OMG! Kudos to the OED!

IMO,the English are much more progressive about their language than we will ever be. Our "Academia de la lengua" is an institution so rigid and old fashioned that it hinders the language instead of promoting it. Most of its members have probably never heard of Facebook or Twitter (and who hasn't?) and I even doubt they use their mobile phones for something other than receiving calls, let alone texting.

Okay, I may be exaggerating a little but there is no such thing as an "Academy of the English Language", which makes English a living, evolving, ever-changing language. It's true that Spanish is alive too but unfortunately new terms and words are much harder to be accepted and used by the media. 

A great example of this is the latest online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the venerable last word on proper language.  Several abbreviations ''' or "initialisms" have been added. Those include OMG (Oh my god), LOL (laughing out loud), TMI (too much information), FYI (for your information) and BFF (best friends forever). The OED explained the decision extensively in an online statement.  The OED explains that shorthands such as LOL and OMG have gone beyond just saving space and acquired nuanced meanings of their own, with "a bit more than simple abbreviation going on." The new "initialisms," or abbreviations made up of the first letters of each word in the phrase to which they refer, include "OMG" (oh my god), "LOL" (laughing out loud), "IMHO" (in my humble/honest opinion), "TMI" (too much information), "BFF" (best friends forever), "FYI" (for your information) and WAG (wives and girlfriends). They also comment that some of these have been around for a really long time.

An interesting google tool you can use to find out how long and when a certain word or expression has been used is timeline. You just need to select timeline from the search tools menu when you do a search. Try it out, it's fun!

The Guardian's "Spanish Week"

The British newspaper The Guardian is running a series called New Europe, an indepth look at four European countries – with a week exploring every aspect of their cultures, economies and day-to-day lives.
Well, this week's turn is Spain's and I think this is a great opportunity for us to see how we are perceived by the people whose language we are learning and love so visit their site to find out what they think about us. If you don't agree, you can always tell them ;)

April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day occurs annually on April 1. The day is generally observed by playing a practical joke on a "victim" who soon becomes known as an April Fool. This custom is thought to have started in France during the 16th century but the British are credited with bringing it to the United States.
The commonly accepted origin of April Fool's Day involves changes in the calendar. At one time, the New Year celebration began on March 25 and ended on April 1. However, in 1582, King Charles IX adopted the Gregorian calendar and accepted the beginning of the new year as January 1. Those who refused to acknowledge the new date or simply forgot received foolish gifts and invitations to nonexistent parties. The butt of such a prank was known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish."

There have been numerous hoaxes on this day and according to this site, The Museum of Hoaxes, the following is the best one:

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest 1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

I know in Spain we do not celebrate April Fool's Day but Holy Innocents' Day (December 28) but the spirit is the same... So, what are your favourite jokes to play on someone?

Earth Hour 2011

Today, March 26, at 8:30 p.m. local time, we are being urged to turn out all our lights for one hour for the fourth annual Earth Hour. There is much discussion out there as to whether or not this actually addresses the real issue of power conservation or whether it’s just a token gesture. World Wildlife Fund encourages us to make this the first step in changing our habits and suggest ways to take action on a number of different issues that can make a continual difference.
In 2010, 126 countries and over 1 billion people participated. This year, 131 countries and provinces have committed to participation.
Earth Hour this year is not only to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change, but to show solidarity with the Japanese people: after the recent tragedies in Japan, millions people now are surviving without electricity.
So, Will you join in?

About language and mistakes

There is an article today on Yahoo about language, What your verbal fillers say about you, that I think you may find both interesting and enlightening.
This article has made me think. I'm getting old and one of the signs is the number of mistakes I make every day regarding language. I don't mean grammar or vocabulary mistakes (which I also make but for a different reason: my command of the language, either English or Spanish, is far from perfect) but those slips of the tongue and pen you have sometimes witnessed.
So, too often I think pen but say paper or mean sausage but say hamburger. Slips of the pen (when you think of a word but write another) are fortunately much less frequent but nevertheless as worrying. It is also difficult sometimes to find the right word and I'm very often at a loss for words and unable to say what I really mean. Michael Erard in his book “Um ... ” confirms this: age is an important factor

In his informal study of verbal mistakes, he states that the average person will commit somewhere between 7 and 22 slips of the tongue each day and from two to four times a day will struggle, for an embarrassing length of time, to find the right word or name. It only gets worse. As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er. The simplest explanation for all verbal mistakes, Mr. Erard writes, is that they occur “as the brain shifts from planning to executing or back again.” They also, most linguists agree, follow the structure of the language.

Happy Pi Day!

Did you know know today is Pi Day?

Pi Day is a holiday commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (or 3/14 in month/day date format), since 3, 1 and 4 are the three most significant digits of π in the decimal form.
Pi Approximation Day is held on July 22 (or 22/7 in day/month date format), since the fraction ²²⁄₇ is a common approximation of π.
There are many ways of celebrating Pi Day. Some of them include eating pie (pi and pie being homophones) and discussing the relevance of π.
Interesting links on this day:
Pi Day activity: Memorizing Pi
Take the Pi Day Challenge

Some Spanish dishes recipes from today's Guardian

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a very well known chef in the UK with his own programme on TV, River Cottage, and a column in the Guardian. Today he's written a few deep fried recipes which, though he doesn't say it, come from Spain. Check out his churros and croquetas recipes. I'm not sure how accurate they are as I've never heard using eggs and butter to make churros before but hey, I'm sure they are really tasty ;)  Check them out!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's deep-fried delights recipes

Happy International Women's Day!

