If you’re writing on Twitter in Spanish, don’t forget to use accents in the hashtags. So says one of Fundéu BBVA’s latest recommendations to help speakers navigate the pitfalls of using the language online.
Clever or confusing?
Whenever I pass through Mallorca’s airport, I see a large poster for the popular Palma Aquarium. It rattles me every time (not just because of the random capitals) because I’m not sure if the straplines are clever or just confusing.
Learn 1000 words…
…in another language. Yep, that’s the catch (if you see it as a catch, that is). Speak to the Future, the campaign for languages supported by organisations like the Chartered Institute of Linguists, has set up the 1000 Words Challenge.
When copy makes you go ‘bleurgh’
Sometimes, tongue-in-cheek web copy works really well. Other times, when not viewed in context with other content, it just makes you go ‘yuck’.
If you’re going to do it, do it correctly
Aaah, mobile phones. The ease with which they let us copywriters feed our grouchiness with sloppy language and questionable grammar.
Christmas card fun
When I’m not web copywriting, I like to have a little doodle and also work on my languages (out of both interest and necessity living in Spain and marrying into a German family).
Putting the ‘Valentine’ into the day
In case you missed it, it’s Valentine’s Day. So how about a bit of word fun with a look at the origin of ‘Valentine’?
Our fascinating alphabet
Lots of things fascinate me about the way we communicate with the written word. I’ve recently stumbled across a few alphabet-related facts that might interest you too.
Browsing in a local bookshop, I was delighted to find the Diccionario del origen de las palabras (‘Dictionary of the origin of words’)*. I’ve been looking for an English equivalent for some time, but without success.
Anyway, under abecedario, I found out that our Latin ‘alphabet’ takes its name from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. In contrast, abecedario refers to abcd (a, be, ce, de), the first four letters of the Latin system.
So, abecedario is the actual name for the collection of Latin letters that we use. Here in Spain, it is often used interchangeably with alfabeto when referring to the alphabet. (I can’t find a different English translation of abecedario – is there one? Or did it get lost on the way to the UK?)
I then spotted a post on the origins of abc …
The sad decline of languages in UK schools
I mean the decline of taught, modern foreign languages, not sweary bad language (I’m sure that’s probably still learnt and applied with enthusiasm).
This article in the Guardian, Who still wants to learn languages?, raises a few key points from recent studies, as well as interesting observations. In summary:
Funding for languages has been cut and departments are closing across the education spectrum, from schools to universities. Since language learning was made optional after the age of 14 in 2004, numbers have been dropping. (Just in state schools? The article’s not clear.) There’s a sharp distinction between provision at state schools and at independents (“38 per cent of 14-year-olds in the state sector were studying one modern language and 1.9 per cent were studying two; 99 per cent of 14-year-olds at independents studied at least one language”). As a result, “the experience of other cultures is now confined to an elite”. Languages are losing out in the (short-term) education market because they are a long-term choice in terms of …
Language learning: a great leveller
Learning a new language is one of those great activities that reduces the differences between people. It doesn’t matter what job you do, where you’re from or how much you earn; once you’re thrown together to grasp a new language, everyone’s in the same boat.
This occurred to me while reading one of a series of blog posts in The Guardian by writer Will Self. There’s something reassuring in reading about how a distinguished wordsmith experiences the same challenges in mastering another language (in his case, French) as everyone else.
I can definitely relate to this comment:
I’ve noticed how acutely geared to my general wellbeing my ability to speak French has become: on days when I’m rested and in good spirits, I feel like a saucy Maurice Chevalier in the making, but on down days I’m Antonin Artaud, brokenly raging in a straitjacket of received English locutions.
Some days, I feel as though I could talk forever and my Spanish friends seem to understand me. Other days, …