A Celebration Of All That Is English On St George’s Day!

St George’s Day falls annually on the 23^rd April and is England’s national day, with St George being the patron saint of England, even though he wasn’t even English! St George was a Roman soldier and is infamous for slaying a dragon.

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‘Chinglish’ – A New York Comedy Explores Cultural Barriers

A recently opened comedy in New York’s Broadway called ‘Chinglish’, is causing a stir for all the right reasons. The play opens up conversation about the communication gap between the English-speaking world and China, but in a light-hearted way. It makes light of the cultural barriers which can happen when an English-speaking person tries to communicate or do business with a Chinese-speaking person. The play is in English and Mandarin Chinese.

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After English, Mandarin Chinese Is The Most Useful Worldwide Business Language

According to US Bloomberg Rankings, Mandarin Chinese is the most useful worldwide business language to know, after the English language. The English language is still the most preferred business language to use around the world. However, Mandarin Chinese, which is spoken by over 845 million people, comes in a close second and is a useful language to learn when doing business in China. Read more

The Dog That Only Responds To French Commands

A black labrador which was brought up in France and is now living in the UK, has had a lot of trouble learning the English language since his arrival. Henri the dog was raised in France and was always spoken to in French. Read more

How far can you get with 100 words of English?

NHS (the UK health service) guidelines suggest that by two years old, toddlers can say around 100 words and start putting them into short sentences. And England’s Italian football manager Fabio Capello claims he can manage his players with just 100 words.

But according to Peter Howarth, deputy director of Leeds University’s language centre, “a hundred words wouldn’t get you beyond some very familiar situations in a phrase book – a weekend in London, how to get a hotel room or order a meal”. Read more

Did you know … the Japanese love the Glasgow accent?

A survey by Northumbria University in the UK has shown that Japanese learners of English find the Glaswegian accent in Scotland the most socially attractive. More than 500 people were questioned in the study to find out how worldwide perceptions of the English language are changing. Read more

Cuts to BBC World Service Language Programmes

The BBC World Service, which started broadcasting in 1932, is to close five of its language services.  The Albanian, Macedonian, Serbian, English for the Caribbean and Portuguese for Africa services will all be axed.

An end to radio programmes in another seven languages has also been announced Read more

Did you know … Penguins are Welsh

Compilers of the new online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) have highlighted the influence of Wales on the English language.  The dictionary claims to be the only English dictionary that tries to get to the roots of the first known use of every word in the English language.   Read more

Do you Hablas Spanglish?

An increasing number of Spanish-speaking immigrants in America are bilingual, especially ones who have been through the US school system, and can switch between English and Spanish in a hybrid known as Spanglish, in which parts of  the two languages are mingled and spoken together within a single sentence. Read more

Millionth English Word Declared

A US web monitoring firm has declared the millionth English word to be Web 2.0, a term used to describe the latest generation of web products and services.  Other recent additions include Jai ho and slumdog, obviously from the film Slumdog Millionaire.

Global Language Monitor (GLM) searches the internet for newly coined terms, and once a word or phrase has been used 25,000 times, it recognises it.

Read more about how English words are monitored and recognised on the web>>

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