Back to the future: 25 years
By Averill Pizarro, Manila Bulletin

MANILA, February 23, 2011—Not too long ago, Jose Dalisay, Jr. (Butch, to many readers) wrote a book about life in the Philippines under Marcos. It won the 1993 National Book Award for fiction and the Palanca grand prize for the novel, among others.

The book, entitled Killing Time in a Warm Place, is currently in print (and let me take this time to urge you to grab a copy, it’s less than 200 bucks, and who better to appreciate the best of Philippine literature than the Filipino?). This new edition opens with a poignant introductory essay on what it was like to be imprisoned under Martial Law back in ’73.

I have always had a close affinity for stories of those years, perhaps because I grew up with parents who talk about it with such relish. And they weren’t even in the center of the movement—they were mostly spectators, young and wide-eyed, watching their nation and their people evolve. They went from a life of fear, to learning to believe that they could do something, and today…

Dr. Dalisay ends his introduction with an interesting line: “…astonished, no doubt, by the extent to which a life could be complicated further.” It’s a line that has affected me profoundly in the way I think about my country and its history—but you’d have to read the book to understand what I mean.

When I entered UP, I studied under several people who were actually there—people who were jailed or shot or imprisoned, who had lost fathers and brothers in the epic struggle that came to a head on February 25, 1986…

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No Free Lunch: A word for the young
By Cielito Habito, Philippine Daily Inquirer

February 8, 2011—When President Fidel V. Ramos appointed me as the country’s chief development planner nearly two decades ago, I was under 40 and was the youngest member of his Cabinet. Half jokingly and somewhat defensively, I used to tell my audiences then that Ramos must have seen wisdom in appointing a young person like me to lead the work of planning for the nation’s future: I would still be around to directly suffer the eventual consequences of a bad plan (or to put it positively, to enjoy the fruits of a good one). Thus, I surmised, it was a good idea to leave the planning of our future to the young, the “successor generation” who will directly reap the benefits of doing it well. An older person would not have as much direct stake in the success or failure of the plan as a young one would.

At the time, I also found myself telling audiences, again half jokingly, that I had given up on the current generation of grown-ups to change their ways toward a better future for all of us. Instead, I would rather focus government planners’ attention on our children and youth, still idealistic and unspoiled by the evil ways of the world, to bring us to that brighter future we all long for. I argued then, as I continue to argue now, that children and youth must have a much more significant and meaningful role in development initiatives, starting with planning itself. Too often, we fail to realize that young people are the most powerful agents of change in our society. And this is not only because they themselves will embody the change that will shape society’s future as they take over from the previous generation. Even before then, they are also the best means for changing attitudes and mind-sets of the current generation of “oldies.” I have always argued that children are the best entry points into the hearts and minds of the adults around them, especially in their immediate families.

My wife and I directly saw this at work first hand as we spent part of our weekends back then gathering children around in squatter communities in Los Baños and reading them children’s books, including Bible-based and values-oriented ones…

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The delights and merits of leisurely reading
By Bobby G. Kraut, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Letter to the Editor, February 4, 2011—This refers to Neni Sta. Romana Cruz’s recent commentary titled “Literacy—a shared concern.” (Inquirer, 1/15/11) With her indulgence, I would rather title it “Literacy—a shared delight” because I think this is the ideal title, based on what she said and we both enjoy.

First off, her introductory quote is perfect, because just as we Filipinos, who don’t seem to “have time” for reading, always find time for politics and basketball, and for regaling our friends, over bottles of beer, with tales about our “triumphs” and “accomplishments.”

Conrado de Quiros once commented about our self-acclaimed “world view.” He qualified it as, in truth, an American view. In effect, we do as the Americans do and think as Americans think. Might I add that we have a term for what Americans call “ball.” Our version is “bola.”

It could be that the above “weltanschauung” results from the aversion of Americans to those who have intellectual pursuits, hence the terms like “bookworm” or “nerd” (a derogatory term to them) or “genius.”

I do feel that the “tech” craze has been allowed to get control of people, rather than people having control over technology, but then once anyone finds out that I’m computer-ignorant, there’s that “oh, so, that’s why!” look.

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Reader idea: “One in Eight Million” for English language learners
By Katherine Schulten, The New York Times

February 24, 2011—Here is another in our Great Ideas From Readers series.

If you’ve used The Times for teaching and learning and would like to see your idea in our blog, write in and tell us what you’ve done.

Teacher: Heather Barikmo

School/Location: The English Language Center at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York, Long Island City, N.Y.

