Learning to speak ‘merican

Alex Case of the wonderful Tefltastic blog wrote to me a little while ago with some questions about teaching functional language and English as a lingua Franca. Oooooo, two irresistable topics that were bound to get me started. It resulted in a long piece that you can read on his blog here: Me vs Vicki Hollett on ELF

I’ll be taking part in a whole day on the subject of ELF and BELF at a pre-conference event prior to the BESIG conference in Glasgow. (Today is the last day to get the early bird discount for that so sign up now if you can.) Chia Suan Chong and Mark Powell will both be speaking too, and what’s exciting about that is we’ll be trying to move the discussion on from theory to practice, something that has come up in this blog before.

And finally, to refresh your memories on some of the issues, here’s another link to the video about ELF and BELF that I made for a webinar we had last year. Hope to see y’all at IATEFL.

English as a lingua franca, teaching | Comments (0)

‘Roast’ is an American term used to describe a heartwarming ritual where someone is singled out and publically subjected to a stream of funny insults from their friends and peers at some event – usually some kind of ceremonial dinner. We don’t use the term ‘roast’ in the same way in the UK, but the ritual is not unfamiliar. A British best man’s speech would be a prime example. And on both sides of the Atlantic it’s understood that the ritualized insults and embarrassing revelations can actually demonstrate fondness, affiliation and somewhat contrarily, respect.

In both the UK and US, the person being ‘roasted’ is required to take the jokes and insults with good humor. In fact taking the jokes in good part is actually an opportunity for them to demonstrate what a good natured soul they are, and thereby gain more esteem. However, there are some transatlantic differences. US roasts include more praise and tributes. And in the UK, where ambiguity is rife, the jokes are allowed to be more barbed and vicious.

When I heard Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globe awards last year, I thought “Uh oh, this ‘roast’ is pitched this wrongly for this audience.” What is acceptable in London can easily go over a line in LA and his reviews weren’t good. But he was given another go at it this year so I guess there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I think he’d been well coached in the interim and he was more on target this year. His most vicious jibes were reserved for British actors, who he could be sure would play by his rules and show no offence.

But I have a question about this year’s award ceremony. To me it looked like the recipients of Ricky’s jibes seemed to have prepared responses which I found odd in various ways. Did you think the same? I’m wondering what other folks made of this.

culture, politeness | Comments (2)

Business English teachers are a mixed bunch. Some come from teaching or linguisticky roots, some have business backgrounds, and some … well, take a look and see for yourself.  I asked some friends just what they’d been up to before they became business English teachers and here’s what they said:

The video was fun to make, so click the ‘Like’ button if you’d like to see a sequel one day. And let me know if you’d be willing to become part of the cast. You just need a webcam, skype and five minutes.Perhaps we should do one for general English teachers?

teaching | Comments (8)

Got a book inside you waiting to get out? Well, then meet Paul Emmerson. He’s just written one. In fact he’s done more than that. He’s actually published it himself.

So what was the process and how much did it cost? I thought I’d find out more about it:

There’s a slideshow here with further information on the book’s production. And if you liked the interview, you might also be interested in Peter Viney’s self published videos.

teaching | Comments (5)

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed many proofreading errors over the years. It’s a wonder readers have ever been able to make sense of my books, but fortunately I have always been blessed with good proofreaders.

Via Jeremy Harmer’s google+ page I have come across this video that demonstrates the importance of one of the many valuable services good editors perform. Enjoy!

teaching | Comments (1)

I never gave much thought to tipping when I lived in the UK. It was (an easy to add) 10% for taxi drivers, hairdressers, and waiters/waitresses (if something hadn’t already been added to the restaurant bill). Poor service – round down. Abysmal service – no tip. Good service – round up. Great service – add a bit more. Oh and perhaps buy a pint for your favourite barperson at the pub, but that would be very unusual. The thing was, in my mind, the amount I gave was linked to the level of service.

