Issue 2 - September 2020 - La Casa de las Lenguas

ISSUE NO.2 • SEPTEMBER 2020

LA CASA LENGUAS

CONTENTS SOCIETY & CULTURE 2

HOW TO DRESS LIKE A PARISIAN

6

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

8

GILETS JAUNES: IS A YELLOW VEST THE NEW PLATFORM FOR ANTI-SEMITISM?

11

12 14 16 18 19

PLACES YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED: SALAR DE UYUNI, BOLIVIA 20TH CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: WHY WERE THERE SO MANY DICTATORS? DISH OF THE MONTH: ARANCINI MOVING ABROAD: 10 THINGS TO REMEMBER

MOVING ABROAD

MOVING ABROAD: 10 THINGS TO REMEMBER Whether you're looking to move abroad or you're just interested in how others have done it, here are 10 things you must remember when taking the leap!

THE MONTH IN FESTIVALS: AUGUST

LATIN AMERICA

MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO AND SPANISH EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XXTH CENTURY

20TH CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: WHY WERE THERE SO MANY DICTATORS? In 1977, all but three of the 20 countries in Latin America were under dictatorships.

One can only wonder: how did this happen?

LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS 23

EINE SPRACHMAUER? BERLIN'S DIVIDED LANGUAGE

24

DABBLE IN A LANGUAGE: YIDDISH

28

BROUGHT UP BILINGUAL: A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

29

IRISH GAELIC: TOMÀS IS AINM DOM, A LITTLE BIG LANGUAGE LEARNING ADVENTURE

31

MY 5 FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT LEARNING A LANGUAGE

33

COULD THE LANGUAGE AWARENESS METHOD SPARK A NEW GENERATION OF LANGUAGE LOVERS?

35

LINGUISTIC PURISM: PURE GENIUS OR UTTER NONSENSE?

YIDDISH

LANGUAGE LEARNING

DABBLE IN A LANGUAGE: YIDDISH

HOW TO BE SMARTER IN YOUR LANGUAGE LEARNING

Explore the history of the Yiddish language, learn some basic phrases, as well as some fun Yiddish words you must know!

Learning a language is a long road, and everyone at times loses motivation. When I hit a bit of a plateau and need some inspiration, I remember why I’m doing it. So here are my top 5 favourite things about learning a language!

LA CASA DE LAS LENGUAS

PAGE 2

Society & Culture

BY SUSANNAH HOWARD

How to dress like a Parisian When it comes to dress sense, the Parisians are no stranger to a chic and effortless style. Just take a walk down the streets of Paris and your eyes will be drawn to jaw-dropping outfits you’ll be dying to recreate—and good news: this article will tell you how! Let’s dig beyond the classic Breton stripe and red lip look and find out what’s “à la mode” in Paris!

Tip 1 - Less is more

Tip 2 - Silhouettes.

In the words of French fashion icon Coco Chanel herself:

Class and modesty go hand in hand when it comes to Parisian street style.

“before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”

Flatter your figure by pairing loose fitting tops with tighter fitting bottoms, and loose fitting bottoms with tighter fitting tops. For example, skinny jeans with a flowy blouse and a long jacket. Oh, and if in doubt, add a pair of high heels to elevate the look.

In other words, don’t clutter your outfit! For example, opt for monochromatic looks (all one colour) with one statement piece such as a bag and simple jewellery. Keep it simple and sophisticated!

Black monochromatic look with a statement scarf and statement boots

Oversized jumper paired with a pencil skirt and heels

©With Love From Kat

©Alexandra Lapp

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Society & Culture

Tip 3- Keep it neutral

BY SUSANNAH HOWARD

Tip 4 - Avoid logos

To really achieve an air of French elegance, stick to neutral colours such as black, white, beige, camel, navy blue and khaki.

Simplicity is a key theme when it comes to Parisian clothes, hence why logos are much less popular.

By using these colours, it is easy to match items in your wardrobe and create polished looks.

Another golden rule is to stick to a maximum of three colours per outfit.

This is because in French culture, it is deemed unattractive to brag about wealth. In Paris, people buy pieces from high-end brands for their quality and longevity, and to keep staple pieces in their wardrobes forever.

Tip 5 - Invest in staples Some pieces just never go out of style, and the Parisians are no stranger to this fact!

Items such as neutral coloured turtlenecks, wellfitting jeans, tailored blazers, brogues and heeled boots are both practical and stylish for everyday wear. Versatility is your best friend!

Try choosing one, two or three of the above colours to base your outfit on. ©According To Bbooks

"SIMPLICITY IS THE KEYNOTE OF ALL TRUE ELEGANCE" COCO CHANEL

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Society & Culture

BY SUSANNAH HOWARD

Where to shop for Parisian Clothes

“SOHO SKINNY JEANS” £35.99 - MANGO

“SHORT SLEEVED TOP WITH PLEAT” “£39.00 - COS

“BASIC HIGH NECK JUMPER” £19.99 - ZARA

“LONG COAT” £24.99 – H&M

“EQUESTRIAN BUCKLE LOAFERS “£85.00 - &OTHER STORIES

“ CROSSBODY BAG” £19.99 - ZARA

PAGE 6

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

Society & Culture

LEBANON

MALI

BEIRUT BLAST: A LOOK AT THE LEBANESE GOVERNMENT

J

ust over a month ago on the 4th

The president must be a

August, Beirut made headlines all

Maronite Christian, the

around the world following an

Prime Minister a Sunni

explosion involving a significant

Muslim, and the Speaker of

amount of ammonium nitrate on

Parliament a Shia Muslim.

THE EU STOPS MALI TRAINING MISSIONS AFTER COUP

T

he EU has announced the temporary halting of two training sessions in Mali after the army seized power of the country in an organised coup.

the Port of Beirut. The explosion has

Mali is currently grappling with Islamist militants and

left around 300,000 people

a struggling economy. The missions were part of

homeless, $10-15 billion in property damage, at least 190 dead, and 6500 injured.

international efforts looking to enforce stability in the

The country has once

country, with the EU training around 18,000 soldiers

operated without a

since the launch of the military mission in 2013.

President for more than a As public anger mounted in the aftermath of the explosion, the Lebanese government resigned.

Many people have accused the government of being responsible for the blast due to their negligence and corruption. However, Hassan

year. This happened due to

The Malian soldiers, some of which were trained in

the movement of Christians

Europe, took power on August 18th after detaining

out of the country and the

their President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and forcing

fact they cannot have

him to resign. Such events led to celebrations on the

someone who is not a

streets of Bamako, the country's capital, although the

Maronite Christian as

EU has raised concerns that that the recent events

president.

may lead to further instability for the West African country.

Diab, the country's prime minister, cited corruption that is "bigger than the state itself" as the main problem hindering the government from achieving success.

Josep Borrell, the EU's minister for foreign affairs,

They have seven

insisted that the top officers behind the coup were not

main political

among them and that the coup leader was instead

parties.

trained in Russia. Following a meeting with EU defence ministers in Berlin, Borrell stated: 'We don't

The Lebanese government, as well as

train the armies to be putschists'.

being rather corrupt and unstable, is

Lebanon’s 18 religious

also quite interesting. Let's take a

sects are all represented

look at some facts!

in Parliament. It is divided among Muslims and Christians. Overall, the

Where does the saying ‘Paris

Parliament has 128 seats.

of the East’ come from? Over the last 60 years it has been used to describe Lebanon, in

Lebanon is the oldest

particular Beirut. Between

country name in the

1920 and 1943, Lebanon was

world. It has been

under French control. This

unchanged in 4,000 years!

explains why Macron made a visit to Beirut following the blast and is actively involved in ensuring a stable democracy returns to Lebanon.

CHINA

HUNDREDS OF CHINESE DIE AS WORLD'S LARGEST DAM OVERFLOWS

T

he three Gorges Dam has

The protesters have also called

been the world's largest

for restrictions on the powers of

power station in terms of

the monarchy. An important

installed capacity since

step which breaks a long-

2012. It spans the Yangtze

standing taboo against

River near the town of

criticising the royal family

Sandouping in the Yiling

which many Thais continue to

District of Yichang, Hubei

follow.

province.

PAGE 7

Society & Culture

JAPAN

JAMAICA

JAPANESE URGED TO STAY VIGILANT AS TYPHOON HAISHEN HITS

A

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

PRIME MINISTER REELECTED AMID SPIKE IN COVID CASES

J

amaica's ruling party has been

While the election saw

re-elected, winning 49 out of 63

one of the largest

Japan, the Typhoon is

sets in the latest parliamentary

margins of victory in the

Shinzo Abe has urged the

anticipated to hit South

election.

last few decades, it also

Japanese in the southern

Korea, which has also been

Islands to remain cautious.

put on alert as a precaution.

Around eight million people

As a result of Haishen,

a tactical move to capitalise on

have been asked to

hundreds of flights and public

the people's satisfaction with his

evacuate their homes due to

transport services have been

dealing with the virus, as well as

the storm, which has seen

cancelled, along with the

his economic success.

extremely high winds and

closure of factories, businesses

heavy rain, causing power

and schools across western

cuts for 430,000 homes in

Japan.

s Typhoon Haishen blows

After sweeping through

over Japan, Prime Minister

saw one of the lowest

IVORIAN ENGINEER BECOMES THE FIRST WOMAN TO WIN AFRICA PRIZE

T

echnology entrepreneur, Charlette N'Guessen, has become the first woman to win the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize.

voter turnouts with just

called for an early election last

37% showing up at the

month in what is assumed to be

polls.

Holness has recently faced criticism due to a spike in Covid19 cases in the country, as

the Kyushu region.

AFRICA

Prime Minister Andrew Holness

restrictions are eased further.

Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness @andrewholnessJM

BRAZIL

BRAZIL TO GIVE EQUAL PAY TO MEN'S AND WOMEN'S NATIONAL PLAYERS

B

razil's football association (CBF)

The change also applies to

has announced that their

performances at other

women's national players will

international sporting events,

be paid the same amount as

such as the Olympics and the

their male counterparts.

World Cup.

product. She received £25,000 for the top prize. The three runners up

The president of the CBF,

The same arrangement was

received £10,000.

Rogerio Caboclo, said that the

made in England in January

measures were implemented in

with Australia, New Zealand

March.

and Norway among the other

Her team's invention, known as Bace API, uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition to confirm identities remotely.

