Textmsg

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In a recent article in Newsweek Lily Huang discusses the impact of textmessaging on the English language. In the article she writes that contrary to what many teachers and concerned citizens believe, textmessaging and "textese" (a nascent dialect of English that subverts letters and numbers to produce ultra-concise words and sentiments) actually improves language skills.

clipped from www.newsweek.com The Death of English (LOL) In an experiment, the more adept children were at text messaging, the better they did in spelling and writing. Those raising the alarm aren't linguists. They're teachers who have had to red-pen some ridiculous practices in high-school papers and concerned citizens who believe it their moral duty to write grammar books. Britain's most prolific linguist finally sets a few things straight. David Crystal's "Txtng: the Gr8 Db8" (Oxford) makes two general points: that the language of texting is hardly as deviant as people think, and that texting actually makes young people better communicators, not worse.

The article raises many interesting points, one point being that textmessaging actually improves language skills. What is your opinion? Does textmassaging improve language skils? Why/why not? How, in your opinion, does "textese" influence the Norwegian language?

The growing and dominating world language

In the future, I see a much more connected and united world. I guess the English language will dominate more, and become the second language in several countries, especially in the western world. Therefore, it’ll be very important to learn to speak, write and understand English. In Norway, English is a very important subject at our schools. Germany and Spain, on the other hand, don’t put so much time and energy to learn English. But I’m certain this will change. I believe they will turn to English. The same will happen in China. Due to international events like the Olympic Games, and the growing use of internet, the Chinese people will get to know the English language better. The consequences are; English will grow and become the language that connects the world. It will, as Eli wrote in her blog, become ”the language of communication”.

My hypothesis above is the foundation of my next thoughts. I believe that we in the future, no matter what job we get, have to use English on a daily base. If you add the extreme acceleration of vacations and travelling, you are forced to talk English. However, I think this increasing use of English is healthy. If more and more countries start to have English as second language, the relationship between different lands and cultures will be better. In this connection our future jobs will include a lot of English. A professor have to write his papers in English to get bigger attention, a construction-worker will work with people who don’t know Norwegian, and therefore talk English and receptionists and other service occupations will serve people talking English. Also politician is a profession that use English, and should improve their English to an international standard!

An important part of how we meet and use English on a daily basis is through the internet. As Lisa wrote, 85 % of all internet pages are in English. Almost every Norwegian student use English web pages through school, through work and through the computer at home. Online games, network societies, video-channels and information websites are among the most popular. This makes a regular Norwegian youth read, hear and use English on daily basis.

Norwegian television is invaded by English speaking comedy-, drama-, action- and reality-series. Especially after school there are a lot of sitcoms. In the evening on weekdays there are drama-series, reality- and action-series. Personally I watch tons of English-speaking TV-series, and I expect I’m not alone. Luckily, these series aren’t dubbed, as they are in Germany and Spain. However, is this use of American and English TV-programs good to the Norwegian language? These English-speaking series are cheap to send, and get lots of viewers. Of course the television stations do what they do. But I think it’s good that we produce our own TV-series as well. Maybe the television stations should have a bigger focus on producing Norwegian programs?

Can new Norwegian TV-series like “Himmelblå” and “Hvaler” by the Norwegian television stations NRK and TV2 compete with the American TV-series like “The Wire”, “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy”?


Anyway, the English language is taking over Norway. But maybe we should limit the development? We don’t want to be a copy of America. At the same time it’s important not to build a wall around our country and hide inside metal-doors. We should be open, we should learn to speak, write and understand English, and simultaneously protect our unique Norwegian way of living, speaking, eating and thinking.

Further reading: - Read professor Svein Lies article in Aftenposten about English language in the Norwegian society. The article is in Norwegian.
http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/article463506.ece

When do we use English?

Every where you go, you`ll see something in English. For excemple when you buy some electronic, you will find the instructions book sometimes just in English and Germanic. And in our language we find some English words, so we use English words everyday!

In my future profession I`ll use English very often. Because I`ll be a teacher. And then I have to take some English.

In my future I`ll use English mostly everyday. And I think it would be fun, cause I like to speak English, I`m not good, but I like it, and thats more important for me.

I have to choose someone who will write on the blogg next week.. And that person will be John-Berge. Sorry, but I have to choose someone><

Exchange students

Image by ! *S4N7Y* ! via Flickr

Four of our students have decided to spend a year abroad as exchange students. If you are interested in learning a little about what it is like to live abroad for a year you can check out the links listed under "our exchange students". Feel free to ask them questions or comment on their posts if you like.

When do we use English?

Image by obieta via Flickr Most people come into contact with English one way or another every day. For example, at least 85% of the pages on the internet are in English. Two thirds of scientific papers are written in English, and three quarters of all mail sent is in English.

Can you think of ways that you are exposed to the English language in everyday life? What about in your future profession? In what ways do you think you will use the English language in the future?

"The language of communication"

The English language is like deceases. Like a decease that is pushing it’s way through everywhere. If you don’t understand this language, you’re a step behind the rest of the world. That’s why we don’t have a choice. To follow the big English-speaking countries and their development, we must learn to communicate in English as early as possible!

We start learning English already in first grade, maybe even before that. We are watching English TV-programs all the time, listens to English music and sometimes even use English words when we’re talking. The English language has taken over our world, and there is nothing to do with it. Like I mentioned, in today’s world we don’t get to choose. We can’t just say; “Now we want Norwegian to be the international language”. I guess, some time in the history a choice was made by some stubborn Americans or maybe even Englishmen. They probably thought they were the centre of the world, which qualified their language to be the “language of the world”. And that’s how it became. Well, that might be a bit exaggeration, but I’m no expert in English history either.

What is for certain is that English has spread around the world even faster than Mc Donald’s. It has become the most widespread language in the world. Every time I think of reasons to explain exactly why it is as important as it is, I think of a well known commercial that has been shown a lot around the world. The one I am talking about is from the company “Berlitz”. Watch this:


Not only is this commercial hysterically funny, it has some very important points as well. There is a need for international language, because of the growing development in international companies. Misunderstandings like this could be dangerous.

The world has become smaller. The distances are getting shorter. We can speak to people in USA and China as if they were sitting right next to us. English is called “the language of communication”, and I think we should be very pleased we are having this way to communicate. How would the world look like today, if everyone spoke different languages, and nobody really understood each other?
That’s not easy to answer, that’s for sure.

Double click any word...

Image by bella lago via Flickr If you are having trouble with the vocabulary used in this blog, you can double-click any word in the posts and will then be directed to a dictionary giving you the explanation of the word.

Why English?

Most students in Norway start learning English quite early. Some as early as 1st grade, and it is a compulsory subject even in upper secondary school. Why do you think it is considered such an important subject?

English Blog

Hi and welcome to our English Blog.

This blogg is meant as a supplement to our wiki and lms (it's learning). Primarily we will use this to discuss different topics and curriculum goals for our course.