The English Blog

English to English: bridging the US-UK cultural divide

English to English is The Guardian New York newsroom's new Tumblr blog which attempts to chronicle and catalogue (catalog?) UK-US cultural differences, poke fun at the ‘special’ relationship and build a living glossary of news, slang and pop culture terms. Here's a video from the blog.

COMMENT
The English to English blog's been going for just over a month, and there's already a lot of really interesting content. Readers can Request/Submit a translation, and tweet using the hashtag #eng2eng, but it's a pity that there is no "Comment" feature on the blog where you can contribute ideas. One to follow all the same.

Related articles

English to English: bridging the US-UK cultural divide | Katie Rogers

Survey: How does an English audience react to "Class" in Downton Abbey?

English to English: bridging the US-UK cultural divide | Katie Rogers

Online Magazine: TeaTime-Mag

The online magazine TeaTime-Mag gives readers access to English language and culture in the realms of business, economy, new technologies, fashion, urban life, arts, music etc. – domains in which the English-speaking world plays a pioneering role. Watch the video to find out more.

COMMENT
I've only just come across the excellent TeaTime-Mag, but it's been going for at least a couple of years. As it's published twice a month, there's a big collection of articles in the archive. One thing they don't mention in the video is that there are three versions of the magazine: for speakers of French, German, and Spanish, which is great is you are ... French, German, or Spanish. It's a pity there isn't an all-English version, but even if you don't speak any of those three languages, don't be put off — there's still plenty of interesting material to read and watch in English. There's also a Teacher Edition with extra content including texts with MP3 versions, and vocabulary lists. All in all, an impressive resource — and it's free.

OTHER ONLINE MAGAZINES FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS
• Hot English Magazine (subscription-based but with free lessons)
• Postscript (for Business English)
• Business Spotlight
• Newsacademic (free issue available)

Cartoon: Beckham Moves to PSG. French Tattooists Celebrate.

This cartoon by Paul Thomas from the Daily Express relates to news that David Beckham has joined French football club Paris St Germain on a five-month contract (see articles below).

EXPLANATION
In addition to being known as a football player, David Beckham is famous for his slew of tattoos that he shows off on his usually shirtless body (see here). This is why members of the Federation of French Tattoists are celebrating Becks' arrival with champagne, no doubt anticipating a boom in the demand for tattoos!

COMMENT
This cartoon provides good material for a discussion of cultural stereotypes. French men wearing berets and striped shirts (not to mention the twirly moustache). The Eiffel Tower to represent Paris. Tattoo aficionados as fat blokes with shaved heads and earrings. See here and here for more on French stereotypes.

VOCABULARY
A tattoo is a permanent picture that is drawn on a part of your body by putting ink into your skin with a needle. Tattoo is also a verb: He decided to have an eagle tattooed on his back. The place where you go to get a tattoo is called a tattoo parlour. 

NOTE
You can see loads of photos and watch an extract from Beckham's PSG press conference at Mail Online. 

Related articles

Beckham joins PSG, donating salary to charity

David Beckham confirms plans to donate full PSG salary to charity

David Beckham to play for Paris Saint-Germain

Column: Beckham brings 'wow' factor to Paris

Cartoon: Beckham to Leave LA Galaxy

Asda Christmas Ad

It's a long-standing tradition in the UK for major retailers to produce a TV commercial for Christmas (you can see a selection of this year's of the best and worst 2012 Xmas ads here). Some of these are good lesson material. I used this one from Asda as part of a lesson about Christmas customs in the UK. I showed it to my EM Normandie students and got them (in groups) to make a list of all the actions that the mum carries out (see list here). I then played it again, pausing to check their answers, and highlighting vocabulary. We finished with a discussion about  whether the ad was sexist or not (see 'Related articles' below).

TRANSCRIPT
DAD: Perfect. 
MUM: No, sorry. Could we just have a look at that one? 
VOICEOVER: It doesn't just happen by magic. Behind every great Christmas there's mum. And behind mum, there's Asda.  
DAD: What's for tea, love? 