N'Guessen was crowned the winner following a virtual awards ceremony where four finalists delivered presentations on their final

The runners-up include; Aisha Raheem (Nigeria) who created a digital platform providing farmers with data to improve their efficiency,

nations to also decide to opt

David Tusubira (Uganda), who created a system managing off-grid

"Since March of this year, CBF

power grids through monitoring the condition of solar arrays, and Dr.

has made an equal value in

William Wassawa (Uganda), who devised an inexpensive digital

terms of prizes and daily rates

microscope which can speed up cervical cancer screening.

between men's and women's football,"

for equal pay.

PAGE 8

Society & Culture

GILETS JAUNES: IS A YELLOW VEST THE NEW PLATFORM FOR ANTI-SEMITISM? ANTI-SEMITISM HAS CLOUDED SOCIETY FOR CENTURIES, BUT EVER SO MORE RECENTLY. FROM THE UK’S LABOUR PARTY TO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINE TENSIONS, AND, OVER THE CENTURIES, FRANCE. UNFORTUNATELY, ANTISEMITES DIDN’T DISAPPEAR WITH THE DEATH OF HITLER OR THE END OF FRANCE’S VICHY REGIME, AND IT SEEMS THAT A WORLD FREE OF SUCH HATRED IS A FEW GENERATIONS TO COME AT LEAST. The plague of anti-Semitism is a touchy nerve in French politics. Its history is painful, particularly that of the 1930s and ‘la collaboration’ during World War II. Anti-Semitism formed a great part of Marshal Petain’s government’s ideology - ‘l’idéologie de la Révolution nationale’.

These views were not forced upon by the Germans, rather it was ‘state antiSemitism’ carried out by the will of the French leaders. It played on the antiSemitism already deep-rooted in French society and flourished particularly after their defeat to the Germans in May-June 1940.

Today, there’s a new wave of antiSemitism arising on French soil. In 2017, almost 40% of violent acts deemed either racially or religiously motivated were committed against Jews, even though France’s Jewish population makes up less than 1%. Police statistics show that anti-Semitic acts in France have risen by 74% in 2018 alone. While in 2016, a 20% rise was described as “preoccupying” by the Interior Minister, just two years later Macron branded it “the worst resurgence of anti-Semitism since World War II”. The Prime Minister, Edouard Phillipe, even made a comparison to Kristallnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass) which saw the murder of at least 91 Jews, as well as 67% of synagogues and 85% of Jewishowned businesses destroyed. It’s clear that such statements would never be made lightly.

Now, there is no evil dictator or far-right government enforcing such views.

Instead, it’s a problem within the French people themselves.

The Yellow Vests (‘gilets jaunes’) is a movement that arose in the wake of a

green tax placed on fuel in late 2018.

The protestors were originally from rural areas who had to drive long distances as part of their everyday lives. Unable to afford the rise in fuel prices, protests sparked denouncing the new tax.

However, as with many such movements, the demands grew. The protesters began to demand better standards of living and social welfare benefits among many other societal concerns.

Not all the protesters are violent, and at the start the movement was largely supported by the French public. Polls conducted in early December 2018, show that 72% of French people support the Gilets Jaunes but 85% were against the violence. French authorities state that the majority of the violence is incited by anarchists known as ‘casseurs’.

But what is the link between a movement about fuel tax and the rise of anti-Semitic hate crimes?

First of all, the movement lacks official leadership and was initially organised through social media groups. Such lack of organisation allows the movement to be infiltrated by those looking for a platform to voice their anti-Semitic views among many other poisonous ideologies, and its populist anti-elite rhetoric can easily be linked with propaganda equating Jews with money and power.

Jean-Yves Camus, an expert in French political extremism, emphasises this as a key link between the movement and anti-Semitism. He said: “As there’s no leadership in the movement and no stewarding of the demonstrations, you can be free to do it.”

BY ROSIE JONES

Additionally, it seems as though the Gilets Jaunes are also offering “a new space for different kinds of anti-Semitism to rise together: the extreme right and extreme left, but also radical Islamist, anti-Zionist groups, and some social conservatives,”.

Meanwhile, Shimon Samuels, a director at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish human rights organisation, goes as far as stating that anti-Semites have ‘hijacked’ the Gilets Jaunes.

Undeniably, this has led to many questioning whether it is providing a platform for such extremist views and, more importantly, how close these views are to the core of the movement.

A recent poll conducted by Ifop found that almost half of the Gilet Jaunes supporters who took part in the poll believed in a worldwide “Zionist plot.” Such a worrying figure certainly doesn’t sit well when we consider that the boom in anti-Semitic hate crimes came at the end of 2018, the same time as the emergence of the Gilets Jaunes movement in November of the same year.

The Gilets Jaunes are not an anti-Semitic movement by nature, yet there does seem to be a lot of anti-Semitic messages tied to their protests, particularly by groups of the extreme right and the extreme left.

Vincent Duclert, a French historian, believes that the movement is partly responsible for the rise in anti-Semitic attacks as the violent nature of the protests promotes anti-Semitism. For example, its violence towards the police, public property and state institutions could be seen as promoting such ideology through its encouragement of ‘transgression’.

PAGE 9

Society & Culture

But where does this come from? Research reveals a link between French anti-Semitism and another oppressed group France’s Muslim population.

Back in 1978, a poll found that just 4% of the French population would stop their children from marrying a Jew. Hate crimes and violence in general against Jews were almost unheard of. Within France’s political elites, its world of entrepreneurs and civil servants, Jews were not distinguishable from any other religion, race or nationality.

Meanwhile, the past two decades couldn’t have been any more different. They have been plagued by murderous attacks against their Jewish population. In the streets, the synagogues, their homes and, most notably, in the surrounding suburbs where the Muslim population reside. This has forced Jewish families to move to quieter areas and, in some cases, 50,000 Jews moving back to Israel - some of which only migrated back to France at the end of the Algerian Independence War in 1962.

It becomes difficult to defend those who are a part of the Gilets Jaunes against such anti-Semitism. Macron has regularly been targeted by anti-Semitic cartoons that would easily fit in with the social conditions of the 1930s. Cartoons representing him with a hooked nose, cigar and top-hat, simply because he worked for the Rothschild Bank which had Jewish roots.

BY ROSIE JONES

Perhaps the most documented act of anti-Semitism committed by the Gilets Jaunes was faced by French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut. The viral video showed insults such as “dirty Zionist” and “France is ours” being hurled towards him. Finkielkraut is a prominent member of France’s Jewish community, a member of the prestigious Académie Française, and the French-born son of Polish immigrants who survived deportation from France to Auschwitz during the war.

Beyond this, the use of anti-Semitic slogans during the demonstrations along with the vandalism, such as when the words “Macron Jews’ Bitch” were painted in English on a central Paris garage door, cannot be defended against antiSemitism.

So how can this be solved? It’s not as simple as stopping the Gilets Jaunes movement - if that can even be achieved.

Citizens are always going to protest against changes they feel are unjust. Rather, we need to be aware. Are we providing a microphone for the extremist voices desperate to be heard, or are we solely fighting for what we believe in?

This is not a French problem but a worldwide problem - the Gilets Jaunes are just a French example of many seen across the globe.

"RACIAL PREJUDICE, ANTI-SEMITISM, OR HATRED OF ANYONE WITH DIFFERENT BELIEFS HAS NO PLACE IN THE HUMAN MIND OR HEART" BILLY GRAHAM

PAGE 11

Society & Culture

PLACES YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED

PLACES YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED: SALAR DE UYUNI, BOLIVIA Salar de Uyuni, also known as Salar de Tunupa or “salt flat enclosure”, is the world’s largest salt flat. At 3,656 metres high, and spanning 10,582 square kilometres, it is located on the Altiplano of Bolivia in South America a high plateau formed during the uplift of the Andes mountains.

The Salar itself was once a prehistoric lake. One of these lakes included a salt lake named Lago Minchin, which spanned the majority of south-west Bolivia. After it dried out, left behind was a desert-like landscape with bright-white salt, rocks and cacti-studded islands such as that of the Incahuasi Island.

The Salar is amongst one of the most popular attractions in Bolivia, with over 60,000 tourists visiting each year. The most popular attraction in the salt flats is a cemetery for trains. Salar de Uyuni contains all the trains that were used for mining in the 1940s, which is a hit with the tourists!

What is most remarkable about Salar de Uyuni is its extreme flatness. It’s its average elevation of just one metre over the entire area of the Salar, which contributes to this unique feature. During the dry months, its surface is manifested by polygonal mosaics.

Yet, it’s when a thin layer of water covers the landscape that wins it its famous title of ‘The World’s Largest Mirror’. Its parallel nature to the sky during this weather results in crystal clear reflections.

Remarkably, this allows NASA to use it to figure out the positioning of their satellites! For this reason, it has been deemed ‘the flattest place on Earth’. Many flatearthers attempt to use this as evidence to support their hypothesis, yet it’s not that simple. Although salt flats are notoriously extremely flat, they still follow the natural curvature of the earth, and the Salar de Uyuni is no different. In the past, it was believed that the Salar de Uyuni was completely flat, however, some small undulations were later discovered on its surface.

As you would expect, wildlife is rather scarce in such a unique ecosystem. However, you may be surprised to find out that it is home to many pink flamingos! Overall, there are around 80 different species of birds that visit and migrate to Salar de Uyuni, of which contain three species of flamingos.

PAGE 12

BY JESSICA HILTON

Society & Culture

FOREIGN INTERVENTION

20TH CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: WHY WERE THERE SO MANY DICTATORS? IN 1977, ALL BUT THREE OF THE 20 COUNTRIES IN LATIN AMERICA WERE UNDER DICTATORSHIPS. ONE CAN ONLY WONDER: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Tackling this complicated question requires consideration of both the conditions that allowed for such dictators to take power, and the timeframe it happened in. There’s no simple answer. It varies from country to country, but the general answer is that it was an amalgamation of factors both locally and internationally which helped create the perfect opportunities for these ruthless men to assume dictatorial power.

Internal divisions The social unrest within Latin American countries was a crucial factor in creating prime conditions for military dictators to emerge. A general feeling of dissatisfaction amongst the masses can often be enough for the opposition to become popular due to the (however mild) desire for "change."

Class divisions First, it is clear there were severe longterm class issues which contributed to the emergence of the dictators. The colonialisation of Latin America in the late 15th century established prominent class divisions which caused political unrest during the 1900s. Countries built upon the hacienda system, where working-class citizens worked on the plantations, mines, and factories that the wealthy landowners owned, thus creating a clear hierarchy perhaps comparable to the feudal system in Europe. For example, 6% of the Bolivian population owned 90% of the land until the mid-20th century. This division was deeply entrenched into Latin American society, and when workers caught wind of the socialist countries that flourished in the 1900s, there was a growing sense of injustice amongst the workers and a conflict of interests ensued: the workers wanted more wealth and the elite wanted to maintain their wealth.

