shorter ted talks

TED Talks are a great place to go to watch videos with quality English language:

TED - YouTube

There are subtitles in English and other languages, plus tape-scripts and other helpful input:

TED Talks

You can also chose the length of what you want to watch:

ted.com/talks | duration=0-6

Because, as well as the 'traditional' quarter of an hour talks, there are a lot of shorter talks available:

Zac Goldsmith: How to boost nature-based solutions to climate change | TED Talk

There are also short talks 'from home':

Wendy De La Rosa: 3 sneaky tactics that websites use to make you spend | TED Talk

And there are lots of animations on all sorts of subjects:

Dan Kwartler: Why don't we cover the desert with solar panels? | TED Talk

Stefan Al: Could we build a wooden skyscraper? | TED Talk

Here's a list of shorter talks on youtube:

short ted talks - Google Search

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jumping between languages

A journalist working in Ukraine has impressed many with his very easy ability to jump from language to language:

Philip Crowther reporting from Kyiv in English, Luxembourgish, Spanish, Portuguese, French, & German - YouTube

A journalist based in Ukraine has shown off his language skills, jumping between six languages in his coverage of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Philip Crowther, an international affiliate correspondent for The Associated Press, posted a montage of him speaking about new developments in the region in English, Luxembourgish, Spanish, Portuguese, French and German and it is pretty impressive.

As for Crowther - who was born in Luxembourg to a British father and German mother and is based in Washington, according to his website - his video has been viewed over 3 million times at the time of writing and has received 33,000 likes from impressed viewers.

Ukraine: Journalist Philip Crowther effortlessly jumps between six languages in viral clip | indy100

A little more here:

Philip Crowther - YouTube

And these journalists are impressed:

Journalist goes viral after reporting live from Ukraine in six languages - YouTube

What's interesting is that this is not 'translation' - but different ways of saying the same thing and putting across the key points but with different language.

In some school exams, students have to do a sort of 'interpretation' - going from English to their mother tongue and back again. They have to convey the meaning and don't need to translate.

For example:

"Sinngemäßes Übertragen englisch-deutsch"

Englischprüfungen - Tipps und Hinweise zur Vorbereitung

Is this something you could do? 

Jump between languages in a conversation?! 

Try it!

There's lots of study into this:

CODE-SWITCHING: Jumping Between 2 Different Languages - YouTube

Code-switching – World Englishes

The Cost of Code Switching | Chandra Arthur | TEDxOrlando - YouTube

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language and politics in ukraine

2014

There's a lot of 'counterfactual' stuff about Ukraine - for example, what is written on Wikipedia in Ukrainian, Russian, German or whatever has a very different 'perspective' on the same thing, for example, what happened in 2014 in Crimea:

Jay Doubleyou: alternative wikipedias

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

Back in 2014, there were also very different perspectives on 'the news', with media on all sides giving very different accounts to an international audience in English:

Jay Doubleyou: english language media as propaganda in the ukraine

There was also a lot of politicking around 'official languages' at the time - with Russia Today saying one thing, and others another:

Canceled language law in Ukraine sparks concern among Russian and EU diplomats — RT World News

PolitiFact | Russia-backed American news network offers its own facts on Ukraine situation

Jay Doubleyou: the politics of language

2022

If we compare with what's happening now in Ukraine when it comes to 'the politics of language'...

Three months ago, the main English language newspaper closed down:

Sudden Closure of Kyiv English-Language Newspaper Worries Ukraine Media

‘Kyiv Post’ team announces launch of new English-language media outlet | Ukraine news - # Bukvy

This is the new show in town:

The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe

Meanwhile, from Russia:

News and analytical materials - PravdaReport

But here's an independent voice coming from Russia:

What Are Russian State Media Saying About Ukraine? | Feb. 21 - The Moscow Times

For a fairly impartial view, there's always Al Jazeera:

Donetsk and Luhansk: What you should know about the ‘republics’ | Ukraine-Russia crisis News | Al Jazeera

Then there is the issue of what is the official language.

