When the devil talked back
By Rey Jope, PhilStar.com

December 23, 2010—My integrity as a teacher had been tested once before. But what happened then was nothing compared to what happened to me in the spring of 1996. For the choice that I made this time, many of my friends thought I was an idiot. In fact, at some point, I had convinced myself that I was.

At that time, I had been teaching middle school math in this small school district in south Texas for a little over two years. I had just paid off my debts in the Philippines, but my Nanay had started getting seriously sick. By no means I would give up my job and consequently lose my H1B visa.

Unfortunately, my fear of losing my American dream had drastically intensified. School was going to be over in a few weeks, but about twenty percent of my eighth graders had yet to make a move to salvage their failing grades. What if my school district would take the failures against me and not offer me another annual contract? I had invested so much of myself here that I was mortified by the idea of being sent home.

I was convinced that it was all because of my students' irresponsibility that caused them to fail. Surely it wasn't me. I had done everything to help them. I had made prompt and appropriate adjustments to our math curriculum…

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Travails of a Filipino getting a British passport
By Bobi Rodero, Philippine Daily Inquirer
 
LONDON—When I moved to London in December 1992, it never occurred to me to become a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I’ve always been proud to be a Filipino—rather be a first-class Filipino than a second class subject of another country.

But after eighteen years of humiliating experiences at the immigration queues at the airports of the world, I caved in. Yes, we are the big fish in our small pond, but with the way we are treated abroad, Filipinos are still second class citizens of the world. While we are most useful to many countries as highly educated, modern-day slaves, the border police at the airports are invariably hostile to our citizens. When I pointed this out to another Filipino expat, he said it might be because we are a big threat to their own jobs as most of us are better qualified and more efficient than them.

The last straw was when I decided to stay for long periods in Hong Kong where Filipino passport holders are allowed only 14 days of stay while British nationals are given up to six months. I simply got bored of exiting every fortnight. Since I started living in Hong Kong in June 2010, I have flown to London three times, Manila and Bacolod City about twelve times, and even went to sleep in a garish hotel in Macau just to exit my fourteen-day limit in Hong Kong.

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Old bad news a current problem
Editorial, The Manila Times

January 11, 2011—While there’s plenty of good news in other sectors—the potential of tourism, for instance, and the credit rating upgrades—we again have to swallow our pride as we did last year and the year before about the state of our educational system.

Once more there’s news that the Americans are worried, sympathizing with us really, and wishing we were faring better in meeting the second Millennium Development Goal: Achieve universal primary education.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the most broadly supported, comprehensive and specific development goals the world has ever agreed upon. There are eight time-bound goals. In the United Nation’s assessment (which some strongly dispute, such as the goal of passing the Reproductive Health Bill to reduce population growth), these goals—eight of them—“provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.”

World leaders at the UN adopted these goals in 2000 and agreed that these goals be achieved by 2015.

The first goal is to “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.” We seem to be achieving some progress in meeting this goal.

But we have slid back in the education goal.

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The language police are a force for good
By Charles Moore, The Telegraph UK

Anyone interested in the English language and its history should read 'The Language Wars', says Charles Moore.

January 30, 2011—Since I shall spend the rest of this article attacking this book, I should say at once that it is well worth reading. It is crisply written, amusing, informative and thought-provoking. Anyone interested in the English language and its history should read it.

But it tells you a lot about a book to identify whom the author sees as the enemy. Henry Hitchings has one enemy, and whenever its troops appear in view, his normal good humour deserts him. He divides people who interest themselves in language into descriptivists and prescriptivists. The former observe how language actually is, and record its migrations, mating habits, habitat and so on, like birdwatchers. He approves of them. The latter say how language should be, and endeavour to make rules – even, sometimes, laws – about what is proper. Mr Hitchings hates the prescriptivists.

How he turns his sarcasm upon those who have tried to establish what is "correct". How he excoriates the "grumblers, fault-finders, quibblers and mudslingers". How gleefully he points out that those who try to regulate, elevate, preserve or purify the language are "really" acting out of political motives or expressing, in their various distastes, "a reaction that is pointedly social", rather than linguistic…

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War of the words: Henry Hitchings book is “intriguind and committed”
By David Sexton, ThisisLondon.co.uk

February 3, 2011—Henry Hitchings, theatre critic of this newspaper, has written such an intriguing and committed book. Under the guise of being a genial history of the development of the English language—from the arrival of Germanic settlers in the fifth century right up to the emergence of what he calls Multicultural London English—The Language Wars is an attack on all who have ever thought there is any right or wrong way of writing and speaking English.

