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.

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Video: How to Make English Grammar Lessons Interesting

Is English grammar boring for you? Alfredo used to think so, but he has grown to love learning about grammar. In this video, Alfredo gives you three tips to succeed with grammar and to increase your motivation to learn grammar.

COMMENT
Good advice! There's nothing more demotivating for students than having to plough through traditional grammar exercises. By the way, you can find more videos with Alfredo on the OnTargetEnglish YouTube channel.

ALSO SEE
• How To Teach Boring Grammar Points: 7 Quick Proven Tips (Busy Teacher)
• Grammar Games (British Council) 
• Grammar Apps for English Learners (The English Blog) 
• Grammar Girl: Cartoons 

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Video: François Hollande Speaking English in India

TRANSCRIPT
I'm sure that the vi.. this visit will bear (?) our relationship at the best level we can hope (sic). We come from a great partnership, India and France, and we must always improve the relationship between our two countries. India is a great democracy, the big (sic) democracy in the world, a country which is (in ?) development, and France must be with you in the challenge. Thank you, thank you.

ANALYSIS
Besides having an accent which borders on caricature, Hollande makes a number of mistakes. He says "bear our relationship" (probably translating the French "porter"), when he should have said "take", and omits the "for" after "hope". He should have used the superlative "biggest" when describing India as "the big democracy in the world" (though to be fair he gets the preposition "in" right). Finally, he talks about India being a country "in development" ("en dévelopement") rather than a "developing country". In any case, I'm not sure his Indian hosts would appreciate being referred to as a developing country, which sounds rather patronizing now that India is one of the so-called BRICS.

COMMENT
French President François Hollande doesn't seem to have made much, if any, progress since he was last caught speaking English on camera. It's strange that an elite politician would speak English so poorly. Mind you, Nicolas Sarkozy was no better. Not a great advertisement for language education in French schools ...

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Words in the News: Shun

The Daily Express says more than four million migrants cannot or rarely speak English. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
If you shun someone or something, you deliberately avoid them or keep away from them. • He has always shunned publicity.

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Etymological Video Series: Mysteries of Vernacular

“Mysteries of Vernacular” is an animated video series exploring the unexpected etymology of everyday words. Each episode is ‘narrated’ by a stop-motion animated book that has been customized and hand-painted to bring the history of the words to life. In its final form, the series will exist as a library of 26 'volumes', one for each letter of the alphabet. The first three episodes of the series are available online at www.mysteriesofvernacular.com : “A for Assassin”, “C for Clue”, and “P for Pants”. According to creator Jessica Oreck, each episode takes more than 80 hours to create between the research, construction of the book, and the animation.

COMMENT
A beautiful and fascinating project. I look forward to discovering more episodes.

Video: The History of English in Ten Minutes

This is Chapter Eight of The Open University's video cartoon series The History of English in Ten Minutes, which provides a light-hearted look at the history of the English language.

Video: The Origin of English Words

Explore the origin of some everyday English words in this fun, short video provided by EF Englishtown.

Book of the Day: Classical English Rhetoric

Ward Farnsworth, Professor of Law at Boston University (and fan of The English Blog), sent me a copy of his new book Classical English Rhetoric (thanks Ward!) While English learners may find the intricacies of anaphora and epistrophe a bit beyond them, teachers of English (and anyone who has to give speeches or presentations) will appreciate the numerous examples of the rhetorical art from Shakespeare through to Churchill.

Here's a quote which I thought was apt in present circumstances:

Everything in the English government appears to me the reverse of what it ought to be, and of what it is said to be. (Paine, The American Crisis, 1783)

No change there then. That's an example of symploce, by the way. You know, a combination of anaphora and epistrophe.

COMMENT
I wonder whose speeches will be used as examples of classic English rhetoric 50 years from now. Obama? Probably. David Cameron? Doubtful.

Newsy Video: American Woman Wakes Up With British Accent

Karen Butler blames a sedative used during dental surgery for changing her voice into a British accent. View transcript >>

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

ALSO SEE
• Foreign Accent Syndrome (Wikipedia)
• Foreign Accent Syndrome for Beginners (MSN)

COMMENT
If only my students could wake up with a British accent!

Rastamouse provokes complaints of racism and teaching bad language

An animated reggae-singing mouse that has become a children's television hit on the BBC has sparked complaints from parents who fear the show is racist and encourages the use of slang. Mothers on online parenting forums have even raised fears that the programme could result in playground fights if children try to copy the mouse. Read more >>

ALSO SEE
• Tings is good for Rastamouse, the TV cult hero (The Independent)
• Rage against Rastamouse (Voice Online)
• What Rastamouse can tell us about grammar (Teaching English Grammar in Schools)
• Rastamouse (Wikipedia)
• Rastafarian vocabulary (Wikipedia)

English Language Quiz

If you're in London, don't miss the British Library's Evolving English exhibition, which runs until 3rd April. If you can't make the exhibition, see how you do on this quiz from the 'Evolving English' website.

ALSO SEE
• The 'conTROversy' over changing pronunciations (Sunday Telegraph)

Video: Stephen Fry on Language

This is an excerpt from one of Stephen Fry's podcasts, which has been animated by Matt Rogers of Rogers Creations. Click here to listen to the complete episode.

COMMENT
If you found that interesting, you should enjoy this sketch featuring Fry and Hugh Laurie (aka Dr House!)

Video: The English Language in 24 Accents

While many people seem to only speak in other accents when drunk, this kid reveals himself to be an inadvertent dialect savant in this remarkable video. Within eight minutes, he masters two dozen accents used by English speakers. He says that the video is "mostly for his friends," but it's no surprise that such an impressive mimic has received so much attention on YouTube (over 2.3m hits in less than a month—ed.).

We're curious how he's learned all these accents, which he effortlessly flows out in hilarious one-sided phone conversations. (Yes, he even gets the American accents mostly down pat -- rare for even many trained professional actors!) Source: The Huffington Post

COMMENT
Surprisingly good—and much more entertaining than the annoying Amy Walker and her 21 accents.

NOTE
You can find a transcript of this video and some exercises on 119Eng.com. 

English now the language of Europe

Source: MailOnline

The Yahoo! Style Guide

"The Yahoo! Style Guide" covers the basics of grammar and punctuation plus a multitude of topics with a Web-specific focus. You'll have to buy the book to get the whole story, but the free companion website features content excerpted from the book and more help and resources from Yahoo! editors. 

COMMENT
Very useful resource for those who write for the web or anyone interested in grammar and punctuation. You can read a review here.

ALSO SEE
• Click here: A field guide to English usage online (Boston.com)
• The Guardian Style Guide
• The Economist Style Guide
• Columbia Journalism Review’s Language Corner