This caused a hostile political climate which forced the elite to install a dictator to keep order and prevent the working-class from overthrowing the government An economic weakness As Spanish and Portuguese control only ended in the late 19th century, Latin America's economy fell significantly behind their European counterparts as they could never reap the benefits of early industrialisation and modernisation.

Therefore, these countries were often underdeveloped and economically weak.

The 1929 Wall Street Crash only exacerbated these problems, and a crisis ensued: Bolivia, Chile, and Peru recorded as the hardest-hit countries in the world. This left Latin America economically and politically unstable and vulnerable to government collapse. Military dictators assumed control when they promised a "quick fix" to the poverty citizens fell into.

Reliance on the military Latin American countries often had no alternative to dealing with a domestic threat other than enlisting the military's assistance.

The leaders often resorted to attaining a mandate to rule alongside the military so the problem to solve the problem quickly and efficiently. However, having gained that power, many leaders were unwilling to give it up and effectively established a dictatorship to retain it.

Uruguay–case study In the 60s and 70s, the Tupamaros (a Marxist urban guerrilla movement) terrorised Uruguay. To combat the imminent threat, in 1964, President Juan Maria Bordaberry closed parliament and ruled with the assistance of a few, select military generals creating a dictatorship. He retained power until the restoration of democracy in 1985.

The US's intervention in Latin American politics is undeniable. The Monroe Doctrine, which was created 200 years ago, justified this. It implied that the US was the superior power in the hemisphere, and even in the 20th century they would go to extreme measures to ensure it stayed that way. Whether this was to protect their businesses or stop the spread of communism via their policy of “containment”, their actions often resulted in dictatorships that cost the people their freedom.

American Businesses It is shocking the extent the US went to to retain its mandate over Latin American goods. Driven by the prospect of diminished exports and the negative impact that would have on the local US economy, they installed ruthless military dictators to continue exploiting their neighbours' resources.

Guatemala—case study The United Fruit Company (UFCO) was a highly successful American company that made significant profits from bananas grown in Latin America sold in the United States and Europe. Under Guatemalan dictator Jorge Ubico, the UFCO benefited greatly; they controlled 42% of Guatemala's land and were exempt from tax and import duties. But after a democratic election in 1951, these benefits ended when Colonel Jacobo Arbenz became president.

He proposed the redistribution of some underdeveloped lands held by wealthy property owners; however, the US believed they had gone too far and intervened before the policy could affect UFCO's exports. President Eisenhower made use of the CIA to remove Arbenz in 1954 and put in place a military dictatorship that lasted 40 years.

The red scare The post-war period saw the rise of the Cold War and, subsequently, the US's communist paranoia. Since Latin America was their neighbour, having any of these countries fall to communism would have been a disaster as, according to Eisenhower's "Domino theory," this could lead to a cohort of enemies on their border.

Subsequently, the US did everything they could to suppress communism, fixing military dictators in place to reduce the potential threat. Yet, some say that US diplomats viewed Latin America strictly through cold war goggles, combatting even the slightest hint of socialism with the removal of democracy as a whole via a dictator—was this going too far?

PAGE 13

Society & Culture

BY JESSICA HILTON

Chile – case study

Argentina – case study

Graduates included:

Salvador Allende, a Chilean socialist, became president in 1970 following democratic elections. The US feared his control over the country because of his warm relations with the communist Cuban government led by Fidel Castro, and criticism of the US's Bay of Pigs invasion. Notably, Nixon stated he would not let Chile become "another Cuba."

In 1976, Argentina's democratically elected President Isabel Peron was overthrown in a military coup endorsed by the US. Jorge Rafael Videla became the dictator of Argentina and committed appalling crimes against humanity that led to the deaths of nearly 30,000.

What's more, the US fully supported this regime, with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visiting Videla on multiple occasions.

Jorge Rafael Videla (Dictator of Argentina)

To combat this "threat," the CIA instigated a coup against Allende in 1973, positioning General Augusto Pinochet as a military dictator until 1990. Pinochet's regime was renowned for its brutality, resulting in the deaths of up to 3,200 people and thousands more imprisoned.

Recently, documents were uncovered showing the US intervention went well beyond giving "a little encouragement" to Latin American military regimes, as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger put it in 1976.

It revealed the details of Plan Condor, a US-organised alliance between the dictatorships of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, that was created in 1975 and operational until around 1980. This was the US's way of ensuring communism did not spread across the Americas, offering these military regimes everything from counterinsurgency training and financial assistance to intelligence briefings. This included training at the "School of the Americas" – A US-funded program that acted as a breeding ground for the Latin American dictators of the 70s.

Hugo Banzer Suarez (Dictator of Bolivia) Guillermo Rodriguez (Dictator of Ecuador) Omar Torrijos (Dictator of Panama) Manuel Noriega (Dictator of Panama) It is difficult to pin the cause down to one particular factor because, in reality, they all contributed. However, the significance of US involvement can often become overstated, when really the underlying issues of class divisions and economic dissatisfaction created ideal conditions for the dictatorships to emerge. So it poses the question: were these dictatorial regimes inevitable? Or did US intervention deprive the people of their democratic society?

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Society & Culture

DISH OF THE MONTH

DISH OF THE MONTH: ARANCINI WHAT IS IT? Arancini are Italian snacks consisting of a ball of rice coated with bread crumbs and then deep fried —a staple of Sicilian cuisine.

WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? Much like many other Sicilian dishes, the origin of arancini has remained clouded by mystery. While the first documented form of arancini dates back to the 19th century, its origins are generally believed to date back to the Arab rule in the 10th century due to the presence of saffron and rice in the dish.

The tale goes that Frederick II of Svevia (the King of Sicily 1198-1250 - he became king at just 4 years old!) thought breading was a simple technique that could be used to preserve rice. As he was forced to partake in many wars and travels due to Christianity, it seemed like a perfect solution to have a crunchy arancini right by his side!

Almost every city in Sicily claims to have been inventors of the dish. In Catania, for example, they claim that the pointed up cone is reminiscent of Mount Etna.

Fun Fact Not only are arincinos a popular dish, but they also hold a special meaning. During the festival of Santa Lucia on December 13th, the streets of Palermo are not complete without carts, stands and frying kiosks serving specially crafted arancinis made solely for the festival. These may include sweetened forms of arancinis, coated with sugar and cacao.

WHERE IS IT EATEN? Arancini is eaten all over Italy, yet considering that almost every city in Sicily claims to have invented it, it is particularly prominent in these areas. In the cities of Palermo, Trapani and Siracusa, arancini are the traditional food of the Feast of Santa Lucia on 13th December. This celebrates the arrival of a grain supply ship on Santa Lucia Day in 1646, which relieved the people from severe famine. To commemorate this day, the typical dessert of boiled wheat and ricotta is also served.

With the increasing popularity of the arancini, it’s now common yo find them all year round at most Sicilian food outlets.

You’ll quite easily find them in such places in Palermo, Messina and Catania.

Italian literature has also helped to foster the success of the arancini outside of the Italian sphere. The main character of Andrea Camilleri’s detective novels, Inspector Montalbano, is a renowned lover of the dish. The book series, as well as the television adaptation, has greatly helped build a following in other parts of the world.

BEHIND THE NAME Arancino or arancina? We could have a linguistic debate about everything imaginable nowadays!

In Northern Italy they are called ‘arancini’.

Again, the Italian literature influence shines through here as it is believed to be because of Andrea Camilleri’s book, Gli arancini di Montalbano.

However, others believe that the correct name in ‘arancina’ as its shape resembles that of an orange. The link here is that orange in Italian is ‘arancia’. Although the debate widens when we consider that the term for orange in the Sicilian dialect is ‘aranciu’, a male noun.

In simple terms, the island is divided into two ‘schools of thought’: Western Sicily: arancina Eastern Sicily: arancino It’s also important to note that they are not only called ‘arancini’. In fact, there exist various different terminologies. In the Campania region, it was first introduced into the Kingdom of Naples by the Aragones who called them palle di riso which quite literally translates as ‘rice balls’. Today, its other names include: sartù, supplì and riso frittata.

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Society & Culture

arancini con melanzane ©alice.tv

arancini al ragù

THE DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF THE ARANCINI

As you’d expect, the recipes we see today are sometimes a far stretch from the originals. While the very first arancini used ingredients such as sugar, spices, ricotta cheese, and milk, the importation of ‘new’ ingredients into society has meant that other foods, such as tomatoes, have found their way into the recipe books.

The traditional arancini comes in two main forms: arancini al ragù and arancini al burro.

The arancini al ragù is a prime example of the impact of importation on traditional gastronomy. It is typically found in Sicilian cafés and is filled with meat coated in tomato sauce, rice and mozzarella or another type of cheese.

The arancini al burro ( “with butter” or béchamel sauce) has a slightly different shape to al ragù. It has a longer, pear-like shape and contains prosciutto, grated cheese and diced mozzarella.

arancini con funghi ©Agri Camping Sophia

DISH OF THE MONTH

©arancinotto.com

Other types include: speciality arancini, e.g. arancini con funghi (with mushrooms), con melanzane (aubergine), con pistacchi (pistachios), are also very often found in the cafés.

Supplì is another variation deriving from Roman cuisine. They commonly contain a rich cheese filling. Another recipe deriving from the Italian diaspora in Southeast Texas is the chilli-stuffed arancini.

In the Sicilian city of Catania, there is a version containing eggplant - known as the arancino alla Norma. Other popular fillings in other regions include sausage, gorgonzola, swordfish and even squid ink.

arancini al burro ©FraGolosi

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Society & Culture

BY FRANCESCA WOHLERS

MOVING ABROAD: 10 THINGS TO REMEMBER Almost a year ago me and my partner moved to Spain from the UK. Yes, that’s right, in the same year (academic year that is) as BREXIT and a worldwide pandemic, we moved countries. So if you have been thinking about emigrating, you have no excuses… This said, I would like to share some hints and tips that we wish we had known before we moved. It would have made the entire journey a lot less stressful. I will be honest, it wasn’t exactly the smoothest of transitions.

Let’s start at the beginning… 2 years ago I was a teacher in a lovely school in Lincolnshire, in the UK. I moved back home to complete my masters in History.

A few months before my course ended I decided I wanted to live abroad, learn some languages, experience different cultures, so me and my boyfriend started applying for jobs abroad. The first place we applied to offered us a job, we accepted, and we were moving to Spain about a month and a half later, just like that.