A new law was brought in in 2019:

Why Ukraine’s new language law will have long-term consequences | openDemocracy

Things went further last month:

Lawmakers in 2019 passed legislation to cement Ukrainian as the country's primary language, ordering middle schools that taught in Russian and other minority languages to make the switch and mandating Ukrainian versions of online stores.
An article of the laws that entered into force in January goes further, obliging shops, restaurants and the service industry to engage customers in Ukrainian unless clients specifically ask to switch.

New law stokes Ukraine language tensions - France 24

Human Rights Watch reports:

The issue of the language is highly politicized, especially in light of Russia’s ongoing military action against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government has every right to promote its state language and strengthen its national identity. But it should ensure a balance in its language policy, to avoid discrimination against linguistic minorities.

New Language Requirement Raises Concerns in Ukraine | Human Rights Watch

Finally, a this is from an excellent, balanced report from the Washington Post from earlier this month:

War or no war, Andrii Shymanovskiy believes he wields one of the most powerful weapons against Moscow: the Ukrainian language. Just over a year ago, the 23-year-old Lviv-based actor and Ukrainian-language instructor began to post TikTok videos explaining the nuances of his mother tongue, once largely secondary to Russian in Ukrainian life but increasingly a centerpiece of efforts to emphasize a distinct Ukrainian identity and culture. The videos attract millions of views with their breezy style and comic riffs on Ukrainian life. They also, however, touch one of the core complexities in the struggles with Russia and within Ukraine itself.

Language is at the nexus of Ukraine’s cultural and political crosscurrents. For some, the Ukrainian language is a source of the country’s character and should dominate public life. Others give greater weight to Ukraine’s multilingual mix of Ukrainian, Russian and other languages as part of the nation’s essence.
Moscow, however, has used the language issue to paint the Kyiv government as ethnocentric “fascists” bent on tyrannizing Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population. That view is widely rejected in Ukraine, including among many in Russian-speaking areas. Still, a Ukrainian law aimed to increase the use of Ukrainian has given the Kremlin further fodder for its propaganda campaign.
Meanwhile, the amount of Ukrainian heard on the streets of Russian-speaking bastions such as the capital, Kyiv, and Kharkiv in the east appears to be steadily rising.
“I think that at this time, the only weapon I have is the language itself,” Shymanovskiy said. “I help to preserve at least our identity, the identity of our people.” Shymanovskiy describes his work as a counterweight to centuries of Russian domination in Ukraine, during which the Ukrainian language was suppressed or pushed to the margins.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin says the reverse is true, claiming it’s the Russian language being suppressed and Russian speakers becoming marginalized in Ukraine. Russian is hardly under threat, though. Russian speakers still make up a large portion of the population, and the Russian language continues to heavily influence popular culture.
Yet the allegations of a linguistic siege played a central role in Moscow’s justification of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, where the majority of the population is Russian-speaking. It was also a cornerstone of the Kremlin’s narrative at the start of the conflict between Russian-backed militants and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, which has lasted nearly eight years and killed close to 14,000 people.
In recent months, Russian officials have returned to lambasting the Ukrainians’ language policies. “They are simply pushing out Russians and the Russian-speaking population from their historical territories,” Putin said at his annual news conference in Moscow in December. At the heart of Russia’s criticisms are a claim that all Russian speakers belong to a “Russian world” of shared language, culture and history, and should be defended by Moscow. Putin also wrote in an extensive essay last year that Russians and Ukrainians are “one nation.”

Many young people in the country — with no memory of the Soviet Union but steeped in Ukraine’s 2014 pro-Western revolution — are switching to speaking primarily in Ukrainian. Some of the most popular clubs and trendier sections of traditionally Russian-speaking Kyiv, where tattooed patrons sip craft beers, are now zones for Ukrainian speakers. Attempts to converse in Russian can occasionally earn a withering look or sharp criticism not to “use the language of the occupier.”