Hitchings tells us "All attitudes to usage can be classified as either prescriptive or descriptive... A prescriptivist dictates how people should speak and write, whereas a descriptivist avoids passing judgments and provides explanation and analysis. One says what ought to happen, one says what does happen."

Hitchings is, unsurprisingly, a descriptivist. So he gleefully explains, over 28 chapters, organised pretty much chronologically while covering areas such as spelling, punctuation, pronunciation, obscenity and slang, that all attempts to prescribe "correct" usage have always been outrun by ceaseless change in the language itself.

In 1762, Robert Lowth published A Short Introduction to English Grammar, laying down rules about punctuation, double negatives, ending a sentence with a preposition, the difference between "would" and "should", etc, while exposing what he considered to be faulty usage in even "our best authors".

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Sexism and the English language
By Betty Kirkpatrick, Caledonian Mercury

February 3, 2011—Much has been said and written recently about sexism in football. Will it ever be eradicated? That is doubtful, very doubtful. On the other hand, the English language used to be riddled with sexism and some of this has been removed, although not without controversy.
Time was, before the Women’s Movement turned its attention to language, when anyone whose gender was not stated or not obvious from the context was automatically assumed to be male.
Thus, it was taken for granted that someone designated an author, poet, sculptor or manager was a man. If a woman managed to escape the kitchen for long enough to take on such a role, it was thought necessary to add the suffix –ess, as in authoress, poetess, sculptress and manageress.
As women began to get the equality bit between their teeth and more of them came out of the kitchen, they found this little add-on rather belittling. A long struggle ensued to get rid of the -ess, but in time author, poet, sculptor, manager and such like began to achieve a unisex status. Fortunately, air hostess took on the more accurate, if less glamorous-sounding, term flight attendant.

Language, however, like most things is far from being consistent and some –ess words, such as waitress, remain. For some reason the world of theatre is undecided…

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President Sarkozy wants to force French children to learn English from the age of 3
By Oliver Pickup, Daily Mail UK

February 1, 2011—Nicolas Sarkozy has left French traditionalists wiping Burgundy's finest rouge from their whiskers in disgust after proposing that the country's youth be forced to learn the English language from as early as nursery school.

The French President, who has recently come under fire for his own grasp of Francais, has said that he wants France's youngsters to learn 'the language of Shakespeare'.

And now he has further enraged a proud - and sensitive - nation by suggesting that French children should learn the Queen's English... from as young as the age of THREE.

Difference of opinion: While Nicolas Sarkozy wants French children to learn English from a very early age, General Charles de Gaulle—one of the most celebrated French leaders—never uttered a word of English in public

It is the complete opposite of the approach taken by one of France's most celebrated leaders, Charles de Gaulle, who simply refused to parlez Anglais in public.

The French general and statesman, who led the Free French Forces during World War II, founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.
He would turn in his grave upon hearing Mr Sarkozy's latest suggestions about linguistics—a move that critics fear will dilute the cherished French language and halt its dissemination.

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Britain losing its voice
By James Lamont, BeyondBrics

January 30, 2011—India is still sore about Britain’s hurried departure in 1947, when the curtain came down abruptly on two centuries of empire and Pakistan was split out of British India.

Sixty four years on, strains of cash shortages and fatigue are forcing another hasty British retreat. The BBC Hindi Service is about to exit short-wave broadcast in March. Across the Himalayas, the sister Mandarin service faces the same fate. Further afield, Russian services are being pared too.

According to some estimates within the BBC, the public broadcaster is about to ditch 12m listeners in India for a more modest number of about 12,000 accessing the service online, plus those who receive BBC programmes that are carried by local FM stations. The post bag and telephone exchange at the broadcaster’s Delhi office is swelling with complaint.

True, technology is changing fast in media, and short-wave is viewed as costly old hat compared to FM radio and the internet. But such changes aren’t felt deeply yet in northern India where broadband internet penetration is low, and computer access a distant prospect for the country’s tens of millions of poor people. Radios, however, are popular among the marginalised as is programming distinct from India’s own English and Hindi language media.

