The English words that secretly contain whole French phrases within them (VIDEO)
The origins of the English language
It is no great surprise that Great Britain’s nearest neighbor has had perhaps the greatest impact on the English language. Much of the recognizable English language today has its origins in French, with some estimates suggesting that as much as 30% has French roots.
READ MOREInteresting findings about lockdown language learning
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VERBALISTS EDUCATION news – We keep you informed on your education journey!
30-SEP-2022 | Which languages were the most popular to learn in each country during the lockdown?
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26-AUG-2022 | The IELTS scam came to light when Unites States border officials arrested six Indian students who tried to illegally enter the country on a boat from Canada.
READ MORELearn English online with Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball
In honor of Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, we wanted to bring you a special audio lesson where you will learn English online with Kobe Bryant and his Oscar-winning short film “Dear Basketball”.
We hope that this will bring you some inspiration, and that you will learn some things that will help you not only in English, but also in life.
Continue reading “Learn English online with Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball”Intercultural Communication
Speak Your Mind! – Intercultural Communication by Danae Perez
In this article, I flesh out the challenges of communicating among people from different cultures. The process itself is very much based on intuition and mutual respect, but there are a few things we can keep in mind to succeed. I have gone through this process many times myself.
Continue reading “Intercultural Communication”The Communication and Languages Group received special quality recognition
09-FEB-2022
The Communication and Languages Group recognized as one of LinkedIn’s “most engaging”
LinkedIn has just recognized the Communication and Languages Group as one of the best managed and most engaging groups on LinkedIn and selected it for their Inner Circle Program. The participation in the Program means that this Group will be afforded higher exposure and special features on the LinkedIn platform, thereby further enhancing its members’ experience and readership of the published content.
Continue reading “The Communication and Languages Group received special quality recognition”English translation on France’s new ID cards angers traditionalists
28-JAN-2022
English translation on France’s new ID cards angers traditionalists – Education Beyond Borders
France’s new biometric identity cards, issued on August 2 last year, contain for the first time both French and English translations of all the fields, such as ‘name’, ‘address’, and ‘nationality’. This has sparked a big controversy. The French Academy, charged with defending the French language, is threatening to take the government to court over the use of English on the country’s new identity card.
Voices of vanishing worlds – endangered languages
Of the world’s 6,500 living languages, half will cease to be spoken by the end of this century. Most of these endangered languages are oral speech forms, with little if any traditional written literature. If undocumented, these tongues – each representing a unique insight into human cognition and its most powerful defining feature, language – risk disappearing without trace. READ MORE
Inspire teaching and learning – Who inspired you?
As a leader in interactive teaching and learning, at the Verbalists Language Network we talk a lot about inspiration. But what does it really mean for you as a teacher and how can you feel inspired yourself and become inspirational for others? Verbalists partner Céline Aloé talks about inspiration in our new episode of Speak Your Mind! READ MORE
The English learner’s guide to British phrases
British English is much like the people of Britain themselves: down-to-earth and full of character. We compiled the list of our favorite British phrases, 25 of them, that we believe will confuse anybody who didn’t grow in the UK. These phrases aren’t just handy for holding a conversation though – they’ll also give you an insight into just how the Brits tick!
READ MOREMIND MAP your way to learning a new language
What is a Mind Map? A mind map is a diagram that organizes information in a radiant structure around a single central topic or idea. Instead of whole sentences, mind maps consist of keywords, short phrases and images.
Continue reading “MIND MAP your way to learning a new language”Do you change your personality depending on the language you speak?
Do you feel – sophisticated, elegant, suave – when you speak French, or perhaps – curious, outgoing, and free – when you speak English?
The results of the study published in the Journal of Research in Personality suggest that our perceptions of the culture associated with a given language can impact our behavior.
READ MORELearn English in London – best museums for students
Every summer, Verbalists Education & Language Network’s students explore the depths of secret London and wander around the top London museums and attractions while attending the famous English learning program My LONDON. With more than 1,000 galleries and museums in London to discover, this city offers the perfect opportunity to our students to develop their skills and learn new things outside the language classes.
Free webinars for teachers – How can Coaching in Education help?
PRODIREKT and the Verbalists Education & Language Network have partnered with the world’s leading teacher training experts so that our member teachers and education professionals can achieve better results, and more motivated, inspired and involved learners.