I want to celebrate International Women's Day with a beautiful poem by Marge Piercy : This is for all women, who are strong and brave. 

For Strong Women

 

A strong woman is a woman who is straining
A strong woman is a woman standing
on tiptoe and lifting a barbell
while trying to sing "Boris Godunov."
A strong woman is a woman at work
cleaning out the cesspool of the ages,
and while she shovels, she talks about
how she doesn't mind crying, it opens
the ducts of the eyes, and throwing up
develops the stomach muscles, and
she goes on shoveling with tears in her nose.
A strong woman is a woman in whose head
a voice is repeating, I told you so,
ugly, bad girl, bitch, nag, shrill, witch,
ballbuster, nobody will ever love you back,
why aren't you feminine, why aren't
you soft, why aren't you quiet, why aren't you dead?
A strong woman is a woman determined
to do something others are determined
not be done. She is pushing up on the bottom
of a lead coffin lid. She is trying to raise
a manhole cover with her head, she is trying
to butt her way through a steel wall.
Her head hurts. People waiting for the hole
to be made say, hurry, you're so strong.
A strong woman is a woman bleeding
inside. A strong woman is a woman making
herself strong every morning while her teeth
loosen and her back throbs. Every baby,
a tooth, midwives used to say, and now
every battle a scar. A strong woman
is a mass of scar tissue that aches
when it rains and wounds that bleed
when you bump them and memories that get up
in the night and pace in boots to and fro.
A strong woman is a woman who craves love
like oxygen or she turns blue choking.
A strong woman is a woman who loves
strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly
terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong
in words, in action, in connection, in feeling;
she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf
suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she
enacts it as the wind fills a sail.
What comforts her is others loving
her equally for the strength and for the weakness
from which it issues, lightning from a cloud.
Lightning stuns. In rain, the clouds disperse.
Only water of connection remains,
flowing through us. Strong is what we make
each other. Until we are all strong together,
a strong woman is a woman strongly afraid.

 Marge Piercy (born 31 March 1936) is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. She is author of  poems like The Moon is Always Female (1980, considered a feminist classic) and The Art of Blessing the Day (1999) and novels such as Woman on the Edge of Time and He,She and It. Her novels and poetry often focus on feminist or social concerns.

International Women's Day

International Women’s Day [IWD] is on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. As set by the United Nations, this year’s theme is “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.” 
International Women's Day is a big, beautiful celebration of women's strengths and achievements. It's honoured in many different ways around the world. It's lauded by women's groups, and the date is commemorated at the United Nations. In China and 14 other countries, people get the day off work; in Bosnia and Italy women are given flowers by their brothers, husbands and fathers; and in Cameroon, women dance in the streets showing off outfits made from Women's Day fabric.
The UN explains it perfectly as, "the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men". It's a day that's as relevant today, as it was when it was first marked in 1911. Back then, an impressive one million women and men attended rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland all demanding the right for women to vote, hold public office, work and have equal pay.
But whilst it's a day of celebration, it's also a rallying cry. It's a time to ask ourselves big, important questions about how a woman's life really compares to that of a man's. And not just here; but all around the world. Because although impressive life-changing advances have been made since that momentous day in 1911, there's still quite a way to go.
Interesting links:
The history of IWD at the UN site
We are Equals
Girls,Inc. Inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold

The following is a video celebrating the achievements of women throughout history to the song Sisters Are Doing it For Themselves (lyrics here)



 And this is a short documentary  made to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day by UN Women Australia.. 'On Her Shoulders' follows the history of International Women's Day and the struggles women have faced. In addition, it looks at what still needs to be achieved to ensure that gender equality can be fully realised.

"World" Book Day

In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, World Book Day is held annually on the first Thursday in March. Why is it so and not on April 23rd like most other countries?  According to their official website The initiative is so well established in schools here that we want to make sure that the Day happens in term time to really make the most of this opportunity to celebrate books and reading.  This year it will be next Thursday, 3rd March.
World Book Day UK began in 1998, launched by Prime Minster Tony Blair at The Globe Theatre in London.

Several million schoolchildren in Great Britain are given a £1 special World Book Day Book Token (€1.50 in Ireland) which can be redeemed against any book in any UK bookseller. A specially created WBD anthology priced at £1 (€1.50 in Ireland) has also been published. I believe we have a few of those books at our school library so you may want to give them a try ;)

The great success of this World Book Day has inspired a new event: World Book Night. 10,000 people are expected to attend "the biggest book give-away ever" at Trafalgar Square in London on March 4. That night organisers and volunteers will give away a million books for free.
Lots of authors are supporting this free event. Writers like Margaret Atwood, Mark Haddon and Nick Cave, to name just a few, will be reading from their favourite books.  
Organisers say the Trafalgar Square event will be followed by hundreds of events around the UK on World Book Night itself, details of which can be found on its website.
 Go here if you want to know the full list of titles to be given away.