Sunday 30 May 2021

to be or not to be: to write a book about shakespeare... or not

There was one confusing story about Shakespeare this week:

Jay Doubleyou: to be or not to be: shakespeare dies

And now there's another, captured by this cartoon from the Guardian:


Steve Bell on Boris Johnson’s Shakespeare book — cartoon | Opinion | The Guardian

['Squashing the sombrero' refers to the strategy back in March 2020:

(18) ITV News on Twitter: "'This will help us delay and flatten the peak, squash that sombrero.' Boris Johnson said the public can help to delay the peak of the coronavirus outbreak by self-isolating for seven days if you have a fever or persistent cough https://t.co/3jPFeAall5 https://t.co/xMmR7XFv88" / Twitter]

.

The book is due out on 31st March 2022, according to Amazon UK:

Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius
From the inimitable, mop-headed, "New York Times" bestselling British journalist and politician, a celebration of the best-known Brit of all time.
Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare is more popular than ever. With works translated into more than one hundred languages and studied by schoolchildren the world over, performed on every continent and adapted to every conceivable setting and interpretation, he remains an unparalleled global phenomenon. But why? What about Shakespeare has allowed him to stand the test of time?
With characteristic curiosity, verve, and wit, Boris Johnson sets out to determine whether the Bard is indeed all he s cracked up to be, and if so, why and how. He immerses us in the circumstances in which Shakespeare came of age the swagger and terror of the Elizabethan Renaissance, with its newfound craze for theater and its bold intellectual flowering, under the hovering threat of repression. He explores the endlessly intriguing themes of the plays, and how they speak to us across the centuries: the illicit sex and the power struggles; the fratricide and matricide; the confused identities and hormonal teenagers; the racism, jealousy, political corruption. He examines the psychology of Shakespeare s characters and his compelling, taboo-busting plots. He celebrates the playwright s appreciation for women and the roles he created for them, more fully realized than those Hollywood churns out (had women but been allowed to play them in his day). He brings into focus Shakespeare s shrewd eye for the bend of history, and the seismic shock of change. And above all, he revels in the language our language, which that master poet enriched with at least 2,500 new-coined words and a litheness that is an ongoing delight to us all.
In this joyful, fascinating book, Johnson reminds us why Shakespeare truly was a genius, a writer not just for his time, but for all time."

Shakespeare: The Riddle of Genius: Amazon.co.uk: Johnson, Boris: 9780399184543: Books

.

The question, as the cartoon suggests, is whether time was spent writing rather than doing something else:

Boris Johnson gave bizarre Shakespeare speech as Covid pandemic loomed, fuelling suspicions he was writing book | The Independent

Downing Street denies Boris Johnson missed Covid meetings to write Shakespeare book | The Independent

Questions for Boris Johnson over mystery of Shakespeare book and '£98k' advance - Mirror Online

Boris Johnson Skipped COVID-19 Meetings to Pen Shakespeare Book: Report

It’s possible Boris Johnson skipped critical COVID meetings to write a book on Shakespeare. ‹ Literary Hub

.

As covered here by Politics Home:

The Ongoing Riddle Of Boris Johnson’s Book, "Shakespeare, The Riddle of Genius"
Alain Tolhurst
24 May
When news of its publication was first announced in July 2015 the world was promised “a celebration of the best-known Brit of all time”, but almost six years on there is no sign of Boris Johnson’s long-awaited book about William Shakespeare.
So what exactly has happened to The Riddle of Genius, and will the Prime Minister ever get to write about “the illicit sex and the power struggles; the fratricide and matricide” in the Bard’s work, as the promotional material suggested?
Discussion about the book, which also promised intriguingly to look at “the racism, jealousy and political corruption” in Shakespeare’s plays, has been renewed after allegations Johnson had attempted to get it finished at the start of last year.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday there are fears his former aide Dominic Cummings will use a select committee appearance on Wednesday to claim the PM raced to complete it when he was out of the public eye in February 2020, in order to earn money as he finalised his divorce from ex-wife Marina Wheeler.
Crucially during the same period he missed the first five emergency Cobra meetings to discuss the oncoming Covid-19 pandemic.

Saturday 29 May 2021

to be or not to be: shakespeare dies

When did William Shakespeare die?