Ukraine now has laws to boost its language. Moscow views it as a slap against Russian. - The Washington Post

The article also mentions this:

Most Ukrainians are bilingual in everyday life. Language also doesn’t necessarily determine one’s political loyalties: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is standing against Putin, is a native Russian speaker.

Here's a comment from two years ago about the president:

Russian is his first language but his Ukrainian is fluent. Much more fluent than I heard from any other Ukrainian politician whose native language is Russian. And it's a real, “school book” Ukrainian, with the correct pronunciation and all. No Russian accent.
Actually that was one thing that caught me a bit off guard when watching Zelensky's campaign. He freely switches between the two languages. One notices that he is more comfortable with Russian, but if one didn't have his Russian for comparison, one would think he grew up with Ukrainian. I think this is one of the reason why even highly nationalist Ukrainians didn't mind him leading his campaign in both languages and at least partially voted for him. He clearly distanced himself from Russia, calling it an aggressor, yet by speaking both languages he united both Russian and Ukrainian speaking Ukrainians. Zelensky managed what no presidential candidate managed before him - to unite East and West, Russian and Ukrainian speakers, of the entire political spectrum, behind himself.
If you read Ukrainian social media, you'll see lots of hopes being put in him. Let's see if he can deliver. Ukrainian population is unforgiving to bad presidents - in the entire history of the independent Ukraine, only one president was elected for a second term.

Does Zelensky speak Ukrainian fluently? Does he have a Russian accent when talking in Ukrainian? - Quora

Finally, we should not actually be saying 'the' Ukraine:

“The Ukrainian people were denied their unalienable right to statehood for centuries and ‘the Ukraine’ was used as a name for a region of the empires that subjugated Ukraine,” Paul Grod, the president of the Ukrainian World Congress, once said. “In the case of Ukraine, a unitary state, using ‘the’ is inappropriate and incorrect. The continued use of the definite article in front of the name of an independent state — Ukraine — is therefore an indirect (although often unintentional) denial of statehood.”
The English usage of the definite article in relation to Ukraine occurred mainly because of the country’s history as a part of the Russian Empire, and then as part of the Russian-dominated Soviet Union. Peter Dickinson, a nonresident fellow of the Atlantic Council explains that the term “the Ukraine” first entered popular usage during the Soviet era, at a time when the Kremlin was particularly eager to counter perceptions of Ukraine as being a separate and distinct nation. Between 1922 and 1991, Ukraine was officially known in English as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Olena Goncharova: Ukraine is not 'the Ukraine' and why it matters now

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international students at uk universities

Most UK universities have special departments to help improve foreign students' English - for example:

Language and study skills | International Student Support | University of Exeter

However, non-UK students are finding the courses very expensive.

One reason is Brexit:

United Kingdom universities could suffer a 25% drop in international students as a result of the government decision to end home student status for them in England, according to a new survey.
Some 84% of prospective European Union (EU) students say they will ‘definitely not’ study in the UK if the decision means their tuition fees will be doubled. In addition, 56% of prospective students say they will be affected by the removal of access to student loans, which was also announced.
The Netherlands and Germany could benefit as the most popular alternative destinations if UK fees become unaffordable.

Most EU students ‘will not study in UK’ after fees decision

Also, "UK universities are businesses and can set international fees as high as they like":

Why are university fees for international students in the UK so expensive, and what are some ways to pay them without being in debt? - Quora

It's not got any better over the last two years:

The UK remains an “attractive place” for international students and that has not changed in the pandemic, but, he said, the offer is there “for the wealthy”

England has world's most expensive university tuition fees

And international students say lockdown learning in their bedrooms is not what they paid for:

'Treated like cash cows': international students at top London universities withhold £29,000 fees | Higher education | The Guardian

UK universities have offered some financial help - but is it enough? 

