Friday Language Rant

Why do the languages of the world have to have such complicated sounds? In English we have the famous "th" sound that children and ESL-ers alike have difficulty pronouncing. In Spanish I struggle daily with the "rr" sound. Oh, it's easy, everyone tells me. Just pretend you are riding a motorcycle and make the sound with your tongue "rrRRrrRRrrRRrr". No, not that easy. Really. I also have problems with the "l". I think sometimes I wasn't to roll my l's. I don't know why. It's something that my tongue does with my brain telling it. In German, I also work hard to say the r's because they are tapped, not rolled, or barely pronounced like English. And the ö? Wtf is that? It sounds like someone hit you in the stomach "öh!"

Maybe, what I'm getting at is the basis for the accents we carry in a particular language. Our pronunciation affects everything. It affects how people understand us, and how well we understand others.

Would it be easier if there was a language that consisted of, say the easiest sounds ever? We could do away with the rr's, the ö's and the th's of the world and exist in more pronounceable world. Obviously, I'm dreaming, and venting a little.

What do you think? What are the hardest sounds for you to say in a given language?

Where Does Dialect Stop and Grammar Begin?

Examining dialect and grammar in emails.

Here's the scenario. You work with someone who is from the south, where the spoken dialect includes words such as ya'll and ain't. You are trying to sell something to this person, so in order to appear friendly, you adopt their lingo. The usage of these dialectal words shows up in emails as well. If words such as ya'll and ain't are used in an email, is it poor grammar (in this scenario, you are someone who is a prescriptionist) or is it an extension of dialect?

My argument is that it is an extension of dialect. Even within a business setting, many people write emails as if they were talking to the recipient - more informal than "professional." And if they write as if they were holding a conversation, then it makes more sense that using dialectal words is an extension of dialect rather than poor grammar.

What do you think?

Word Buzz Friday: Top 25 German Words

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been a little less hectic and chaotic than my own. I was just thinking recently that the last time I was in German was exactly two years ago. While I wish I could travel there more frequently, I will just have to settle for German online for now. That is why I discovered this list of the top 25 German nouns. Can you see how many of them are cognates? (Remember my last post?) For more German words click here. Bis Bald!

1. das Jahr, -e year	14. die Leute (pl.) people
2. das Mal, -e time (as in number of times)	15. die Arbeit, -en work, job
3. das Beispiel, -e example	16. das Prozent, -e percent
4. die Zeit time	17. die Hand, -¨e hand
5. die Frau, -en woman, wife, Mrs.	18. die Stadt, -¨e city
6. der Mensch, -en human being, man	19. der Herr, -en man, gentleman, Mr.
7. das Kind, -er child	20. der/das Teil, -e part
8. der Tag, -e day	21. das Problem, -e problem
9. der Mann, -¨er man	22. die Welt, -en world
10. das Land, -¨er country, land	23. das Recht, -e right, law
11. die Frage, -n question	24. das Ende, -n end
12. das Haus, -¨er house	25. die Million (Mio.), -en million
13. der Fall, -¨e fall, case

Language Learning Issues

As most travelers and expats know, language is very important. Maybe you already speak the language of your host country, but some of the words are different, like the difference between American and Australian English. Or maybe you know nothing. Not even "hello", "goodbye" or "please" and "thank you". Language can really make or break your experience because it's so vital to our everyday lives. One small slip up can be the difference between a friendly smile or a cold shoulder.

To make matters worse, many times there are words that you think you know because they appear so similar to your native tongue. But, be careful of these false cognates. Here are some in Spanish as provided by www.spanish.bz.

spanish word	actual english definition	how to really say English version
actualmente	at present	actually - la verdad es que
asisistir	to attend	assist/help - ayudar
carpeta	folder	carpet - alfombra
chocar	to crash	choke - ahogar/sofocar
embarazada	pregnant	embarassed - avergonzado
éxito	success	exit - salida
largo	long	large - grande
parientes	relatives	parents - padres
realizar	to actualize	realize - darse cuenta
recordar	remember	record - grabar
sensible	sensitive	sensible - razonable, sensato
soportar	put up with	support - mantener
últimamente	lately	ultimately - al final
vaso	drinking glass	vase - jarrón

Here are some false cognates in German from www.learnenglishonline.yuku.com.

(D for Deutsch or German, E for English)

D - handy = E - a mobile phone

E - handy = D - handlich

D - Bad = E - bath

E - bad = D - schlecht

D - blamieren = E - embarass

E - blame = D - Schuld

What has your experience been with false cognates? Do you know any embarrassing ones?

Word Buzz Friday

Yesterday's post was all about the one millionth word of the English language. Today's word buzz will be similar with some more of the newest words to make it into the Oxford dictionary as supplied by www.askoxford.com.

aerobicized or aerobicised

adj. (of a person's body) toned by aerobic exercise: aerobicized Hollywood women.

agroterrorism

n. terrorist acts intended to disrupt or damage a country's agriculture.

– derivatives

agroterrorist n.

blowback

n.

2. chiefly US the unintended adverse results of a political action or situation.

celebutante

n. a celebrity who is well known in fashionable society.

– origin 1930s: blend of celebrity and debutante.

crunk

n. a type of hip-hop or rap music characterized by repeated shouted catchphrases and elements typical of electronic dance music, such as prominent bass.

adj. US, chiefly black slang (of a person) very excited or full of energy.

– origin 1990s: perh. an alt. past part. of crank¹ or a blend of crazy and drunk.

elephant

– phrases

the elephant in the room a major problem or controversial issue which is obviously present but avoided as a subject for discussion because it is more comfortable to do so.

Yogalates (also trademark Yogilates)

n. a fitness routine that combines Pilates exercises with the postures and breathing techniques of yoga.