Jay Doubleyou: there are several questions around Shakespeare

Jay Doubleyou: shakespeare's 450th birthday

And when did Bill Shakespeare die?

William 'Bill' Shakespeare, The 2nd Briton To Receive A COVID-19 Vaccine, Has Died : NPR

It's easy to mix them up, as a rather strange story shows and as reported first in the Guardian:

Bard timing: Argentinian TV reports death of Shakespeare after Covid jab | Argentina | The Guardian

It's being reported everywhere:

Newscaster mistakenly reports the death of author William Shakespeare

Argentinian TV accidentally announces death of playwright William Shakespeare in Coventry pensioner mix-up

TV reporter in Argentina mistakenly announces the death of playwright William Shakespeare | Daily Mail Online

‘Comedy of errors’: Argentinian news anchor confuses Shakespeares while reporting UK patient’s death | Trending News,The Indian Express

Tidak, bukan William Shakespeare yang mendapat vaksin Coronavirus. Namun presenter TV asal Argentina itu tidak mengetahui hal itu

Argentina, gaffe in tv: giornalista confonde William Shakespeare, primo vaccinato contro il Covid, con lo scrittore

Una presentadora de la televisiĆ³n argentina confunde la muerte del segundo vacunado de COVID con la del dramaturgo William Shakespeare

.

.

.

Thursday 27 May 2021

you think wikipedia is biased? check out the telegraph

Following on from this recent piece:

Jay Doubleyou: alternative wikipedias

Today's Daily Telegraph came out with this piece:

You think the BBC is biased? Check out Wokepedia

 - with the full transcript available here on Reddit:

You think the BBC is biased? Check out Wokepedia : ukpolitics

Here's a personal comment:

The Telegraph piece presses a few rather biased buttons of its own, as far as my own reading goes - that the fundraising is 'aggressive'; that we've seen an expansion of 'bureaucracy' and 'lobbyists'; we need to mention Herr Marx of course; that Wikipedia loves Clinton (just as CNN was named Clinton News Network before the creation of Fox News); etc, etc.

Then we come to the 'biases' of some 'elite', which is really rather tiresome if predictable - that Wikipedia is part of the Silicon Valley cabal; and that 'certain' entries are cleaned up to omit anything embarrassing. Well, I've certainly learnt to take with a very large measure of salt any entry on any corporation or state or organisation, as there are of course people employed to keep things squeaky clean.

But, then, that's the beauty of Wikipedia: you can go to the history of edits and see what's been altered/added. And this is something I urge my students to do. In fact, this makes Wikipedia one of the most transparent 'media companies' out there.

Also interesting is to compare entries in different languages: I've had Argentine students look at the Spanish/English/French/Swedish entry on the History of the Falkland Islands, for example, and we can see in detail how they differ; and from the languages we don't speak, we can still read the prominence/order of events and protagonists.

As for the 'teenager' who 'wrote' the entry on Scots, well, that shows how transparent the whole set-up is: the fact is that we know about this and that it can be pointed out and corrected: problem sorted.

Wikipedia does not 'generate facts' - any more than any other author, media organisation or university does: everyone has 'biases' and everyone selects information according to a preconceived narrative or framework. The point is that, again, Wikipedia is transparent, in that not only can the information trail be verified, but it can be challenged. I cannot challenge that of the Telegraph or of Encyclopedia Britannica, at least in the same way.

Yes, there should never be a 'single source of information' and it is ridiculous to suggest this - and such suggestions should be of concern to everyone, whether 'conservative' or not. But I do often use Wikipedia as a starting point - and use its references and reading list as a further point of travel - because I see it as offering a plurality of viewpoints and a stimulus to enquiry. It throws up questions and challenges orthodoxy - which is perhaps why 'conservatives' feel uncomfortable and have created this strange beast 'Conservapedia' which is obsessed with biblical references to homosexuality and the like. Very strange.