In 2019/20 there were 538,615 international students studying in the UK - according to Universities UK.
Universities are aware of the problems international students are facing. To help, many are offering to cover the costs of PCR tests and quarantine fees. Some like Sussex and Liverpool are even chartering flights to get students to the UK on time.
Independent think tank HEPI recently found every part of the UK is 'financially better off' - on average by £390 per person - because of international students and the money they bring to the economy. Their analysis shows that just one year's intake of incoming international students is worth £28.8 billion to the UK economy.
Universities UK represent higher education institutions across the UK and say they're aware of the "challenges Covid-19 has presented" and are working to make the lives of international students easier by introducing things like remote learning.

Foreign students struggling to pay for UK university - BBC News

Here's the latest from the E L Gazette:

Possible explanations for why students aren’t necessarily heading to the UK, but still gravitating to foreign universities, are cost and the amount of courses taught in English elsewhere. However, there is some opposition to the numbers of foreign students taking up places that might otherwise go to home-country students, particularly in the Netherlands. To combat the attractiveness of programmes there to overseas students, it has been suggested that there ought to be a limit on the number of courses taught in English. However, as the director of higher education policy at the European University Association, Michael Gaebel, told the THE, “Talking to colleagues in the Netherlands, no one can imagine a future without teaching in English.”

The pull of English going all different ways | E L Gazette

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trilingual songs

Liz Granier in the E L Gazette takes us to 'trilingual songs':

Once again, contemporary singers have banded together to create a song which slides from one language to another. K-pop band BTS did it back in May 2021 with Butter and now Malaysian R&B pair FML has taken the concept one step further by teaming up with high-profile Vietnamese rappers Seachain and Nhật Hoàng to record the trilingual track Call You Mine.

Trilingual rap | E L Gazette

Here's the song:

Call You Mine - FML X Seachains X Nhật Hoàng (Official Music Video) - YouTube

Here's a lively and interesting discussion on the themes:

Bilingual Bops, Trilingual Tunes, Multilingual Music – UCWbLing

And from Babbel, a very well-considered piece looking at the theory and the artists:

When Music Is Multilingual: 10 Artists Who Perform In Other Languages

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teaching empire in british schools

The bestselling book "Empireland" by British-born Sathnam Sanghera is very much about widening the debate about how we should be looking at history:

'The real remedy is education of the kind that Sanghera has embraced - accepting, not ignoring, the past' Gerard deGroot, The Times

Empireland

The British Empire ran for centuries and covered vast swathes of the world. It is, as Sanghera reveals, fundamental to understanding Britain. However, even among those who celebrate the empire there seems to be a desire not to look at it too closely – not to include the subject in our school history books, not to emphasize it too much in our favourite museums.
At a time of great division, when we are arguing about what it means to be British, Sanghera’s book urges us to address this bewildering contradiction. For, it is only by stepping back and seeing where we really come from, that we can begin to understand who we are, and what unites us.

Empire - Sathnam Sanghera

It has been reviewed many times:

Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera book review

Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera review: why we must come to terms with our Imperial past
Many people feel strongly about it, but there is little consensus on what the British empire left us, says the author of this timely new analysis 

Few subjects live up to William Yeats’ line “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” as the debate over empire. The shadow of this debate plays out in our public discourse over matters as varied as Brexit, Covid-19, old statues and our relationship with America.
Inherent to this is a funny contradiction, muses Sathnam Sanghera in his new book Empireland. Many people feel strongly about our imperial past, but there is little consensus on what the British empire left us.
This is not simply an abstract topic that we learn, or in many cases ought to learn, in school. In twelve chapters Sanghera examines the social, economic and geographic impact of a global empire on its motherland.
Empireland lays the legacy of British imperialism at the door of the modern United Kingdom. He attempts to show that empire is in our institutions, in our politics and in the way we live and we hate. The story of how so many artefacts found their way into Britain’s museums, one of the more literal legacies of five centuries of imperialism, is entertaining and relevant. But more interesting is the analysis of our national psyche.

Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera review: why we must come to terms with our Imperial past | Evening Standard

In the conclusion to his book, Sanghera says this, along with other similar approaches, is "less a statement than an invitation to ask questions. A request to tease out the threads of how the present is connected to the past."

