From the category archives:

Language and Words in the News

Is there such a thing as ‘Japanese English’?

March 8, 2010

Jim Breen, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Clayton School of IT, Monash University, Australia, has sent us this guest post on ‘Japanese English’.
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The question of whether there is a ‘Japanese English’, that is a form of English spoken in Japan by the locals, is an occasional topic of discussion in the English-language press in Japan. [...]

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Language and words in the news – 6 March, 2010

March 6, 2010

This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like [...]

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Haiku competition

March 5, 2010

Our trip around the world in 80 Englishes continues and March is Japanese English month. So we’re all about spring and poetry!
We have a haiku competition going and the winning haiku will be given pride of place on the macmillandictionary.com home page!
Your haiku should answer the question: ‘What’s your English?’ and will be posted here [...]

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World Book Day

March 4, 2010

Today is World Book Day – the ‘biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK’. When I was a child, there was no such thing as World Book Day, but I would have loved it if there had been!
I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, absolutely devouring anything [...]

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Language is wine upon the lips

March 3, 2010

One of my favourite quotes is by Virginia Woolf: ‘Language is wine upon the lips’ she said to her husband Leonard one evening, over a bottle of Blue Nun. What a lovely sentiment. Profound, enigmatic, erotic. Note what she did not say. She did not say: ‘Language is Dr Pepper upon the lips.’ Woolf made [...]

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Gairaigo: help or hindrance?

March 2, 2010

March is Japanese English month. Our first guest post is just in from:
# Darren Elliott
# Location Nagoya, Japan
# Web www.livesofteachers.com
# Bio An Englishman teaching English in Japanese universities. Learner autonomy, technology, teacher development.
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It always strikes me as a little unfair to mark out a language as being ‘difficult’ to learn, but I have to admit [...]

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March – Japanese English month

March 1, 2010

It’s Japanese English month. I expect it to be poetic … I don’t have any real grounds for this expectation, it just seems to me that when Japanese meets English, poetry should happen.
Maybe some haikus.
We’ve had some great response from twitter followers and from bloggers, teachers and various peeps in Japan and we’re looking forward [...]

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Language and words in the news – 27 February, 2010

February 27, 2010

This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link [...]

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Get your paddles off my honk!

February 22, 2010

As a freelance editor and mother of two, I don’t get out much. Sad, but true – I’m usually tucked up in a cubby-hole with my laptop and dictionaries, or performing my motherly duties (for the uninitiated that currently includes sandwich making, a taxi service and washing boxer shorts!). Imagine my delight then when I [...]

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Language and words in the news – 19 February, 2010

February 19, 2010

This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include.
Global [...]

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