Fundamentally, though, when it comes to 'facts', Wikipedia has been shown to be as reliable as Encyclopedia Britannica. What's keeping Wikipedia from being allowed in academic citations is due to "jealousy regarding the loss of the knowledge dissemination monopoly" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6889752/

If you know how to use it, then it's a great resource: https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-students-how-use-wikipedia-wisely Problem is that, as with most sources of information, people don't question the sources or framing - whether it's the Telegraph or whatever, as they're probably too comfortable with how things are portrayed. In fact, because all its 'weaknesses' are obvious, "Wikipedia encourages users to be attentive and use their critical judgment" - whereas with other media, users do not respond in this way: https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-as-wikipedia-turns-20-how-credible-is-it/a-56228222

But actually, regarding the Telegraph piece's main thrust, I would say it doesn't matter who's paying for the 'media company's output' (although we could ask what the 'agenda' is of the Barclay brothers, one of whom is still with us; plus, there's an interesting footnote on who pays the piper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph#cite_note-OpenDemocracy_17_February_2015-12) The most important thing is whether the information produced is OK: we should not attack the messenger, just because we find the message unpalatable.

To finish, this is my favourite alternative to Wikipedia, which says it all: https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/RationalWiki#Conservative_Bias

.

.

.

Monday 24 May 2021

alternative wikipedias

The go-to place for information online is Wikipedia:

Reliability of Wikipedia - Wikipedia

Wikipedia is by far the largest online encyclopedia, and the number of errors it contains is on par with the professional sources even in specialized topics such as biology or medicine. Yet, the academic world is still treating it with great skepticism because of the types of inaccuracies present there, the widespread plagiarism from Wikipedia, and historic biases, as well as jealousy regarding the loss of the knowledge dissemination monopoly. This article argues that it is high time not only to acknowledge Wikipedia's quality but also to start actively promoting its use and development in academia.

Wikipedia: Why is the common knowledge resource still neglected by academics?

Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet | WIRED

.

Certainly it's a good starting point - and a place with lots of references:

How to Teach Students to Use Wikipedia | Edutopia

How Many References Do You Need To Get A Wikipedia Page? - Legalmorning

.

It's also a good place to go with ESOL/EFL students - as the same article can be compared but in different languages. 

For example:

History of the Falkland Islands - Wikipedia

Historia de las islas Malvinas - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

Geschichte der Falklandinseln – Wikipedia

.

Here's another example:

Articles about the same topics are written and edited independently of each other by authors in different languages. They may emphasize different aspects of issues; there might even be very different information. For example, entries about Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March 2014, differ depending on the language. DW's fact-check team analyzed the German, Russian and Ukrainian entries. The German version called Crimea a "Ukrainian peninsula," while the Russian did not mention its belonging to Ukraine, though it acknowledged a territorial dispute. The entries contained most of the same basic factual information about the region, but the entries differed on more recent events: The Ukrainian version has a section called "Annexation of Crimea," but the Russian refers to the "Accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation." Most Russian entries on the topic fail to mention that the March 2014 referendum that led to Crimea's annexation was not considered legitimate by the government of Ukraine and many international institutions, which do not recognize the annexation either.

Fact check: As Wikipedia turns 20, how credible is it? | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 14.01.2021

.

But there are alternatives, the most famous 'original' being:

Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica

.

For ESOL/EFL students, we have this excellent version:

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

.

And there are more:

Top 7 Alternatives to Wikipedia | OEDB.org

.

There are several 'wikis' which challenge Wikipedia directly:

Conservapedia - RationalWiki

RationalWiki - Uncyclopedia

Wikipedia - Conservapedia

.

This is a list of very strange 'alternatives':

5 Terrifying Bastardizations of the Wikipedia Model | Cracked.com

.

.

.

Friday 21 May 2021

bad service is a class issue in the uk

THE LAND OF SHAMBLES AND INCOMPETENCE:

Here's a story from Heathrow:

Though I was born and raised in South Africa, Britain has been my home for more than 20 years. I have raised a family here, come to know the UK as a wonderful and welcoming country where, by and large, things work pretty well. But my God, how that view was challenged as I flew into Heathrow Airport last weekend...

So, after going through all the necessary testing in South Africa, I flew home and the prospect of ten days quarantine in a hotel. I left Cape Town on the eve of May 1 on Turkish Airlines, with a stopover in Istanbul, before arriving into London at half past nine on the morning of May 2, a quarter of an hour ahead of schedule. So far, so competent. Both in South Africa and in Turkey the journey could not have been smoother. But for the masks and the social distancing, it was like pre-Covid travel. And then, Terminal 2, London Heathrow and the UK border.

‘Shambles’ does not even get close to describing the experience. Chaos. Levels of incompetence that we associate perhaps with the poorer countries of my native continent, not one of the world’s most famous airports in one of the world’s most advanced economies.