– origin 1990s: blend of yoga and Pilates.

zombie

n.

3. a computer controlled by a hacker without the owner's knowledge, which is made to send large quantities of data to a website, making it inaccessible to other users.

Have a great weekend!

One Millionth Word

Wow. I'll bet you never knew English had such an extensive vocabulary. Or if you did, pat yourself on the back.

This is what Yahoo Tech had to say about the new addition to our ever expanding language:

A U.S.-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one millionth word or phrase in the English language on Wednesday, although other linguists slammed it as nonsense and a stunt.

The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one millionth word.

It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.

Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.

There are no set rules for such a count as there is no certified arbiter of what constitutes a legitimate English word and classifying the language is complicated by the number of compound words, verbs and obsolete terms.

"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.

Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound.

"If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.

He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.

This list included "Jai Ho!" an Indian exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment, and "slumdog," a derisive term for children living in the slums of India that became popular with the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

The list also included "cloud computing," meaning services delivered via the cloud or Internet, "carbon neutral," a widely used term in the climate change debate, and "N00b," a derogatory term from the gaming community for a newcomer.

"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the UK," said Texas-based Payack.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

The Great Vowel Shift

Have you cursed the English language for its difficult spelling? Have you ever wondered why the spelling seems so messed up? A story from Sara's introduction brings to mind this idea. Here is what she said:

For seven months, I lived in Santiago, Chile teaching English. It made me realize how fortunate I am to have been born speaking English because if I hadn't I probably would never learn it. English, like French is not phonetic and that drives me crazy. It's why my Spanish speaking students doubted me when I told them about spelling bees. Why would anybody stage a competition around spelling when it's sooo easy? They had forgotten for a moment their own struggles to spell and pronounce some of our more difficult English words.

I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to learn English and attempt spelling. The languages that I've learned - Spanish and German - are both pretty easy to "sound out" (Spanish more so than German). This makes it easier to learn spelling and pronunciation. But English, not so much. A lot of English's "crazy" spelling can be explained by the Great Vowel Shift.

So what is the Great Vowel Shift? It is something that happened back between the years 1400 and 1600 C.E. (common era). Side note: My linguistics text book states 1400-1600 CE, but Wikipedia states this change happened between 1200 and 1600 CE. You see, languages tend to evolve over time. They change. The Great Vowel Shift is an example of one such change that has affected the way English speakers pronounce certain vowels. Evidence of this vowel shift remains in certain pairs of words. For example: please/pleasant, serene/serenity, sane/sanity. Do you hear the difference? The first word in each pair have been affected by the vowel shift, whereas the latter word has not.

So what does this have to do with spelling? At one time, English speakers DID pronounce words as they were spelled. Because spelling was pretty much already established at the time the Great Vowel Shift occurred, the pronunciation changed while the spelling did not. And that is why English has such "crazy" spelling.

Want to learn more about the Great Vowel Shift? Try starting here. You can also easily google it.

Word Buzz Friday: Wine Vocab

This Friday's word buzz has been on my mind a lot as I have been sampling more than my fair share of the delicious Chilean wines. Obviously, there is much more wine vocabulary as entire books have been written on the subject, but this is your weekend crash course. (The vocabulary was taken from http://www.wineschool.com/vocabulary.html.)

Aroma: that portion of the smell of a wine derived specifically from the grape variety,such as Cabernet-Sauvignon or Chardonnay, as opposed to that portion of the smell derived from other sources (see Bouquet).

Balance: a balanced wine is one whose constituents--sugar, acids, tannins, alcohols, etc.--are evident but do not mask one another. A young red wine--tannic and acidic-- is not considered balanced because these two characteristics mask the other flavor elements of the wine, which, given time, may display themselves.

Body: English wine authority Michael Broadbent puts it well in his Wine Tasting: "the weight of the wine in the mouth due to its alcoholic content and to its other physical components. These in turn are due to the quality of the wine, to the vintage, its geographical origin, and general style. Wines from hotter climates tend to have more body than those from the north (compare the Rhône with the Mosel, for example)."

Character: a wine of good character is one which doesn’t just slip down the throat and say "bye-bye"; it says "stop a while, friend. You have just come upon an above-average liquid. Think on it".

Complex: a complex wine is many-faceted; it contains not only acids, alcohols, tannins, etc., but more. Each sip brings another flavor, reveals another nuance.

Legs: a wine’s body or viscosity can be determined, often, by the way rivulets (or sheets, or "tears") of wine descend the inner glass after swirling. It has to deal with the surface tension and other technical stuff; but a look at the legs will give you tips on the wine’s nature: in a dry wine, slow falling legs indicate a full-bodied-wine; quick-falling indicate a light wine.

Tannin: a natural constituent of wines, especially reds. It is a bitter-tasting material which is partially responsible for preserving wines during their sometimes long aging periods. Bite a grape seed to experience the flavor of tannin or have a cup of tea, neat.

¡SALUD! CHEERS! PROST!

Talking Like a Boy: A Lesson in Manspeak

Has anyone ever told you that you should talk like a girl? Here in Tokyo, this has become a phrase I have become all too acquainted with. For, in Japan, men and women not only have separate train cars, they have separate language codes as well.

Before I moved to Japan, my Japanese friends were mostly men, so I learned the language of the Japanese male. Instead of saying "watashi" (I), I would blurt out "ore" which means the exact same thing, but in what I like to call manspeak.

Before I knew that there were different types of "speak", I was often unsure as to why I was getting strange looks on the trains or in local restaurants. I was pretty confident that what I was saying was correct, so I chalked up all the stares to the typical "Oh my, a foreigner is speaking our language" curiosity.