Grade or Level of Students: College (18 and over); college preparatory and continuing education students

Idea: Using the “One in 8 Million” series, which tells the stories of a varied group of New Yorkers through audio and photography, to help English-language learners improve their listening comprehension and awareness of the multiple styles and nuances of spoken English.

Why We Chose It: We, too, love “One in 8 Million” and think it has endless possibilities for classrooms. (The series, which ran over the course of 2009 and profiles 54 “ordinary people telling extraordinary stories,” went on to win an Emmy Award.)…

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Absence of Al Jazeera English in US is troubling
By Ronnie Lovler, San Francisco Chronicle

February 20, 2011—The uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and now Iran should prompt a call for change here in the United States—against the absurd blackout of Al Jazeera television.

You can watch Al Jazeera on TV almost anywhere in the world—except in the United States.

How is this possible in our nation where freedom of the press is a basic constitutional tenet? Just what do cable and satellite carriers fear?

Al Jazeera English has received nearly universal raves as one of the best sources of news about events in Egypt. Mainstream journalists wrote reviews praising its coverage. Bloggers blogged about being glued to their computers or mobile devices to watch Al Jazeera.

The Qatar-founded and funded international news network launched in November 2006 as the first and only English-language global news network not based in the West. According to its website, it now reaches more than 220 million households in 100 countries. But here in the United States, while you can catch Al Jazeera on YouTube or its website, you can only see it on television in Burlington, Vt.; Toledo, Ohio; Washington, D.C., and now, on San Francisco's Link TV. (It is also available on satellite TV.) Could a subtle or not so subtle form of censorship be at play here?

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How the war of words was won in Cairo
By Ben Zimmer, The New York Times

February 12, 2011—For weeks, in Tahrir Square and elsewhere, demonstrators were telling President Hosni Mubarak to leave, playfully using a variety of dialects and languages to get the idea across.

And on Friday, Mr. Mubarak finally got the message and resigned.

In countries under authoritarian rule, “speaking truth to power” typically takes the form of highly colorful and creative modes of expression. Playing with language is often one of the few ways to challenge an oppressive political system, and the pointed humor behind the linguistic ingenuity can create strong bonds of solidarity.

Indeed, there are strong parallels in the fall of Ceausescu in Romania or Suharto in Indonesia. Indonesian activists in the 1990s, for instance, turned their president’s name into a snarky acronym: “sudah harus tobat” (“should have repented by now”).

On their own protest signs, Egyptian wordsmiths transliterated “irhal,” the standard Arabic imperative for “depart,” into Egyptian hieroglyphics so that “the pharaoh” would understand. And a popular rhyming chant on Tahrir Square played with high and low forms of Arabic, explaining to Mr. Mubarak that “irhal” means “imshi,” a colloquial Egyptian word that might be best rendered in English as “beat it.”

Demonstrators also displayed messages using languages beyond their borders, suggesting that their audience was not only Mr. Mubarak but also the world. “Irhal” appeared on signs and posters with translations in languages as far-ranging as German and Chinese.

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In the language of literature, torn between English and Persian
By Jeff Baron, America.gov

Washington, February 13, 2011—Zohreh Ghahremani has two sets of tools for her work, and she says that the character of what she produces depends in part on which set she uses.

By training, Ghahremani is a pediatric dentist, a profession she pursued with probes, drills and mouth mirrors for 25 years. But her craft is writing - poetry, short stories and a newly published novel, Sky of Red Poppies - and her tools are her two primary languages, Persian and English. Like other Iranian-American writers, she says the differences between the languages are substantial, and those differences are obvious to her as she works with them.

"They are as different as different styles of painting. You see, you can have the same model and give it to an impressionist painter and give it to a classic painter, and you'll get two different images back," Ghahremani said from her home in Southern California. "That is why translation is much easier, let's say, from French to Persian and vice versa than it is English. And I have so far had the luxury of choosing which subjects would go better in which language."

Many Iranian-American writers count themselves as bilingual, but most choose one language or the other as their primary tool. Mehrnoosh Mazarei, who has published four books of short stories in Persian, has lived in the United States for a bit more than half of her life, having arrived in Southern California shortly after the Islamic Revolution in Iran at age 28. "I still don't feel like I'm fluent in English," she said. "I don't write directly to English, usually. I write in Farsi first and then translate it to English. ... And then I get some people to edit that, too."