Leaving Cape Town and transiting in Istanbul, there had been a sense of calm efficiency. Signs for social distancing were clear, and the process well managed, the airport and border processes well staffed. At Heathrow, I could scarcely believe the density of the queues as the customs hall filled with passengers, with no social distancing whatsoever, no mask enforcement and people crowding in on each other as the lines lengthened, customs officials woeful in managing the flow, and no obvious ventilation...

Inside the Heathrow petri dish | The New European

.

But why the shambolic and incompetent set-up at Heathrow?

.

THE CLASS SYSTEM:

One of the main issues is the make-up of British society:

Jay Doubleyou: class is the big issue in the united kingdom: part one

Jay Doubleyou: class is the big issue in the united kingdom: part three

As surveyed by the BBC ten years ago, attitudes to class and service are part of the same picture:

Snobbery

For chef Michel Roux Jr, good service in a restaurant is as important as good food. If people don't feel welcome they won't come back. It's the same in any business, regulars are their life-blood.

Yet, despite how important it is, why is the UK still lagging so far behind? It's a hangover from the British class system, says Roux. "The issue of service in Britain is, maybe, a class problem with service seen as subservient," he says. "The old Upstairs-Downstairs syndrome, where it is only for the lower classes."

"The British have a little bit of a hang up about complaining and probably don't know how to complain," says Roux. "There are ways to put your complaint across if you're not happy, rather than making a big scene at the end. If you want great service, it's up to the customer as well to communicate. It shouldn't be embarrassing."

Why is service still so bad in the UK? - BBC News

.

LOWER QUALITY SOCIAL SERVICES: LOWER SOCIAL CLASSES:

Class is at the centre of life in the UK:

Britain is obsessed with social class. Whether it’s the jobs we have, the words we use, the education we receive, political beliefs, or even the TV shows we watch, being preoccupied with class is as British as drinking tea and eating fish and chips. While the class system is complex, a key differentiator is economic capital; and a lack of income equality gives Britain one of the worst social mobility problems in the world.

Resolution Foundation: Britain's class problem comes down to "assortative mating" — Quartz

"Class prejudice is alive and well in modern Britain":

PUBLIC TRANSPORT:

In the UK, any service which is 'public' is generally bad, because these services are for the 'public' - that is, the 'masses' who generally don't deserve any better.

This attitude translates into snobbery over buses and trains:

Did Margaret Thatcher say bus users over the age of 25 were failures? - Full Fact

In fact, if you go by train in the UK, it's as bad as a cattle truck:

Britain's worst journeys named and shamed | UK | News | Express.co.uk

Commuters get less space on trains than cows on cattle trucks | Metro News

New South West Trains branded 'cattle trucks' with fewer seats and nowhere to hold on to - Mirror Online

.

PUBLIC HOSPITALS:

The health service in the UK is free and very good - but hospital wards are much larger than on the continent:

the-use-of-single-patient-rooms-v-multiple.pdf

Middle-class medicine - Payment and Philanthropy in British Healthcare

For example:

The postnatal ward to which we were assigned was just a short elevator ride from the birth center, but it may as well have been on a different planet. It was made up of dozens of "rooms" — tiny cubicles with four curtains for walls. Privacy was non-existent. We could hear everything going on around us — patients' cell phone conversations, private consultations, coughing, laughing, eating, snoring, and of course, crying newborns.

The good, the bad, and the ugly of England's universal health-care system

On an even deeper level, did the British upper classes treat their own lower orders in the same way as the lesser people they colonised - treating them with "infantalizing benevolence"?

Wards Apart?: Rethinking the Hospital through a West African Lens – Technology's Stories

Certainly, the lower your social class, the worse your health:

Health and Social Class information. | Patient

Inequality is fattening | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian

.

PUBLIC SQUALOR:

There's a surprising amount of it about:

SQUALOR | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

More than one million children in England live in bad housing:

Chance_of_a_Lifetime.pdf

Social housing is bad: "For much of history, especially before 1919 and since 1979, working-class existence has been marked by inadequate housing."

Audit 2017: How effectively are class inequalities controlled in the UK? : Democratic Audit

And it's not good for people's mental health:

British people rank among most depressed people in Western World | The Independent | The Independent

Meanwhile, town centres are declining:

61% of UK consumers foresee the end of the high street

We are witnessing the death of the high street – but here’s why we don’t need to be sad about it | The Independent | The Independent

.