Then, one day, my boss heard me say "ganbare" to another coworker. Ganbare is manspeak for ganbatte, which means "good luck" or "you can do it" in Japanese. He literally sat me down and told me not to speak that way. When I asked him why, he simply replied, "It just sounds too weird. You should speak like a girl!"

Since then, my female coworkers have been trying to show me how to speak properly, cutesy and in high tones, like a proper Japanese girl should. I don't think it's working. I like the trills that occur in Japanese manspeak, and the harshness of the words. It sound more real. At least more so than the over-the-top squeaking that occurs in the ideal speech of a Japanese woman.

I know a girl here who has a Japanese father and an American mother. She speaks in Japanese manspeak, and makes no apologies for it. When I asked her why she speaks that way, she simply replied, "I'm not going to try to change the way I talk based on silly gender rules."

Maybe I should take a cue from her.

Have any of you ever lived in a place where men speak differently from women? If so, did you change your speech patterns or did you just go with the flow?

Share your thoughts!

The Cyrillic Alphabet

Hello лангуаге нердс! Аманда here!

The Cyrillic alphabet is the alphabet used by many countries in Eastern Europe (and Asia). For a list of languages that use this alphabet and map of the countries, you can go here. I was first introduced to the Cyrillic alphabet by a friend who is from Bulgaria, who showed me how to convert my name. And because languages fascinate me, the Cyrillic alphabet caught my attention. It is fun and different. Which is why you can see me now using Аманда for my Blogger name (this is also good in avoiding confusion with other Amandas).

If you're interested in learning more about the Cyrillic alphabet, you can check out its Wikipedia page or to convert your name or other text check out this site.

Ok, now for something fun! What does your name look like in the Cyrillic alphabet? Convert your name (first name or nickname only), and post it here.

Word Buzz Friday: Hot For Words

Hey Everyone! Happy Friday, or maybe if you are reading this from Australia, it's already Saturday so you're one up on me.

Today for your weekly word buzz, I am posting two videos from the Youtube made famous Marina Orlova who appears scantily clad on her website and Youtube channel to teach people like us new vocab words. She even takes requests. Here are her definitions for swine flu and antidisestablishmentarianism.

Antidisestablishmentarianism:



Swine Flu:



Peace out language nerds!

The Foreigner Card: When to use a bad accent?

I was just browsing through some of my fellow gringo-in-Chile blogs and I read this post by Margaret. It's terrific. She brings up a good point. There are some people who will actually fake a bad accent, or horrible Spanish to get out of a tricky situation. I may have even done it on occasion when walking through a market place with a throng of annoying men pestering me to buy their fruits and vegetables. Generally their English is limited to "boo-ti-fuul gee-rul" so that's not a problem, or they just shout out all the random English words they know like "RabbitBatMonkeyApplePoop" (Thanks to Lydia for bringing that to my attention!)

Now, I take particular offense to people speaking to me in English. It's like they are insulting my Spanish (or German teehehehe). Hello, I didn't go for four years to a crazy liberal arts school and study abroad in three countries for this! So, I might be a tad arrogant, too.

Anyways, all bantering aside, when do you think it's best to fake a bad accent, or fake that you don't know what's going on when you really do?

I would maybe consider doing it to get out of a parking/speeding ticket or for some other such offense. I have once done it to avoid standing in the eternal line of bureaucracy hell that is otherwise known as where you have to go to return crap at a local department store. I simple smiled at the lady with my cutest, most convincing gringa smile, and said "NO.ENTENDER." She huffed off and returned my garment for me. Perfect.

But, is it fair to always play the foreigner card when traveling or living abroad? Have you ever done it in your own city? (I may have also done that once, but I'm not sure I want to brag about it here).

Word Buzz Friday: Learn A Language

Instead if the normal vocab today, I decided to try something new. I found these videos doing a simple search on YouTube. They are a bit slow, but the pronunciations are easy to follow. Here's you chance to try your tongue at a new language when you have nothing to do this Memorial Day Weekend!

German



Japanese



Italian



Portuguese





Spanish



Turkish

Bushisms

Whether you loved him or hated him, former President George W. Bush definitely had his own way of using the English language.




Are there any Bushisms that you remember that weren't in the video?

Word Buzz Friday

The language nerds, in words.

Tasha, for reasons that are probably obvious: wanderlust - a strong desire to wander or travel.

Miyaunna, for her film-making, website designing, and lovely songs posted on her blog: virtuoso - a person skilled in the techniques of an art, esp. playing a musical instrument; by extension, a person with a cultivated appreciation of artistry.

Kyle, because I know he does it: quaff - to drink a beverage, esp. an intoxicating one, copiously and with hearty enjoyment.

Sara, for being one of the few blonds in Chile: recherche - uncommon; exotic; rare.

And myself, because I once used this word to describe myself and in some ways it is still true: fastidious - hard to please; extremely refined or critical.

(all definitions were taken from dictionary.com)

Bit of a mishap...

So it seems my luck hasn't been the best lately - my laptop screen shattered in my carryon bag, so sadly I can't upload the comic I promised. I have a replacement monitor when I get home, but its days as a laptop are over. At least it's lasted this long!

So instead you'll have to humour me by reading yet another odd story from my recent travels.
Do you think you can generally predict a persons next "line" when you're in a routine situation? I arrived in Finland a few days ago for my last trip within Europe, but I speak not a word of Finnish. I went to the grocery store to buy food to eat at my hostel, pulling out a €20 note to pay for 12.10 in groceries. At this point the cashier asks me something, I dig in my pocket and shake my head.

So take your best guess! If this were you, what would you assume he asked? I'll leave my answer in the comments, I can only guess that it's the right one, but who knows!

