Language Trainers Blog

The internal software at my office has an interesting little addition called ‘English of the Day’ that pops up on the login screen and the home page. It gives a phrase in English, the meaning, an example sentence, and the frequency of usage.

Today it had two phrases that I’d never heard of, which I found surprising.

The first one was ‘in the catbird seat’, which, after further research, turns out to mean ’sitting pretty’, or to be in an advantageous position. It is an American phrase which refers to the catbird (a mimic thrush which can replicate the sound of a cat’s miaow and sits high up in trees). It was introduced into mainstream usage in 1940s by baseball commentator Red Barber, and James Thurber’s short story The Catbird Seat. A slightly more recent example of the influence of literature than the Chaucer story I talked about a little while ago.

The second one was ’strictly GI’, where GI is short for Goverment Issue (not Gastro-Intestinal, as it most often means to me, but then again, I studied pathology at university). The software did mention that anyone who used this phrase would probably be military, so it’s unsurprising that I don’t use it myself. ‘Strictly GI’, as well as being a 1943 film starring Bob Hope, means something is standard issue, military, by the book, etc. It has also been applied to infantrymen, or common soldiers. I think a lot of us remember the popular action figure G.I. Joe. I never realised that they were essentially calling the poor guy ‘Average Joe’.

I’ve asked for some more information about the source of these idiomatic gems, but as yet I haven’t heard anything back.

Here’s some good news for learners of the English language, teachers of younger students, and anyone who wants to read about complex ideas in basic language.

The Simple English Wikipedia is for everyone! That includes children and adults who are learning English.

Wikipedia has a project called the Simple English Wikipedia which already has 55,575 articles about everything you can imagine. The subjects may not be simple, but the language they use to talk about them is.

To get you started, here are some very good articles and a guide to writing articles in Simple English (which could be very helpful for teachers, learners, and aspiring wiki contributors).

Language students should remember that although it may be tempting to write using the most complicated words you know in your new language, most speakers and readers are used to simpler language. Keeping it simple will make you easier to understand, and make general communication much…simpler.

I was watching a new TV series the other night (I’m not going to name it but anyone who knows anything about it will know what I’m talking about), and some of the characters are named after the NATO phonetic alphabet that’s been adopted by many military and civilian organisations around the world. That’s the Alpha Bravo Charlie one, if you weren’t sure.

Quite a few years ago I memorised this alphabet, partially because I worked for a mail carrier, and partially out of my own interest. For some reason I like to be able to spell things using it “Yes, that’s Wendy - Whisky Echo November Delta Yankee” (I am a giant dork).  If, for whatever reason, you need to be able to spell something using the phonetic alphabet, but you can’t remember it, you can use this handy tool.  I’m sure someone can think of some valid use for it.

After a little bit of investigation, I found this page, which is fairly old, but very comprehensive. It contains information about systems used in other languages as well. This wiki is more succinct, and the table is easier to look at. I like how the Royal Navy used Xerxes during WWI, and I giggle to myself when I imagine big burly military men spelling words out using Duff, Nancy, Pup, Pudding, Queenie, Quack, and Willie. I guess words had different connotations back then.

Interestingly, the current system was developed with international speakers in mind, and the words that caused the most confusion in different accents (Coca, Metro, Nectar, Union, and Extra) were replaced by less ambiguous ones (Charlie, Mike, November, Uniform, and X-Ray).

I think the makers of the TV show tweaked things a little bit, though, as Sierra and Echo are better names for characters than, say, Uniform, Kilo and Hotel. I imagine that if the main characters were called Sugar and Easy (as in the 1941-1956 US and RAF phonetic alphabets), it might’ve been quite a different show.

After being saddened because so many people lack the ability to use an apostrophe, it’s lovely to see that the punctuation mark being used as a yardstick in the National Geographic, albeit because of its size, not its grammatical function. It still amazes me what is constantly being discovered in the world.

At under half an inch tall (13 millimeters), Satomi’s pygmy seahorse—named after dive guide Satomi Onishi—is a strong contender for the world’s smallest seahorse. With their tails stretched out straight, two Satomi’s pygmy seahorses would fit head-to-head across the face of a penny.

These miniscule seahorses from Indonesian reefs have been seen giving birth to tiny offspring, each about the size of a 12-point apostrophe.

Article from National Geographic.

