what is culture?

Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music and is different all over the world.

[plus a video]

What is culture? | Live Science

Ideally, the definition of culture is kind of a collective set of beliefs, values, and norms that define how we are and how we live, and what's important to us. I suppose it's the spoken and the unspoken kind of tacit norms that bind us together as a society.
It's what gives us our identity; we're bound together by being on the planet but within that, then the specific culture related to the areas and the places and the societies we live in is what differentiates us and makes the world an interesting place it is. Particularly in this age of globalization and homogenization, it really is vital that we're aware of our own culture and the other cultures that enhance the rich tapestry of life.

[plus a video]

What is Culture? The Definition of Culture from World Experts

Ai Weiwei – Sunflower Seeds | Artist Interview | Tate - YouTube

Jay Doubleyou: Search results for culture

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podcasts on ukraine

There are places to go for the latest on Ukraine - all with very different perspectives:

RT - Breaking News, Russia News, World News and Video

Russia-Ukraine war | Today's latest from Al Jazeera

War in Ukraine - BBC News

There are also several podcasts - which give a wider perspective to the ongoing situation.

Here's a list from last year:

The week in audio: the best podcasts on the conflict in Ukraine | Podcasts | The Guardian

Here are a couple of lists from this year:

Best Russia and Ukraine podcasts: Our favourites from the region | openDemocracy

Best Ukraine Podcasts (2023)

Here are some of those:

Explaining Ukraine, hosted by Volodymyr Yermolenko, an analytics director at Internews Ukraine, and Tetyana Ogarkova, from the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre. Explaining Ukraine is part of the Ukraine World group, which tries to counter disinformation.

Explaining Ukraine | Podcast on Spotify

Featuring veteran BBC news correspondents including Gabriel Gatehouse and Victoria Derbyshire, plus expert insights, this BBC News Ukraine podcast uncovers and explains the latest events from the conflict.

BBC Sounds - Ukrainecast - Available Episodes

War in Ukraine is reshaping our world. Every weekday the Telegraph's top journalists analyse the invasion from all angles – military, humanitarian, political, economic, historical – and tell you what you need to know to stay updated.

Ukraine: The Latest podcast - "The idea the Russians have taken Bakhmut is hilarious".

When the shelling of Ukraine began a year ago, free-thinking Russians faced a fateful choice: lie low, resist or flee. Hundreds of thousands decided to leave. Because for them the war meant Russia itself had lost its meaning and its future. 
Now they have to rebuild their lives and their hopes for Russia from exile.
Can they get their country back? In this eight-part series, The Economist’s Arkady Ostrovsky travels across Europe and the Middle East to find out. The answer may hold the key to ending the war.

Next Year in Moscow | The Economist

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the cambridge exams are 110 years old

The most famous English exams are one hundred and ten years old this month:

110 years of Cambridge English exams

Yes, something to celebrate:

Celebrating 110 years of Cambridge English Exams - English Exam Centre

As covered by the ELT press:

Can you answer a 110-year-old exam question? - E L Gazette

And they've released one of the original questions:

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covid conspiracy, mis/disinformation and fake news

COVID CONSPIRACY

A conspiracy newspaper is being distributed in small town UK: Conspiracy ‘newspaper’ distributed around Sidmouth | Sidmouth Herald and Conspiracy newspaper The Light still circulating in Sidmouth | Sidmouth Herald

Since the pandemic, however, there has been what many consider to be a very disturbing ‘challenge to complacency’ happening in another small town:

As residents in Totnes went about their usual Sunday routines, an unknown number of volunteers were busy posting copies of ‘The Light’ through letterboxes across town Anger in Totnes as Covid ‘anti-vax’ propaganda posted through letterboxes – Devon Live

This has been the starting point to a new series on BBC Radio 4:

What’s happening in the Devon town of Totnes? The small town of Totnes in Devon is known for its warmth and open-mindedness, gong baths and healing crystals, but a fault line has emerged between the minority who’ve been drawn in by disinformation laced with hate and those who are fighting against it. Some in the town were drawn into a conspiracy theory movement during the pandemic, one whose monthly marches and rallies persist to this day. A conspiracy theory newspaper called The Light seems to have played a key part in the division there. BBC disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring investigates how the theories that dominate its pages are changing the town. Marianna in Conspiracyland – 1. Entering Conspiracyland – BBC Sounds