American vs. British Slang

Hey! I found this video on You Tube. If you are like me, maybe you have wondered at some point about the strange words in the British vocabulary (or American ?) then this is for you. It's Hugh Laurie from the popular TV show House. He's discussing slang with talk show host Ellen. Well... just watch it already!

It's Pop, Not Soda

In Minnesota, we use the word pop for what most people call soda. We often "go up" to see someone or vacation at our cabins, even if the direction we are headed has nothing to do with "up." And, if you go deep enough into Central Minnesota, where the Germans immigrants settled and flourished, you may even hear "yous guys" as the plural of you. In the south, you plural becomes, "Ya'll!" People in Wisconsin call drinking fountains "bubblers."

Every regional dialect has words that are unique to its speakers (and this is true for every language). And often times, using words like "pop" when one is not in Minnesota can result in confusion or good-natured teasing. So here are a couple things for you to share: What are some words that are only used in your city/state/region/country? And have you ever been in a situation where using a word that is unique to your regional dialect has caused confusion or misunderstanding?

Word Buzz Friday

Bet you never heard of some of these ones before. Or, if I am underestimating your intelligence, let me know. My vocabulary has been sadly waning in Chile, maybe do to the fact that I speak either Spanish or my own version of Spanglish everyday. Suerte!

bivouac \BIV-wak, BIV-uh-wak\ , noun:

1. An encampment for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

intransitive verb:
1. To encamp for the night, usually under little or no shelter.

"Rob had made his emergency bivouac just below the South Summit."
-- David Breashears, "Death on the mountain", The Observer, March 30, 2003

coruscate \KOR-uh-skayt\
1. To give off or reflect bright beams or flashes of light; to sparkle.
2. To exhibit brilliant, sparkling technique or style.

"They pulled up at the farthest end of a loop path that looked out over the great basin of the Rio Grande under brilliant, coruscating stars."
-- Bill Roorbach, "Big Bend", The Atlantic, March 2001

thaumaturgy \THAW-muh-tuhr-jee\ , noun:
The performance of miracles or magic.

"Of course, none of these improbable meetings ever took place in reality. But within the realm of showbiz thaumaturgy, they're perfectly acceptable examples of latter-day digital compositing, wherein it's possible to have anything share a frame of film or video with practically anything else."
-- John Voland, "Prez presses tech buttons", Variety

umbrage \UHM-brij\ , noun:

1. Shade; shadow; hence, something that affords a shade, as a screen of trees or foliage.
2. a. A vague or indistinct indication or suggestion; a hint.
3. b. Reason for doubt; suspicion.
4. Suspicion of injury or wrong; offense; resentment.

Burr finally took umbrage, and challenged him to a duel.
-- Richard A. Samuelson, "Alexander Hamilton: American", Commentary, June 1999

The source for today's words is http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/.

Storytime!

No comic this week - I wrote one, but I decided to save it for next week since I'll be in Finland, and probably not too keen on writing one! So instead, you get a recent story that I just couldn't figure out how to turn into a comic, and a look into my other nerdy side...

Yesterday the new Star Trek movie came out in cinemas here in France. I love having bragging rights (haha, I got to see it two days before you all!) so of course I went to the first showing of the day. This is France, however, so that means the movie was dubbed into French.
Now my French is good enough by now that I have no trouble following a movie in French. I don't mind it too much, especially if I haven't yet seen the movie in English (that way I don't get nitpicky about the voice actors). Still, there are certain things I find horribly amusing, and this particular instance has to do with a certain character in the movie - this isn't really a spoiler in case you worry about those things. Now as you may or may not be aware, there is a character named Chekov, a Russian ensign that in the original series was known for his crediting all inventions to Russia, and of course his odd pronounciation of certain words.
And I was both amused and pleased to hear this preserved in French!
Yes, that's right, a stereotypical Russian accent perfectly preserved in French. I always wonder how different accents come through in certain languages, because often I can't hear it myself excepting in English. I've been told that I speak Italian with a French accent and Korean with a Japanese one, but honestly I can't hear that, and just attribute it to having studied the similar language first. But to hear this! It was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing in the theatre.

I'm just disappointed they didn't seem to do the same for Scotty. But then I'm told French people can't really distinguish between anglophone accents anyway - it's why they all assume I'm English!

How do you teach a bad word?

Last night I was out with my boyfriend L., who wanted to practice his English. We started talking and I was surprised that I didn't have to speak as slowly as I did in the past. Our conversation flowed normally, like I was talking to a friend back home.

He was explaining a project they are working on in his company. The project is abstracting uranium from a country in Africa. I wasn't paying too much attention, maybe I was watching the amber liquid in my glass vibrate as the people walked by, but all of the sudden I heard it. The N word.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Apparently they have lots of uranium," he went on without noticing my pause.

"No. Stop. What country did you say?" I asked again.

He looked confused. Then said it. There it was again. The N word.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. How do you spell it?"

He wrote out in his notebook n-i-g-e-r. (Note: pronounced /niːˈʒɛər/ or /ˈnaɪdʒər/)

"Oh! Niger! Okay... Whew... Now, I'm going to explain something to you."

I told him that the N word in English is right up there with some of the most offensive words ever. No one should use it. Sometimes rappers use it in songs, but besides that no one says it.

He looked confused again. I realized right away we were having a cultural misunderstanding because Chile is not the most pc country ever and while I may not have an emotional response to Chilean swear words like culiar, probably no one will look at me sideways if I all the sudden start saying it. However, in the case of the N word it is much different. People will not care where you are from. If you say it, it is offensive.

After a few minutes of my explanation he nodded in agreement, "Alright. I won't say it. But, I should probably tell my coworkers because they all say it too."

