Change: New Blog Address

It's the year of 2008 already. How come 2007 gone by faster than the Big Apple dropping to the ground on the New Year's Eve at Time Square?

At least it seemed so to me.

As I'm writing this blog, the Iowa Caucus--the first shot of the U.S. presidential election--is about to finish. Barack Obama, a young and charming African-American Senator from Illinois, is likely to win in the Democratic Party.

Something usual, or really big, is going on, eve if Obama doesn't win the Democratic nomination or the general election in the end.

I can't find a better word to describe it, except with the one that Obama has been reminding everyone constantly during his campaign: Change.

People are looking for a change, and they are looking for a true leader who is best to take them on the path of change. With his audacity of hope, Obama might just be the one.

While Obama is busy of making huge changes--to his or to other's life, I decided to make some changes too, starting with this one: moving Lingual Bee blog to a new address at Kantalk.com (http://blog.kantalk.com/).

I look forward to writing as often as I can, as much as I look forward to living through the year of change.

A New Skill Needed for the New Coach

England's national team of football (called soccer in the U.S.) got a new head coach. It's a big deal. His name is Fabio Capello and his accomplishment speaks itself; he had led four clubs--Milan, Read Madrid, Roma, Juventus--to reach the championship in the European professional football leagues at one time or another.

Sounds like a great pick. But there is one problem. Capello is an Italian, and he is not one of those Europeans who can juggle several languages as skillful as David Beckham does with soccer ball. Will it be a problem? According to another famed coach in the similar situation, it may well be. Rafael Benítez, the Spaniard and head coach of Liverpool, offers this advice to Capello:

Rafael Benítez believes Fabio Capello's first task should be to improve his grasp of English after admitting struggles with the language caused him untold problems during his first season at Liverpool. "The first thing Capello will need to do is improve his English," Liverpool's manager said yesterday. "It is very important that you can express yourself, especially at half-time in a changing room which is the crucial time for a manager.

"I had many problems at first, confusing wine and win was one example, and my players would be laughing at times when I was trying to explain things. You think everyone understands football but a foreign manager also needs to understand the humour and the small details.

Can Capello be coachable to master English before the next World Cup qualification games starts?

Speaking English IS Hard (4)

When I was at her age, I couldn't pronounce "refrigerator" either. And I had no clue what "cheese" is whatsoever.

Speaking English IS Hard (3)

Can she just say a simple phrase "No comment"?

Speaking English IS Hard (2)

Speaking English is STILL hard:

Speaking English IS Hard

Speaking English IS hard, especially doing it in front of a camera.

Generation Gap in Spoken Language

Some politicians are concerned that, as the population of Hispanics grows, English may become an optional language for many immigrants in this country. A new study shows that's mostly true for the first-generation immigrants. However, by the third generation, not that many can even say "hola". As it's reported in L.A. Times:

A study released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, reports that in families like the Peredas, for whom Spanish is the dominant language among immigrant parents, English fluency increases across generations. By the third generation, Spanish has essentially faded into the background.

According to the Pew report, which analyzed surveys with more than 14,000 Latino immigrants, only 23% of adult first-generation Latinos say they can carry on a conversation very well in English, compared to 88% in the second generation and 94% in the third. Mexicans are the least likely to say they speak English well, which the study's authors attribute in part to a lower educational level.

To put the number in a perspective, about three quarters of the grand parents in immigrant families are unable to understand what their grand kids say.

What's Love Got to Do with It

What is the best scenario for a Japanese woman who is eager to learn English well and quickly?

Well, according to this story at The Sydney Morning Herald, she should buy an airticket to Australia, find her prince-charming--handsome native only--in a bar, and fall in love with him--or at least kiss him--as quickly as she can. It's not just a fairytale. A serious researcher has done a good study of it:

Macquarie University researcher Kimie Takahashi spent five years interviewing young Japanese women studying English in Sydney, and found that almost all had arrived coveting a handsome and courteous English-speaking "gentleman" loosely based on their favourite Western film stars.

Their blue-eyed Prince Charming would help them improve their language skills, boost their social capital and help them construct a new identity, explains Dr Takahashi, an expert in applied linguistics, in her recently-published doctoral thesis.

