Search This Blog

Showing posts with label BBC POSTS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC POSTS. Show all posts

WEEKLY PICKS - 17

This is a weekly selection of reading articles, free online exercises, YouTube videos, games, quizzes and resources for you to further improve your English language skills while having fun – ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC CAPITAL: What would happen if we all took smart drugs?, by Zaria Gorvett. More and more people are turning to drugs to improve their performance at work. Do they really work? And what would happen if we all started taking them?
[...] For centuries, all workers have had to get them through the daily slog is boring old caffeine. But no more. The latest generation has been experimenting with a new range of substances, which they believe will supercharge their mental abilities and help them get ahead. (Continue reading)

From BBC CAPITAL: What's driving the rise of the McVegan burger? (This story is from You & Yours on BBC Radio 4, presented by Winifred Robinson and produced by Kevin Mousley. To listen to more episodes of You & Yours please click here. Adapted by Peter Rubinstein.) The Big Mac is changing in response to growing demand for vegetarian food that looks and tastes like meat. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
THE BEST HIDDEN LONDON PUBS (3:45 minutes)
5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
BBC 6 Minute English January 14, 2016 - Is modern life making us tired? (6:02 minutes)
A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
Visit New York - 5 Things You Will Love & Hate about New York City, USA (10:11 minutes)
💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:
Learners' Questions: The difference between 'what' and 'which' (2:07 minutes)
💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:
MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

An easy way to seem more persuasive, by David Robson (From BBC Capital)

Your hand gestures can help make you more charismatic.

Research into public speakers suggests hand gestures can powerfully change the way you are perceived - David Robson explains.
From BBC Capital / Credit: Getty Images
Next time you watch a TED talk or a political speech, take a moment to look closely at the speaker’s hand movements. Is the motion slow or energetic? Is it subtle or expansive? And how are the hands mostly moving – vertically or horizontally? 

It is well known that non-verbal cues can have more of an influence on the way that a message is received than the actual words spoken. As BBC Capital recently explored, a deeper voice increases perceptions of authority, for instance – and this even appears to influence a CEO’s earnings and how long they stay with a company

Now a series of recent studies from Markus Koppensteiner at the University of Vienna has examined the way that people talk with their hands – with remarkable results. Even when all other factors have been taken into account, your hand gestures signal important elements of your personality like extraversion and dominance. They can even change people’s perceptions of your physical height – making you appear a few inches taller or shorter. 

Koppensteiner’s findings would seem to recall the famous research on “power poses” – the strategy, for instance, of standing, like Superwoman, with your hands on your hips and your feet planted wide apart. These small gestures of confidence are thought to feedback into the brain, leading people to feel more assertive before public speaking. 

In the words of the Harvard University professor, Amy Cuddy, who conducted many of these studies, “you fake it until you make it”


There are some important differences with the new research, however. Power poses are primarily designed to be performed in private to increase confidence before a meeting – and they are largely static positions rather than fluid movements

Koppensteiner’s research, in contrast, examines the motion of the speakers’ hands as they talk and the ways that this influences others’ perceptions. In a typical study, he would take real videos of politicians’ speeches, and then transformed them into animated stick figures so that confounding factors – like their facial expressions – would no longer be visible. (GO TO FULL ARTICLE to see an example + read more)

WEEKLY PICKS - 16

This is a weekly selection of reading articles, free online exercises, YouTube videos, games, quizzes and resources for you to further improve your English language skills while having fun – ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC CULTURE: THE REBIRTH OF BRITAIN’S ‘LOST’ LANGUAGES, by Holly Williams. Welsh singer Gwenno’s new album is in Cornish, which is spoken by fewer than 1000 people. It’s one of many ‘lost’ languages being reborn.
“A eus le rag hwedhlow dyffrans?” So goes the first track on Le Kov, the second album by Welsh singer Gwenno Saunders. But it isn’t Welsh: it’s Cornish, a minority language spoken by fewer than a thousand people. The line translates as “is there room for different stories?” – and this is the question at the heart of her record, which celebrates variance in language, culture and identity. (Continue reading)