In the same section he says he is optimistic about the "encouraging changes already happening in education" - for example: 

Across the UK, inspiring teachers are unearthing diverse stories of lesser known historical figures to help students connect with the past – and each other

Hidden histories: three teachers share their passion for the untold past | 100 teachers, 100 passions, 100 ways to shape lives | The Guardian

However, while there have been some 'positive steps', there is still "no consensus emerging on education", with politicians making noises about 'the culture wars' - which means that history has been 'weaponised' around the 'woke' issues of race, migration, nationhood and identity.

Tories bet on culture wars to unite disparate voters | The Economist

Government whipping up US-style ‘culture war’ to divide communities, Labour MP warns | The Independent

John Gray: the nationalist philosopher stoking ‘culture wars’ fires | openDemocracy

And it's happening everywhere:

'Woke' has been weaponized to label those fighting oppression the oppressors

Virtual Hatred: How Russia Tried to Start a Race War in the United States

Back in the UK, education has been in the news again this week:

New rules for schools will ban teachers from discussing topics such as Black Lives Matter | Daily Mail Online

Guidance on political impartiality in English classrooms ‘confusing’ say teachers’ unions | Schools | The Guardian

But in fact, if you look beyond the headlines, whilst there is indeed a lot of political 'psychodrama' going on, the new guidance to history teachers is quite reasonable and balanced:

Analysis
There can be few issues more certain to raise the blood pressure of Tory MPs than the claim teachers are indoctrinating their pupils with left-wing ideas. 
With that in mind, new guidance to schools on political impartiality has to be seen in the context of a wider “war on woke” being waged by Boris Johnson’s Government.
Just days ago, the Conservative Party chairman, Oliver Dowden, denounced what he described as a “painful woke psychodrama” sweeping the West.
Instructing schools not to back campaign groups from the Black Lives Matters movement is just the sort of “red meat” Number 10 insiders promised Tory MPs as part of a reset of Mr Johnson’s premiership in the wake of the partygate affair.
Another part of the guidance advises schools to “focus on” what historical figures are “most renowned for” when teaching younger children about individuals with “contested legacies”. 
Although no specific people are named, Sir Winston Churchill is one such figure. Some Tory MPs believe that the wartime hero’s memory – and his statues – are under serious threat.
When you actually delve into the detail of the guidance, much of it is fairly common sense. Existing legal duties are also unchanged. The framing of the guidance in pre-briefed tidbits to the press is more emblematic of the culture wars than the actual content.
Critics of the Government will say it is a solution in search of a problem.
There have indeed been cases where overzealous teachers have foisted their convictions onto students in a way that is inappropriate. But the vast majority of the profession take their duty to be politically impartial seriously and keep their own views outside of the classroom.

War on 'woke' teachers as they're told to be 'balanced' over British Empire and not to back Black Lives Matter

As Sathnam Sanghera says in his book, he is not advocating 'decolonising' the history curriculum - a term which he thinks is unhelpful and divisive -  but 'widening' how we see the past.

That is the job of any historian.

To finish, here's an interview with the author:

Britain's Imperial Legacy: "It's Absolutely Everywhere" - HistoryExtra

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leadership @ bbc learning english

BBC Learning English does more than teach English - with thanks to Liz Granirer writing in the E L Gazette: 

Called Leadership, it’s a 20-part series made in collaboration with The Open University ... looks at leadership from different perspectives, including from globally recognised figures including Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Marcus Rashford and Barack Obama

An addition to Learning English | E L Gazette

Here's the start-page looking at the full series of audio pieces:

BBC Learning English - Leadership

And here's the latest episode:

Keeping mental health in focus: Steven Hassan

EPISODE 220210 / 10 FEB 2022

Steven Hassan, who escaped from a cult, believes that the best leaders want to learn and "get feedback from everyone else". According to Hassan, some leaders should know when to let somebody else take over...

BBC Learning English - Leaders share their tips for success / Keeping mental health in focus: Steven Hassan

On the other hand:

Jay Doubleyou: leadership is overrated

Jay Doubleyou: "the modern office rewards narcissists and psychopaths"

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