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“I think it's poetic to write in your mother’s language,” says Nobel Prize laureate

January 30, 2011—In 2005, a year before he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Orhan Pamuk faced imprisonment in Turkey for commenting on the mass killing of Kurds and Armenians in that country. Later, the charges of "insulting" the Turkish republic would be dropped but Pamuk continued to write about his homeland in the way he wanted. "My Name is Red" was historical, "Istanbul" a memoir and "The Museum of Innocence" was a tale of obsessive love. Pamuk, 58, who teaches comparative literature at Columbia University in the USA, passed through Delhi recently and talked writing in long hand and literary compassion to Saira Kurup. Excerpts:

Which do you prefer to write —sad stories or happy ones?

I am not afraid of being deeply sad and deeply happy. Writing a novel is not only managing a story in a most interesting way but also managing the emotions of the reader. Characters are there not only to follow a plot but also to convey an emotion that comes from identifying with the feelings of the characters. Some writers are afraid of melo-dramatizing their feelings. I am not like that. I am not afraid of those feelings.

Would you ever consider writing a love story with a happy ending? Can love stories really end happily?

In fiction, anything is possible…

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Linguistic innovation: Being Indian in English
By Stuart Forster, Deccan Herald

Whatever you choose to identify as the cause — globalisation, the Indian diaspora or perhaps even the growing international popularity of Bollywood movies — the world is becoming increasingly aware that Indian English has its own identity.

More than 60 years have passed since the people who brought English to the subcontinent returned to Blighty (Surprisingly, that affectionate term for Britain — conjuring images of the homeland’s white cliffs — originates from a Hindi word.) Of course, the British did not go empty handed. By 1947, dictionaries were brimming with pukka English words — such as “caravan,” “bungalow,” and “‘shampoo”— whose origins can be traced back to India.

Post-Independence, the Indian and British versions of the English language have experienced some divergence in their development. Yet, that of course, is not a new phenomenon. Think about the differences between British and American English. Spellings, pronunciation and even some word meanings differ. George Bernard Shaw was prompted to make the now famous observation that “England and America are two countries divided by a common language.” I’ve always been fascinated as to why the word colour is spelt ‘color’ — without the ‘u’ — in the United States but course is not spelt ‘corse.’”.

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Evolving English

February 4, 2011—Erika Brincat speaks to one of the world’s leading linguists – the acclaimed English Language expert, Professor David Crystal, who was here in Malta this week to give three public talks.

Professor David Crystal has been producing books, articles, radio and TV programmes and interviews for more than 30 years and at the heart of it all is a longing to educate. The first talk by Professor Crystal held on Wednesday at the University of Malta was on The Future of Englishes. The second talk about The Perils of Being a Linguist took place on Wednesday evening at the St James Cavalier Theatre, and the final talk held on Thursday dealt with Internet Linguistics, and took a look at the effect of the Internet on language.

Could you tell us what is meant by The Future of Englishes? Do you mean to say there are different versions of the English language?

This is not a new usage at all, you will find The Journal of World Englishes for example – the whole point is that with English being an increasingly global language it is natural for a variety of local versions to arise. This has been the case since colonial times in South Africa for example and also in the last 50 to 60 years in countries such as Nigeria and India a distinctive form of English is arising.

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Language evolves best without censorship
By Jim Hume, Times Colonist

January 30, 2011—I'm old enough to remember when we used to burn fagots, or eat them with chin-dripping gravy and a side order of mushy peas. Not that you have to be really ancient to recall such epicure take-out dining.

As a matter of fact, to this day if you find yourself anywhere north of Birmingham, England, or over in glorious Wales, you can still get a plate of piping hot fagots with mushy peas and mashed potatoes smothered in rich brown gravy in most towns and villages.

And if you can't find a hole-in-the-wall café offering the nutritious delicacy on a paper plate, you can try the nearest supermarket where "Mr. Brain's Faggots" -four to a can and with two "g"s in the English spelling -will be found in the canned-food aisle.

I've never tasted the canned version, and to tell the truth I wasn't much of a fan of the homemade stuff either. Always found it a bit spicy with the mushy peas, mashed spuds and gravy making it palatable.

Manufacturers of the canned product claim in their advertising that 100 million faggots (with two "g"s) are eaten in the U.K. every year. Guess they'd have an advertising problem on this side of the Atlantic.