THE LOWER CLASSES AND BAD EDUCATION:

The public education system in the UK produces incompetents and morons - and people who 'know their place':

Jay Doubleyou: low literacy levels in britain

Jay Doubleyou: neets

Jay Doubleyou: neets - again

And so the 'mass tourists' from the UK behave like 'plebs':

Jay Doubleyou: "drunk stupid brits"

.

THE UPPER CLASSES:

At the top of British society, the 'posh' do not send their children to state schools:

Jay Doubleyou: the british class system

They do not go through Heathrow airport but through their own private jet ports:

The Rich Are Scrambling To Escape COVID-19 On Private Jets

Of course, there are the very rich and privileged in every country - it's just that many of them are sending their children to posh British schools:

Britain’s Boarding School Problem | The New Republic

For rich Russians, UK schools in class of their own

West African Elites’ Spending on UK Schools and Universities: A Closer Look - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

.

SOCIAL DEMOCRACY:

Of course Switzerland is famous for its 'finishing schools':

6 top Swiss boarding schools where royalty and the super-rich send their children – and pay up to US$150,000-a-year in fees | South China Morning Post

So, yes, this country has its banks and its ski resorts for rich foreigners - but generally, the 'public services' in the German-speaking and Scandinavian worlds are much better than in the UK:

Best Countries to Live in the World | U.S. News Best Countries

The Nordic Exceptionalism: What Explains Why the Nordic Countries Are Constantly Among the Happiest in the World | The World Happiness Report

It's that social model again:

Jay Doubleyou: why are finns so happy?

Jay Doubleyou: the fall and rise of social democracy?

.

THE GENTLEMAN AMATEUR:

Against this model of 'mass democracy' and societies that actually work, we have the British upper classes who do not take things too seriously:

Boris Johnson’s rise to Prime Minister, like many Olympians, cricketers and sports administrators may have involved a degree of ‘hard work’ but there is little doubt the privately educated benefit from social and administrative structures that ensure class divisions remain as strong as ever.

The Continued Survival of the Gentleman Amateur – The Social History Society

The current PM is a journalist - a profession he did not study:

Boris Johnson says he feels guilty about his journalism | Boris Johnson | The Guardian

The education of Boris Johnson, the UK's new Prime Minister - Study International

Most of the British political class seem to have studied Politics, Philosophy & Economics at Oxford:

This is what you might call the British bluffocracy. We have become a nation run by people whose knowledge extends a mile wide but an inch deep; who know how to grasp the generalities of any topic in minutes, and how never to bother themselves with the specifics. Who place their confidence in their ability to talk themselves out of trouble, rather than learning how to run things carefully. And who were trained in this dubious art as teenagers: often together on the same university course.

The rise of the bluffocracy | The Spectator

Welcome to Britain - the world's first 'Bluffocracy' - Reaction

It's the art of bluffing:

BLUFF (noun) definition and synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary

Bluff - Definition for English-Language Learners from Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary

Britain is a place, then, where we don't believe in experts:

Britain has had enough of experts, says Gove | Financial Times

Gove: Britons "Have Had Enough of Experts" - YouTube

.

HUMOUR: FAWLTY TOWERS:

The only way to deal with this is humour perhaps:

Jay Doubleyou: got a room

Jay Doubleyou: what is british humour?

Jay Doubleyou: pragmatics: it ain't what you say it's the way that you say it

Jay Doubleyou: high culture > popular culture --- high register > low register

.

HOW OTHERS SEE US:

To finish, here is a perspective from abroad:

But for those who weren’t raised in the UK, this whole obsession with class is probably really bizarre. VICE spoke to a few foreigners who study or studied at British universities to find out what they found strange or surprising about the class system.

Foreigners Reveal What Shocked Them About the British Class System

.

.

.

Friday 14 May 2021

learn another language - it's easy!

After you've 'learnt' another language - you should find the next one a lot easier.

Here's a lively discussion on Duolingo:

Trilingual? How was learning your third language different than learning your second? - Duolingo

And some helpful guidance from ESL:

The more languages you know, the easier it is to learn another one | ESL

There is scientific research into this:

Bilinguals find it easier to learn a third language -- ScienceDaily

.