Related articles

Twitter backlash over 'sexist' Asda Christmas ad is not justified

Just How Sexist Is The New Asda Christmas Advert?

ASDA "Behind Every Great Christmas There's Mum" TV Ad

Sexist? No, every mum knows the Asda ad tells the not-so-jolly truth about Christmas

Reuters Video: No wife too heavy for beer-chasing husbands

A lawyer from Helsinki wins the world wife-carrying title in Finland for the fourth time, once again taking home his wife’s weight in beer. Tara Cleary reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: Cowbells, costumes and couples - all part of Finland's World Wife Carrying competition. Male contestants race a 250-metre track while carrying their spouses on their backs. And if that's not burdensome enough, they also have to negotiate obstacles. The Finnish final is the culmination of several national competitions. And it's just one of many bizarre summer events Finns have devised for the few months when the sun hardly sets. The winner was Taisto Miettinen whose prize is his wife's weight in beer.
TAISTO MIETTINEN, WITH WIFE KRISTIINA HAAPANEN, WIFE-CARRYING CHAMPION: "We're the king and the queen of wife carrying!"
REPORTER: This is Miettinen's fourth championship win, which means that by now his trouble and strife has earned him enough beer for life. Tara Cleary, Reuters.

VOCABULARY
Trouble and strife is Cockney rhyming slang for 'wife'. 

Reuters Video: Racing with a heavy load

Woolsack racers compete in the world championships in Tetbury. Tara Cleary reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: Delivering wool sacks the hard way. The Tetbury Woolsack Racing World Championship is in its 39th year. Men carry a 60 pound sack of wool 225 meters or around 250 yards up and down a hill between two pubs. Race director Andrew Schumm.
ANDREW SCHUMM, WOOLSACK RACE DIRECTOR: "The gradient in the steepest part is three-in-one (3-in-1) but there's a lip that you hit, when you are going down that's when your legs carry you away and the weight of the sack on your back, you've just got to go with it, coming up that's the bit where you are just running out of steam, you come across that brow and there's very little left in the tank."
REPORTER: Men's reigning champion Nathan Barraclough retained his title for a seventh time, finishing in 48.31 seconds.
NATHAN BARRACLOUGH, MEN'S INDIVIDUAL WINNER: "The worst part of the race is before the start, once you start you don't feel it."
REPORTER: The race started back in the 1600's, when drovers impressed young maidens by racing each other up the hill with a pack of fleeces on their backs. Times have changed and now even the young maidens schlep wool sacks. Tara Cleary, Reuters.

Video: St. Patrick's Day 2012—Why We Wear Green

It's said that blue was originally the color associated with Saint Patrick's Day, but over time green took over in popularity due to Ireland's nickname as "The Emerald Isle", the green in the Irish flag and the clover that St. Patrick used in his teachings about Catholicism. Read more >>

MORE SAINT PATRICK'S DAY RESOURCES
• St. Patrick's Day 2012: Facts, Myths, and Traditions (National Geographic)
• St. Patrick's Day (Huffington Post)

Ireland Crossword & Other Saint Patrick's Day Resources

Here's a crossword I created for my students using EllipseCrossword as part of a lesson on Saint Patrick's Day (Saturday 17 March). Click on the crossword grid below to begin. You can also download the grid and clues as a printable HTML file here.

MORE RESOURCES
Click here to see more Saint Patrick's Day resources from The English Blog, including a PowerPoint quiz.

Reuters Video: Faux Bordeaux stirs China wine market

China’s counterfeit wine trade is at its worst ever, and is spooking rich buyers on the mainland, say industry insiders.

VOCABULARY
1. Counterfeit or fake money, goods, or documents are not genuine, but have been made to look exactly like genuine ones in order to deceive people.
2. Faux is the French word for 'false' and is sometimes used in English to describe things which are not genuine but an imitation of the real thing: faux pearls, faux fur, etc.

