Language Trainers Blog

Thousands of Croatians attended a demonstration in Zagreb on Sunday to protest against the return of the Cyrillic alphabet on signage in the town of Vukovar.

Vukovar, a town in eastern Croatia, was destroyed during a siege in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and was ethnically cleansed of  non-Serbs before being taken by Serb forces. The city was reintegrated into Croatia in 1998. The Croat and Serb communities in Vukovar remain divided.

According to the 2011 census, the Serbian population has reached over a third (34.8%) of the city’s population, which therefore protects the community’s right to have the Cyrillic alphabet displayed on public signs. The Croatian language uses the Latin alphabet. Croatian Minister for Public Administration, Arsen Bauk, said such signs were now necessary under a constitutional law that mandates bilingual signs in towns where a minority accounts for more than 30% of the population.

Croatia is due to join the European Union on July 1st, and protesters are testing the country’s resolve on matters of minority rights.

Source: BBC News

To be able to use your own name is a right we take for granted. We’ve all heard stories of parents naming their children crazy names, like the Egyptian dad who named his daughter Facebook,  and the Israeli couple who also took inspiration from the social network, naming their daughter Like. Some countries, however, have guidelines regarding name choices. Some even have a list of approved names that you must choose from to name your offspring. One of those countries is Iceland.

Blaer Bjarkardottir is a 15 year old Icelandic girl who is referred to on her passport, school registration and bank details as Stulka (girl). She is currently suing the Icelandic government for the right to use her own name; as “Blaer,” which means light breeze in Icelandic, is not one of the 1,853 Government approved girls names. If parents would like to use a name which isn’t on the registry, they must apply to have it approved by a special committee. Blaer was not approved as it takes a masculine article.

In Iceland, a first name has importance because what we would refer to as the surname is not actually a surname, it refers to the parents. The name is made up of two parts. In Blaer Bjarkardottir’s case, Bjarkar refers to Blaer’s father, and dottir means daughter. Therefore, if she was a boy, her name would be Blaer Bjarkarson.

If the courts fail to overturn the decision of the committee in a hearing on January 25th, Blaer and her mother are willing to take the case to the Icelandic Supreme Court. They are the first people to sue the Icelandic Government over a name.

In Germany, you must be able to tell the child’s gender from it’s given name; this is also true of Denmark. Denmark also has a list of only 7000 names to choose from. In China, names which use characters that cannot be typed on a keyboard are banned. There are over 70,000 Chinese characters, yet only 13,000 can be represented on a computer. As a result, some people have had to change their names so that they can use their ID cards!

New Zealand doesn’t allow people to name their children anything that “might cause offence to a reasonable person” yet allowed one set of parents to name their child Number 16 Bus Shelter. Adolf Hitler and Fish and Chips were deemed unsuitable, though!

Here in the UK, it’s traditional to wish people a “Merry Christmas” at this time of year, as opposed to the North American greeting “Happy Holidays.” In fact, the word for Christmas in Old English is Cristes Maesse, and later Christ’s Mass. Mass, in religious context, means a death sacrifice. So maybe not a nice thing to wish, after all?

When some of us are sending our Christmas cards, some write “Merry Christmas,” whilst others use “Merry Xmas” as a shortened version of the former.

In Ancient Greek, the word Christ was spelled with an X – Χριστός (Xpistos) so some believe that the shortened version of the word stems from this.

Either way, the word “Christmas” undeniably has religious connotations and has certainly made me think of the meanings behind the phrase “Merry Christmas.” Maybe “Happy Holidays” is best after all?

Like history? Love languages? You may be interested in the Polish historical equivalent to Monopoly.

Kolejka (Queue) has been dubbed “the world’s more boring board game,” as it involves collecting items on your shopping list, mirroring the experiences of queuing for rations in Communist eras and during and after the War. Although it was initially launched in Polish, a multi language version has just been released. You can now play in English, German, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. There are rules in each language available to download here.

The games maker’s have stated that they want to show young people how life was like under Communist rule. Karol Madaj, the creator of the game, says that it is best played with people of various generations, as it evokes memories from older people who can then recall and teach younger generations of their experiences.

There is a download, print and play version of the game available at the Institute of National Remembrance’s website.

A study by the European Commission shows that Britain is at the bottom of the list for student’s ability to speak a second language. Malta and Sweden scored highly, with 82% of students being able to demonstrate skills in a second language fluently.

Tests were carried out in 14 of the 27 European Union countries. Only 42% of pupils were competent in a second language. It was revealed that British students had a poorer grasp of the basics of a foreign language than pupils in the other nations tested.

The five most widely spoken second languages were:

1) English – 38%

2) French – 12%

3) German – 11%

4) Spanish – 7%

5) Russian – 5%.

“We must do more to improve the teaching and learning of languages,” said education commissioner Androulla Vassiliou. “Being able to communicate in a foreign language broadens your horizons and opens doors.”

The study results come just weeks after the Government announced plans to make languages compulsory in primary schools.