TIP 1: MAKE SURE YOU’VE TIED UP ALL YOUR LOOSE ENDS I was doing my masters; I was due to hand in my final assignment at the start of September. So obviously we booked our tickets to Spain on the last day of August. In our defence, we had a training course we needed to complete before we could start our new jobs. However, this meant that instead of completing my biggest assignment in the comfort of my own home surrounded by my textbooks, with a kettle to hand, I was left to complete it in a hotel bar and hope and pray the Wi-Fi would work. I had promised myself I would have it finished and sent off before I got on the plane, but that didn’t happen, as I guess I secretly knew it wouldn’t. So be realistic with yourself, if you know you procrastinate and leave everything to the last minute don’t do this to yourself, it’s not a nice way to start your new life I can tell you that!

TIP 2: PLANNING IS KEY! The end of August arrived very quickly.

Before we knew it, we were saying goodbye to our friends and packing our bags ready to go. After a very short flight, we arrived at Alicante airport; we collected our 5 suitcases off of the conveyor belt and reality started to sink in. We knew we needed to catch a train from Alicante to Albacete, but that’s as far as we had got. Normally anywhere I go I print off a map in advance, I make a note of bus numbers, ticket prices, if I think I will need it, I write them down.

For some reason, I hadn’t done that this time. Instead, we relied on technology.

Neither of us had signal. The Wi-Fi wasn’t working. We had been awake since stupid o’clock that morning; we were not in the mood to find out how to complete the next part of our journey. At one point we got so desperate we even asked how much a taxi would cost. It was in the 100s…. We found our way to the train station from the airport and caught a train. It caused a few arguments. Plus, as we were so drained, we annoyed the train conductor as we weren’t moving overly fast with our bags. I can tell you now being shouted at in Spanish is not a pleasant experience! The thing is it could have so easily been avoided, we just needed to find out where we need to go, print it all off, and not rely on technology as, lets face it, it rarely works when you want it to!

TIP 3: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! I’ll be honest - I am a worrier. Not long after we accepted our job offers, I decided at 1am in the morning to book a hotel. It seemed like a win-win. They could cancel it up to 24 hours before we were due to check in, and we didn’t have to pay anything until we arrived. If I am completely honest, all I looked at was the pictures of the hotel and the price that was it. It was a backup hotel; the plan was we would find a good hotel or at least check that the hotel we had booked was okay, but that never happened.

So we arrived in our new city. The journey was long and stressful (we shall come back to this later!). All we wanted was to get back to our hotel! So we jumped in a taxi and said the address of our hotel. To our horror the driver drove away from the main part of the city, out over a fairly busy main road, and dropped us off at a hotel on the outskirts of an industrial estate. We could see the city - just about. The main view from our new temporary home was wasteland and a main road with no obvious safe path into the city. Don’t get me wrong, the hotel itself was lovely, the location itself however was a little lacking. It turns out the only way back to the centre was in a car, something we didn’t have. So when we went flat hunting we had to pay for a taxi. When we wanted food that wasn’t brought from a garage (that’s all we could find on the first day) or from our hotel’s bar, we had to book a taxi - you get the idea! So we had no home, and we had to pay 5 to 10 euros (each way) for the pleasure of being able to try to find one - an expense we really could have done without!

TIP 4: TIMING IS EVERYTHING We moved out to Spain homeless with the romantic idea that the first week we would spend wandering carefree around the city.

We would find our dream home, sign the paperwork and move in. Failing this we assumed we would just be able to extend our time in our hotel as we weren’t due to start work for a while after we moved, as we had allowed ourselves a settling-in period (something I would highly recommend if possible). However, life sometimes throws you a curveball. For us, it was the Feria. So we moved to Albacete.

Never heard of it? No, we hadn’t either. We were also unaware that every year they have a massive fair which attracts people from all around the area and all the hotels get fully booked up for about two weeks. So we had a week in our hotel, then we were in Seville for a week, then it was Feria. We still didn’t have a home, and there were no rooms left in the city. Panic! Luckily for us, our bosses know many people in the city, and they got us in touch with our current landlord.

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Society & Culture

TIP 8: DON’T EXPECT YOUR BOSSES TO KNOW EVERYTHING

After 6 very stressful days we had a home, meaning the next day we could pack and make our way down to Seville ready to start training.

Both me and my partner are English teachers, so we naively believed that our bosses would know what we needed to do and that would be that. In fact, everyone else they had hired were either Spanish, from outside the EU, or, if they were English, they had been living in the country for decades and had all their paperwork sorted, plus they were fluent in Spanish. So it was as much a learning curve for them as it was for us.

TIP 5: MAKE SURE YOUR PAPERWORK IS IN ORDER AND YOU HAVE PRE-BOOKED ANY APPOINTMENTS This one seems so obvious, but it is very easy to overlook or get confused. The internet is a wonderful thing until you’re moving abroad. There are so many different pieces of advice and so many different opinions, knowing which one to trust is the difficulty. We obviously used the official websites, but there were still some things we didn’t understand until we got here. For example, we needed an NIE number and a new bank account. Looking at the website it seemed really easy, which it can be, however we found it was the things you don’t really think about in advance that trip you up. So doing anything in Spain; where it’s getting a flat, opening a bank account, etc. You will need an NIE number! This takes a lot of appointments, paperwork to receive. Not only that, but you need to pay a small fee to get your NIE number from a Spanish bank account, not by cash. For the more observant of you, you will have spotted the problem for foreigners in this system. You can’t open a bank account without a NIE number, and you can’t get the number without the bank account. Basically, you need to find a Spaniard who is kind enough to cover the cost for you or is at least happy to pay for you until you can pay them back. So just be aware of small hidden conditions which may trip you up.

TIP 6: CHECK YOU ARE LEARNING THE CORRECT LANGUAGE AND MORE IMPORTANTLY THE CORRECT DIALECT! This one sounds stupid, I know! We were moving to Spain; they speak Spanish; the clue is in the name right! So we thought... I was using an insane amount of language apps from the minute we got our job offer. I knew I couldn’t learn an entire language in a month and a half while writing a dissertation and trying earning money to move abroad, but I figured I could master some basics to help make the transition smoother. Oh, how naïve I was!

BY FRANCESCA WOHLERS

So it turns out most of the language apps I was using taught Latin American Spanish… I was moving to Castilla La Mancha, where they speak Castilian Spanish. For any of you that don’t know, they sound different, they use some different words, and the area we moved to most people didn’t speak any English either and nothing is in English. We learned the basics quickly whilst we were there, but we could have avoided all this with a little more research into the area we were moving to. It got more complicated when we went for a week in Seville to do our training course, as we were just starting to get used to Castilian Spanish. Not so helpful in Andalusia, it turns out.

TIP 7: MAKE SURE YOU SURROUND YOURSELF WITH GOOD PEOPLE Looking back, we were so unprepared and clueless it’s a little embarrassing. I would like to blame the fact that it all happened so quickly and we had so much on, but if I am honest, I don’t think it would have been much different even if we had had a year to prepare.

However, we were so lucky. Our bosses took us in and helped us with so much we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. Obviously you should try to do as much as you can, but if you are lucky like we were, then it halves the stress. They helped us with our paperwork, learning the language, even getting a flat in the city. Yes, it was in their interests for us to do well, but they really went above and beyond for us and we are so grateful. I have heard other stories where people have moved and they have felt isolated and alone; they have struggled with work and adjusting to their new lives. The people you work with and surround yourself with really make a world of difference.

TIP 9: DON’T OVERTHINK IT We moved out when the UK was in the middle of BREXIT negotiations; we didn’t know how it would affect us. If I am honest with everything that has been going on recently, particularly with the pandemic, I am still not 100% sure how BREXIT will impact us. I was doing my masters. Neither of us spoke the language or really had that much money. In all honesty, if we had stopped to think about it for even a second, we probably wouldn’t have made it out here. There is always an excuse, you need more money; you need to learn the language, even just being afraid. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the easiest thing I have ever done in my life, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. We have met amazing people; we are living in a beautiful country with a culture we adore; we have made progress with our Spanish and made memories. We intend to stay here for a few more years before moving on to our next country as despite all the problems we came across we plan to move countries a few more times. Yes, it’s not for everyone, you may do it and hate it. Personally, we wanted to live abroad and decided it was worth the risk, if we didn’t like it, we could have moved home, but this stopped us from always wondering ‘what if’. But everyone’s different!

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SEPTEMBER

Society & Culture

THE MONTH IN

festivals

1 Slovakia Constitution Day

2

6

7

Vietnam National Day

National Day Swaziland

Brazil Independence Day

10

15

16

Uzbekistan National Day

9 Andorra National Day

Democratic People's Republic of Korea National Day

Costa Rica Independence Day

Mexico Proclamation of Independence

North Macedonia Independence Day

Tajikistan National Day

El Salvador Independence Day

Papau New Guineau Independence Day

17

18

Australian Citizenship Day

Chile National Day

19 Saint Kitts & Nevis Independence Day

21 Armenia National Day

Belize National Day

22

23

24

30

Mali Proclamation of Independence

Saudi Arabia National Day

Guinea-Bissau Independence Day

Botswana Independence Day

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Society & Culture

MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO AND SPANISH EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XXTH CENTURY Miguel de Unamuno was one of the most famous Spanish writers of the 20th century. He was also known for his achievements as an essayist, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca.

Existentialism (literally the philosophy of existence) is one of the largest philosophical movements of the 20th century. The period of formation of the philosophy of existentialism spans a period approximately from the beginning to the middle of the twentieth century. It is known that Unamuno relied heavily on the philosophy of existentialism when writing his works.

For Miguel de Unamuno, the subject of study is not an abstract person, but a “person of flesh and blood,” who is born, sleeps, thinks, loves, eats, drinks, and ultimately dies. Man seeks to live without dying, and this is indistinguishable from any substance.

His life is determined by a number of principles: 1) the principle of unity and continuity of existence

Unamuno accepts the postulate of I. Kant: a person is an end, not a means: “Every civilisation is guided by every person, by every I. Otherwise, what kind of idol is this, shall we call it humanity or something else, to which everyone and every person should be sacrificed?

Why should I sacrifice myself for the sake of my neighbours, compatriots, for the sake of my children, and then my children - sacrifice myself for the sake of my children and so on in an endless chain of successive generations? And who, finally, will reap the fruits of all these sacrifices?

The very same people who tell us about this fantastic self-sacrifice, about this dedication without an address, are also in the habit of preaching the so-called right to life. And what is the right to life?

They tell me that I came to this world for the realisation of some social goal, but I somehow feel that I, just like each of my brothers, came to fulfil myself, to live my life.” ...