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A Quebec language study enrages linguistic cannibals

January 14, 2011—According to a study commissioned by the Centrale des syndicates du Québec (CSQ), Quebec’s largest and reliably nationalist union body, since 1997 more than half of the students enrolled in anglo cegeps (Quebec’s post-secondary, two-year college programs preceding university) come from the francophone and ethnic communities.

The study found that these students chose the anglo institutions expressly because they served as immersion centres for gaining proficiency in English. And why did they wish to learn English? Because — prepare for a shock — they felt they would get better jobs if they spoke both French and English, you see. And if that weren’t insult enough to sovereigntists, the study also found that many students of ethnic background were actually more comfortable speaking English than French.

Gaaaa!

These findings make perfect sense to any rational and objective person cognizant of the overwhelming career advantage knowledge of English confers everywhere in the world, but they are salt in open wounds to ethnic nationalists.

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Let the music play: Song sparks language debate
By Carol McDade, Global News

HALIFAX, N.S., January 14, 2011—The English language is an amazing living organism.

And it isn't proud—it will beg, borrow and steal from every other language—even dead ones.

There are an estimated 300 thousand words in the English language—by comparison only 42 thousand in the French language.

And each time we use a word—we allow it to grow—often altering its meaning because of the context in which we use it.

We are only two weeks into the new year—and never in such a short time has one word in the English language caused so much controversy.

The word is "faggot".

Earlier this week the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council—the independent body that regulates private broadcasters' standards and ethics—ruled the 1985 original recording of Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" violates broadcast standards because "the word 'faggot'... even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so."

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Wordwise: Culinary terms and the English Language
By S.H.Loke, TheStar.com.my

February 2, 2011—Everyone loves food. Culinary terms have found their way into the English Language. Here is a test to help you digest some of these common culinary terms which can add much flavour and richness to your speech. Choose the right word to complete the following sentences.

1. He was______with anger because his new car was scratched.

A boiling B steaming C roasting D baking

2. Having a good command of English______down to reading, writing and speaking the language all the time.

A boils B steams C fries D bakes

3.The suspected kidnapper was_______by the police for hours.

A baked B steamed C fried D grilled

4. It is good to get away from the______of daily household chores.

A crush B grind C blend D mash

5. The class was given a______by their teacher for copying.

A frying B boiling C roasting D smoking

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The foreignness of English
By John Evans, TheStar.com.my

January 19, 2011—Where does the English language come from? It would only be a mild exaggeration to say that it comes from languages other than English. Germanic words (Old English, Norse and Dutch) account for only 26% of the English lexis, and are outnumbered by French words (29%) and Latin words (another 29%, including words used only in scientific medical and legal contexts). Greek words account for 6% of the language, which leaves 4% derived from proper names and a final 6% of words that come from other languages or from obscure origins.

English borrows—rather than coins—new words, and the number of loan words in the language is large and growing exponentially. In most unabridged dictionaries, only one-fifth, or at the most, one-fourth, of the words can claim to be “homegrown” English words. Be that as it may, the mode in which loan words are employed is purely English. Foreign words soon cease to be treated as aliens and are quickly naturalised, even though they might subsequently adopt an Anglicised pronunciation or spelling.

From French and other European languages, English has borrowed words connected with commerce, seafaring, science, art, literature and social life. War, exploration, trading, colonising and travelling have brought words from America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the islands of the seven seas, while the Celtic tongues in the British Isles have added to the store. Over the past three centuries, sources from which English has borrowed most freely have been French, Latin, Greek, and, to a lesser extent, Italian.

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Georgia is speaking its way out of Russian orbit
By Clifford J. Levy, The New York Times

TBILISI, January 29, 2011—The new teacher who arrived recently at School No. 161 could barely speak a word of the Georgian language, knew little about local customs and easily got lost in the crazy-quilt streets of this hilly capital. But she was at the forefront of one of the most notable educational initiatives — if not social experiments — being attempted in the former Soviet Union.

When the teacher, Deborah Cruz, walked into a classroom of squirmy teenagers, they grew rapt. Here was a stranger who would help connect them to the rest of the world, one irregular verb tense at a time.

Cruz, who is from the Seattle area, is part of a brigade of native English speakers recruited by Georgia's government to spur a linguistic revolution. The goal is to make Georgia a country where English is as common as in Sweden — and in the process to supplant Russian as the dominant second language.

