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 language.” James Inhofe, the bill’s sponsor, originally called English the “official language,” a phrase which suggests second class citizenship to all non-English speakers. After some debate, he conceded to change the phrase “official language” to the slightly less-offensive “national language,” which suggests no real legal repercussions for non-English speakers.
- In a Jan. 10 speech to the nation, President Bush called for an escalation to the War in Iraq, as he ordered another 22,000 troops to the country. But he didn’t call it an escalation or an increase in American forces. Instead, the 22,000 members of the military headed over (or back over) to Iraq are part of a more ambiguous “troop surge,” not to try and end a civil war, but instead, to quell “increased insurgent activity.” Source – Massachusetts Daily Collegian
Very interesting article but I can’t just copy and paste the whole thing so head over and have a read.
Posted in: English, Funny, Interesting.
Body language is said to account for about 90% of our communication. Not only is this useful for everyday situations, but also for learning languages. This will never be more apparent to you than when you are living in a foreign language speaking country…and never be more critical!
The good news is, we can learn this like any other language. Check out the article and if you’re really game, you might want to peruse the Nonverbal Dictionary.
Posted in: Body Language, Interesting, Languages.
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 seven languages during the film. British movies are there, a Mexican movie is there. Letters from Iwo Jimo, which tells the story of Japanese soldiers fighting against the US, is there.
Best of all, four of the five nominees for best actress are not from the US. Penelope Cruz’s nomination for Volver is the first best actress nomination for a Spanish-speaking part, which of course I’m delighted about.
Britain’s Paul Greengrass (United 93) summed it up well, “The world is changing, and I think that the film community is now a global film community. It’s not any more about cultural barriers or language barriers. It’s emotion and humanity. We are using the power of cinema to cross borders. We are understanding that now there’s a cultural connection that needs to happen. Most films can reveal the nature of other countries and other people around the world.” Source – m&c
Posted in: English, Interesting, Japanese, Languages, News, Spanish.
At the same time as the US tries to ban other languages. New Zealand goes and takes a step forward by trying to include the Maori language on road signs. It was all sparked off by a school principal trying to use the Maori word for bus, ‘Kura’, on their school buses.
The problem is that the law only requires drivers to slow down when passing a stopped bus with the word, ‘Bus’, on it. So now the whole thing is under review and I’m sure we’ll see some changes coming through Parliament in the next few years. Source – stuff.co.nz
Posted in: Funny, Interesting, Languages, Maori, News.
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 legislation would not bar private businesses or individuals from using multilingual material, but it does seek to prevent federal funds from being spent on such efforts.
- [On Jan. 10, a lawsuit was filed in the Iowa] state district court against Gov. Chet Culver and Secretary of State Michael Mauro, both Democrats, for violating Iowa’s English-language law. The lawsuit accuses Mr. Culver, who served as secretary of state before running for governor, and Mr. Mauro of illegally placing voter-registration forms and absentee-ballot request forms on Iowa’s secretary of state Web site in foreign languages. Source – World Peace Herald
So the US now wants to ban non-English speaking people from voting? Or having anything to do with Government departments? Who will provide the money for tourism centres since brochures in other languages can’t be funded by Government funds? If you want it as the official language, fine. But think about what you’re doing in this every international world we live in.
Oh, and who’s going to pay for the materials that involve California, Colorado, El Paso, Florida, Fresno, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Montana, Nevada, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Santa Fe? They better rename them, along with the Alamo, Alcatraz, Cape Canaveral…
Posted in: English, Interesting, Languages.
I love news stories that talk about the spread of different languages. I personally feel that the more languages we speak, the better. So when I see stories like the ones below, I smile.
First, we have British Police Officers in East Lancashire being funded to learn foreign languages. Due to the increase in European immigrants, this will allow them to communicate better with the public. The officers are responding well to the courses and, at the moment, the most popular choice is Polish.
Secondly, Singapore MPs can now make speeches in Parliament using multiple languages at the same time. In the past, MPs were restricted to one of the four official languages for the duration of a speech. Now, they can reach more Singaporeans at one time, and feel more comfortable by supporting other languages with their own native tongue.
Posted in: Interesting, Languages, News.
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, that it is far more likely for the Chinese to learn English than vice versa. This is simply because I believe they are becoming more international in their business thinking and have already established it in their school system.
However, this news article talks about how a US school is replacing its French lessons with Mandarin. Will this become more common in English speaking schools so students can compete in the new global economy? Will European languages lose even further due to the European Union and the greater use of English within it?
Stay tuned to find out.
Posted in: Chinese, English, French, Interesting, News.
Here’s an interesting article about the origins of the language. While it’s a little confusing with all the different cultures merging, I’ve put together a few interesting snippets for your reading pleasure:
- It has its roots from 2000 years ago when the Dacians (pronounced dachyanz), of Indo-European stock, lived where Romania currently is.
- It’s a Romance language (Eastern branch), spoken by 24 to 26 million people.
- Romanian remains one of the most uniform languages in Europe, and developed isolated from the other Romance languages. Instead of Germanic influence, it took on words and features of Greek, Turkish and Hungarian.
- It used to use a Cyrillic alphabet, but now uses a Romanian version of the Latin alphabet.
- The spelling system is based on Italian, suggested by scholars because of the languages Latin roots. Source – The Sofia Echo
Don’t say I never teach you anything!
Posted in: Interesting, Languages.
Every wondered how elephants dated? Well, you’re not the only one and some folks have got together to figure the whole thing out. Since 1999 the Elephant Listening Project has been, funnily enough, listening to elephants.
They’ve learned that elephants use infrasonic calls – calls too low in frequency to be heard by the human ear – for long-distance communication. Infrasound can travel farther than higher pitched sound. Elephant families separated by several kilometers use them to keep track of each other. Male elephants find fertile females by using these low frequency sounds. Source - Earth & Sky
Who said you couldn’t use this website to wow and amaze people at parties?
Posted in: Funny.
Here’s another section I’ve added that will grow with time. This will have all the free resources for language learning that I’ve managed to dig up on the Internet. Well, the ones I think are worth using anyway. So coming soon to your screen will be more resources and more languages. Send me your links for inclusion as well.
I have a few other ideas in the pipeline for this website that will appear as I have time to complete them. So keep checking back to see what’s new.
Posted in: General, Learning.