ALSO SEE
• Fighting Fake Bordeaux (Wine Spectator)
• Fake French Wine in China (Asia Sentinel)

Reuters Video: Japanese cat-lovers snarl at new law

A revision to Japan's Animal Protection Law banning the late-night display of cats and dogs spells trouble for Tokyo's ''cat cafes.''

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: It's destressing time for Tokyo resident Ayumi Sekigushi. The 23-year-old visits this cat café several times a week to play with its pets. But a new law threatens her hobby.
TOKYO RESIDENT AYUMI SEKIGUSHI: "It's a great place. It calms the stresses of working life. But if this law gets though that enjoyment is going to disappear, it's a real shame."
REPORTER: A change in Japan's Animal Protection Law will force cat cafes to close at 8pm. The new law is meant to curb business practices of late-night pet shops, which often sell pets around the clock. But it will hurt the bottom line of café owner Hiromi Kawase, who sees most of her customers come in after work and stay until closing time.
CAT CAFE OWNER HIROMI KAWASE: "If our business hours go down by two hours, and we lose two hours worth of profits, then of course it's going to affect us, but it's also going to affect the cats. You know, getting in all the things they need to grow like the correct amount of food, the nutrition they need."
REPORTER: Playing with cats at Kawase's café isn't expensive -- around 1,000 yen or 12 U.S. dollars per hour. Drinks are priced around 300 yen or 4 U.S. dollars. And with the new law scheduled to come into effect on June 1st there is little time left for Kawase to boost her sales. Elly Park, Reuters.

COMMENT
The new law could be cat-astrophic for the cat cafés, which seem to be the purr-fect place to relax after a hard day's work.

ALSO SEE
• Tokyo's cat cafes (Global Post)
• Cat cafe soothes Tokyo's busy feline lovers (Reuters)
• Tokyo's cat cafes offer serenity in the city (Christian Science Monitor)

Leap Year Day

2012 is a leap year, which means that February has an extra day: 29 instead of the usual 28. And today, in case you hadn't noticed, is February 29th, also known as leap year day!

In the British Isles, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. Mail Online has an interesting article some vintage postcards relating to this custom:

Any men feeling anxious about this once-every-four-years phenomenon may like to take advice from a collection of 'leap year' postcards by Donald McGill. The postcards, which date from the early 1900s when it was deemed improper for women to propose, all feature warnings to men about getting trapped by undesirable women on the only day they could traditionally pop the question. They have now gone on display at the Donald McGill museum in Ryde, Isle of Wight, for the first time in 90 years. Read more >>

VOCABULARY
• bachelor: an unmarried man
• to pop the question (informal): to ask someone to marry you
• to propose to someone: to ask someone to marry you

ALSO SEE
• What's special about 29 February? (BBC Newsround)
• Leap year trivia you might want to know (GMA News)
• Five of the worst public marriage proposals (The Guardian)
• Meet Britain's oldest leap year baby: Great-grandmother to celebrate 25th birthday with card from the Queen (Mail Online)
• Crazy Old Postcards Showing Women Proposing to Men During Leap Year (Slate)
• 10 Activities for Learning About Leap Year and Other Calendar Oddities (New York Times)

BBC Video: How to do business in India

When meeting representatives from Indian businesses, how should you greet them and what should you be wearing? Rajini Vaidyanathan takes us through some of the top tips for getting networking right in India. Transcript: How to do business in India 

ALSO SEE
• Doing business in India (Kwintessential)
• Executive Planet: India

Interactive: European Stereotypes

As part of the Europa project, newspapers from six European countries (Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and Italy) were asked to stereotype each other, and then asked cultural commentators in each country to assess how accurate they are. You can read the resulting articles on The Guardian website. Here's an extract from the one about the British:

The stereotype is itself a stereotype. The European image of the Brit – either pukingly drunk football fan or snooty City gent, both living off past imperial glories, sullenly resenting being in Europe rather than ruling the world – is itself a cliche. Just as Brits know that every good Frenchman wears a striped shirt and beret, and that ruddy-faced Germans subsist on a diet of beer and sausage, so we know precisely what all those Europeans think of us. Read all >>