"What we are doing is really something groundbreaking," Cruz, 58, said after leading her class in a form of tic-tac-toe on the blackboard, with students devising a sentence to fill in a box.

One of her students, Tekla Iordanishvili, 15, chimed in, "English is the international language, and we need it."

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My kind of English?       
By Dharma Adhikari, MyRepublica.com

February 2, 2011—One frenzied afternoon in 1982, in the dusty little town of Birtamod in Eastern Nepal, I bumped into a young man. He was remarkably tall, blonde, with a goatee, clad in baggy jeans and a Nike T-shirt. He wore a laced, hand-knit, hemp backpack on his shoulder.

I often recall that scene from my teen-age days not so much for its visual distinctiveness but more for the English the budget tourist spoke with me that day. A band of kids swarmed around the foreigner, shouting “kuire! kuire!" as he flipped through his little travel book and shot a few questions at me.

His queries were statistical. Typical of Americans perhaps, he seemed to have a strong sense of place: What is the population of this city? What is its altitude? What is its area? He also took notes. Like a vigilant reporter, he seemed to care for details.

Some kids responded with impulsive answers and I tried too, with little regard to accuracy of information. I was interested more in the way he was speaking than in what he wanted to know. I liked the way he chewed out the words, with a sing-songy intonation, too fast to follow yet composed for someone used to the rumbling, khalyang-balyang of Nepali sounds.

Drawing on my elementary English acquired from an Indian English-medium school…

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Japan needs new paradigm of English education
By Kumiko Torikai, The Asahi Shimbun

January 22, 2011—Few people today would disagree that English is an international common language. But what, exactly, is English that is truly universal, and how should it be taught in Japanese schools? Kumiko Torikai, a Rikkyo University professor and former professional simultaneous translator who teaches English language courses on radio and television, is calling for a major shift in the paradigm of English education in Japan. Following are excerpts of her interview with The Asahi Shimbun.

Question: There once was a major controversy over whether English education should focus on practicality or pure learning. Today, the focus is clearly on improving students' communication skills in English. But some who stress importance of grammar and reading comprehension are calling for a review of the policy. Why do you think English education is always a subject of controversy?

Answer: The major controversy you refer to is the one that erupted in 1974, I assume. Wataru Hiraizumi, then an Upper House legislator and a former diplomat, created quite a stir that year with his argument that students ought to be taught practical English. He offered his own recommendations on how to go about it. But Shoichi Watanabe, then a Sophia University professor, challenged Hiraizumi head-on and demanded, "What's wrong with teaching English purely for the sake of turning out culturally well-rounded students?"

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Indirectly Speaking:  Student-centered classrooms questioned in court
By Mike Guest, The Daily Yomiuri

January 24, 2011—The accused teacher was brought into the Courtroom of English Language Teaching escorted by burly "Methodology Guards" armed with PhDs in Education. The judge entered the chamber and faced the defendant.

The judge spoke. "You are charged with not being fully student-centered in your classroom and teaching methods. In the world of modern English teaching this is a very serious charge. How do you plead?"

"Guilty, your honor. But I ask for lenience and understanding."

"This can only be granted if both the prosecutor and defense present their respective cases, after which I will make a judgment. Do you accept these conditions?"

"Yes."

"Then we'll begin with the prosecution. Prosecutor, you may proceed."

The prosecutor rose. "Let me begin with a summary of what witnesses have stated and what the defendant has since confessed to. First, the amount he spoke in class was more than twice the amount of the English used by his students. Second, he admittedly maintains full control of the lesson pace and content." Gasps were audible. "Plus, and I will say this slowly for emphasis, he determines the curriculum by himself--without any negotiation with students." Now there were sounds of shock. "This scoundrel is...teacher-centered!" Shouts of "Show us your credentials!" and "Fraud!" rang out.

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Japan’s best English language blogs of 2010
Looking for the latest goings on in Tokyo? Try out these 10 blogs.

While estimates suggest that more blogs are written in Japanese than any other language (despite English speakers outnumbering Japanese five to one worldwide), expats in Japan who write in English provide a very different perspective on the country.

From tales of salarymen to the life of foreign hostesses, here are Japan’s 10 best English-language blogs of 2010.

1. Green-Eyed Geisha
Her daily life may not include dressing like this.

Why we like it: Written by a 20-something professional woman working for a Japanese company, provides details of the hurdles she faces in daily life.

