English as a neutral zone: Globish
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In English: “Globish: the worldwide dialect of the third millennium”
More than a lingua franca, the rapid adoption of ‘decaffeinated English’, according to the man who coined the term ‘Globish’, makes it the world’s most widely spoken language (by Robert McCrum, Guardian, Mar 29, 2010).
In italiano: “Il futuro è del globish”
Con un vocabolario di sole 1.500 parole e una grammatica semplificata, il globish è diventato la lingua franca del terzo millennio, scrive Robert McCrum sul Guardian (Internazionale, 5 aprile, 2010).
Learning English: where the twain meet
East is meeting West, contrary to the old saying, in the world of language. China is pushing hard to get its people to learn to speak English. It’s all part of the country’s big push to get ready for the 2008 Olympic Games coming to Beijing this year in August.
In this Reuters video (“English fever hits China” Jan 16, 2008), reporter Kitty Bu talks to one 72-year-old student, and also visits a classroom and interviews a teacher.
A Russian take on Super Tuesday
Starting off my day, as I usually do, with a quick visit to news.google.com to see the latest headlines, today I clicked on a video from Russia Today about Super Tuesday. The video (below) recaps what’s happening in the race for the White House. It includes short commentary from some U.S. political reporters, some campaign footage, candidate info and general trivia about the election.
Russia Today, if you don’t know about it, is a Russian news channel in English (also online). It offers round-the-clock coverage by a team of 700 — Russian and foreign journalists and support staff — on what’s happening in Russia and across the globe, according to the website. The channel has been broadcasting since 2005, it reports, and is run by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.
The news channel also has its own YouTube page here.