The excellent Liz Granirer writes for the EL Gazette on the subject:


The second language is the hardest

Research from a University of Tokyo and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team has shown that multilinguals are faster and more effective at learning additional languages than bilinguals. 

The results, published in Scientific Reports, were gathered in tests where participants’ brain activity was monitored through MRI scans while they were introduced to Kazakh. All the participants were native speakers of Japanese and had English as their second language. The multilinguals also had either Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian or German as a third language and some spoke as many as five languages.

Proving the theory of cumulative enhancement, the multilinguals who had the most fluency in their second and third languages were quicker at determining answers to test questions, needed fewer learning sessions, and became more confident of their knowledge and ability faster than the bilinguals.

“This is a neuroscientific explanation of why learning another new language is easier than acquiring a second,” says professor Kuniyoshi L Sakai of the University of Tokyo who worked on the study. “Bilinguals only have two points of reference. Multilinguals can use their knowledge of three or more languages in their brains to learn another new one.”

It just goes to show that, sometimes, more is more.

The second language is the hardest | E L Gazette

.

Finally, here are some great reasons to learn other languages:

The 5 Big Advantages to Learning Multiple Languages at Once

How to Learn Several Languages At The Same Time by Fluent Language

Learning Two Languages at Once: Can You Learn Multiple Languages at the Same Time?

.

.

.

the case against education

Schools are bad for society:

The Pinky Show - Scary School Nightmare - YouTube

Jay Doubleyou: deschooling society

.

And schools are bad for people:

Jay Doubleyou: Search results for taylor gatto

.

BBC radio looked at 'the case against education':

Education is often seen as a panacea for a liberal civilised society: the more, the better. But what if we’re wrong? What if the desire to deliver higher education to as many people as possible is actually making society less fair? 
Economist Bryan Caplan poked a hornet’s nest recently with his book “The Case Against Education”. It argued passionately that higher education has become a mere signalling exercise for employers – one which rewarded rote-learning conformism and threw anyone with less than a 2:1 on the scrapheap. 
Much admired – and much criticised – Caplan’s book was a call-to-arms for an end to a futile, economically-crippling education arms-race. His solution? Simply pull funding for almost all higher education until its social worth was fully proven. 
Advertising guru and behaviourist Rory Sutherland is joined in studio by the Executive Director of the Education Policy Institute Natalie Perera - and down the line by Bryan Caplan himself – to assess one of liberal society’s most sacred cows.

Thought Cages - The Case Against Education - BBC Sounds

.

Here's his book:

Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skills but to certify their intelligence, conscientiousness, and conformity—attributes that are valued by employers.

The Case Against Education - Wikipedia

Bryan D. Caplan - The Case Against Education - YouTube

.

And a lot of people have read it:

Book Review: The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money by Bryan Caplan | LSE Review of Books

The Case Against 'The Case Against Education' | Learning Innovation

The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money: The Independent Review: The Independent Institute

Bryan Caplan’s (Convincing) Case Against Education - Foundation for Economic Education

.

With more here:

Jay Doubleyou: the prussian school system and the factory model of education

Jay Doubleyou: is the purpose of education 'social uplift' - or 'social control'?

Jay Doubleyou: human resources as social engineering

Jay Doubleyou: what is the point of education?

Jay Doubleyou: why schools don't produce well-educated minds

Jay Doubleyou: the most schooled generation in history is miserable

Jay Doubleyou: the purpose of education: from china to prussia to the united states

Jay Doubleyou: education: dumbing us down

.

.

all statues are political

For years, people in Bristol have been unhappy about a statue of a slave-trader in their city:

Jay Doubleyou: bristol and slavery

Residents Of Bristol, England, Grapple With Slave-Trading Past Of The City's Most Celebrated Figure : Parallels : NPR

And last year it came down:

Slave trader’s statue toppled in Bristol as thousands join anti-racism protests - BBC News - YouTube

Here's a discussion on BBC news for young people:

Edward Colston: Why are people arguing about statues? - CBBC Newsround

.

Three years ago, a new statue was put up in a German city, paid for by the Chinese government:

Jay Doubleyou: karl marx at 200

.