Humorous, engaging and insightful, her writing is akin to storytelling. She tends to publish a couple of diamonds a month rather than blog daily.

Sample entry: “Bitch, please”

“She clucked her tongue and snarled 'jama da yo' to me, which basically means 'you're in the way' and not something you say to people in the street…”

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How my assistant saved the day
By Brian Oliversmith, The New York Times
 
January 22, 2011—In May 2008, I started Urban Planet Mobile, which provides English language lessons over cellphones. Our customers include people whose first language is Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Thai, Arabic or Bengali, among others. In the United States, we offer test preparation over cellphones, and other companies hire us to offer health tips and so forth by phone.

The first person I hired was an executive assistant, Chrissy, to take care of billing and travel arrangements, and to schedule interviews with Web site developers, voice actors and contract employees. I also asked her to research possible markets for our product. There’s an awful lot to do in starting a company. I thought that if I hired someone who could handle the details and the chaos, I could go faster.

People who employ assistants become spoiled. You become accustomed to being able to ask: “Can you do a spreadsheet on X? Can you book me a flight to Y?”

When I worked in a sales organization, I hired my own assistant and paid her out of my own pocket. I couldn’t keep up with the paperwork and still perform at the level I wanted to. I’m high-energy and generate a long to-do list, so I need someone detail-oriented to keep it all organized.

Six months after I started the company, the financial crisis hit and my funders pulled out. I had to pull back financially and try to cut costs. I asked employees if they wanted to go part time for a while before I was forced to lay them off… 

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What’s the loveliest sentence in the English language?
By Whitney Matheson, USA Today

January 26, 2011—"And I shall go on talking in a low voice while the sea sounds in the distance and overhead the great black flood of wind polishes the bright stars."

This, according to author and literary critic Stanley Fish, is one of his favorite sentences ever written in the English language. (It comes from Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, published in 1915.)

I'm intrigued by Fish's new book, How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One (Harper, $19.99), which teaches readers how to appreciate the art of writing and reading sentences.

Slate just announced a contest asking readers for their favorite sentences in the history of the English language. You can send them in, and Fish will choose his favorite from the bunch.

Feel free to add your faves in the comments here, too. (I can't help but think of the phrase "cellar door" ...) Fish's book arrived in stores this week.

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It may take a little Zen to cope with the lunacy of the English language
By Bev Davis (deceased), The Register-Herald
,
BECKLEY, January 15, 2011—Who needs Zen riddles when we have the English language?

As a former English teacher, I understand the struggles students face in mastering the mother tongue. There are some real posers in our language, and I’m amazed that anyone from another country can get the hang of the King’s English.

Consider these inconsistencies that are listed in a commentary floating around on the Internet.

 How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same thing?

 Why is it that a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

 If the teacher has taught, why hasn’t the preacher praught?

 If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth?

 If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

 If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?

 A building burns up while it burns down, and you fill in a form while you are filling it out.

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Minor musings: It’s a thing-a-ma-bob
Opinion, Highlands Today

January 16, 2011—I love the English language. I think it's the most expressive and resilient language on earth. I especially love the way our English responds to those who speak it. As we grow and change, so does the language.

We've all noticed the influence on our language of societal changes like the advancement of technology. Computers, cell phones and the Internet have given us a whole new vocabulary. But recently my attention was drawn to "made-up" words adopted into our vernacular. Some have become as widely used and understood as anything else in our vocabulary.

These folksy, unsophisticated words are completely understood at every level of American society. Some are even included in the latest dictionaries. Here are just a few examples: “lollygag,” “skedaddle,” and “snazzy.”

I defy any American to honestly say they don't know what these words mean. In fact, when spoken in context, it would be difficult to misunderstand them even if you had never heard them before. That's because made-up words tend to sound exactly like what they mean. Tell me you wouldn't understand “flibitigibbet” and “lollapalooza,” when used in context, even if you'd never heard them before.

Granted, some made-up words are regional. For instance, I grew up in Michigan where things positioned at an angle to each other are said to be “cate-cornered.” However, to my husband, whose family originated in Southern Missouri, those things are “cate-wompas.”