Growing up, we referred to Friday the 13th as Black Friday. It wasn’t until last November that I found out that Black Friday is also the name for the big shopping day immediately following Thanksgiving in the USA, and apparently the Friday just before Christmas in the UK (a big party day). It seems that my usage is non-standard at best (that is, pretty much unknown). Black Friday is also the name that has been given to numerous tragic events, as it seems like bad things happen fairly often on Fridays.

In some places, especially the United States and Commonwealth countries, today is especially unlucky because it is the combination of two unlucky things: Friday, and the number 13. The superstition causes many people to pay extra attention to staying safe, not letting black cats cross their paths, and not walking under ladders (other supposedly unlucky occurrences). Some people are so paralysed by a fear of this day that they can’t leave their houses and some can’t do anything on these days. The phobia is known as paraskavedekatriaphobia, or friggatriskaidekaphobia, which I think is an excellent word to try to say.

Interestingly enough, though Friday and 13 have individually been seen as unlucky for centuries, the combination has only been seen as a particularly unlucky day for the last 100 or so years.

In Greece and in certain Spanish-speaking countries (Mexico, Spain, and some parts of Latin America), it’s not the Friday that should be feared, but Tuesday the 13th. Tuesday is considered the worst day of the week, and why not, as you haven’t even reached Wednesday (the ‘hump’ day) yet. As a result of this, the horror film franchise Friday the 13th, although released in Spain as Viernes 13 (Friday the 13th), was released in Argentina as Martes 13, or Tuesday the 13th.

The upcoming “day for lovers”, St. Valentine’s Day, is probably one of the most divisive non-religious celebrations in the world. Some people love it, and some people can’t stand it. The tradition of giving love notes or cards to indicate your affection for your beloved has developed into an all-out extravaganza in the retail market, and in many shops, the heart-themed decorations go up as soon as the Christmas and new year ones come down. This is a time for lovers to proclaim their feelings, forgetful partners to be berated, cynics to grumble, and singletons to feel more single. And, of course, an extremely busy time for restaurants, florists, and greeting card sellers.

There were so many Christian martyrs called Valentine that, until 1969, the Catholic church recognised eleven different Valentine’s Days. Until this time, February 14 was just one of many days that recognised not one, but up to three Saint Valentines, and these days it is rare for anyone to celebrate the feastday in Valentine’s honour.

As one story goes, Valentine was persecuted for being a Christian, and just before his execution by the Roman Emperor, was said to have left his beloved a note that ended with ‘From your Valentine’. Despite this, Valentine was not associated with romantic love until much later. It wasn’t until Chaucer’s time, in the 14th century, that giving valentines on the 14th of February even came about. He gave mention to a Volantynys day in his Parlement of Foules (1382), and it is believed that this led to the first instance of the modern tradition.

These days, according to the American Greeting Card Association, approximately one billion greeting cards are sent around the world every Valentine’s Day.

I sit fairly well on the cynical side of the fence when it comes to this ‘holiday’ (I think you should be able to tell someone you love them any day of the year), so these were interesting pieces of trivia to uncover. I guess all traditions have to start from somewhere, but it’s fascinating to see how far-reaching popular literature can be sometimes. And even though I don’t really enjoy the concept of the celebration, I like that people are still sending handwritten missives, even if it’s only once or twice a year.

Happy Valentine’s Day*!

*Note: It is not called ‘Valentime’s Day’, as far too many people think it is. Or ‘Velintines Day’, as this cake decorator thought.

Photo courtesy of Cake Wrecks.

Recent research is showing that the best way to learn a new language is by frequent exposure to it, even if you have no idea what it means. Victoria University PhD graduate Paul Sulzberger has discovered that the more we hear certain sounds and their combinations in a new language, the more likely we are to be able to learn new words in that language.

Dr Sulzberger says he was interested in what makes it so difficult to learn foreign words when we are constantly learning new ones in our native language. He found the answer in the way the brain develops neural structures when hearing new combinations of sounds.

“When we are trying to learn new foreign words we are faced with sounds for which we may have absolutely no neural representation. A student trying to learn a foreign language may have few pre-existing neural structures to build on in order to remember the words.”

Dr Sulzberger looked for ways people could develop these structures to make the learning process easier. His finding was simple: extensive exposure to the language, something made easier by globalisation and new technology.