2) the principle of human continuity in time According to Unamuno, the foundation of individuality is memory: the desire for memories to last and turn into hope, and the psychological past - to turn into the future. To demand from a person that he became different is tantamount to the demand to destroy himself, and every person changes only within the limits of the unity and continuity of his spiritual life.

Miguel de Unamuno ©Wikipedia

BY @MY_POLYTHOUGHTS

In this passage, Unamuno's tactical technique is clearly visible: to refute the theses of opponents with references to individual sensory experience. The affirmation of a person in life is the affirmation of his individual consciousness, the world exists for the human soul. And if we stop believing in the immortality of our soul, then the significance of the individual earthly life grows unreasonably. The struggle for immortality is a struggle for the individual consciousness of man.

The "tragic sense of life" pushes a person towards solving an existential problem.

"The immortal thirst for immortality" according to Unamuno is the basis of the trends of science, philosophy and religion. A person does not want to die and this is his main desire.

Unamuno believes that each person means more than all of humanity taken together, and one should not be sacrificed for all. This is possible only when everyone sacrifices for everyone.

He is convinced that creativity and achievements exist not for the pleasure of the creator, but for the sake of satisfying his thirst to perpetuate himself here and now: otherwise, artists, musicians and poets would not have put their signatures on works.

Unamuno writes that “when doubts overwhelm us and our belief in the immortality of the soul clouded over us, the desire to immortalise our name and fame responds with increasing strength and pain. And hence this fierce struggle to stand out, to somehow survive oneself in the memory of other people and future generations. This struggle is a thousand times more cruel than the struggle for existence, and it gives a special tone, flavour and character to our present society, which is losing its medieval belief in the immortality of the soul. Everyone longs for self-affirmation, at least illusory”. The mania for originality and fame in a person, the desire to perpetuate his name in history in any way, is, according to Unamuno, one of the most characteristic vices of the new generation and generates the strongest spiritual hunger.

“SOCIETY EXISTS ONLY AS A MENTAL CONCEPT; IN THE REAL WORLD THERE ARE ONLY INDIVIDUALS” Oscar Wilde

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Language & Linguistics

BY @MINORITYLANGUAGES

EINE SPRACHMAUER? BERLIN'S DIVIDED LANGUAGE When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the long-separated citizens of Berlin were finally reunited, the profound social differences between East and West came as a shock to many. Historians and political commentators have tended to focus on the contrasting economic and political situations of Berliners, yet the socio-cultural divergence between the two communities was also evident in another form: their language use.

This was a particular blow to Germany’s difficult reunification process of the early 1990s, which had hoped to establish itself easily through a single shared national identity but was persistently undermined by the socially divergent identities of the two Germanies.

The division of both Germany and its capital city after the Second World War resulted in the overnight separation of areas of Berlin, which had been exceptionally closely linked economically, socially and linguistically.

This created the rare circumstances in which former members of the same communities, living just a few hundred meters apart on either side of the wall, had no means of communication and therefore began to diverge in their linguistic development. These changes were to be seen both in the Standard German ‘Hochdeutsch’ of East and West and in the Berlinish dialect itself.

The most noticeable differences were to be found in the vocabulary. In the GDR, various terms came into use specifically associated with the socialist state, whilst the West was more susceptible to the adoption of Anglicisms through the influence of American culture. Other more subtle differences of terminology served to reinforce markers of East German versus West German identity in everyday speech, such as the term for a retirement home: ‘Altersheim’ in the East, but ‘Seniorenheim’ in the West.

Even more marked differences were to be heard in language use and style of speech, however. As Professor Norbert Dittmar’s studies from the 1990s have shown, the use of particular grammatical forms and nonstandard variants were often a key indicator of a Berliner’s background in the East. In West Berlin, Berlinish dialect usage declined far more rapidly but new grammatical developments occurred in spoken German, with West Germans tending to favour verb-second word order after ‘weil’, a conjunction which typically causes verb subordination to the end of the clause in standardised written German.

These contrasts can perhaps be explained to some degree by the differences in perception and attitude towards language in East and West Berlin, which were revealed in the years after reunification. Dialectologist Schlobinski concluded in a study of 1995 that there was in fact one dialect (Berlinisch) but two ‘codes’; that is to say, two completely different value systems on each side of the wall. In the GDR, Berlinisch was seized upon as the ‘Dialect of the Proletariat’, giving it a certain prestige as a language variety which fitted well with the state’s communist ideals. The positive connotations of Berlinisch led to its use in media and politics, and its widespread usage among East Berliners established the dialect as a cornerstone of identity, solidarity and pride in both the state and the city.

Berlinisch did not enjoy such a positive association in the western half of the city, however. In the West, the conservative preference for standard ‘Hochdeutsch’ and the stigmatisation of dialect led to a decline in usage, especially in Middle-Class areas of the city such as Zehlendorf.

Although dialect usage and non-standard forms remained well-used in some working-class districts, Berlinisch was confined to the private sphere and never appeared in official life to the same extent as was acceptable in the East.

When these two socio-linguistic realities were forced back together after the fall of the wall, it is hardly surprising that linguistic differences became the source of great tension. The dominance of the western system defined social and political rules in the new Federal Republic, and so they also came to condition linguistic values and norms. West German variants in vocabulary were often adopted for ease of communication, but habits of language usage remained strong among East Berliners. Particular resentment was often expressed towards Americanised vocabulary, such as the term ‘Tram’ instead of ‘Straßenbahn’.

For many citizens of the former GDR, unification caused a crisis of identity, as unemployment rose and the wave of unfamiliar western culture overwhelmed them. All this was exacerbated by linguistic differences, as East Berliners sometimes complained of a ‘Sprachmauer’—a serious language barrier which divided them from Westerners, just as the Berlin Wall had done for so many years.

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Language & Linguistics

Yiddish is one of the many Germanic languages originating from the Indo-European language family. The name quite literally means “Jewish” but it linguistically refers to the language spoken amongst Ashkenazi Jews (the Ashkenazim). These are Jews that have roots in Central and Eastern Europe. Its basic vocabulary is derived from medieval Western German, but other languages such as German, Aramaic, Hebrew and various other Slavic Romance languages are integrated within it. The language is written in the Hebrew alphabet, yet has no other clear similarities with the language.

By the 19th century it was one of the world’s most widespread languages, as it was spoken in the majority of Jewish populated countries and is one of the three major literary languages of Jewish history (along with Aramaic and Hebrew).

The evolution of Yiddish is a rather lengthy one.

For this reason, linguists have split it into four broad periods: early history, Old Yiddish, Middle Yiddish and Modern Yiddish. Over around 1000 years, Yiddish evolved from being a Germanic dialect, to a stand-alone language mixing elements of Hebrew, Aramaic, Romance, and Slavic languages. The key dates in its development can be generalised as 1250, 1500, and 1750.

Until millions of Yiddish speakers were victims of the Holocaust, Yiddish was once the most spoken language amongst Jews. It was primarily spoken in Europe and the US and had an estimated 11-13 million speakers on the eve of the Holocaust. However, the number of speakers was further reduced by the official repression of the language in the Soviet Union, the antagonism of the early Israeli authorities attempting to guard modern Hebrew, as well as other Western countries beginning to favour other languages over Yiddish.

In the post-war years, the survivors of the Holocaust went through what linguists refer to as a ‘language shift’. For the Jews who migrated to Israel, their primary language became Hebrew. Meanwhile, in the US, Russia and the vast majority of the Western countries, there was a ‘language shift’ to either English, Russian or other local languages.

Nevertheless, the language continues to flourish today amongst the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic and amongst secular students of Yiddish at universities such as the University of Oxford, the University of Paris, and McGill University (Montreal). Although, the descendants of native Yiddish speakers are still more likely to speak English, Hebrew, Russian or French than Yiddish itself.

It’s difficult to find concrete reports on the current number of Yiddish speakers in the world, as many figures vary significantly. However, Ethnologue estimates that there were around 1.5 million speakers of Eastern Yiddish in 1991. 40% of these lived in Ukraine, 15% in Israel and 10% in the US. Today, there are over 150,000 speakers of Yiddish in Canada and the US. This is hardly surprising considering that the US has the highest population of Jews with Ashkenazi descent, yet the majority of Jewish youths continue to speak English at home.

DABBLE IN A LANGUAGE - YIDDISH

Due to the rise of eastern Yiddish, western Yiddish inevitably began to decline after 1700.

This was mainly due to the Haskalah and emancipations sweeping through western Europe while Yiddish flourished in the east. The Holocaust and the repression of Soviet Jews under Stalin once again led to a decline in Yiddish speakers.

In the sixteenth century, Poland had become the Jewish capital of the world. Consequently, the Slavic elements of Yiddish became increasingly more prevalent. Originally, Yiddish was primarily an oral language, but it was at this time that it transitioned into a written language using Hebrew characters.

In the thirteenth century, Jews migrated eastward to escape persecution, meaning that the Yiddish language made its way to eastern Germany, Poland and other eastern European countries. This exposure to Slavic languages altered Yiddish from a Germanic dialect to its own unique language. This meant that there was a difference between the eastern Yiddish spoken amongst the Jews in Slavic areas, and the western Yiddish of the Jews in France and Germany.

At the start of the tenth century, Jews originating from Northern Italy and France forged communities in Germany. In the past, small communities had existed where German was spoken, however this new influx of residents along the Rhine river spoke a Jewish-French dialect called Laaz. As has happened with many languages in history, these two began to intertwine.

Spoken German now included expressions and words from Laaz, which are also likely to have infiltrated into Scriptural and Rabbinic literature. Consequently, a modified version of Medieval German which incorporated elements of Laaz, Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew, and Aramaic became the principal language of western European Jews.

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Language & Linguistics

I’ve always been fascinated by history, and Yiddish is certainly not short of that. You don’t have to research Yiddish’s story to see the profound impacts of culture on the language - it is evident in the words and sayings that they use. For example, I found it fascinating that all greetings are idiomatic sayings and, in the majority of cases, these are relating to God or religion in general. Not only this, but the emigration of Jews over the centuries is also prevalent through the language and its different dialects.

Having studied Judaism at school, this made the language even more intriguing. It certainly gave me some sort of motivation to learn the language as I already had that basis of cultural knowledge which is ever so important when learning a language.

Although this may be surprising to some, learning Yiddish really opened my eyes to the sometimes forgotten effects of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the people who suffered, but cultures as a whole. Learning Yiddish has really helped me to appreciate this and see the bigger picture.

DABBLE IN A LANGUAGE - YIDDISH

Being an auditory learner, learning minority languages can often be a struggle. I normally stick to Quizlet where I can turn the audio on to hear the pronunciation of the words. However, with smaller languages like Yiddish, this isn’t possible. Although I did use pre-made Quizlet sets, I found it a lot harder to remember the vocabulary long term. Also, as Yiddish uses the Hebrew alphabet which I decided not to learn at this point, it was difficult to find good resources on there which were suitable for my beginner level.