That’s all gone out the window in Philly. Keep us waiting, be surly and mean, spill our food and drink all over us – no matter what you do, you’re going to get a 20% tip. Many service employees are paid minimum wage here. They live on tips. Plus some taxing authorities assume they’re getting about 12% extra – so if you don’t tip, they’ll wind up paying for the pleasure of serving you. Argh!

In some countries tipping is rare or very minimal. It might be viewed as “showing off” or even insulting. ‘You don’t think I’d give you good service anyway?’ ‘You think I’m hard up?’ So the US can be tricky place for foreign visitors. And if folks are like me, and come from cultures where the tip amount is related to the quality of service, this place is going to seem crazy. Here’s a helpful video about the complicated rules of ‘merican tipping.

So how much do you tip?

culture | Comments (8)

Wishing all ‘Learning to speak ‘merican’ readers all good things for 2012. Thank you for all your great contributions this year. I have lots of ideas for 2012 and do hope you’ll keep coming back and sharing. I think it’s going to be a great year!

I love watching the ball drop in Times Square, but I also adore London’s fireworks. Hope you like them too.

Happy new year!

culture | Comments (3)

Here’s a handy explanation of the terms United Kingdom, Great Britain, England and more, passed on by @kit2kat. Thanks Kate!

Uncategorized | Comments (9)

Ask an American what the polite way to respond to a compliment is and they usually tell you to smile and say thank you. I don’t think they mean to mislead you. They are just unaware that that’s not what they actually do in practice. In studies, it’s been found that around two thirds of the time they’ll do something like deflecting, downgrading or questioning the compliment to avoid accepting it. There’s a handy summary of some research into American compliments here:

http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/compliments/american.html

It’s generally easier to pay a compliment than respond to one because there are competing politeness principles at work. On the one hand we need to be agreeable, but on the other, we need to be modest. For more on this see here.

There’s a nice video over at the British Council site that demonstrates how to give compliments. But more importantly, I think, it demonstrates different strategies for responding to them. For example:

Thanks, it wasn’t too difficult (downgrading the praise)

Do you think so? (questioning the praise)

Thanks for noticing (repaying one compliment with another)

It’s just an old thing (commenting by adding information)

Another common strategy people use that doesn’t appear in the video is sharing the praise – e.g Oh, I couldn’t have done it without the help of your wonderful team.

If you’d like to use the video in class, after your students have watched it, perhaps they can work out what strategies the woman used to avoid accepting the compliments. A nice round off activity could be getting the students to think of and pay a compliment to another student in the class. In my experience, the students listen avidly to one another’s compliments, and then you can analyse what strategies everyone used to respond. Do you think it’s something your students might find useful?

Click here for another of my posts about American compliments

politeness, pragmatics, teaching | Comments (17)

It’s not always clear to me what is and isn’t politically correct in the US, so I’ve given my American husband some uncomfortable moments. He still winces when he remembers the time I complimented our gay friends on their fairy lights. (“But that’s just the word we use for holiday lights in the UK.” “Yeah, but Vick….”)

And without sharing the same history, I think it’s hard for Brits to see why using the adjective ‘niggardly’ should cause controversy. It simply means stingy or mean to us, and we’re insensitive to its phoenetic similarities to racial slurs.

But it seems Brits can go in for a pcness all of they’re own. The other day, Chris Adams (author of the wonderful Bits ’n Bobs blog) pointed me towards a surprising article about pcness and canteen workers in Wales who were serving up spotted dick.

For readers who haven’t come across it, spotted dick is a dessert made from currants, sultanas or raisins (the spotty bits) and a sponge or suet pudding. I try to keep some in the cupboard at all times here, because you never know when you might want to whip your dick out. And in my experience, ‘Do you fancy some nice warm custard on your spotted dick?’ invariably raises a chuckle with American guests who rarely turn down the offer.

But back to the canteen workers in Wales. It seems spotted dick raised a few chuckles when they served it there too – well, isn’t that the point? But there the innuendo was unwelcome. So to put and end to what were felt to be ”immature” comments, they came up with the idea of calling in “spotted Richard”. I kid you not.

culture, politeness | Comments (6)