“It is easier to learn languages these days because they are so accessible now. You can go home and watch the news in French on the internet.”

So listen to a foreign language radio station, watch foreign films, or listen to foreign pop songs. Even if you have no clue what any of it means, it will greatly improve your ability to learn in your new language.

Full article from Victoria University.

I’ve just read an article about language learning which had a lot of thought-provoking points.

The one that stuck out the most was about changing along with your new language development. Too many times I’ve heard people stubbornly speaking a foreign language by trying to find the closest words from their native language. I know it’s almost impossible to develop a totally natural accent in a foreign language, but the article advises us to relax and let ourselves be influenced by the new language and culture.

6. When we learn, we change. We need to accept this change.

When we learn, our neural networks change, physically. When we learn a new language, we adopt some of the behaviour patterns of another culture and our personalities and our perceptions change. Many of the difficulties that grown-ups face in language learning, come from the a resistance to change. It is often more comfortable to follow the patterns and pronunciation of our own language, rather than to commit to fully imitating the new language.

The full article, 7 Concepts of Natural Language Learning, is well worth reading. The author, Steve Kaufmann, is a former Canadian diplomat who speaks 10 languages to a high level. I’d say he’s fairly qualified to give out some advice on the subject of language learning.

I couldn’t for the life of me remember the term ‘attributive noun’ when I needed it today, so I did some searching around on the internet to see if I could come across it. I eventually found it by searching for something like ‘noun as adjective’. [An attributive noun is one which modifies another noun, but can be taken out of the noun phrase without affecting it too much, e.g. 'lab' in the term 'lab coat'.]

While I was searching, I found a Telegraph article that claims that nearly half of Britons can’t use apostrophes correctly. I am at once shocked but unsurprised.

The apostrophe has emerged in an independent poll of nearly 2,000 people as the punctuation mark that causes the most problems. Nearly half of UK adults tested were unable to use it properly.

The most common mistake was not knowing how to punctuate a possessive plural.

Nearly half (46 per cent) of those that sat the test thought that, in the context set, “people’s choice” was wrong – whereas it is, of course, correct.

Regionally, Londoners were the most likely to use apostrophes correctly, and age-wise, it was the 25-34 year olds that came out on top.

Note: There’s a self-test at the bottom of the article, and besides the fact that they didn’t put any full stops in the sentences (the horror!), I disagree with their first conclusion. They said that “These are Charlotte Brooks’ books” is correct, but certain style guides would advocate “These are Charlotte Brooks’s books”. I wonder how many people got this one ‘wrong’?

If you can't correct this properly, contact me immediately!

I was on a shopping trip in central China with two female friends, one American, and one Chinese. We were looking at hats (it’s quite chilly at the moment, after all), and we discussed the fact that my mother always told me not to wear white headwear. White is a funeral colour in China, so it’s considered bad luck to wear it on your head. What I didn’t know was that this is a very old-fashioned belief. Thanks, mum.

My American friend mentioned that she wanted a green hat, but noted that we hadn’t seen many around. Our Chinese companion then told us, very emphatically, that if you wear a green hat in China, it means your wife is cheating on you. I couldn’t work out why you would walk around with a green hat on in that case, but, needless to say, we stopped looking for them.

After a little more research into the topic, I found out that the term for ‘cuckold’ (a man whose wife is unfaithful) in Chinese is dài lǜ mào (戴綠帽), which literally translates to ‘wearing a green hat’.

A little more research dates this term back to the Ming dynasty. As the story goes, there was a businessman with a very beautiful wife. The businessman travelled often, and missed his wife. Unbeknownst to him, while he was away, the beautiful wife kept herself entertained with other men. When he came home, he told her how much he missed her. She made him a green hat, and told him to wear it to remind him of her. He went off happily, wearing the hat, while she and all the neighbours knew what was really going on.

Adding to the poor man’s plight is the fact that in the Ming dynasty, green material was a sign of the lower classes. Prostitutes were often artisans as well, and they were known for making green-coloured material.

The term dài lǜ mào endures to this day, and you would understandably be hard pressed to find any man in China wearing a green hat.

As an aside, a while ago Dave mentioned the corna, a hand gesture used in some countries to indicate that a man’s wife is cheating on him. I’m not quite sure what it says about us that we’ve mentioned cuckoldry on two separate occasions so far. Maybe it just means that it happens everywhere….