After becoming rather frustrated at the lack of resources which had the right alphabet, the right content, and was suitable for auditory learners, I came across Mango Languages.

For me, Mango Languages ticks *almost* every box. It is primarily audio based; the material is well set out and extremely relevant, and I love how they include insight into how the culture has affected that particular piece of language. The one problem is that the material is written in the Hebrew alphabet, which makes it harder to learn for complete beginners. However, if you hover over each word, it will break down how to pronounce it using the English alphabet. For those auditory learners out there, Mango Languages is a must! Even better, languages such as Yiddish, Hawaiian, Cherokee and Ancient Greek are available for free due to their vulnerability!

Although I don’t think I’d commit 100% and try to reach fluency in Yiddish as I have in Spanish and French, it certainly is an interesting language that I will delve into now and again when I have the time. I think if you don’t have a personal connection to the language and culture itself, it may be difficult to achieve fluency or have the motivation to do so. Nonetheless, I certainly can’t see myself forgetting about it!

Youtube

Websites

Ikh Lern Zikh Yiddish Yiddish Academy Yiddish Book Centre Mango Languages YidLife Crisis Daily Writing Tips - 40 Words You Should Know Bubby’s Yiddish/Yinglish Glossary Yiddish Haifa Yiddish Book Centre Yiddish Wit The Forward Mango Languages

Books (Amazon) The Easy-Shmeezy Guide to Yiddish: The Fun and Easy Way to Learn Yiddish Conversational Yiddish Quick and Easy: The Most Innovative Technique to Learn the Yiddish Language Yiddish Beginners Companion: Learn Phrases & Speak Vocabulary

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature and Culture, Vol. 1

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Language & Linguistics

DABBLE IN A LANGUAGE - YIDDISH

Essential Vocab THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE As early as the 17th century, Yiddish developed a unique set of dialects. These can be roughly classified as followed: Central Yiddish/Polish Yiddish Western Yiddish Eastern Yiddish “American Yiddish” is not really a dialect. This is because the different dialects of Jewish immigrants are mixed in with it. Consequently, it has taken on many words and expressions from English.

Days of the Week Monday - Montik Tuesday - Dinstik Wednesday - Mitvokh Thursday - Donershtik Friday - Fraytik Saturday - Shabes Sunday - Zuntik

Vyazoy zagt men... aoyt Yidish? - How do you say... in Yiddish?

Zay moykhi! - Sorry!

Shkoyekh - Thank you Nishto farvos - You're welcome Redt ir Yidish (formal) / Redstu Yidish? (informal) Do you speak Yiddish?

Ikh veys nisht - I don't know Ikh farshtey (nisht) - I (don't) know

Wishing

Introduce Yourself Vi heystu? - What's your name?

Ikh heys - My name is Her/froy/fraylin - Mr/Mrs/Miss Fun vanent kumstu? - Where are you from?

Ikh bin funem - I'm from Ikh bin - I am Vu voynstu? - Where do you live?

Ikh voyn inem - I live in Vi alt bistu? - How old are you?

Zol Zayn mit mazel! - Good luck!

A gut yor! - Happy new year!

Mazltov tsu dayn geboryn-tog! - Happy birthday!

Freylekhe nit! - Merry Christmas!

Mazltov! - Congratualtions!

Enjoy (a meal)! - Es gezunterheyt!

Greetings A gutn tog - Good day Gut-yor - Good year Gut-shabes - Good Saturday Sholem-Aleykhem - Hello (to a person you meet for the first time or haven't seen in a while) Aleykhem-Sholem - Hi (in reply to Sholem-Aleykhem Vi geyt es? - How are you?

A gute nakht! - Good night!

Es frayt mikh dikh tsu kenen - Nice to meet you!

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Goy Quite simply, this refers to anyone who isn't Jewish. If there's a group of non-Jews, they'd be referred to as goyim.

Shmendrik This word was popularised in the 1970s by the sitcom ‘Welcome Back Kotter’, and is used to call someone a jerk or a stupid person.

Nosh This is used to refer to a light snack/nibble.

Language & Linguistics

Keppie 'Keppie' is a much funnier way of referring to someone's forehead!

DABBLE IN A LANGUAGE - YIDDISH

Meshuggeneh This can be used to describe someone as insane or to refer to someone crazy.

For example, 'You'd be meshuggeneh if you thought you could to that!'

Klutz

Feh!

This literally means “a block of wood”. It’s commonly used to describe a clumsy or awkward person.

'Feh' is something you say when you are disgusted with something

Yiddisher Kop This literally means 'Jewish head' and is used to refer to a smart person.

Kvetch This describes someone who complains a lot.

"WITH LANGUAGES YOU ARE AT HOME ANYWHERE" Edmund de Waal

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Language & Linguistics

BY PRAGNA CHALLAPALLI

BROUGHT UP BILINGUAL: A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE Growing up bilingual was the blessing I didn’t even know that I had. From as young as the age of 2, when I moved to the UK from India, I saw the world with two lenses, developing an appreciation for the cultural nuances of two different societies. The most important thing to know about bilingualism is that the languages only comprise a small portion of what it means to be bilingual. Instead, it is about the convergence of two cultures within a single entity, how a single human being may carry two separate worlds with them wherever they go.

My own experiences with two languages are very much rooted in culture. As I moved from the UK to India, using and practicing my mother-tongue, Telugu, was a way for me to keep in contact with my heritage, my history and ultimately my roots. Although my grandparents were miles away, speaking Telugu with them over the phone made them seem that bit closer. This has resulted in me developing a somewhat unusual variant of bilingualism: whilst I can fluently speak and understand Telugu, I cannot read or write it. This comes as a result of never having attended school in India or taught formally how to read or write in Telugu.

This kind of bilingualism flies in the face of what most modern language teaching is like today, at least in the UK. Whilst I can laugh out loud at movies in Telugu and keep hours long conversations with my family members, I cannot read a newspaper or write a letter. However, I still consider Telugu to be my mothertongue. This sort of learning directly contradicts that which is used in schools, which starts with piles of textbooks, memorising grammar rules, and writing out vocabulary. And yet, despite all of this, whilst around 43% of the world is bilingual, around 90% of the UK is monolingual, even although most children start ‘learning’ a language in the very first year of primary school.

It’s important to note that being bilingual is very different to learning a second language later in life/when you’re young, you pay no heed to the grammar rules or the sentence structure of different languages; the terms infinitive, reflexive or past participle hold no meaning. Instead, you take to learning a language in the most organic form possible: simply picking up words and phrases as you go.

I learnt Telugu just by speaking and listening to the conversations of my parents, the cartoons on the television as a child, movies, radio programmes and songs - slowly absorbing the world around me. As a result, when I want to speak Telugu, I no longer need to recall a grammar rule or remember what page of my vocab book a certain word came from. Instead, I conjure up memories of hearing different words in different scenarios (which I believe makes the words stick in my head far better). Most notably, there is no requirement to translate constantly from one language to the other. This means you do not see different languages as two separate entities, two different worlds to bridge together. Instead, they coexist. They do not exist in reference to something else.

This too is starkly different from the way they teach languages in schools. Whilst we’re conditioned to learn that “una manzana = an apple”, this way of learning quickly falls apart when we come to realise that not every word matches up like a puzzle piece to a word in another language. There are subtleties in some languages that just cannot translate directly, or expressions that only make sense in the wider context of culture. Being bilingual means you carry too with you these extra cultural nuances to speaking a language.

I have been able to apply this approach to my learning of different languages.

Whilst I have learnt French and Spanish in school, I still believe the best way to learn is through conversing in your target language and I jump at every chance to do so.

I have tried to apply this to Hindi, my only knowledge of which comes from watching movies and hearing friends and family speak it around me, meaning I too can understand conversations now. I avoid translating in my head before I speak and simply learn the language as it is.

What bilingualism has taught me is that there is never any ‘default’. There is no one “main language” from which you translate others into. You learn to view the world with a wider lens, with each language a different, but natural development to solve the problem of communication. But what learning languages teaches you is that communication is the tip of the iceberg.

Learning a language reveals innate characteristics and values of a completely different society. For example, in Telugu, there are two ways of saying ‘we’—one that includes the person you are speaking to, and one that does not. There are several ways of saying ‘he’ or ‘she’ depending on how well you know the person, how old they are, and how much respect you give that person. Translating the word order in Telugu directly from Hindi to English would result in something almost unintelligible: in Telugu word order is almost entirely inconsequential. The word for rice changes depending on if it is cooked or uncooked.

The moon is affectionately referred to as ‘uncle moon’. And there are many millions more examples from languages around the world of how different languages reflect different realities.

Language is intuitive. It is as much about the expressions on someone’s face, or the tone of someone’s voice as it is the sentence structure and vocabulary. This is because using language taps into what it means to be human—an innate ability, but importantly also a desire to understand one another. And with this we perhaps need to redefine what it means to ‘know’ a language and what it means to learn a language.

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Language & Linguistics

BY TOMÀS GENÍS GALOFRÉ

IRISH GAELIC: TOMÀS IS AINM DOM, A LITTLE BIG LANGUAGE LEARNING ADVENTURE How did I become more fluent in Irish in 2 weeks than most Irish people I met? Spoiler alert, I was not a superhuman language learner, instead context plays a big role when it comes to minority languages. Follow me in my little big adventure, with pubs, minorities, language learning, and an Irish-speaking Chinese bar tender.

A Call to Adventure

What do you do when you truly want to improve your 2nd language? Try to immerse as much as possible, while doing something you like a lot, seek a prolonged state of flow where you forget you’re using that second language. Well, 18-yearold me decided that spending two weeks learning Irish Gaelic in West Donegal would do the trick for my upcoming English C2 exams. Why? I expected the vast majority of participants to be English speakers, either Irish themselves or people from the States connecting with their Irish roots. Also, I’d be doing something I loved, learning a new language in a beautiful place!

So I booked flights, registered for a course, and packed my survival kit and language learning stuff and off I was.

Barcelona-Dublin EasyJet. Dublin-Glencolumbkille McGeehan Coaches. Into the wild to learn Gaelic.

Crossing the Threshold I headed to a Gaeltacht area, places in Ireland where Gaelic is still natively spoken rather than only learned in schools as a standardised kind-of-second language. On my 3-to-4-hour coach ride there, the surrounding signs taught me that I hadn’t landed in Dublin, but in Baile Átha Cliah, and that the bus was bound for Gleann Cholm Cille in Contae Dhún na nGall, rather than Glencolumbkille in County Donegal. I knew absolutely no Irish, so I was ready not to understand a thing.