The wider media has taken up the story: The Light: Inside the UK’s conspiracy theory newspaper that shares violence and hate – BBC News and ‘Conspiracy theories have become normalised in the UK’, says BBC disinformation correspondent Marianna Spring

‘DISINFORMATION’ IS NOT THE SAME AS ‘MISINFORMATION’

There is an awful lot of misinformation and disinformation out there – and it’s important to see the difference between the two as a starting point:

Misinformation is false or inaccurate information—getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally making the misstating facts. The spread of misinformation and disinformation has affected our ability to improve public health, address climate change, maintain a stable democracy, and more. Misinformation and disinformation

Scholars who study the spread of false information define ‘misinformation’ as false information without the intent to cause harm, and distinguish it from ‘disinformation’ as false information that is shared with the intent to cause harm. Misinformation is not intentional, but disinformation is, and we must remember that. Since at least 2020, according to Google Trends, Google searches for the term “misinformation” are more frequent than for “disinformation.” Because there is a lack of clarity over the meanings of terms to describe false information, sometimes disinformation (which is intentional) is classified as misinformation (which is unintentional). I will show that underestimating the intent of disinformation by labeling it as misinformation serves to propagate the harms of disinformation. What’s the Difference between Disinformation and Misinformation? – Union of Concerned Scientists

VERIFY AND INVESTIGATE

There are reliable media organisations intent on uncovering mis/disinformation: Explaining the ‘how’ – the launch of BBC Verify – BBC News and bellingcat – the home of online investigations

Much of it is about dealing with conspiracy theories: Americast – Conspiracies: Inside the Rabbit Hole – BBC Sounds and BBC Sounds – Things Fell Apart – Available Episodes and BBC Radio 4 – The Coming Storm and BBC Sounds – Conspiracies: The Secret Knowledge – Available Episodes

What are the conspiracy theories you are aware of?

Psychology of Conspiracy Theories: Why Do People Believe Them?

The enduring appeal of conspiracy theories - BBC Future

Fake or fact: how to recognise a conspiracy theory | Psychology | The Guardian

How do young people deal with mis/disinformation?

Dealing with fake news | Internet Matters

Dealing with propaganda, misinformation and fake news - Democratic Schools for All

Empowering young people to tell fake from fact – DW – 10/06/2020

Where do you go for your news?

Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera

RT - Breaking News, Russia News, World News and Video

Finally:

Jay Doubleyou: information wars in america, russia and ukraine

Jay Doubleyou: false flag

Jay Doubleyou: greenwashing fashion

Jay Doubleyou: china, the bbc and disinformation

Jay Doubleyou: disinformation

Jay Doubleyou: coronavirus and populism

Jay Doubleyou: political narratives

Jay Doubleyou: conspiracy theories

Jay Doubleyou: there are several questions around Shakespeare

Jay Doubleyou: propaganda, public relations and manufacturing consent

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phrases which mean 'nothing will happen'

The British are very good at saying 'yes' when they mean 'no'.

Here's a nice list from the 'Very British Problems' website:

Phrases that mean nothing will happen:
Leave it with me
I’ll have a word
I’ll see what I can find
I’ll see what I can do
Consider it done!
I’ll make some calls
I’ll think about it
Certainly a possibility
Let’s come back to that
Good idea I’ll let you know!
We’ll see
I’ll check it out
Noted
Maybe
I’ll get back to you on that
Could do, could do…
I’ll take that on board
Let’s park that for now
It’s on my list
I’ll definitely keep it in mind
Watch this space!
Hold that thought
I’m doing it as we speak
Might see you down there
Text me the details
I’ll look into it
I certainly don’t rule it out

verybritishproblemsofficial | Twitter, Facebook, TikTok | Linktree

(20) VeryBritishProblems on Twitter: "Phrases that mean nothing will happen: Leave it with me I’ll have a word I’ll see what I can find I’ll see what I can do Consider it done! I’ll make some calls I’ll think about it Certainly a possibility Let’s come back to that Good idea I’ll let you know! We’ll see I’ll…" / Twitter

With more here:

(20) VeryBritishProblems (@SoVeryBritish) / Twitter

"the perils of teaching a foreign language"

It's not easy to learn - or teach - another language.

Here's a wonderful account of what it's all about from a teacher living (and teaching) in the depths of Devon - a very rural part of England, but not so 'isolated' that people aren't interested in learning another language!