From BBC TECHNOLOGYSocial media terms 'jargon-busted' for teens, by Alli Shultes. Technology reporter. A set of jargon-busting guides that teach children about their rights on social media sites has been published.
Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield said Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp and YouTube had "not done enough" to clarify their policies.
She simplified the websites' terms and conditions with privacy law firm Schillings. But Instagram said the simplified version of its terms contained "a number of inaccuracies".
The slimmed-down guides are a response to the Commissioner's Growing Up Digital report, which found that most children do not understand the agreements they sign when they create social media accounts.
All the sites require children to be over 13 to create an account. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
Learners' Questions: How to use 'be likely to' (2:09 minutes)
5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
How to Wake Up Early - And Not be Miserable (7:39 minutes)
A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
RSA ANIMATE: The Paradox of Choice (10:43 minutes)
💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:
Learn English - ALL or WHOLE? (9:23 minutes)
💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:
MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

ARE AMERICANISMS KILLING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE? by Hephzibah Anderson (From BBC Culture)

A book released in 2017 claims that Americanisms will have completely absorbed the English language by 2120 - Hephzibah Anderson takes a look.
From: BBC Capital
So, it turns out I can no longer speak English. This was the alarming realisation foisted upon me by Matthew Engel’s witty, cantankerous yet nonetheless persuasive polemic That’s the Way it Crumbles: The American Conquest of EnglishBecause by English, I mean British English.

Despite having been born, raised and educated on British shores, it seems my mother tongue has been irreparably corrupted by the linguistic equivalent of the grey squirrel. And I’m not alone. Whether you’re a lover or a loather of phrases like “Can I get a decaf soy latte to go?”, chances are your vocabulary has been similarly colonised.

Speaking on the wireless in 1935, Alistair Cooke declared that “Every Englishman listening to me now unconsciously uses 30 or 40 Americanisms a day”. In 2017, that number is likely closer to three or four hundred, Engel hazards – more for a teenager, “if they use that many words in a day”.

But how did this happen and why should we care? After all, as a nation we’ve been both invaded and invader, and our language is all the richer for it. Words like bungalow, bazaar, even Blighty, have their roots elsewhere. Heck, go far enough back and isn’t it pretty much all just distorted Latin, French or German?

The first American words to make it across the pond were largely utilitarian – signifiers for flora and fauna that didn’t exist back in Merrie England. Moose, maize and tobacco were among them. But there were others, too, that in retrospect might seem laden with significance – words like plentifulness, monstrosity and conflagration.

With no means of swift communication or easeful passage between the two countries, American English merely trickled back into its source to begin with. But as the balance of power between Britain and her former colonies shifted, as America ascended to military, economic, cultural and technological dominance, that trickle swelled to a torrent, washing away any kind of quality control.

COOKIES and CLOSETS

Throughout the 19th Century, Engel contends, “the Americanisms that permeated the British language did so largely on merit, because they were more expressive, more euphonious, sharper and cleverer than their British counterparts”. What word-lover could resist the likes of ‘ornery’, ‘boondoggle’ or ‘scuttlebutt’? That long ago ceased to be the case, leaving us with words and phrases that reek of euphemism – ‘passing’ instead of dying – or that mock their user with meaninglessness, like the non-existent Rose Garden that political reporters decided No 10 had to have, just because the White House has one (it doesn’t exactly have one either, not in the strictest sense, but that’s a whole other story).

Call me a snob, but there’s also the fact that some American neologisms are just plain ungainly. I recently picked up a promising new American thriller to find ‘elevator’ used as a verb in the opening chapter. As in, Ahmed was ‘elevatoring’ towards the top of his profession in Manhattan.

Nowadays, no sphere of expression remains untouched. Students talk of campus and semesters. Magistrates, brainwashed by endless CSI reruns, ask barristers “Will counsel please approach the bench?” We uncheck boxes in a vain effort to avoid being inundated with junk mail that, when it arrives regardless, we move to trash.

It’s understandable, of course. Sometimes, American words just seem more glamorous. Who wants to live in a flat, a word redolent of damp problems and unidentifiable carpet stains, a word that just sounds – well, flat – when they could make their home in an apartment instead? Sometimes that glamour is overlain with bracing egalitarianism – it’s a glamour untainted by our perennial national hang-up, class.

Take ‘movie’. The word has all the glitz of Hollywood and none of the intellectual pretensions (or so it might be argued) of the word ‘film’, which increasingly suggests subtitles (‘foreign-language film’ is one of the few instances in which the f-word doesn’t seem interchangeable with its American counterpart – ‘foreign-language movie’ just sounds odd). Other times they fill a gap, naming something that British English speakers have been unable to decide on, as is increasingly the case with ATM, a boring but brief alternative to cash point, cash machine, hole in the wall. Also to be factored in is what Engel dubs “Britain’s cultural cringe”, which predisposes us to embrace the foreign.