Ours was the last stop and, when the bus finally came to a halt, only Dave, a guy in his 30s, and I left on the bus. Dave was also coming for the course. Once off the bus, we dropped by the local shop for a drink and directions. A conversation was going on over the counter as we came in, of which I did not get a single word. So this is what conversations in Irish sound like, I thought. I asked Dave if he’d understood anything. “Not much,” he said, though he was fairly certain they’d been speaking English. Dave spoke no Irish either.

Learning a New Power Soon, I tuned into the local English, with their slight mix of Irish grammar and expressions. For instance, they did not speak about something, but rather under that topic, directly translating from the parallel Irish construction. I had an easier time with the rest of the English-speaking course attendees.

Music to my English-learning ears.

I was having a lot of fun learning my first Irish cúpla focal, literally a couple words, and everything we learned was ever so relevant to my immersive experience there. We started by learning to introduce ourselves to locals, asking for directions to the teach tábhairne (literally a tavern house, the pub), Gabh mo leithscéal-ing our way to the toilet in a crowded pub, and ordering two more pints of Guinness. The following day we’d learn how to use the past tense, and recount how we had asked for directions to the pub, gotten there, we used all the Irish we’d learned, and were subsequently hungover.

In a town with a school, a grocery shop, a post office, two churches, three pubs and lots of cliffs, pub-going (in Irish Gaelic) did indeed make up for lots of our social interactions those weeks. Jokes aside, we did live through the little Irish we had as much as possible and, after those 2 weeks, I could effectively have a very simple conversation in Irish, in a surprisingly thick Dhún na nGall accent. Most importantly, I could go through lots of everyday situations in Irish. I could do things like shopping, ordering at a restaurant, getting a bus ticket, or even sing at a pub! Anything that wouldn’t trigger a long and complex answer from my interlocutor, which I would not understand. It felt good. Go hiontach!

Facing the Challenge At the end of the two-week course, I was awfully hyped with my newfound language skills. I couldn’t wait to backpack my way around Ireland and try out all that I knew, out in the open world. I couldn’t wait to find all those native speakers who, I was sure, would be glad to speak to me, would indulge my mistakes, and help me learn. I planned to start out in Irish with whoever I spoke to and to keep speaking Irish until I ran out of things I could say. Only then would I switch to English.

“Why not?” I most probably answered back then. In perspective, I wish I had said something a bit more like “Because it’s a beautiful language, a gateway to extraordinary heritage, and an extremely powerful tool to keep cultural and individual identities alive! Buíochas le Dia!” I was quite taken aback by the discredit I’d perceived towards Irish in certain places of Ireland. I was especially shocked by the contrast between that later experience and the love for all things Gaelic that I had felt at the Oideas Gael language and culture centre in Gleann Cholm Cille.

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Language & Linguistics

BY TOMÀS GENÍS GALOFRÉ

A Soft Spot for Minority Languages The question stuck with me, however. Why would I want to learn Irish? Was it an attraction to Irish folklore? Maybe. Was it linguist’s interest in Celtic languages? Not yet. At that time, I was studying sound engineering. Was it just because?

Key Vocabulary

Simple communicative usefulness was out of the table. I would probably never meet an Irish monolingual speaker.

They would all speak English too, at least. Yet that was also the case for Catalan, my own first language. Like in Irish, virtually no Catalan monolingual speakers exist. They all speak Spanish too, at least. Yet the cases did not feel fully comparable. I did not feel one might be able to live in Ireland using Irish exclusively. On the contrary, and leaving politics aside, there are many places where one could live using Catalan exclusively. I felt that Irish’s situation might be argued to be similar to Basque’s, at some point relegated to rural areas, and more recently working its way back to institutions and education.

Baile Átha Cliah - Dublin Ta cúpla focal agam - I speak a few words (of Gaelic) Dhá phionta eile, le do thoil - Two more pints, please Lá maith - Good day Slán - Goodbye Gabh mo leithscéal - Excuse me ________ is ainm dom - My name is ______ Póg mo thoin - (go try this out, see what happens, or you might just google it first!)

My ramblings gave me the answer. I was curious about the cultures and identities that lay behind the language. I had a feeling that minority languages were not as constrained by states and standards; they were direct gateways to peoples and their identities. When would I get some time to learn some Basque?

Lessons Learned and High Hopes The comparison between the realities of Irish and Catalan is an issue I have been stuck with. Both languages exist under enormous pressure from powerful world languages. Also, their political contexts have caused them to endure many long periods of prohibition. However, they somehow reached the new millennium in different shapes, both in terms of the number of speakers and their perceived social prestige.

I felt that Irish’s biggest challenges were its relatively small pool of remaining native speakers (which have since increased!), but mainly a lack of prestige. It’s been just over 15 years since I went on my little big adventure. I am happy that there are more and more people attending Gaelschols (schools where tuition happens though Irish) and that Irish is used more naturally in a wider range of places and situations. Also, the data seem to support the notion that being Irish-English bilingual comes as an advantage in modern Ireland, both in the Republic and in Northern Ireland. I hope that, if I repeated my little language learning adventure now, I would live a much different experience. I hope that someday, Yu Ming is Ainm Dom becomes a lot less relevant. An expression of the past.

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Language & Linguistics

BY PAULA GUARD

ITISMYACCENT.COM

MY FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT LEARNING A LANGUAGE Learning a language is a long road, and everyone at times loses motivation. When I hit a bit of a plateau and need some inspiration, I remember why I’m doing it. So here are my favourite things!

SURPRISING PEOPLE

MEETING NEW PEOPLE

The smile on the face of my Spanish colleague when on a business trip in Sofia I told him, ‘hace un frío que pela’. The genuine astonishment of my Spanish teacher when I used the word ‘tiquismiquis’, followed by him asking where on earth I had heard it! Even when I say that I speak Spanish, these are the kind of things that a native speaker never expects me to say, making it a real joy to see their reaction when I do use them (and more importantly use them correctly)! It can easily move into showing off territory, but that’s not the intention—I just genuinely love to surprise people. More than that, it lets them know that they can speak to me in a certain way, that they can relax and joke around and speak normally with me rather than be cautious of what they say, worried that I will not understand. When they find out you speak their language people tend to instantly open up to you—there is a facial expression I can’t describe but recognise so well—a mixture of excitement, relief, surprise. Their shoulders drop and they visibly relax, opening their body language. The conversation is different and somehow more intimate, even when just covering the basics of where you are from and what you do.

There are people who I now call friends who have a totally different background to me, and who I doubt I would have ever crossed paths with if it wasn’t for the shared language.

The people from every corner of the world who I have met at conversation clubs. The online tutor who taught me the meaning of ‘sabiduría’—both the word and the genuine meaning behind it, becoming a confidante and challenging me to reflect on some of life’s biggest decisions. The classmates who became friends, carrying on our foreign conversation in the bar downstairs each week when class finished. The people I sit with in the same corner sofa of the same bar every Monday night without fail for years at my Spanish conversation club (on Skype for the time being!) My life is genuinely richer for knowing these people and it’s all thanks to learning languages!

TRAVEL IS A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE WHEN YOU SPEAK THE LANGUAGE. Speaking the language has not only given me the confidence to go off the tourist track more, but has thrown up some interesting and memorable opportunities. There are practicalities, like being able to read signs in museums, and recognising the Italian word ‘sciopero’ (strike) when they made an announcement in Florence train station. I would have been standing on the platform waiting for my connection all afternoon if I hadn’t known! Aside from the useful stuff though, I went into a packed Italian coffee bar and just managed to shout my order over the crowd, had the most amazing street food in Palermo, and squashed into the tiniest of tiny tapas bars in Seville where they chalk your order on the bar and a stranger squeezing into your seat with you is classed as personal space. My husband hated it, but I was in my element breathing in the atmosphere! I got to know the Peruvian guides on the Inca trail more personally just because I spoke Spanish and have had personal tours of closed off parts of churches and museums because the guide was excited to find someone who spoke the language.

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Language & Linguistics

BY PAULA GUARD

ITISMYACCENT.COM

YOU NEVER STOP LEARNING!

LEARNING A NEW CULTURE

You could study a language your whole life and still learn new things. Part of this is because languages themselves evolve and are dynamic, but there are also so many subtleties that there is always something to discover. I remember having learned in Spanish the difference between the preterite and imperfect past tenses and thought I had it. That was until in our Spanish class one night we studied a song about a guy who used to ride the trains when he was younger and he used the ‘wrong’ tense to describe it. Our teacher explained that yes, it’s technically the wrong tense, but it can be used in that way when you talk about a memory from the past that you are not fond of or not particularly proud of. Cue open mouths… Just when we thought we had learnt everything!

It’s a cliche, but it really is true! Learning a language isn’t just words, it’s learning the origin of idioms, the history, the food, the customs of the country and people. Their jokes, their habits, the words that only exist in their own language because the cultural concept just doesn’t translate into another. So next time you feel stuck, and need some motivation, think about your ‘why’. Why are you doing it? What do you love about it? Then get back to it!

For more language-related articles visit

isitmyaccent.com

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Language & Linguistics

BY LUCY ALLISON

COULD THE LANGUAGE AWARENESS METHOD SPARK A NEW GENERATION OF LANGUAGE LOVERS? As the uptake of languages declines, many possible solutions come to the front. Perhaps starting language teaching earlier or changing the style of language qualifications, just to name a few. But is there another alternative?

History It’s often debated how early children should begin learning a language at school. According to the European Commission, the average age for children in the EU to start learning a language is 6-9 years old. This naturally differs between countries, but more recent headlines have proclaimed that language teaching in the UK is one of the least successful systems. Uptake of languages at later stages of education are falling, and the approach to language learning is not always positive.

However, several solutions are viable, for instance, an overhaul of language qualifications, a different approach to language teaching, or starting to teach languages earlier.

But what if there were another way? A method that could encourage language learning, give the foundations for a better understanding of language, and introduce children to language diversity - all without learning a language itself. A method that can be used with very young learners to discover all languages, not just begin with one. At a first glance, it might sound futile. In fact, this method already exists, and its results have proven it to be very effective. This article will give you an overview of its history and goals, ways we can implement it into the curriculum, and the effects it can have on learners.

The “Language Awareness” approach is a pedagogic method presented by Eric Hawkins in his 1984 work “Awareness of Language: An Introduction”. It aimed not only to reduce the issues within foreign language learning, but also to combat prejudices and illiteracy in English (or the language of instruction). The method has since evolved and is represented in many worldwide organisations, such as ÉLODIL in Quebec, and Evlang Project which is supported by the European Union. Hawkins stated that the principal aim of the Language Awareness method is to offer a bridge between the language of instruction and foreign languages in the school curriculum. This can be implemented in three main ways.