*****

Now, I ask myself, how do you teach bad words to someone who is learning ESL? What do you say to them? Do you give them a list of the words and say "You should never say these words, but in case you hear them, this is what they mean"? What would you say?

Word Buzz Friday: Swine Flu Edition

Hey all! I hope you are staying warm (for those of you here in the southern hemisphere) and staying cool for those of you in the northern hemisphere ;). Speaking of cold, and colds and well...flu (plural of flu=flus??). I hope you all have been avoiding the swine flu...or wait the "H1N1 Influenza A" (can't call it swine flu anymore according to the WHO). Who the h--- is going to call it that, I don't know. That brings me around to my new vocab today:

Ms. Piggy Flu:
A suggested name for the "swine" flu.

Dr. Google:
A person medically qualified by Google's search engine to diagnose symptoms of sickness.

Mrs. Smith: My son has the swine flu. I searched it on Google.

Dr. James: Really? That's what Google says? Send him to emergency immediately!

Dr. James: *note to self* Mrs. Smith's Son is fine. Mrs. Smith however has a case of Dr Google.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse here comes....

Swine Mono:
The mono you get from pigs.

Dude, Madelyn got swine mono from Chris.

Have a great weekend!!!

Comic #5: Nuances

Sorry for using a bit of a "rerun" - this is from my original comic and due to and uncooperative computer I'm repurposing it for language use.

In Korean there is a word hyuji which literally means "rest". You can add suffixes to make new words, such as hyujishil, a room where one rests, and hyujiso, a rest area (as in one off the highway). However, as I found out, it's important not to confuse hyujishil with hwajangshil, which is where you'll actually find the toilets.

And yes, they sell waffles at rest areas in Korea. I don't know why.

Improve Your English!

A commercial. Reposted here for your enjoyment.

(credit to my friend Adrian for suggesting I should post this here)

Word Buzz Friday

Hey Language Nerds!

I don't know if you are as obsessed with twitter as I am, but did you know there is a name for what your friends who constantly tweet celebrities? Yes. That's right there it. Maybe now, it will become a disorder like Facebook addiction. Only time will tell.

Tweet Dropping:

When a twitter user has a one-way conversation with a celebrity so that to the users followers, it seems like they are talking to a celebrity and thus are instantly über-cool in the eyes of their followers, when in fact they are a loser with nothing better to do than have a fake conversation with themselves.

Similar to name dropping IRL, but even more annoying and even less likely to be true.

Tweet-Dropper: @BritneySpears How did the barbecue go? I heard Justin Timberlake was there too >.< awkward?

Tweet-Dropper (A few minutes later, without a reply from Britney): @BritneySpears Haha yes, I suppose after a while it got pretty normal for both of you, you must go to loads of the same things!

Have a great weekend! I'm outta here!

Comic #4: Style

Do you generally associate a language with a style of dress? I've never thought about it that way, but when I had this girl approach me certain I spoke English because of what I was wearing, I was a bit shocked, to say the least. The shocking part of course, she then couldn't identify the country (England? Canada? Australia?), but seemed to assume only an anglophone girl would be wearing jean shorts and a rugby shirt that says "Ireland".

Do you generally look at a way someone is dressed and say "oh, he must speak Italian" or something similar? Does a common language really imply a common culture? Or is it just for anglophones? It does have me wondering.

Your vs. You're

The inability to differentiate between your and you're is probably one of my biggest pet peeves. While I'm not a strict prescriptionist - I think language does change over time and we have to be aware of this - using your for you're (or you're for your) is one grammar mistake that I cannot condone. I have heard the argument that as long as you understand what the other person is trying to convey, then it does not matter how that person chose to express their point.

However, I recently came across a very poignant example of why you should never mix up your and you're. As you may recall, we language nerds had a blog called The Grammar Vandal as one of our blogs of the week. Well, the Grammar Vandal published a post called, "She got what she deserved." This is only a part of what she wrote (please visit her site for the full post, and a chance to vote on whether this person really got what she deserved):

This is my new favorite entry on my new favorite Web site, fmylife.com:

Today, I was flirting via text with a coworker. Things started getting heated, and I wanted to send her a sexy picture. I asked if she had any suggestions. She said, “Your nuts!” She meant, “YOU’RE nuts.” I sent her a photo of my junk. I offended a co-worker with incriminating evidence. FML

Okay. We know this guy isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Anyone knows you don’t send naked pictures to someone you barely know. And I’m going to assume that these two people are over the age of 18, because if not, that’s a different issue altogether. Assuming they both are above the age of consent,

That girl got exactly what she deserved.

She mixed up “your” and “you’re” and thus was blinded with an image of the least attractive part of the male anatomy, an image that will likely stick in her mind for quite a long time.

The vast majority of the time, using "your" when you mean "you're" probably won't produce a result such as the above example. But I think it offers a quality reason why you should practice proper grammar - if you're not careful about what you say, it could take on an entirely new and unintended meaning.

Does the mistake of using "your" for "you're" bother you? Also: what do you think has contributed to using your (possessive) for you're (contraction of you are)?

Word Buzz Friday: Scrabble Edition

I've decided to take a different approach to the Word Buzz today. Today is the Scrabble (or Literati) edition! What to do with those hard to use letters? Well now, I have your solution. The good part is that these words actually exist and they won't leave you scratching your head while you try to explain to your friends that you are just sure you've seen the word "qwobyx" before. (Although it if it did exist you would have 10+4+1+4+8=27 points at least!)