Since the beginning of 2021, we have combined forces with NeuroHeart Education and Neurolanguage Coaching to promote structural changes in Education, Languages and Communication. Rachel Paling, an International Game Changer in Education, in particular, the education of languages and a creator of Neurolanguage Coaching®, will be delivering a series of free webinars and workshops which will help to introduce coaching in education, as well as the practical application of neuroscientific findings and principles in the learning process. READ MORE
The native speaker fallacy
Welcome to Verbalists Education, a world’s leading language network. Our YouTube media channel Speak Your Mind!, features opinions and interviews with celebrities and professionals about education, languages and communication skills. Today, Thom Jones, a well-known language trainer from Great Britain, speaks his mind about the native English speakers’ supposed superiority over their non-native counterparts.
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Improve your business English with the series of free online workshops
On Tuesday, March 9, starting at 5 pm, begins a series of workshops titled Entrepreneurship 101 (and Business English), organized by American Corner Novi Sad.
This course is for everyone interested in entrepreneurship. It will take place every Tuesday from 5 to 7 pm via Zoom. READ MORE
Why Italians use dozens of words for simple instructions
“This Italian “more is more” attitude shows up throughout Italy.”
In Italy, you’ll find signs about face masks with 40 words in bureaucratic language. No smoking signs consist of 109 words of legal text, and simple toilet signs can be made up of 122 words. What reasons can we find for this in Italian society?
Among the novelties the Covid-19 pandemic has given us – in addition to face masks and awkward elbow bumps—is a variety of new signs instructing us how to behave. In the summer of 2020, I flew from London to Italy, Denmark, and Sweden, when travel restrictions allowed it, and I noticed some interesting differences in instructions on using face masks.
London’s Heathrow airport had posters saying, “You must wear a face covering in the terminal.” Signs at Copenhagen’s airport advised “Please remember to wear a medical mask,” and the airport in Stockholm read, “Use a face mask in the terminal.” At Rome’s Fiumicino airport, however, I was greeted by a sign made up of 40 words:
“According to Covid-19 containment measures provided for by the Council of Ministers’ presidential decree of 26 April 2020, the use of respiratory protection is required in interior public places. Therefore, the use of masks is compulsory even inside the airport.”
Despite Italy’s penchant for signs like this in bureaucratese, I’ve long had a passion for Italy and for the beautiful Italian language while growing up in Sweden and Finland. After Italian studies at Stockholm University led me to a student exchange in the northern Italian city of Padua, I lived in Italy for three years. I became fluent in Italian and did a master’s degree in communication studies at the University of Bologna.
Although I left Italy in 2014, the country and its language have never left me – especially since my fiancée is from Italy’s southern Apulia region. I currently live in the United Kingdom and I’m always on the lookout for cultural differences between Northern Europe and Italy, which has led to some thoughts on why Italians use so many words for simple signs.
Italian used to be an elite language
Italian, with its roots in Tuscan dialect, was for a long time only used in literature and opera and mastered by an educated elite. It only became a national language in 1861, when Italy unified into a nation.
People in the Italian peninsula spoke regional dialects, many of which are even considered to be separate languages in their own right, like Neapolitan, Venetian, and Sardinian. Italian slowly spread through the school system, military service, internal migration, and, much later on, by television.
Bureaucratic language was a characteristic of the new state imposing its laws, and the legacy of this approach is still visible today. You can spot this in “no smoking” signs in restaurants that include 109 words in legalese.
During the pandemic, the government has frequently spoken in bureaucratese. Announcing new coronavirus restrictions, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has many times presented a “DPCM,” an abbreviation repeated in the news and eventually by citizens and companies. What it stands for, however, is rarely explained (“decreto del presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri,” meaning “decree of the president of Council of Ministers”).
The most discussed instance in 2020 occurred when the restrictions for Covid-19 were eased after the first wave of the virus. The prime minister announced that Italians could meet with a “congiunto,” an archaic term for “relative”.
People became even more confused when the government tried to clarify what they meant, stating that it included relationships with a “stable tie of affection” (“affetto stabile”). Italian media outlets and talk shows soon attempted to decipher the words, interviewing lawyers and featuring excerpts from the dictionary trying to determine whether this included friends. This bureaucratic form of communication was even called an “anti-language” by writer Italo Calvino.