The only problem is, where are all the language teachers going to come from, since so many from previous generations haven’t learned a language sufficiently?

You may have read about Scottish schoolgirl Martha Payne’s NeverSeconds, a blog focussing on Martha’s school dinners. She uploads a photo of her lunch every day and rates it. Martha also posts photos of lunches she has been sent from other schoolchildren around the world, as well as raising money for charity Mary’s Meals, which provides school lunches for the poorest communities all over the world.

Argyll and Bute Council claimed that the nine year old’s blog was attracting negative attention, and implemented a ban on photography in the school canteen, after one of her photos was published in a Scottish newspaper with a less than flattering headline. They issued a statement saying that the blog was a “misrepresentation” of the food choices offered to pupils at the school.

The ban has now been lifted after public uproar, and Martha will be resuming blogging about her school dinners today. The publicity the row has attracted means that Mary’s Meals has now raised enough money to feed 1963 pupils in Malawi school meals for an entire year.

Good on you Martha! This should never have happened in the first place. Students should be encouraged to do this sort of thing; as Martha has proved, she is not only is she communicating with kids all over the world, but also writing on a regular basis. Too many pupils in the UK leave school without a basic knowledge of English spelling and grammar.

The Queen’s English Society, a group formed in 1972 to publicise the need for good grammar and spelling in written English, have announced the closure of the group, citing disinterest from the public.

The announcement has attracted a lot of mockery from the media. At a time when a lot of people are using text speak as the norm, has the Society chosen to close at the wrong time?

Languages evolve and change, there is no doubt. Currently, with the evolution of technology and social media, certain restrictions on space and characters limit the way we communicate. But does this mean that the use of “good English” is diminishing?

My personal opinion is that there is a need to differentiate the situations and mediums in which the language is used. Where you might not have enough space to write “to” in a text message or Tweet, the substitution of “2″ would be acceptable. On your CV or in a formal letter, however, not so much. Yet it is happening more and more. I also see a lot of people write the way they would speak, rather than in the correct written form – e.g. “I would of…” instead of “I would have…” I have personal experience of witnessing this, seeing a lot of CVs submitted per week at my work. I wouldn’t say that I’m the best at grammar or spelling, nor would I say that I use the “Queen’s English,” but know enough not to use diminutives in a professional scenario.

So, does the closure of the Queen’s English Society even matter? What do you think?

Paul McCartney’s music video for his latest single My Valentine features actors Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman using sign language to convey the lyrics of the song.

It has been widely reported that there are some errors in the sign language used, most notably, that both actors use the sign for ‘tampon’ rather than ‘appear,’ and ‘enemy’ instead of ‘Valentine.’ Whilst in British Sign Language, the sign is for ‘tampon,’ it’s important to note that the actors are using American Sign Language, for which the signs for some words differ slightly. Therefore, the sign they used to signify ‘appear’ is correct. There are actually two ASL signs for the word ‘appear;’ one means ‘to show up’ and the other is ‘to seem.’ Natalie Portman used the correct sign.

It’s a shame that Johnny Depp remained expressionless throughout the video, as all sign language relies on facial expressions to bring the language to life. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see sign language brought to the spotlight!

You can view a Johnny Depp solo video, a Natalie Portman solo video, AND the video featuring both actors on Paul McCartney’s YouTube channel.

Olympic fever is hitting London and there are some pretty condescending articles hitting the web regarding the English – American language “divide.”

Indeed, yes, there are some phrases and words which differ slightly, but we’re all adult enough to either work it out or ask if something is not easily understood. If you’re an American visiting London for the Olympics, you certainly wouldn’t ask for “chips” in a restaurant, and if you see it on a menu, you’d take it to mean “French fries.” English staff in hotels, restaurants and shops in this multi cultural city are well used to hearing a range of accents and requests. If you ask for “pants” in a clothes shop here, in an American accent,  no-one would direct you to the underwear section without checking first!

The Internet, television and cinema imports all present opportunities to understand each other’s linguistic quirks.  There’s no need to patronise people.

More helpfully, an Olympic Translator app has been developed to help with communicating between different languages. Users can speak into the phone and the app will produce the translation. At the moment, 5000 phrases are available for 20 different languages. Developers are working to complete a target of 50-60 languages. The app will be free for the duration of the Olympics and is due to be released within the new few weeks.

To volunteer to help translate, email smalltalkhelp@gmail.com

Following on from the news of the development of a new program to help us speak languages; the latest buzz in the technology world is a device which will translate sign language to text. The intention of the program, named the Portable Sign Language Translator, is that it will be used as an app on a tablet, Smartphone or laptop, and will allow deaf people or people with speech difficulties to communicate with hearing people more easily.

A camera will record the user’s hand signs, and then import the recording into the program, and translate it to text. Researchers and scientists at Aberdeen University, who are developing the project, say that the program will be customisable to the user’s needs, and will even allow users to develop their own signs for words and phrases they may need for work or studies.

The program is expected to be released next year.