I did the digging for you in the Dictionary of Difficult Words. The points are as follows:

• 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
• 1 point: E ×12, A ×9, I ×9, O ×8, N ×6, R ×6, T ×6, L ×4, S ×4, U ×4
• 2 points: D ×4, G ×3
• 3 points: B ×2, C ×2, M ×2, P ×2
• 4 points: F ×2, H ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2
• 5 points: K ×1
• 8 points: J ×1, X ×1
• 10 points: Q ×1, Z ×1

Some of my favs are:

1. Quaff (10+1+1+4+4= 20 points at least):
v.t. drink deeply; drink in long draughts; n. a long draught.

2. Quixotic (10+1+1+8+1+1+1+3=24 pts at least):
a. idealistic; altruistic; unpractical. quixotism, quixotry, n.

3. Kabbadi (5+1+3+3+1+2+1= 16 at least):
n. Indian game of tag, played by two teams.

4. Jalousie (8+1+1+1+1+1+1+1= 15 at least):
n. blind or shutter with slats slanting upwards and inwards.

5. Xenogamy (8+1+1+1+2+1+3+4= 21 at least):
n. cross-fertilization. xenogenesis, n. production of offspring unlike the parent. xenograft, n. heterograft. xenolith, n. rock particle included in another rock. xenomorphic a. with a form not its own.

6. Zollverein (10+1+1+1+4+1+1+1+1= 21 at least):
n. 'customs-union' as organized by Prussia in the 1830s.

7. Zymosis (10+4+3+1+1+1+1= 21 at least):
n. fermentation; process resembling fermentation in development of infectious disease.

Now go forth and kick some buttocks (2+1+1+1+1+1+5+1) at Scrabble!

Comic Strip Thursday

Tasha is still on spring break, so yet again, I give you a Pearls Before Swine comic for your enjoyment. And yes, in case it's not completely obvious by now, I'm a huge fan of Pearls Before Swine. But not only that, this comic goes really well with our blog of the week. Please note that if you are unable to see the entire comic, clicking the picture will allow you to view the full comic.




PS. If you like Pearls Before Swine as much as I do, you can read the comic strip daily here or you can check out the blog of Pearls Before Swine's creator, Stephan Pastis.

Uruguayan English Ads

These are two ads I saw for English Classes in Montevideo, Uruguay. I love how they use the vos (like the tú form, but used mostly in Argentina, Uruguay and El Salvador...not sure where else) form of the command venir= to come. ¡VENÍ!

Technology and Language: Spell Check

First, a poem from "Candidate for a Pullet Surprise," The Journal of Irreproducible Results:

I have a spelling checker
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles to reed,
And aides me when aye rime.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.


What really is spell check? That spell check actually checks your spelling is a misnomer, because when you run spell check on your computer, you are asking it to compare the words you have typed to the computer's internal dictionary. That means if a word is not in the computer's dictionary, such as places, last names, and unique first names (like our own Miyaunna) the computer will consider it misspelled, even though it is correct. My last name is considered spelled incorrectly on OpenOffice.org (running on my Linux computer). Suggestions for correct spelling include Shortener, Softener, Schooner, and my favorite, Shotgunner. However, as I am just noticing, on Windows XP/Mozilla Firefox/Blogger, Shortener and Shotgunner are spelled "incorrectly."

As with the poem above, it is apparent that spell check does not check content. Using an incorrect word (due for do, sew for so, knot for not and so on), will escape the notice of a spell checker - like when I meant to type ganging up and typed gaining up instead, and didn't realize it until Kyle so "graciously" pointed it out. Being able to check grammar in a word processing document may be one way to make sure that your grammar is correct, but it is not fail-proof, just as spell check is not. Computers do not think for themselves - they have been programmed to process information in a specific way. Grammar and spelling are not always cut and dry - consider Kyle's post about a vs an, and how under different circumstances, both an historic and a historic can be correct. Grammar evolves, new words are born, and computers may not have this updated knowledge. There is no substitute for human proof-reading - whether we realize it or not, we instinctively know more about own language than a computer does.

With all the negatives of spell check out of the way, I will say that used with the correct frame of mind, spell check can be very beneficial. As Miyaunna said in her comment about the poll results for what kind of influence you think spell check has had on our knowledge of language, spell check keeps her on her toes. When you are already a decent speller, spell check serves more as a time saver to clue you in if you have misspelled a word, or if, as it happens to me often, typing too fast causes you to mix up letters within a word. And spell check also allows you to see how a word should be spelled, which can help you with spelling in the future as long as you learn from your mistakes (as opposed to just letting the spell check correct your spelling without bothering to learn the correct spelling).

Spell check has had an influence on language - whether it is perceived as negative or positive is debatable depending on how you view the situation. Could you imagine a world without spell check? How would it affect you?

Word Buzz Friday

Hello all. Since Sara is currently on vacation in Montevideo, you get me. I'm a poor substitute, but bear with me and I'm sure you'll survive.

For last week's word buzz, Sara featured snarf, a word which I thought sounded like a combination of sneeze and barf. Coincidentally, my linguistics assignment for the week was to read a chapter on language processing, in which word blends were covered. Have you ever tried to say two words at once and it came out mushed together? I know I have. Those mushed up words are called blends. One fine example of a blend? Spanglish.

Here are my two favorite blend words, both of which I mangled all on my own:

Rememory: a combination of recall and memory. Example: "I would do better on my tests if I had good rememory, because those cheat sheets are hard to recall with my poor memory."

Dipsy: a combination of ditsy and tipsy. And yes, I was dipsy when I came up with this word.

What are some word blends that you know of, or have come up with?

Comic Strip Thursday

Even though Tasha is on her spring break and won't be posting a comic of her own, I thought it would be nice to still have a comic this week. And since I am not a drawer, I found an old Pearls Before Swine comic for your enjoyment.