At the same time, Confederate statues were being pulled down in the American South:

Jay Doubleyou: the politics of statues

The questions should be always asked: when and why the statues are put up:

A striking graphic from the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed that the majority of Confederate monuments weren't erected until after 1900 — decades after the Civil War ended in 1865. Notably, the construction of Confederate monuments peaked in the 1910s and 1920s, when states were enacting Jim Crow laws, and later in the 1950s and 1960s, amid the Civil Rights Movement:
.

(19) AFP News Agency su Twitter: "AFP Graphic showing US states where confederate monuments are found and a timeline of when they were established https://t.co/SarryFvz8f https://t.co/chgn3O5A3q" / Twitter

There are certain moments in US history when Confederate monuments go up | CNN

Striking graphic reveals the construction of Confederate monuments peaked during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras

Why Were Confederate Monuments Built? : NPR

.

The debate still goes on.

This is from a year ago:

Bonnie Greer: Taking down statues is a political act - YouTube

Should Governments Erect Statues? | Cato at Liberty Blog

And this is from very recently:

Following state Supreme Court ruling, Charlottesville to act on Confederate monument removal

General Buller's statue in Exeter stay or go? | Sidmouth Herald

.

It's ultimately political, then - with one suggestion being to put statues in parks, when the politics changes:

Perhaps the best example of what to do with unwanted monuments is Coronation Park on the outskirts of New Delhi. On the same ground British King-Emperors and viceroys held their “Durbars”, and obliged Indians of all classes to pledge subservience to British rule, an array of statues erected during the Raj has been gathered from across India, taken down from public buildings and city centres.

'When the politics change, so must the statues' | The Art Newspaper

.

Or you could put unwanted statues in a museum:

Soviet troop monuments in Poland to be moved to new museum - BBC News

What To Do With Confederate Statues? Russia Has A Fallen Monument Park : NPR

.

It's about political identity - which can change:

Hungary’s Identity Crisis Fought in Concrete and Bronze - Failed Architecture

.

West Berliners don't seem to have a problem with a huge monument to the Red Army:


The 12 Soviet War Memorials of Berlin

Soviet War Memorial (Tiergarten) - Wikipedia

.

Finally, there are new memorials going up in London and elsewhere - to focus on the work of David Adjaye:

BBC Two - Inside Culture, Series 3, Episode 1

UK Holocaust Memorial & Learning Centre - Adjaye Associates

david adjaye unveils london memorial to celebrate the life of cherry groce

David Adjaye: Making Memory - Design Museum

.

.

.

Sunday 9 May 2021

linguistic segregation vs a common language in the former yugoslavia

At schools in Bosnia, children are still segregated according to their ethnic background:

Bosnia: No End to 'Two Schools Under One Roof' | Balkan Insight

BBC News - Balkan divisions survive in Bosnian schools

Two schools under one roof: a lesson in ethnic unmixing from Bosnia’s segregated school system | openDemocracy

.

In 2017, numerous prominent writers, scientists, journalists, activists and other public figures from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia signed the Declaration on the Common Language,[12][13][14][15] which calls for “abolishing all forms of linguistic segregation and discrimination in educational and public institutions“.

Two schools under one roof - Wikipedia

.

The children in the different classes speak the same language - and there is pressure to have this properly recognised:

The Declaration on the Common Language (Serbo-Croatian: Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku / Š”ŠµŠŗŠ»Š°Ń€Š°Ń†ŠøјŠ° Š¾ Š·Š°Ń˜ŠµŠ“Š½ŠøчŠŗŠ¾Š¼ јŠµŠ·ŠøŠŗу) was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia who were working under the banner of a project called "Language and Nationalism". The Declaration states that Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs and Montenegrins have a common standard language of the polycentric type.

Declaration on the Common Language - Wikipedia

.

It would be like declaring other 'polycentric languages' such as Spanish as having separate languages such as Mexican, Argentinian or Puerto Rican:

Pluricentric language - Wikipedia

.

But there are political pressures in the former Yugoslavia:

Language secessionism - Wikipedia

.

Even though they speak the same language:


Serbo-Croatian - Wikipedia

.

The New European language specialist looks at how ridiculous the situation is - and the determination to do something about it:

Peter Trudgill Time To Make Four Into One 2017 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

.

.

.