Italians love linguistic complexity
Italians value eloquence in writing and speech, and just like with ornamented Baroque Catholic cathedrals, the more you add, the better. A language like Swedish, by contrast – like its Protestant churches – is direct, to-the-point, and stripped down of unnecessary excess.
This Italian “more is more” attitude shows up throughout Italy. While European corporate reports are becoming shorter and shorter, in Italy, they are becoming longer each year.
One reason is that the humanities and arts are paramount in Italy. It’s quite understandable, given that it’s the land of the Renaissance and boasts the world’s highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The most prestigious type of high school, the “liceo classico,” teaches Latin and Ancient Greek. The country has double the amount of university graduates in humanistic subjects compared to Germany, and even medical students in Italy study literature and philosophy.
The emphasis put on linguistic sophistication is showcased in Italian news. There’s an exaggerated use of synonyms, idioms, allusions, football metaphors, Latin expressions like “tertium non datur,” and English terms, like “smart working” and “election day.”
A perfectly normal news story could be: “The rebus puzzle of the Farnesina palace is solved, after white smoke from the Chigi palace” (“Rebus Farnesina risolto, dopo la fumata bianca da Palazzo Chigi”). It simply means that the question of the new foreign minister is resolved, after an agreement by the government.
Italians love preserving traditions
Italians adore their traditions, and I’m not just talking about delicious food or celebrations of local patron saints. A national survey in 2015 revealed that 46% of Italians still speak regional languages and dialects at home, to some extent, instead of Italian.
Italians also cling to old forms of grammar that other Romance languages have left behind. While the French have relegated the past tense of “passé simple” to written language and stopped using the past tense “subjonctif plus-que-parfait,” Italians still preserve “passato remoto” and “congiuntivo trapassato.” The “passato remoto” form is doing so well in the South that it is used in daily conversation.
The public administration also continues to preserve its tradition of bureaucratese. I experienced this myself during an internship at the offices of a regional authority during my studies in Bologna. The perception within government is still that the more bureaucratic a text is, the more authority and respect it will induce among citizens.
There are, however, those who try to change things. During my degree in Bologna, key communication scholars, like Pina Lalli, Roberto Grandi, and Alessandro Rovinetti, preached the importance of simplified information to citizens. And during my studies in Padua, linguist Michele Cortelazzo advocated for clear communication by the public administration.
Starting in the 1990s, reforms and laws were passed to modernize and simplify government communication. These reforms have, nonetheless, not been followed up by structural change, and positive developments have mainly been limited to individual initiatives, as Cortelazzo concludes.
***
Italian society places high value on linguistic eloquence and complexity, and the authorities have historically addressed the elite. When you couple that with a culture that tends to conserve linguistic rules and conventions, then the presence of long-windedness in perfunctory signs starts to make more sense.
Linguist Carla Vergaro has even argued that Italian is a “reader-responsible” language – it’s the reader’s responsibility to interpret and draw meaning of complex texts. English, by contrast, is considered a “writer-responsible” language by linguist John Hinds, where the responsibility to convey efficient communication lies with the writer.
This difference was clearly visible when I landed back at London’s Heathrow airport and was again surrounded by short, clear messages of what to do during a pandemic. At first, it was refreshing to see these direct messages after seeing so many verbose signs of legal text in Italy. But eventually, I couldn’t help but feel that the English messages were instructing me as if I were an unruly child.
In the end, I found myself secretly longing for an Italian sign again, one with 40 words conveying a simple instruction.
Anders Pettersson
Verbalists Education & Language Network
Anders is a multilingual digital marketer that has lived in Finland, Sweden, Italy, Belgium & the UK.
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Advanced teacher training – free webinar: Crossing the subject border
Given the current reality, the need for new approaches for teaching – especially in online/blended learning environments – is critical. More than ever before, schools around the world are shifting their focus and prioritizing the practice of social and emotional learning. The call for compassion has never been greater.
The Verbalists Education & Language Network has partnered with the world’s leading teacher training experts to deliver a series of free webinars and workshops which will help you build easily and effortlessly emotional learning into virtual, blended, or in-person environments. READ MORE