(click to view the entire comic)

Poll Number 5 Results

What kind of influence has spell check had on our knowledge of language?

4 people said positive influence.
1 person said neutral or no influence.
1 person said negative influence.

I was the lone dissenter who chose negative influence. Even though spell-check has made our lives easier, I think it has actually decreased our knowledge of language. With spell-checker, we don't have to bother with learning how to spell words and we spend less time reflecting on our word choice, because we think that the spell-checker will catch our errors. I believe this is negatively influencing our knowledge of language.

Which influence did you choose, and why?

Word Buzz Friday

I was writing something last week on Twitter, I believe, when I used the word snarf without thinking. Amanda responded that she liked the sound of it. What did it mean? I replied that it must mean throw up or vomit, because that's the only context I've ever heard it used in. She twittered back that it looks like sneeze + barf= snarf. Genius!

Then, I did some research and found this. However, if you are like me, you rarely ever click on links. So the best of the definitions is here:

snarf

/snarf/ 1. To grab, especially to grab a large document or
file for the purpose of using it with or without the author's
permission.

See also BLT.

2. (Unix) To fetch a file or set of files across a network.

See also blast.

3. To acquire, with little concern for legal forms or
politesse (but not quite by stealing). "They were giving away
samples, so I snarfed a bunch of them."

4. Synonym for slurp. "This program starts by snarfing the
entire database into core."

5. (GEnie) To spray food or programming fluids due to
laughing at the wrong moment. This sense appears to be
widespread among mundane teenagers - ESR.

6. This term was mainstream in the late 1960s, meaning "to eat
piggishly". It may still have this connotation in context.

7. A creature on the Thundercats, fond of eating, usually
covertly.

Who knew that snarf had sooo many meanings???

A quick anecdote!

First of all, I apologize for not posting a comic last week - I had a nasty cold. That and homework means no comic this week, and two weeks of spring break wandering through Europe means I'm putting my weekly post on hiatus until late April - I know, I just started this thing! What am I thinking? I hope to come back with plenty of fresh ideas to amuse you with.

Now it's story time...
I know I've mentioned in my comic how often my accent is misconstrued - I blame it on living so many places that I'm not sure how I'm supposed to sound anymore. Even talking with other Americans I'm told I sound Canadian. I don't mind, I'm even considering going there for grad school. So I've gotten to the point where I go somewhere with English speakers and expect it.

So what do I most definitely not expect? Well, that would be the things that a cold apparently does to my voice. I was slightly sick two weekends ago when I went to Edinburgh - wasn't about to cancel the tickets! So whilst wandering about the city, I stopped in a coffee shop to kill time and warm up, ordering my black coffee and chatting with the barista as he pours it.
"So, what brings you here from Australia?"


By the by, I may still be updating my travel blog so feel free to check it out.

The Clbuttic Mistake

Are you confused with the breastle of this post? It's an example of what happens when profanity filters go awry.

I was recently doing some research for my upcoming post about the effects of spell-check on language when I came across something called The Clbuttic Mistake. Unless you happen to be familiar with technology and this particular phenomenon, you may be asking yourself, what the make love is Clbuttic? Clbuttic should be Classic, but as you can see, there is a word contained within the word classic that some may find offensive.

Now, the idea of profanity filters is to get rid of offensive words by selecting a word that is less offensive. For example, ass becomes butt and tit becomes breast (and I changed the "f" word to read make love). It is like parental controls for web surfing, I am guessing. The Clbuttic Mistake, therefore, happens when an offensive word is contained within another perfectly acceptable and unoffensive word, such as classic, and rather than leaving the word the way it is, the profanity filter automatically replaces the offensive section of the word with something it considers less offensive and ultimately produces a nonsense word (classic --> clbuttic). Admittedly, I do not know much about computer programming, but I would say that this perhaps represents a lack of foresight and poor development by the creators of these profanity filters.

The sentence that is featured by the article that I read is: "President Abraham Lincoln was buttbuttinated by an armed buttailant after a life devoted to the reform of the US consbreastution." Am I the only one who finds this sentence hilarious?

There were also some articles/comments that mentioned that some words have been changed into "politically correct" terms. A couple clbuttics here include the sprinter Tyson Gay becoming the sprinter Tyson Homosexual, and some places have [financially] gone from in the red to in the African-American.

And what do you think would happen to Dick Cheney? Or Dick van Dyke? What other words can you turn into a clbuttic? I challenge you to come up with the best clbuttic word or sentence!

Poll Number 4 Results

How many words does it take to read a newspaper or magazine fluently in English?

No one chose 400-500 words
One person chose 800-1,000 words
One person chose 1,500-2,000 words
Two people chose 3,000-4,000 words
And no one chose 8,000+ words

The correct answer?

3,000-4,000 words.

Congratulations to those who guessed correctly!

This quiz was brought to you by this site, which breaks fluency down into different levels according to how many words and/or phrases a person knows. If you're interested in reading more about these other levels, have a little look-see!

Our next poll is: What kind of influence has spell check has on our knowledge of language? This poll will preview an upcoming series about language and technology. Don't forget to vote now!

Word Buzz Friday

Hey everyone! I'm back to add a few new words to your vocab like I do every Friday!

Okay, admit it. We all have that one friend where it seems no matter what we do we will never have as many friends as they do on Facebook. Face it, they have over 1,000 and you just aren't sure if your "friend" even knows all of those people. Maybe your "friend" is you. There is a word for that. Facebookemon March 23

The term used for the collection of people, on your Facebook friends list, that you don’t actually talk to or know in real life. Related to popular tv program and game Pokemon, where the aim is to collect as many different Pocket Monsters as possible.

