrote study authors Beverly Plester and Clare Wood, both psychology professors at Coventry University in the United Kingdom.

The researchers conducted three different studies of 8- to 12-year-old children with sample sizes ranging from 60 to 90 kids. They measured how often the kids sent text messages, with “high frequency” texters doing so three or more times per day and “low frequency” kids sending messages once or twice daily.

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Decision time for overseas students
By Mike Baker, British Broadcasting Corp.

Will tougher immigration rules hit overseas student recruitment?

One of the greatest assets of UK education plc is the global importance of the English language.

It is a great boon to British universities, boarding schools and - in particular - to the thriving sector which teaches English as a foreign language.

It is worth billions of pounds a year to the UK economy, through direct and indirect spending by overseas students who come to Britain to study.

Which is why there is currently a deep level of anxiety in the sector over an impending government decision, which many fear will make it much harder for students to gain visas for study in the UK.
It has arisen from a government review of the workings of the system for issuing immigration visas to adult students applying to come to the UK from outside the EU.

The prime minister unexpectedly launched that review last November.

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Mel Gibson Reinventing English With His Viking Movie
By Katey Rich, CinemaBlend.com |
 
After he delved into Aramaic for The Passion of the Christ and an ancient Mayan language for Apocalypto, you might be relieved at first to hear that Mel Gibson is returning to English for his next directorial project. But not so fast—English has been around a long time, and just because the Vikings spoke the same language we did doesn’t mean we’ll understand a word they're saying.

Talking to Collider at the junket for The Edge of Darkness, Gibson spilled a few details on his upcoming Viking movie, which will star Leonardo DiCaprio as one of the legendary fearsome warriors. And as it turns out, Leo has some language training to do. "I think it’s going to be English—the English that would have been spoken back then—and Old Norse. Whatever the 9th century had to offer. I’m going to give you real.”

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English as a third language in Israel
BY Charlotte M. Vaillancourt, Spectrum.com (Southern Utah)

In Israel the official languages are Hebrew and Arabic, so for most people English is their third language and for many even a fourth language. Despite some misunderstandings—such as being charged for round-trip bus fares when I only needed a one-way ticket—I am grateful that people here are so willing to help me in English.

I wanted to avoid being an ugly American when it came to language, but Hebrew and Arabic are not easy languages to learn in Southern Utah. I am up to about five words in each language, but I cannot write or read any of them.

Yet sometimes I cannot help to laugh when I see the written English here.

When I was an undergraduate student, my roommate introduced me to the Web site engrish.com. The site is devoted to the not-so-correct usage of the English language on foreign signs, packaging, advertising, etc.

Some of the usage is so bad, it is funny; actually, it is all rather funny.

Despite the prevalence of English speakers in Israel, I see signage everyday that would fit in well on the engrish.com site; however, this is something most travelers have encountered at some point.

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You can master English at home
By Han Sang-hee, staff reporter, Korea Times

Few Koreans would deny that Min Byoung-chul is a pioneer in the promotion of English education in Korea.

In a recent interview with The Korea Times, his message was clear: You don't have to study in an English-speaking country to master English. You can do it in Korea.

The professor at Konkuk University in Seoul said, "English education in Korea has had its fair share of struggles and they are likely to continue this year as well."

More than 70 percent of Korean students are living overseas with their mothers while their fathers remain here earning money for the purpose of education. But the English proficiency of Koreans remains close to the bottom among the world's non-English speaking countries, according to Educational Testing Services (ETS), the organizer of the TOEFL exam.

As heavyhearted as the students studying abroad and their parents may be, the reality is that many families believe that overseas study is the best way to learn English.

"We can learn English in Korea. It takes time, effort, determination and the right tools, but we can do it," Min said.

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Education system is our Achilles’ heel now
By James Gonzales, The Star.com.my

Earnest changes are needed in our education system to ensure we can produce the ideal manpower to move Malaysia forward from a middle-income country to a high-income country. These changes must start with our education system.

National schools use Bahasa Malaysia, while vernacular schools use Chinese and Tamil, as their medium of instruction. With the emphasis on these three languages, English has been sidelined for the last 20 years.

In a survey conducted by online recruitment company JobStreet.com in August, 65% of the 1,001 major companies rejected job applicants because of their poor command of English.

Although a company has introduced English Language Assessment, I doubt this will be of much help to job-seekers. Proficiency in any language cannot be acquired overnight.

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Politicians muddy the language waters

By Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr.

Politicians destroy and debase language more effectively than globalisers and imperialists can ever hope to do. This is an issue that linguists in the country have not dared to explore because they feel that it is the political struggle of each linguistic group that has helped to prop the language. It is a lie, which needs to be nailed. If anything, the linguistic fanatics who used language as a political weapon are the very people who debased it. For example, the many Dravidian parties -- DK, DMK, AIADMK et al -- have been a curse and a disaster for Tamil.

Excepting Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi, who is an acknowledged litterateur in his own right, all the others have tried to choke the language with mindless linguistic antiquarianism. They tried to purge the language of Sanskrit words. It is the kind of a blinkered movement witnessed in the English language, when some poets and writers wanted to write in English which did not have any Latin words and who tried to revive the long-dead Anglo-Saxon words and phrases.

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Do we need to change textbooks often to teach English?
By Asantha U. Attanayake

The evolution of methods for teaching a second language has seen many approaches and methods getting discarded as and when experts in the field advocate. However, as knowledge expands such discourses are inevitable. When teaching methods change, consequently the materials are changed or vice versa.

In the case of the general education in Sri Lanka, we have witnessed textbooks being changed a number of times in terms of their outlook over the past couple of years. Changes are necessary if we want to proceed. Yet, have we ever justified empirically, why complete changes in the textbooks are necessary? What is the proof that such changes are a must?

There are instances where within two-three years after the production of one set of textbooks, changes were carried out to the entire set of books. One might argue that since English language teaching itself has not shown a remarkable improvement, or rather it has shown that it is a failure, that itself would account for the need to have changes in the main resources in teaching, that is textbooks/materials in our contexts.

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Making the Net global
Editorial, Arabnews.com
 
Yesterday's decision by the Internet regulators to allow domain names in characters other than Latin ones is a major shot in the arm for cultural equality. Most people in the world do not speak languages written in the Latin script. Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide (a quarter of the world’s population), more than half use languages written in other scripts. There are billions more as yet without access to a computer and the Internet, who largely live in Africa and Asia who likewise do not speak a language which uses Latin characters. They are potential users. The Internet, as the prime means of communication and information exchange alongside television and telephone, must be fully accessible to them. Enabling users to key in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Cyrillic or whatever scripts they use to access their chosen websites will show that all languages and cultures are regarded as equal in the Internet age. The Internet becomes truly global.

Whether increasing domain name characters from 30 to over 100,000 makes a great deal of practical difference is another matter. Small local businesses such as restaurants or shops will probably avail themselves of the facility, but most businesses and most websites will probably stick to the present system.

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