Take the quiz at http://www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/quiz.html This is pretty fun, but not all that easy, even the “easy peasy” setting. Might be a little easier for someone raised in the UK, but not much easier I’d guess.
I especially like the corrective feedback.
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The quiz is no longer there, but you can see the results.
For many people, job interviews are the most stressful part of the job-search process. And it’s true that an interview is often a make-or-break moment: If you flub the interview in a big way, you probably won’t make the cut–no matter how good your resume is, or how excellent your qualifications are.
You can combat nerves and increase your chances of success by practicing your answers to difficult interview questions. Here are some of the toughest, with suggested answers:
Make sure to check out the full list of questions with answers at http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-15_toughest_interview_questions_and_…
I first realised our advantage at a conference last year. The speakers came from across northern Europe, but they all gave their talks in English – or a sort of English. Germans, Belgians and French people would stand up and, in monotones and distracting accents, read out speeches that sounded as if they’d been turned into English by computers. Sometimes the organisers begged them to speak their own languages, but they refused. Meanwhile the conference interpreters sat idle in their booths.
Each new speaker lost the audience within a minute. Yet whenever a native English-speaker opened his mouth, the audience listened. The native speakers sounded conversational, and could make jokes, add nuance. They weren’t more intelligent than the foreigners, but they sounded it, and so they were heard. Here, in microcosm, was a nascent international hierarchy: native English-speakers rule.
While there may be a valid point in here somewhere, this writer comes off like a jerk. I understand his point that speakers at a conference can be less effective in a second language than in their first. However, maybe he should consider that he is the one with the problem. Why can’t he understand their English?
There are times when accents and grammar can be so divergent (of course this assumes an ideal, which really differs widely) that the language is incomprehensible. However, this wasn’t really the situation that this author found himself in. He is commenting on their lack of “proper” English and inability to “connect” to the audience. Both of these are quite subjective on his part and signal his lack of ability to fill the gaps in communication as much as the presenters lack of communicative skills.
Although obesity rates in South Korea are the second lowest in the OECD, after Japan, they have been increasing. Approximately 4% (1 in every 25) of South Korean adults are obese, and about 30% are overweight (including obese). The OECD estimates that overweight rates will go up by 5% during the next ten years. Adult females are five times more likely than more educated women to be overweight, while differences among males hardly vary across socioeconomic or academic groups. Korean researchers found that if at least one parent is obese, boys are about 3 times more likely and girls almost 6 times more likely to be obese too, compared to children with no obese parents in the household.
Of course, the findings that English-speaking countries have high levels of obesity is no shocker. Just looking out the window (or in the mirror) confirms this for me. However, I was interested on the snippet about Korea.
This has also been my observations in Korea. There has been a noticeable increase in obese children and adults over the last 10 years.
Also, the observation about educational attainment and weight (in women) interesting. It’s something I’ve noticed, but I didn’t think it was a larger trend. This makes sense given the increasing price of fruits and vegetables versus availability and dropping prices in processed goods. Not to mention the increase in dual-income families, given women (who traditionally manage the home) less time to prepare traditional (and healthy) Korean food.
I have to say that this is nothing really new conceptually. This is essentially the interactions that have been taking place is SecondLife for years. The interface is different though. This is likely using something similar to Playstations video or Microsoft Kinect.
The latter is probably the one that will have the most impact on a project like this. Kinect (with the Xbox) will make interfaces like this much easier for developers to integrate into their software.
From the article, I can’t tell what the role of the guy in the picture is. Does this software require a real life dialog partner? That could be cool for practicing more realistic dialogs between language learners, even without the teacher. Otherwise, I’m wondering what the purpose really is. Having smart bots engage and respond would be much better overall.
Babbel
, the language learning site, has added “realtime” speech recognition to enhance its practical application and enable users to fine-tune their pronunciation skills. This pits the service up against more traditional players such as TellMeMore
This could be really cool. I like babbel and I think that even though speech recognition is not great, it can still add some needed emphasis on pronunciation.
Interesting article (http://www.utpsyc.org/Nairan/research/bilingual.pdf)
One of the findings, I find particularly interesting. That is the finding that when speaking English, bilinguals were more extroverted than when communicating in Spanish. That, in itself, isn’t as interesting. What is really interesting was that they seem to stay at around the same rank (in extroversion) in both languages. Meaning, if they are around mid-level for extroversion in Spanish, they will also be about mid-level in English.
This is interesting for me given my (and most language teachers’) observations that fluent English language learners seem to be even more outgoing in English than in their native language. This is particularly true with students in Korea (just my observation, your experiences may differ).
I’ve often given the example of the woman I knew who was quick to swear like a sailor in English, while living in the States, but who, when in Korea, had a difficult time with even civil arguments. Her ability to confront and engage was nearly eliminated in the change of culture/language (which had the most effect is a good debate).
One of the findings of this paper is that she may have about the same rank of extroversion in both contexts, though the level of extroversion displayed differs.
Leslie DavidBy BEN ZIMMER
In our Web-driven era of social media and social networking, we are all learning more sophisticated ways to “socialize” that go far beyond cocktail-party chatter. But being social in the 21st century can sometimes be downright unsettling.
Consider the anxieties over a linguistic trend that The Wall Street Journal’s Overheard column expressed last month. “A new catchphrase in meetings is ‘let me socialize that,’ ” The Journal wrote. “No, they aren’t suggesting they will see if they can get a government bailout. Or introducing some left-wing political theories to business. Instead the phrase means ‘I’ll discuss this with my colleagues and circle back to you.’ ”
Fun (for the linguist in me) treatment of the word “social”.
The changing uses of words makes it difficult to teach language. Regional, age, and SES differences (to name a few) all influence language use. This is why learners fluent in English can have such a difficult time communicating at a fast food restaurant, in the dorm with undergraduates, or with any language variation outside of the standards they have had exposure to (difficulties many native speakers face as well).
How can I teach a language that is always changing? As with most teachers of English, I focus on academic language that, while it changes over time, is more much resilient to change than less formal domains. I fall back on standards (as ephemeral as they are) to provide a foundation.
The foundation is not enough, though. Standards create expectations that, when challenged, cause communication to falter. This is where variety comes in. Language variety increases exposure to language outside of your classroom standards. It’s faster/slower, drawl/clipped, enunciated/mumbled, male/female, formal/informal, and all the other wonders of language variety. Working outside of your classroom standards can encourage skills to process non-standard varieties, thus providing tools to learners to interact with the greater world of English speakers.
Most of us in EFL contexts are preparing learners who are less likely to interact in English with someone who sounds just like us than they are to encounter a fast network of global English speakers. In my neck of the woods, Korea, learners are more likely use English with Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, and Thai speakers of English than they are with Americans, Canadians, and speakers from the other (preferred) English-speaking countries. The reality is that we do them a disservice if we teach them otherwise.
This post went way off topic, but I’m procrastinating, so whatcha’ gonna do? 😉