Thursday 6 May 2021

trisyllabic shortening: from 'provoke' to 'provocative'

Peter Trudgill, professor of languages:

Peter Trudgill - Wikipedia

... also writes regualarly for the New European paper:

Search | The New European

And this week he's written on how words change their pronunciation:

PETER TRUDGILL on why we shorten some syllables and not others, such as in privacy and private.

It is an interesting fact about the English language that we pronounce the word naturwith a long ‘a’ whereas we say natural with a short ‘a’. Similarly, while we say grateful with a long ‘a’, gratitude has a short one.

This same sort of alternation between short and long vowels can be found in many other pairs of words, for example cycle and cyclical, impede and impediment, obscene and obscenity, provoke and provocative, profound and profundity.

Linguists call this particular type of alternation between English long and short vowels ‘trisyllabic shortening’ – alluding to the three (or more) syllables of the longer words in pairs like private–privacy.

This rule means that word forms which consist of two syllables, and have a long vowel, change the long vowel to the corresponding short vowel when another syllable (or more) is added.

Trisyllabic shortening is one of the many rules of English pronunciation which all native speakers know and follow automatically. (It is not one of those invented rules which used to be taught in schools, like “You must not start a sentence with and or but” – no one ever explained why not.)

The shortened syllable syndrome | The New European

.

Here's Wikipedia with more:

Trisyllabic laxing - Wikipedia

And the English Wiki:

Trisyllabic laxing - English Wiki

.

.

.

Saturday 1 May 2021

philology vs lingusitics

When learning or teaching a language, it doesn't normally seem necessary to understand theories around language. But, actually, how we approach a language is very much determined by the theoretical framework which underlies any language book or lesson or method - even if that framework is not referred to directly.

Typical questions in the classroom will be - Why do/don't we need to learn grammar rules? What does this word mean? Is this word the same as that word? Should we learn the culture behind the language? Why do I find this bit of language so difficult?

Philologists and linguists have looked at these questions.

.

What exactly is 'philology'?

Philology, traditionally, the study of the history of language, including the historical study of literary texts. It is also called comparative philology when the emphasis is on the comparison of the historical states of different languages. The philological tradition is one of painstaking textual analysis, often related to literary history and using a fairly traditional descriptive framework. It has been largely supplanted by modern linguistics, which studies historical data more selectively as part of the discussion of broader issues in linguistic theory, such as the nature of language change.

Philology | Britannica

.

This is from someone who is both a philologist and a linguist:

Philology vs. Linguistics

What is the difference between philology and linguistics (and, how can a philologist/linguist be--or be considered to be--a historian)? The difficulty in defining the difference is that the two fields partly overlap. 

Philology is essentially the study of texts, for whatever purpose the investigator has in mind. There are certain techniques, more or less scientific (i.e., involving measuring and counting), such as paleography and critical edition, that are largely used only by well-trained philologists--and thus, not by linguists. Also, the texts are nearly always pre-modern (the author[s]--and often the languages--are generally dead), and the investigation can, and often does, use practically any disciplinary approach known to modern academia--from anthropology to zoology--in order to elucidate the texts and languages of the texts...

The discipline of linguistics is a modern development... the idea of linguistics as something different from philology TODAY is based on the idea that "linguists" have theoretical and methodological training in the "scientific study" of language, both "Language" in general and languages, especially modern spoken languages... it is notable that linguistics has developed many subfields devoted to questions largely ignored by the earlier (not modern) historical-comparative philologists, such as syntax, typology, pragmatics, semantics, and so forth. Many of these subfields have developed their own jargon and theoretical frameworks, such that other linguists are unable to understand their work at all.

LINGUIST List 9.741: Philology vs. Linguistics

.

This is an explanation of why we don't use the description in the English-speaking world:

In the Anglo-Saxon world, the term philology to describe work on languages and literatures, which had become synonymous with the practices of German scholars, was abandoned as a consequence of anti-German feeling following World War I. Most continental European countries still maintain the term to designate departments, colleges, position titles, and journals. J. R. R. Tolkien opposed the nationalist reaction against philological practices, claiming that "the philological instinct" was "universal as is the use of language". In British English usage, and in British academia, philology remains largely synonymous with "historical linguistics", while in US English, and US academia, the wider meaning of "study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition" remains more widespread.

Philology - Wikipedia

.

Finally, another difference:

Etymology is a study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time and Philology is a study of language in written historical sources

Etymology vs. Philology - What's the difference? | Ask Difference

.

.

.