And the reporter cited an example of a Japanese woman:

"White western men who speak English as a first language are often considered the holy grail of romantic partners by young Japanese women", says the Japanese-born academic, who reluctantly admits that she felt the same way when she left her home city Yokohama for the Gold Coast in 1992.

Hey, what can you say to those Australian-born, Brad Pitt look-alike beach bums.

Lucky bastards?

What would you say to those Japanese men who are left behind?

Well....nothing. Maybe tell them to buy a Tina Turner's CD.

What's love got to do with it?

Never Too Old To Learn English

There is an old American saying: You can't teach an old dog any new trick. That would be typical self-depreciating seniors joking about themselves when it comes to pick up a new skill. For many senior immigrants, they are in the same boat when it comes to learn English. But how old is too old? I'm a bit surprised to learn from this story:

At age 65, Jan walked from the family's home in Tucker to her free English class in Clarkston earlier this month.

She is one of many senior refugees who steadfastly attend English classes, hoping to adopt the language of their new country and become citizens. With citizenship comes the chance to bring over children left behind years ago.

In case you think she's your hero or role model, hold that thought for a second. According to the same story:
In a nearby classroom, Ghe Nguyen, 72, of Vietnam and Solomon Karmanue, 74, of Liberia study their lesson on Pilgrims and Thanksgiving.

With that kind of self-determination, they will be able to rebut the old American saying in English pretty soon.

Next Lesson Topic: Bankrupt

Nova, the largest private language school chain in Japan, ceased to operate a few months ago. It came so quickly and unexpectedly that many ESL teachers--most of them came from the western countries-- didn't get paid for their last month of the service.

Some of the teachers got stuck in Japan because they had little saving to cover even an one-way ticket to fly back home. I guess either Nova didn't pay them well prior to the bankruptcy, or the teachers had hard time to save. It's an unpleasant scene that caught some attentions of the international media. But from this Canadian ESL's account, it wasn't as bleak as it looked like. In her interview, she said:

"It was pretty crazy. I loved it. I loved the people," she told CTV's Canada AM.

"They were so amazing. They were so nice. When Nova went down, I heard stories of people getting free food from their students, students offering teachers a place to stay. They were amazing about the whole Nova situation."

This debacle doesn't scare her from doing the same. Her next move? According to the same interview:

"Korea is the next option. A lot of my friends, the majority of my friends went to Korea and that's what I plan to do end of January," she said.

It seems that teaching ESL is a great fun hard to miss. Or is it teaching ESL in Asia sounds too exotic to miss out?

Russians Learn to Speak English Outside Classroom

I've always believed that, to pick up spoken English, you are better off sitting in a park or a bar than in the classroom. How can you learn to speak from hearing teacher talking all the time?

A friend sent me an article appeared in today's The St. Peterburg Times. It's about Russian students getting out the classroom--finally--and practicing English in informal groups:

Tired of English classes held at universities, Russian students and professionals have taken to the Internet to find new ways of learning English. VKontakte, a Russian online social networking site, similar to Facebook, is now making it easier to find English language conversation groups in St. Petersburg.

VKontakte allows individuals registered on the site the opportunity to create groups based on their general interests. Speaking English is one of the most popular. One such group, called “I Speak English,” created in September, is described on its Vkontakte page as a club for “those who want to be able to converse fluently in English with foreigners.”

If the momentum of this grassroots efforts stays on, then I'd expect nothing short of a "October Revolution" in Russia in language learning and acquisition.

For the full article, here is the link.

Spanish TV Network Teaches English

As the presidential election approaches, one issue is heatedly debated about English language. Should English be the only official language of the United States? Are all immigrants required to reach a certain proficiency level of English before being granted citizenship?

Latinos have a lot of stakes on this issue. Most of them came over crossing the southern border; many live in the Hispanic communities and don't speak English.