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Hello texting and goodbye English
By Glyn Meek, Computerworld   

February 16, 2011—Lots of comments have been made about the dangers of texting, as demonstrated by the statistics from the National Safety Council that 28% of accidents are caused by texting motorists, so I won't rehash these old arguments. Instead, let The Geezer Geek take a look at the catastrophic effect that ‘texting' has had on our culture (and I use THAT word with some reservation).

"hw r u?"

"whassup?"

"roflmao"

"me 2"

"ILU" (and can you imagine the wasted bandwidth that THIS particular one is going to take up on this "Hallmark Day" of February 14th?)

"wht r u up 2 2nite?"

Now, I realize that spelling and grammar are no longer requirements of any American public school, especially here in Texas where they only ‘teach to the TAKS test' anyhow, but this is the thin end of the wedge with regards to civilization. English is arguably the most powerful language on earth. Based on the confluence of multiple European language influences and accompanied by the bizarre spelling decisions of William Caxton, we have a multitude of nouns, verbs and adjectives suitable for every occasion, but do we use them? Do we use the language of Shakespeare, the vocabulary of Churchill or the creativity of Mark Twain? No we don't, not anymore.

We appear to have lost what little ability to actually spell and speak correctly that we ever had, and now we are reduced to supposedly humorous acronyms and abbreviations that are, all of a sudden, thought of as ‘modern speak'…

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The 411 on texting: Messaging's effect on language debated
By John Sherwood, Times Herald

Are you a POS? Here's how to crack the code
"plz don't leave i want 2 tlk bout r rltnshp"

If you easily understood that, odds are you're younger than 30. We bet you have a smartphone, too.

And you probably didn't mind that the first "p" and the "i" weren't capitalized, there was no punctuation, a number was swapped for a word and -- well, the language sins go on.

Such things worry John Lusk, who said texting habits are having a negative impact on the English language -- and therefore on education. Proper language is key to success in the world.

"Any college instructor is facing that problem right now," said Lusk, a communications media professor for 25 years at St. Clair County Community College.

He calls what he's seeing "IMglish," with the "IM" standing for "instant messaging."

"I tell them, 'I don't want your IMglish,'" Lusk said.

Not everyone agrees. Some students and educators even see benefits to the shortcuts of texting.

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It's spellbinding to watch young brainiacs at work
By Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal

February 19, 2011—Chauffeur. Significance. Maintenance.

These aren't difficult words. I type them all the time. But every time -including this time -I have to stop to think.

Embarrassing.

There's another word that always trips me up. Two Rs? One R?

Embarrassing? I'll say it is.

I'm a professional writer. Not only do I have a master's degree in journalism, I have an honours degree in English, for heaven's sake.

Spelling has never come easily to me. Grammar largely seems intuitive. (Grammer? Grammar?) But after all these years of reading and writing, the orthography of the English language often defeats me.

It's such a ridiculous Velcro language, composed out of discarded bits of ancient Greek and Latin, Anglo-Friesian, West Saxon, Celtic and medieval French, spiced with borrowings of Hindi, Yiddish, Cree, Malay, Afrikaans, Hawaiian, not to mention German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian and Japanese.

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Tackling inconvenient realities
By Janice Kennedy, Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa, February 15, 2011—Hints of heroism pop up in the most surprising places. For some of us, one of those places would be over on the spectrum's far right -- terrain we rarely wander -- where Maxime Bernier makes his political home. There is just about nothing the ultra-libertarian Conservative MP has ever said that we've applauded.

Until now.

"Mad Max" (as he's been called for his reckless indifference to political butt-covering, especially within his own party) went to war against a towering Quebec icon, emerging bloodied -- and unbowed. It began last week after he said the unsayable about Loi 101, the Charter of the French Language we Anglos persist in calling Bill 101, even though it became law nearly 34 years ago.

"We don't need Bill 101," he told an interviewer, "to protect the French language."

Which is heresy in Quebec. Especially from a French-speaking Quebecer. Especially one with nationalist credentials.

Up and down the province, scorn and condemnation rained down on Bernier, from media pundits to official federalists like culture minister Christine St-Pierre and official separatists like Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois (who's currently yakking about a beefed-up charter when the PQ regains power. Which should just about clean out those pesky remaining Anglos).

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Our city, our country and our language give love short shrift
By Oakland Ross, Toronto Star

TORONTO, February 11, 2011—What's the big deal about love, anyway?

It's just a word — and not an especially remarkable word.

One list of the 1,000 most commonly used terms in the English language pegs “love” at number 387, just two positions higher than “money” and crammed between “centre” and “person.”

