I saw on digg there was an article where a city board decided it was ok that a shop had a sign stating:
“This is America: WHEN ORDERING ‘PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH’”
Now without going into how stupid this is or reopening the whole debate on making English the national language of the US, I want to leave [...]
Posts under ‘English’
Tourism becomes impossible
English Classes Suck
I came across an article today called “why we don’t like English classes.” Apart from initially amusing me, I found I agreed with a lot of the points in the article. I like to think I’m one of the teachers that are ‘different’, so I thought I’d share a little of my philosophy.
Ok, so as [...]
Speaking of text speak
I see that New Zealand have started to let students use text speak in exams where they are not required to demonstrate their use of the language. Have we already started down the slippery slope? Will linguists take a vow of silence? Stay tuned as the future unfolds before us.
Language evolution, the never ending debate
Things change, languages change, is it good or bad? This article discusses the arrival of Instant Messaging speak in schools. Students today are using it more as a form of note taking and it’s creeping into some assignments as well. Generally, this article is positive in that the students know when IM speak is appropriate and [...]
To swear or not to swear
Is banning swearing the answer to stopping violent incidents? Shanghai’s city council thinks so. In addition, to cleaning up its rude reputation, they hope this will be another benefit to banning swearing in public places. So, how does this get policed? Surely, if someone is around to stop people swearing, they should be able to [...]
When language use goes bad
When language falls into the wrong hands it can be used for pure evil. Ok, so maybe that’s a little extreme but language can definitely be misused to the speakers benefit. Take a few examples from the article below:
The debate over the national language turned into a debate about what to actually call the “national [...]
And the Oscar goes to…multiculturalism
After the Golden Globes I was about to launch into a post ranting about how foreign language films never seem to get the recognition they deserve. After the Oscar nominations were announced, I’m glad I held my tongue.
Babel is competing in seven categories, which is a good number for them since they use an impressive [...]
One giant step back
In the US, there is currently a congressional bill on the horizon that is trying to make English the official language. It is already the official language in a few states, including Iowa, but this law will force all states to fall into line. Sounds fine, except for some very scary revelations from the article below:
The [...]
Mandarin gaining popularity, French losing
For a long time, I have held the view that China is going to dominate the world as an economic power during the next few decades. Relating this to languages, I enjoy discussing whether this will create a change in terms of using English as a business medium.
My conclusion in the past has been, unfortunately, [...]
Chinglish to be banned from Beijing Olympics
I found this article a while ago and use it for a laugh in my English classes. For those that don’t know, Chinglish is when Chinese gets poorly translated into English. It’s quite prevalent when you’re travelling round China and always amusing. Here is the BBC article about the preparation for the Beijing Olympics and also [...]