Not that they don't want to. Some say that they have no money or time, or both, to take the classes. So one of the Spanish-language network came out a solution. According to the report from L.A. Times:

Garcia will get a little help keeping his resolution in January when the Spanish-language television network Azteca America launches a series aimed at teaching English to its nationwide viewers. Called "Survival English," the show will focus on basic language skills for real-life situations such as renting an apartment, shopping at a market and visiting a doctor's office. The television program represents a major departure for Spanish-language media and one that Azteca officials hope will foster assimilation of Latino immigrants and boost their political and economic clout. It also addresses concerns of some elected officials and other critics who assert that speaking English should be a priority for all immigrants.

The same report also says that the television program will air on weekends and last 15 minutes to an hour.

If that's all it takes to learn a new language, we wouldn't have this immigrant not speaking English issue at all. A political move? or a marketing gimmick? Stay tuned.

Unfortunately, traditional language teaching in schools has been consistently failing to prepare the students to acquire a new language, yet there is little innovation to change it over the years. That might be changing now, as reported in this article at Washington Post:

In the Cultural Identity in a Changing World course, 16 students sitting in a four-hour class last week learned about chameleons in apartheid South Africa, people whose official racial designation was changed by the government through the stroke of a pen. Indians became colored. Chinese became white.

The course is designed to teach the nitty-gritty of language acquisition -- reading, writing and oral communication -- through the context of content rather than through drilling of basic skills, something common in traditional classes for nonnative English speakers.

(The full article is here) I wish every school and community college that offer ESL course would do the same.

Singlish Tutorial

Five-minute Singlish tutorial does help a bit, lah:

How Does Singlish Sound Like?

So, how does Singlish sound like exactly?



I'm completely lost. Slow down, lady. Well, I don't know if that will help either.

How to Bashing Man in Singlish

After a girl talk at a lunch with two Singaporean ladies, the novelist Rosie Milne ventured some awkward questions. She was being fed delightedly by her lunch companions. Not the foods, as Rosie dutifully reported at the Telegraph, but man bashing.

There is nothing unusual for girls to bashing men behind their back. Actually, something is wrong if they don't. What is unusual for this particular girl talk is that Rosie was taught to bash man in a colorful language called Singlish.

Here is how one of her companions defined Singlish:

“It’s a bit like a rojak, is Singlish” said one of the Singaporean Luscious Ladies, using the Singlish word for salad - an actual rojak is a mixture of vegetables and fried snacks, served with a sweet, spicy sauce.

No doubt they were eating. Then they quickly moved on to man bashing, in Singlish:

Like a schoolboy looking up rude words in the dictionary, I asked these Polyglot Paragons to teach me a few phrases of Singlish that I shouldn’t know.

They kicked off by teaching me a mild insult often used of hen-pecked husbands. These unfortunates are apparently described as Kiasu-kaici-kaibor – three words spoken all in a rush, as though they were one.

It all went downhill from there. You can read the complete article here to get the full flavor.

Plain English in Diverse Cultures

Plain English is supposed to be plain, no matter who speaks it. It's more complicated than that, according to an article in Wall Street Journal titled Plain English Get Harder in Global Era.

The reporter featured several multinational companies' communication problem of their global workforces. His plain message is that plain English could be very confusing in the same circumstance but set in the different cultures.

No need to explain. Try to say "shut up" to your Japanese colleague just once in life and see how life--his or yours--would be forever changed from then on; whereas you tell your American colleagues to "shut up" million times a day and life goes on without a hitch.

Plain enough.

The reporter also touches the issue of accent. Here is excerpt:

Those samples help customers like Heyam Khalil, business-communications manager for Dubai-based Emirates Bank. She sought help for local trainees struggling to understand the accents of the bank's polyglot clientele. Most GlobalEnglish exercises feature American or British accents. But bank employees have to serve Egyptians who often pronounce "p's" as "b's," and Lebanese and Jordanians who tend to use a "z" sound instead of "th," Ms. Khalil says.

"We have Russians, Asians, Spanish, Italians -- you name it," says Ms. Khalil, an Iraqi. "You'd hear an Indian-English accent or Arabic-English accent, but not an American or British accent."

Money talks louder. It's sort of saying: "Hey, multinational companies, want my money? Get used to my accent, will ya?"

Sorry, I Don't Speak English

I'm terribly sorry, Madam. I don't speak English......