(As you might have guessed, the single most common word in English is “the.” Number 1,000 is “neck.”)

Make of it what you will.

But “love . . .?” It's a middling sort of a word, at best.

In fact, it's a letdown.

Love doesn't rhyme with anything — or not with anything very interesting.

We all know the list: “dove,” “gov,” “glove,” “above,” “shove,” and — wait for it — “of.”

That's about it.

No wonder anglophones are universally regarded as a cold and standoffish breed. We can't use the word love at the end of a line in a love song without making fools of ourselves.

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Language advantage
By Kang Soon Chen, TheStar.com.my

February 20, 2011—There is only so much that one can do without being proficient in the English language, even if your industry of choice is highly technical and not as language-oriented as, say, the media. In the field of automated material handling system, Malaysian AE Models Holdings Bhd chairman Datuk Dr Jimmy Lim says language barrier is a big hindrance in production quality control.

“It is a given that engineers need to have a good grasp of English because procedural instructions and design requirements are all written in the language,” says Dr Lim.

Working in the high-tech industry, he added that a good command of English is an asset especially when the engineers engage in global business ventures.

“Comprehension alone is not enough; the ability to write and speak English well is also vital.

“With a poor command of English, they may have little confidence in asking questions and bringing forth their ideas,” he adds.

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Treat your home tongue as if it's the only one
By Eran Williams, TimesLive.co.za

February 20, 2011—Real linguistic power isn't so much in any one language as it is in the ability to use fully the language(s) that you have.

QUESTION: which of the 11 South African official languages is the most important?

Answer: Yours.

If you thought I was going to say "English," think again. Don't get me wrong; English is great.

It is widely used, is rich in vocabulary, history and variety, and is pretty much agreed to be, at this moment, the international language of power and prestige.

But English is the native language of fewer than 10% of South Africans and so it has to take a back seat (or at least the passenger seat) for the vast majority here.

So, why does a former English teacher and a man employed by the US government to encourage and enhance the teaching of English in Southern Africa promote indigenous languages? Simply because the best way to learn English is through proficiency in one's mother tongue.

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English has colonized our languages
By Khaya Dlanga, News24.com
   
February 15, 2011—Our official languages are only official on paper. The Constitution. It is time we became honest about this. One is almost inclined to say that that part of the Constitution was written to make us feel good about ourselves and congratulate one another on how tolerant we are as a nation because we were able to accommodate all 11 official languages. It is just make up. It was done to make us look good. English is South Africa’s official language whether we like to admit it or not.  This is good and bad.

When white schools were opened to black kids in the early 90s, black parents sent their kids to white schools, not just for a superior education, but more importantly, so that they could learn to speak great English; so that they could get great jobs, not just in South Africa but anywhere else in the world. It went so far that some parents in the various townships barred their children from speaking their mother tongues but English at home.

It became the hip thing to do. Black parents would ask their young children to bring Coke with Choice Assorted to visitors so that they could speak English. In reality what they were doing was just showing off how well their little black child can speak the white man's language.

Ironically, it was a British weekly magazine that wrote an article detailing the slow decline of South African languages just a few weeks ago. Yes, even Afrikaans, in case you were wondering.

The great, conservative and informative British publication, The Economist, published an article with the headline “South African languages, Tongues under threat” with the sub heading, “English is dangerously dominant.” Yes. The Economist said that English is dangerously dominant in South Africa. So dangerous in fact that it is eating away at Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Ndebele, Afrikaans and numerous other South African languages.

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Mind your language
By Farwa Zahra, The Express Tribune

KARACHI, February 20, 2011—Gone are the days when you spent your evenings hooked to ICQ and Mirc, overwhelmed with the power of asl (age, sex and location) that marked the start of your ychat conversation with random strangers; learning innovative terms on chat forums and then flaunting the next morning among your peers, who would avenge you later with their set of the then ‘it’ thing.

As time passed, many of you got over the obsession. With masses joining the cyber world and adopting the jargon, they realised they lost their soi-distant exclusiveness, and suddenly all the grammar courses from high school came back, striking like lightning. Then began a phase of perpetual judgement on the linguistic skills of “others”.

Ironically it is now English that is local, and cyber-English is global. While linguists consider the online deviation from standard English as a way of free expression and a matter of ease, your cyber friends might be judging your language skills through what comes “natural” to your style.

Changing ‘You’ into ‘U’ might be your cup of tea, but are you sure your chat partner is not doubting your level of maturity? Shortening the words might be saving you pressing a few more keys but is your chat partner seeing it as a face-saving expression to hide your bad spellings?