Dave - "Hey, my friends collection is getting up to two hundred"

Steve - "How many do you really know? go admit it, most of them are Facebookemon"

John - "Gotta catch em all, gotta catch em all"

This next one was said to me by a friend after I told her how much time I had recently spent with a special someone.

Wifed up

When a man (or woman in my case) is held down or in check by a female (*ahem* male in my case) counterpart so as to not engage in social situations with other members of the general public.

Our good buddy John is wifed up this weekend and can't come out with the guys.

What she actually said was "Oh, I forgot that you've been wifed up recently."

There you have it folks! Two new words to add to your slangcabulary. Have a super awesome weekend!

What is Fluency?

The first question someone usually asks me after learning that my bachelor's degree is in German is: "So you're fluent?" My answer is usually, "No." But I had a very interesting conversation some months ago with man from Scotland, who challenged my idea of what it means to be fluent in a language. I do not consider myself to be fluent. I understand a good deal, I can write in German, but I am not an eloquent speaker by any means. I can, however, think in German - that is, understand something said or written in German without having to translate it into English in my head. And this, he said, was being fluent in a language. Would you agree?

At the time I had this conversation, I was only in the beginning month of my Spanish instruction. I am now in my second semester. When the professor speaks in Spanish, I have moments of being able to know what is being said without doing any translating into English in my head. Am I on the road to fluency so early in the game? I am not so convinced. But because I want to teach abroad in a Spanish speaking country eventually, I am hopeful.

Dictionary.com defines fluent as, "spoken or written with ease" and "able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily." I feel that this is close to what I believe fluency to be, though this dictionary definition lacks one very important component of fluency – comprehension. While fluency does not mean understanding every single word that is spoken or written, it does mean being able to understand the vast majority of what is conveyed, as well as being able to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words based on context. What do you think fluency in a language is?

I found this page called "How to judge your foreign language fluency" which breaks down fluency into four parts: the understanding and expression of information presented orally and in written form. You can then rate your own foreign language fluency based on four questions, one for each aforementioned parts (also: are four questions enough to judge fluency?). When judging my German skills, I found my score to be relatively accurate. It is interesting to note that the way fluency is rated it is impossible to be 100% fluent. If you know a foreign language, trying rating your knowledge. Do you think your score accurately represents your level of fluency?

Also! Don't forget to take our current poll located to your left: How many words does it take to read a newspaper or magazine in English fluently? Stay tuned for the results! They will be posted on Saturday.

A vs. An

I was taught growing up that you use “a” when the word starts with a consonant, and you use “an” when the word starts with a vowel. This is close to being right, but not really.

I heard a few years ago that you’re also supposed to use “an” for any word starting with the letter “h,” but that’s even more wrong! I was originally confused because I had realized that "an honor" sounds correct, but "an hairy ape" does not, and I'd keep hearing or seeing things like "an heroic..." but I think it was then that I realized not a whole lot of people know when to use "a" and when to use "an."

After I did some research, I’m pretty sure I bonked myself in the head and said, “duh!” It seems rather obvious, but I guess it wasn’t for me. The actual rule is that you use “a” when the next word starts with a consonant sound and you use “an” when the next word starts with a vowel sound. It doesn’t matter what actual letter the word starts with - just the sound matters. So there you go.

But of course, this is the English language, and what would the English language be if it didn’t try to confuse you?

Some words can sound like they start with a vowel sound or a consonant sound, depending on a few things. For example, when I say “a historic event,” I pronounce that “h” because it sounds right and the statement sounds grammatically correct. But if I say “an historic event,” it also sounds right, because I say “historic” really as “istoric” without the “h.” The real test on whether to use “a” or “an” on words like that is to say the word by itself, then use “a” or “an” appropriately for that pronunciation. So the right way to say it would be “a historic event," unless of course you’re one of the few people who always pronounce it as “istoric,” then go ahead and say “an.”

Quick version: use "a" to precede words that start with a consonant sound, use "an" to precede words that start with a vowel sound.

References:
Online Writing Lab
Grammar Girl

Grammar Girl and OWL are my two main go-to websites for anything related to the English language. I have a decent history with the a vs. an situation, and I’m embarrassed to say that it has taken me this long to actually figure it out, lol.

Word Buzz Friday

Hey all!

Time for another word buzz! It looks like POP! (that along with "my favorite isn't listed") happened to be the favorite onomatopoeia from last week. I wonder why I didn't put "buzz"?

Today's word is:

Zombie Company

1. A technically bankrupt company that is kept alive with large infusions of government money for the sake of "stability" in the U.S. financial system. 2. A large financial company with negative net worth that continues to operate, despite having no clear path to solvency. 3. The UnDead of Wall Street.

"AIG is the premier example of a zombie company -- kept alive only by $120 billion in federal bailout money. Apparently, it's considered too large to fail."

Haha! I haven't heard this mentioned on CNN. Actually, I haven't been watching so much CNN since I can't figure out what channel it's on this cable plan in Chile. Oh well...

Anyways, Happy Friday!

Comic #3: Improvising

Click to enlarge:

I'm lucky enough to have studied so many languages, that some that I haven't make sense to me sometimes. Meaning I was able to read street signs in Portugal, order food in Catalonia, and so on. Sometimes the languages I have studied are the ones that give me a bigger problem - I know I only had a semester of Italian for example, but for some reason I would get mad when my horrible accent would make people switch into English for me. It's not like I could properly speak in Italian anyway! Still, what was even more fun was people coming up to me and asking for directions or some such - I would know what they were asking, but either not know the answer or not know how to say it. A little embarrassing! I guess when you travel alone people are going to mistake you for a native - it's much more likely for someone who knows the city to be wandering it alone without a map.