The perils of teaching a foreign language in Ottery St Mary

Column by Josefina Gori.

Being a language tutor is an incredibly fulfilling profession.

It allows you to gain a deeper appreciation for the challenges of a language that you've been speaking effortlessly since birth, while also helping you understand the challenges faced by your students in learning a new language.

In my 43 years of teaching various languages, I have been fascinated by the workings of the human brain. For instance, when a French person reads the word "Nice," they immediately associate it with the town in the south of France. Concurrently, when an English person reads "Nice," they think of a pleasant person.

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When learning a foreign language, various factors can negatively affect your brain. However, having fun plays a significant role in advancing the learning process. For teachers, enjoying their work can lead to greater success. As a student, having fun can open your mind and make you more receptive to new skills. It is essential to relax and enjoy the class to avoid overwhelming your brain, which is programmed to shut down when under stress. Therefore, prioritizing enjoyment during language learning is crucial for success.

Are you ready to give it a try now? Just remember, there's more to gain than to lose. Speaking several languages has been proven to keep your brain fit and your memory alert.

The perils of teaching a foreign language in Ottery St Mary | Sidmouth Herald

'language shift', loan translation and 'calques'

What happens when your whole community changes your own language?

Peter Trughill looks at Ireland:

The traces that we can’t shift

Communities can switch language – like the Irish who gradually gave up Gaelic for English – but they retain parts of the old one, too

“Language shift” is a term which refers to situations where an entire community, or a large proportion of it, gradually stops speaking their mother tongue and switches to another language.

Until the 19th century, most people in most of Ireland were native speakers of Irish Gaelic. But then a process of language shift set in whereby the majority of the population gradually abandoned the Irish language and shifted to the colonial language, English. Today the entire island of Ireland has become a space where English is spoken natively instead of, or as well as, Irish Gaelic – there are still hundreds of thousands of people living there who can speak Irish.

This shift has meant that many traces of Gaelic can be found in the modern English of Ireland. These linguistic vestiges resulted from 19th-century English having been learnt post-childhood as a second or foreign language by people whose mother tongue had been Gaelic.

When adults and adolescents learn a foreign language, they invariably retain a foreign accent and tend not to reproduce the grammar of the new language exactly. This is how some non-native features found their way into the English of originally Irish mother-tongue communities – and have now become established as an integral part of the native-speaker English of Ireland.

The traces of Irish Gaelic which were left behind include Gaelic-origin words, and aspects of the pronunciation of Irish English, but we also find grammatical features. The grammatical construction known as the “after perfect” is exemplified in Irish English expressions such as “I’m after reading the paper”, meaning “I’ve just read the paper”. This is a direct loan translation or calque from Irish Gaelic, where that same grammatical pattern is used.

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The traces that we can’t shift - The New European

'Loan translation' or 'claque' happens a lot - 

In linguistics, a calque (or loan translation) can be defined as a word-for-word translation from one language into another. For example, when you take a phrase in French and then literally translate root-for-root or word-for-word into English, that’s a calque.

In English we see many examples of common phrases that are calques translated from other languages. For example; Beer Garden is a calque of the German Biergarten, and Adam’s Apple is a calque of the French pomme d’Adam. In both these examples, English phrases are derived from a direct literal translation of the original. Calque is a loanword from a French noun – it’s derived from the verb calquer, meaning to copy, to trace.

What is Calque (or Loan Translation) | BLEND Blog

Sometimes we adopt a word from a language and translate it more or less literally. And Sometimes, we borrow words directly from another language.

What Is Loan Word?

Borrowing or loan word is a word that is taken from a language and is used in another language, while calque or loan translation is a word that is translated into another language.

Types of Loan-Words

Loan words are those foreign words that one language borrows from another without changing their meaning. There are two types of loan words and we are going to clarify each of them.

Foreign words with the same spelling: a borrowed word of a foreign language that its orthography stays the same.

• Umbrella from (Italian) to (English)
• espresso from (Italian) to (English)
• pasta from (Italian) to (English)
• Café from (French) to (English)
• Ski from (Norwegian) to (English)
• Bazaar from (Persian) to (English)

Foreign words with different spelling: The orthography of the word changes in the target language.

• Chofer (Spanish) from (French) chauffeur
• Futbal (Hungarian) from (English) Football
• sˇekki (Finnish) from (English) check

What Is Calque?