It’s often pointed out that plenty of these Americanisms were British English to begin with – we exported them, then imported them back. A commonly made case in point is ‘I guess’, which crops up in Chaucer. When Dr Johnson compiled his seminal 1755 dictionary, ‘gotten’ was still in use as a past participle of ‘get’. But as Engel points out, good old English is not good new English. Moreover, his beef isn’t really to do with authenticity; it’s more to do with our unthinking complicity. Because it’s not just the cookies and the closets, or even the garbage, it’s the insidiousness of it all. We’ve already reached the point where most of us can no longer tell whether a word is an Americanism or not. By 2120, he suggests, American English will have absorbed the British version entirely. As he puts it, “The child will have eaten its mother, but only because the mother insisted”. (Continue reading)


WEEKLY PICKS - 15

This is a weekly selection of reading articles, free online exercises, YouTube videos, games, quizzes and resources for you to further improve your English language skills while having fun ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC SPORTS: Everyday exercise: How to work out at home (without equipment) Cardio (or cardiovascular) exercise is movement that gets your heart rate up and increase blood circulation throughout the body.
Whether you are looking to improve the condition of your heart (remember it's a muscle), lose weight, clear your mind or just generally improve your health, cardio exercise will help you.
The NHS has a 10-minute home cardio workout to get you started until you are ready to move for longer.
Walking is a great way to get more active and you can literally do it anywhere, and in any way that suits you. If you are ready to take on the next step, the Couch to 5K programme can take you from walking to running or jogging for 30 minutes confidently within nine weeks. (Continue reading)

From OXFORD Living Dictionaries: Top tips for better business writingThis guide will show you the things to look out for when writing for business, to make sure you're always clear, and that you always leave a good impression.
All good writing communicates with readers in a personal way. Good business writing, whether it is a report written for an employer or an email to a client, does that quickly and effectively. You do not need to use overly formal language; it is better to use a neutral style that is akin to conversation, but rather more organized.
Above all, present your information logically and helpfully, so that readers are in no doubt what your message is—and what, if anything, you want them to do in response. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
BBC English Class: How to learn and use phrasal verbs (2:32 minutes)
5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
How to Argue – Philosophical Reasoning: Crash Course Philosophy #2 (9:42 minutes)

A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
What to Eat in Normandy, France - Visit Normandy (10:30 minutes)

Everyday or every day? (5:18 minutes)

💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:


MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

WEEKLY PICKS - 14

This is a weekly selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun – ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC FUTURE: The obsolete tech that children can't recognise, Helene Schumacher. Show your age by seeing if you recognise this list of tech objects from the recent past. A recent study has revealed which kinds of tech have stood the test of time – in terms of recognition, if not use. Would your children recognise these? (And would you?). (Continue reading)

From Mind Tools Blog: Does Your Profession Reflect Who You Really Are?, by Bruce Murray. Toni Morrison is a favorite author of mine, who recently brought to my mind one of life’s fundamental questions: “Does the work that I do define me? Or is the ‘real me’ the person I am outside of my work?” – What Defines You? (Continue reading)

From BBC CAPITAL: This single phrase makes Japan go round, by Yukari Mitsuhashi. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” is a term that is heard all the time but hard to define. It’s the Swiss Army knife of the Japanese language, and it goes a long way in any type of situation.
... “It’s a phrase to convey respect and appreciation. It’s usually accompanied by a bow that can range from a little tilt of the head to a full sweeping bow.” Goto adds: “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu is critical to ensure that everyone is appreciated for their different skills. I would say it to the hair stylist that I am planning to see tomorrow. But I would say it much more seriously with desperation if I needed to go see a doctor tomorrow for a medical emergency. Both the stylist and the doctor play a role in society that makes the world go round and it’s really a sort of verbal lubricant.”
Although commonly translated in Japanese class textbooks or travel guides as ‘nice to meet you’ or ‘please take care of me’, these fall far short of truly encompassing its diverse uses and how it embodies Japanese culture and its people. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS
-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
Stop Saying...: Avoiding direct language to sound more polite (3:02 minutes)

5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
Learn about cultural differences in 6 minutes (6:12 minutes)
Archetypes and Male Divinities: Crash Course World Mythology #15 (11:45 minutes)


💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:

📌 This week's special ⇒ WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

Between or Among? (From Learn English with Emma)
After watching the video, take the quiz here ⇒ http://www.engvid.com/between-or-among/

A few more vocab picks:
💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:



MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

BLOG

Popular Posts


WEEKLY PICKS