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The Revamped O.E.D. Online
By J. D. Biersdorfer, The New York Times

January 14, 2011—Language lovers might want to check out this week’s Bits: Tech Talk podcast, which features a conversation with John Simpson, the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Bits: Tech Talk Podcast

So how did the editor of the O.E.D. end up on the technology podcast? Easy: we’re geeks, but we’re word nerds, too. And although we Tech Talkers tend to natter on about the latest software and hardware, my co-hosts (Bettina Edelstein and Pedro Rafael Rosado) and I are also fascinated by the way culture and technology intersect — and by how daily life can change direction at this very busy intersection.

When we learned that the O.E.D. Online was revamped late last year, we jumped at the chance to learn more about how this esteemed publication (which first stirred to life in 1857) was adapting itself for a modern online audience. Simpson was in New York recently and was gracious enough to come by and discuss many of the site’s new features. With its use of linked databases, dynamic search and timelines showing when new words have come into the language, this comprehensive resource is even more useful and fascinating to explore.

Yes, you do have to subscribe to get full access to all the dictionary content. But even without the $295 annual (or $29.95 monthly) subscription fee to the O.E.D. Online, the site offers articles on the language and commentary on new words that get added regularly to the massive database.

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Russians told to mind their language—especially when it comes to English

January 14, 2011—It was a moment of acute humiliation for the Russian Academy of Sciences.

When the learned body produced an English language version of its website last year, the results caused a stir. The Institut Belka (Institute of Protein Research) was translated as the Squirrel Institute (Institut Belki), while Yury Osipov, the mathematician who heads the academy, was introduced to foreign colleagues as the President of Wounds.

Now the Russian government is moving to address such linguistic shortcomings by multiplying the number of polyglot officials. A strategy document unveiled this week says that by 2020, at least 20% of workers in state service must be fluent in a foreign tongue. More importantly, from next year all newly recruited bureaucrats should already be competent in English.

It's the latest sign of a subtle trend: although Russia has a difficult relationship with the English-speaking world, when it comes to speaking English it is a different matter. English vocabulary has already made deep forays into Russian. In Moscow, for example, tineydzhery (teenagers) might go to a mall to shopitsya, depending on the dress-kod of the klub they're heading for. Many of the words in use spring from recently acquired financial and business terms that were unknown in Soviet times, such as steyk-kholdery (stakeholders), autsorsing (outsourcing), riteyl (retail) and franchayz (franchise).

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Sudan needs English to build bridges between North and South
By Martin Davidson, Chief Executive of the British Council

January 11, 2011—Last week, the population of South Sudan went to the polls to decide whether to separate from the North, potentially becoming Africa's newest country. The people and politicians of the South have been building up to this moment since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005, ending decades of civil war.

The question that Sudan has been asking itself is, when faced with massive political upheaval, poverty and a shortage of basic of services, can English really make a difference?

The answer, in short, is “yes.” English language training is not a “quick fix” for Sudan's problems but it can encourage development, is relatively cheap, and most importantly, sustainable, underpinning other capacity building projects.

This is recognised at all levels of Sudanese society but is especially important in the South where the government views English as an important tool for development and future nation-building.

In the North, Arabic is and will remain the primary language, coexisting with English as the international language of the internet, trade and international engagement. In 2007 the government of South Sudan took English as their official language. English, however, provides a way for the North and South to communicate when Arabic is still viewed with suspicion by the South. If the country is to hold on to the fragile peace that has held for the last five years, it is supremely important that these communication channels stay open.

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A need for better Thai teachers of English
By David Brown, Bangkok Post
  
RAYONG, January 6, 2011—In his Reflections (BP, Jan 4), Pichai Chuensuksawadi touches on many salient points about the need for educational reform in Thailand, but none more salient than those towards the end of his column, in which he discusses the need for an emphasis on English language training and good teachers.

In the first instance Thailand must start producing its own teachers of the English language who are professional and competent to teach English to their fellow Thai students as a foreign language.

At the moment, in my experience, too many Thai English-language teachers can barely speak English themselves, let alone being let loose to teach it to their acquiescent students.

There should be an intensive programme to improve the skills of Thai English teachers with the aim of reducing the reliance on so-called native English-speaking teachers.

There are many highly qualified and professional native English-speaking teachers dedicatedly working at all levels of the educational system in Thailand, and I do not mean to demean their professionalism or their integrity. But at the same time there are many backpacking Khao San Road degree-holder charlatans who are working in Thailand under false premises and undermining the system. They may speak English, but they cannot effectively teach it.

The aim must be to replace them with trained and professional Thai English teachers.

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