Firstly, by developing learners’ metalinguistic knowledge. These metalinguistic skills can consist of the ability to observe language phenomenons and the vocabulary to discuss variations, similarities, or structures in language. These skills open up the world of language learning by making it easier for children to ask questions or notice similar structures that they can apply in their own language use. It also becomes a foundation for later language learning, for understanding grammar and other concepts.

Secondly, the method aims to provide exposure to many different languages and cultures, through fun and positive activities. This also includes sharing languages that are already known to individual children in the class, for example, the language they speak at home with a parent.

The positive approach towards diversity can encourage children to appreciate multilingualism, be it their own or in the world. This also gives children the confidence and space to begin to understand their experiences with language, by sharing with and learning from classmates.

Thirdly, implementing Language Awareness in the early classroom intends to strengthen children’s motivation to learn a language. Having been introduced to language concepts in engaging ways, the children leave having gained an understanding of the power and beauty of language. The method encourages this global understanding of language as a tool and key into culture, as well as igniting a fascination with language structures and comparisons.

Throughout a Language Awareness programme, with the aim to achieve each of these three goals, there is no focus on any particular language. Instead, languages are introduced with their sounds, individual words in comparison, or through their culture. For instance, singing a nursery rhyme in the language of a classmate, comparing the word for “tomato” in different languages or language families, or listening to a story in a mix of English and another language. The opportunity for learning is drawn out from exciting activities where children discuss language in a safe space, with no fear of making mistakes. This exploration allows children to develop confidence to approach language learning later in life and ignites a passion for discovering the concept of language.

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Example Activities Before presenting some of the concrete results that have been shown through Language Awareness programmes, we will take a closer look at two examples of Language Awareness activities and the reasoning behind them. Whilst we can use Language Awareness ideas with learners of any age, these two activities can typically be implemented with very young children. The advantages of this are that the children do not already have such a strong perception of language as a concept, and these activities can help them build the foundations for this understanding.

One activity that can encourage a closer look at language is exploring and examining animal sounds in multiple languages. Children will usually already be familiar with the animal sounds in their own language, which makes it a good starting point. To start the activity, the children can be presented with various onomatopoeic sounds of animals in any way, for instance, with small cartoons or sound recordings in each language. Take the cockerel as an example, which says “cock-a-doodledoo” in English, but “kikiriki” in Spanish, “cocorico” in French, and “chicchirichi” in Italian. Other languages can also be incorporated, like the Hungarian “kukuriku” or the Urdu “kuklooku”. After repeating the sounds with the children, it can provoke questions about the different sounds or even spelling. Which one’s sound very different? Which ones have the same letters? Which similar sounds can you hear? This can help the children to train their auditory skills, their oral reasoning, and their interest in different languages.

BY LUCY ALLISON

Language & Linguistics Conclusion Another activity which can be carried out in many different circumstances is the story box. This is a box or bag which is full of small items relevant to the story that will be told, such as characters or settings. A story is told in another language, whilst the items are removed from the bag. These physical items and acting out of the story help the children to understand the key ideas, even when they do not understand the language being spoken.

The magic of this is that the children have an opportunity to form hypotheses about what happened and ask questions about the words for certain characters or items. This activity can especially be used in collaboration with the languages already present in the classroom, for example, inviting a parent in to tell the story. This can help the children to learn to value different experiences and the rhythm of other languages.

Concrete Results Language Awareness can often be implemented in simple ways, without too much technical detail. However, studies have shown that following a Language Awareness programme in the curriculum has noticeable effects. One study, undertaken by the Evlang project, followed learners throughout 30+ hours of exposure to Language Awareness activities. They examined how the main goals were achieved through both student testimonies, which showed that most students had a stronger interest to learn a new language after following the programme, including interest to learn minority languages.

Another study showed that after a Language Awareness programme, students have better memorisation skills and more precise auditory discrimination ability. These skills can be beneficial for learning a language later in life, because it allows the learner to be more familiar with the manipulation of unknown sounds or learning vocabulary. At the same time, it’s suggested that these skills help considerably with the understanding and learning of the language of instruction, and being able to switch between different kinds of language use.

Not that language learning shouldn’t start earlier, but these results show that even temporarily replacing language learning with a Language Awareness programme can boost motivation, curiosity, and skills. It not only ignites an interest in language as a concept but also provides the foundations for children to speak about multilingualism in their own environment. Starting early with Language Awareness could encourage a higher uptake of language learning, not just in schools but also as a lifelong passion.

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Language & Linguistics

BY SOPHIE WILLIAMS

LINGUISTIC PURISM: PURE GENIUS OR UTTER NONSENSE? Linguistic purism can be confusing. Or should I say bewildering in a bid to avoid one of those nasty loanwords?! With varying definitions and branches, it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what someone means when they say that they are a linguistic purist.

Linguistic purism, also known as linguistic protectionism, is broadly defined as the belief that one variety of a language is superior to another variety.

Its primary aim is to keep a language free from foreign influences which can alter not only a language’s vocabulary but also its grammar and syntax.

To avoid these foreign influences, “pure” terms that already exist in a language may be used instead of words with a foreign etymology. Pure in this context means deriving from the same roots of the language in question. For example, when speaking English, “begin” could be used in place of “commence” if you wanted to avoid using a loanword. New pure terms, known as neologisms, may also be created in place of having to borrow a word from another language.

The French word “courriel” is a prime example of an attempt to create a new word to avoid the use of the English term “email”.

The success of this approach can be determined by how many or rather how few people actually use the neologism.

Linguistic purism can vary completely from one country to another and from one language to the next. Some countries have even established institutions tasked with implementing linguistic purity. Both the Académie Française and the Real Academia Española (RAE) are examples of this, having worked for hundreds of years to protect and defend the integrity of French and Spanish, respectively.

The differences in opinions and interpretations of linguistic purism can cause some communities of linguistic purists approaching the practice in a laid-back way, while others are hellbent on transporting their language back to a time free from foreign influences.

Do you speak Anglish? An uncommon question, but one that you may encounter if you tumble down one of the many linguistic rabbit holes of the internet. Although the term was first created as a joke by humorist Paul Jennings for publication in the satirical magazine Punch, the conversation around what the English language would look and sound like without foreign influences has piqued the interests of a few people over the years.

According to the Anglish Moot, a blog created by supporters of linguistic purism in English, ‘the Anglish project is intended as a means of recovering the Englishness of English and of restoring ownership of the language to the English people’. We should note that some supporters of Anglish are more invested than others, with a few even debating how Anglish should be taught in schools. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had a hard enough time studying English in school nevermind a “restored”, “pure” version of the language that is closer to what the Anglo-Saxons would have spoken to the “selfies”, “emojis” and “slays” of today!

"We, the Lede of the Foroned Ricks, for the Sake of making a more forfit Gathertang, staddling Righthood, bergining home Frith, behefting for the wonesome weir, uprearing the ermen Welfare, and forberrowing the Blessings of Frelse to ourselves and our Afterbairns, do behote and set up this Fortfastening for the Foroned Ricks of Americksland."

- an extract of the United States Constitution written in Anglish.

‘We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.’

- the translation into today’s “Mean English”.

Anglish has been viewed as an unconventional branch of linguistic purism that has not gained a considerable amount of support. Linguistic purism is often met by disinterest or indifference by the public.

Despite this, there are advantages of maintaining the linguistic authenticity of a language.

Linguistic purists argue that the practice helps to keep a person’s linguistic identity intact, stating that this is especially important for native speakers of minority languages. Irish is one of many examples of this. Irish speakers dislike or even fear what is known as “Béarlachas” or “Anglicisms”.

Take the Irish for “phone”—both “guthán” and “fón” are equally valid, however, as “fón” is derived from the English word “phone” some speakers encourage people to use the more Irish-sounding “guthán”. It is completely understandable that people want to protect the integrity of their language as well as their own linguistic identity, especially where a minority language has battled and continues to battle against the more dominant language in the area. Unfortunately, this can have an adverse effect on minority languages as shoving a pure version of a language down prospective learners’ throats can be extremely off-putting and discouraging.

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Language & Linguistics

BY SOPHIE WILLIAMS

Another argument in favour of linguistic purism is that it increases internal intelligibility. By using native words instead of loanwords, speakers find it easier to understand more complex vocabulary. Where there is a high percentage of borrowed words in a language, an internal language barrier can occur. As a result, specialised vocabulary can be slightly harder to learn.

Although linguistic purism increases internal intelligibility, it decreases external intelligibility. This is bad news for any language enthusiasts, as it makes learning a foreign language even more difficult than it already is. The borrowing and lending of words leads to a shared vocabulary which can be a great boost when you are studying a language. With 29% of the vocabulary in English coming from Latin and a further 29% stemming from French, it is no surprise that English speakers are advised to consider Romance languages when choosing a target language. For many people, being able to communicate with others is a huge incentive to learn another language. Is linguistic purism somewhat limiting this ability by burning the bridges (in the form of loanwords) that forge links between languages that otherwise would not be there?

Linguistic purism is nothing short of divisive. You may agree with some aspects of it or you may write it off as completely insane. With increased globalisation and multiculturalism, it is difficult to imagine that languages will escape further influence from neighbours, relatives, or even short and long-term visitors in the years to come. Whether you are a linguistic purist or a complete sceptic, why not give yourself a break today? Maybe watch something on the “farseer”? Star Wyes is meant to be fantastic!

Star Wyes Star Wyes (English: Star Wars) is a stream of witshipplaytruth films by George Lucas that follows the life of many hoads "a long time ago in a starset far, far away". Besides films, there have also been many books, film games, farseer shows, toys and more made for the stream owing to its belovedness.

The brand began in 1977 with the first showing of the film Star Wyes (later undernamed Follow Four: A New Hope in 1981) and it swiftly became a folkcouth happening. Two more afterfollows were made called "The Rich Strikes Back" and "Comeback of the Jedi". These first three films make up the First Thrilock. A forefollow thrilock was made between 1999 and 2005 which were much more unfolkly than the first. A third afterfollow thrilock began being shown in 2015 and ended being shown in 2019, becoming even more unfolky than the forefollow thrillock.

A few spin-off films have also been made eking to the spowing of the brand. With a gathered upbringing of 7.5 thrisand dollars, Star Wyes is the thirdmost earning film stream of all time.

The Anglish Moot (anglish.fandom.com/wiki/S tar_Wyes)