Loan-translation or calque is used when a word is translated word by word into another language. Remember that calque is a semantic or syntactic translation and it does not have phonetic matching.

Types of Calque

Phraseological calque: when idiomatic phrases or sets of expressions have been translated word by word.

• 'It goes without saying' (English) tranlated from 'ça va sans dire' (French) In this example, ça = it, va = goes, sans = without, dire = saying
• 'schau stehlen' (German) translated from 'steal the show' (English)

Syntactic calque: Syntactic or structural calque is the product of an inexact connection between the elements of a sentence or phrase.

• in order to = en orden a (instead of ''para'') from French to English.
• to find guilty = encontrar culpable (instead of ''declarar culpable'') from Spanish to English.

Semantic calque: Additional meanings of the words in the source language are transferred to the word in the target language, with the same primary meaning.

• Biergarten (German) = beer garden (English) Here, the concept of 'beer garden' is derived from German language.
• Computer mouse (English) = souris (French)
• Hot dog (English) = perros calientes (Spanish)
• Gratte-Ciel (French) = scrape-sky (English)
• Marché aux puces (French) = flea market (English)

Loan Words and Calques in The English Language | LanGeek

With more here - including an interesting bit of translation:

Calque - Wikipedia

And more:

• brainwashing from 洗脑 – xǐnǎo
• lose face from 丢脸 – diūliǎn
• paper tiger from 纸老虎 – zhǐlǎohǔ

Fun Facts About English #31 – Loan Translations

Some lists:

German Loan Words in the English Language

English Words Used in Czech

Which brings us to Czenglish: 

Czenglish - Wikipedia

And Denglish:

Denglisch - Wikipedia

And the specific problems for Czech/German speakers learning English:

Common Problems for German Learners of English | The TEFL Academy

10 typical mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English – English with Kirsty

Pronunciation problems for Czech speakers of English

TEN ENGLISH MISTAKES CZECH PEOPLE MAKE - TOM CZABAN

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idioms around death...

Maybe the best way to handle death is to laugh at it:

Monty Python - "Not Dead Yet" Scene (HD) - YouTube

How many idioms and slang words do you know for 'to die'?

List of expressions related to death - Wikipedia

Can you recognise any of these?

The EFL SMARTblog: Real English: Monty Python "Dead Parrot" Sketch - Idioms for "Dead" and "Broken"

They all come from what is perhaps the most famous Monty Python sketch:

Monty Python Dead Parrot - YouTube

To finish, a cartoon about someone who dies - with lots of idioms:

Symphony in Slang | Tex Avery Screwball | Warner Archive - YouTube (good quality but incomplete)

Symphony In Slang, Film (complete)

With a list of all the idioms here:

Jay Doubleyou: a symphony in slang: a classic cartoon full of idioms

And with much more here:

Jay Doubleyou: learning and teaching idioms

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learning to use the appropriate register @ fawlty towers

How should you complain about the food in a restaurant?

Fawlty Towers: The prawns are off - YouTube

How should you ask for change at hotel reception?

Annoying Hotel Guest - Mrs Richards - Fawlty Towers - YouTube

S2E1.Communication Problems - Video Dailymotion

And here we see some very traditional language happening:

U and non-U English - Wikipedia

How should you ask for a room at a hotel?

This way:

Fawlty Towers: Mr Brown - YouTube

Or this way:

Fawlty Towers: Meeting Lord Melbury - YouTube

S1E1.A Touch of Class - video Dailymotion

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ai, 'perplexity' and non-native speakers

AI is being used more and more by students: Half of College Students Say Using AI Is Cheating | BestColleges

The problem is that the systems to detect this 'cheating' are throwing out work done by non-native speakers:

Non-native English speakers are being unfairly discriminated against by AI-detectors; this is according to a study by Stanford University. James Zou, professor of biomedical data science at Stanford, has said “[Detectors] typically score based on a metric known as ‘perplexity,’ which correlates with the sophistication of the writing.” Non-native speakers are likely to score lower on perplexity, which measures lexical richness, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, and grammatical complexity. As a result, students could face discrimination and be unfairly accused of cheating.

AI biased against TOEFL students | E L Gazette

Essays in English written by people from China were branded by text-analysis tools as being generated by artificial intelligence 61 per cent of the time

Tools to spot AI essays show bias against non-native English speakers | New Scientist

It's very difficult anyway to work out if someone's cheating:

AI detectors falling short in the battle against cheating

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