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Ekushey February: It’s time for soul-searching
Editorial, TheFinancialExpress-bd.com

As the nation observes the immoral Ekushey February today (Monday) paying rich tributes to the memory of the language martyrs, it is time to look in retrospect the progress made so far in materializing their dream.

The people of Bangladesh have earned special distinction for being the only nation in the world that has shed blood for upholding the prestige of its mother tongue. Such distinction was well recognized internationally when the UNESCO general conference in a unanimous resolution adopted on November 17, 1999 proclaimed the Ekushey February—the Shaheed Dibash—as the International Mother Language Day. The international recognition, thus, has been a tribute not only to the martyrs and active participants of the language movement but also to the people of this country.

What was the dream of the language martyrs, really? Was it just the establishment of the right to write or speak in Bangla language or something beyond that?

The way this auspicious day is observed at the state or individual organisational levels and what is said and written on the occasion, one might get the impression that Ekushey February is all about Bangla language. But, in reality, the language movement had spoken a lot more.

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India faces a linguistic truth: English spoken here
By Manu Joseph, International Herald Tribune

NEW DELHI, February 16, 2011—In a recent Hindi film, the actress Katrina Kaif holds a thin white bed sheet against her bare body and sings, in English: “I know you want it, but you’re never gonna get it.”

That what has become one of the country’s popular Hindi songs opens with an English sentence is unremarkable for Indians. So is the truth that Hindi films are now written in English — the instructions in the screenplays are in English, and even the Hindi dialogue is transcribed in the Latin alphabet. Mumbai’s film stars, like most educated Indians, find it easier to read Hindi if it is written this way.

Almost all advertising billboards in India are in English. There is not a single well-paying job in the country that does not require a good understanding of the language. Higher education here is conducted entirely in English. When Hindustan Pencils makes cheap pencils, which it sells to rural children for a rupee apiece (about 2 cents), the company prints the brand name, “Jobber,” in English. “A villager has more respect for a brand that is written in English,” said Dhruman Sanghvi, a company director.

English is the de facto national language of India. It is a bitter truth.

Many Indians would say that India’s national language is Hindi. They would say it with pride if they are from the north and with a good-natured grouse if they are from the south. But this is a misconception. The fact is that, according to the Indian Constitution, the country does not have a national language.

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Trends: What's wrong with correct English?
By Divya Dubey, TheHindu.com

With the Indianisation of English, the new breed of speakers and writers is creating its own version of the language; sans elegance, sans structure, sans finer nuances.

In his book, The Fight for English, David Crystal says, “To many people in the middle decades of the 18th century, the language was seriously unwell. It was suffering from a raging disease of uncontrolled usage.”

Crystal is not really arguing for “standard” English or the “prescriptive” rules that, he says, a bunch of pedants laid for the usage of the language. Rather, he is arguing for the several languages English becomes in the hands of different people in different cultures.

However, the new generation of Indians speaking and writing in English today seems to have taken those words quite literally, leading to a complete deterioration of the art of speaking and writing. Why is it that if you speak about correct English today, you're immediately branded as an “elitist”?

English is no longer respected for its fluidity or nuances. If you belong to the “elitist” group of Indians, (i.e., you're particular about correct usage and grammar), you can send your child to a board that does teach them. Otherwise you have a problem with Indian English, not the rest of the country.

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Use of language in the media
By Dafe Ivwurie, Daily Independent
 
February 18, 2011—A former senior colleague of mine sent me an SMS on something that she had read in one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers. It was not the topic or the idea put forward in the article that angered her, it was the language and errors, which I deciphered from the drift of her message that was her major grouse with the writer, the proof reader and the editor.

“English must be the hardest language on earth to master even for a newspaper,” she lashed out. “Are there no proof readers or whatever?” she queried in the conclusion of her very terse text message.

I tried to put up a defence for my primary constituency; writing is hard, the pressure of the job is enormous, the pay is poor, the conditions of getting assignments done are demoralising, the good ones do not stay on the job, they go in search of where the grass is greener in banks, the PR agencies and the oil industry, etc. 

I doubt if my protestation impressed her in the least, not to talk of swaying her mind in any significant way. In the end, I conceded some ground that the level of the use of the English language in the media – the print, broadcasting and the movie industry – is shameful and appalling. I have chosen to limit it to the works that are normally in the public domain, but if you have worked in the corporate world, you would also agree that this is a malady that has eaten deep - graduates simply cannot write a memo to their colleagues.

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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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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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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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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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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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