ALSO SEE
• French stereotypes: arrogant and good in bed? Bien sûr!
• Spanish stereotypes: statistics tell us they have Mondays, too
• German stereotypes: Don't mention the towels
• Italian stereotypes: yes, we are all individuals!
• Polish stereotypes: hard-drinking Catholic zealots? Nie!
• How European are you? (interactive quiz)

Reuters Video: Using feng shui for business

The ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui is sometimes used in the U.S. to gain an edge in business, but in China it's used as a weapon to outperform rivals. Carmen Roberts reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: In the United States and other western countries the Chinese art of feng shui is mostly thought of as a way to put one's life and home in harmony.
ANNA MARIE VLAD, ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER: "I'm an architectural designer and I do think about the way the placement of rooms, of entries, of furniture in rooms."
REPORTER: But in China this ancient art can be used as a strategic tool for power. Angel de Para is a master of classic Chinese feng shui.
ANGEL DE PARA, FENG SHUI MASTER AND CEO OF EARTH LUCK INTERNATIONAL: "In Asia my observation of it Feng Shui is used as a weapon. It's not used for harmony."
REPORTER: De Para says people can also use feng shui as weapon for success in business or finance. His feng shui calculations include location, compass directions, the CEO's birthday and derivatives.
ANGEL DE PARA: "Based on my clients needs. What are their goals and desires? I try to match the location to their goals and desires so they peak at the moment they're expecting their strategy to peak."
REPORTER: For instance the energy of the so-called Lipstick building worked well for convicted swindler, Bernie Madoff. It's here that Madoff ran a $65 billion ponzi scheme that bilked thousands of investors worldwide.
ANGEL DE PARA: "That building reflected the people that were going to be attracted to that building were going to be gathering large sums of money from the masses."
REPORTER: De Para says that energy can be used in a positive or negative way. Madoff chose the negative. Classic or traditional feng shui is actually quantitative analysis, and can even be used to pick stocks.
ANGEL DE PARA: "Because you know their corporate headquarters and you know the individuals running the companies. So, you already know two of the factors right there. Then when you look at the data and you project backwards, you can see if reflects a pattern, then you can project going forward."
REPORTER: Looking ahead, De Para says his feng shui analysis shows energy is the most important sector until 2024, that the US may take a financial dip in 2013, and that it will be at least 2014 before the US economy rebounds strongly. I'm Carmen Roberts, Reuters.

Reuters Video: World gears up for New Year

People around the globe prepare to celebrate the coming of a new year. Katharine Jackson reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: As the clock ticks closer to 2012, New Year's Eve organizers flip a switch, illuminating the famed crystal ball set to drop at midnight over New York's Times Square​. Weighing nearly 12,000 pounds, the crystal-encrusted kaleidoscope of 32,000 LED lights dazzles even in daylight as it ascends into the air for a test run. Also well before midnight's strike, confetti rains down on New Yorkers as workers test how the colored pieces of paper float through the air.
JESSICA ARROYO: "It's awesome. I thought it was snowing for a second, but it's exciting to know that there is going to be tons of confetti for New Year's Eve, real excited."
REPORTER: In Rio de Janeiro, tons of fireworks are loaded onto rafts bound for three locations. Most will explode over famed Copacabana Beach at midnight. The beach is already attracting devotees of the Afro-Brazilian goddess of the sea and fertility. They cast flowers, floating candles and their wishes into the Atlantic before carrying the goddess' figure into the water. Across the globe in in India, women construct intricate chocolate bouquets by wrapping chocolate around a stick and molding it into chocolate flowers bound with ribbon. The chocolate treats are New Year's gifts for friends and relatives meant to begin the new year with cheer. In the Philippines, colorfully wrapped firecrackers draw a crowd looking to stock up before the celebrations begin. Despite some towns' campaigns to stomp out fireworks for safety reasons, many Filipinos practice the Chinese tradition of setting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve...a bang said to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck for a Happy New Year. Katharine Jackson, Reuters.

ALSO SEE
• Top 10 places for New Year's Eve traditions (The Guardian)