Posts

What is EDM? Who is it making rich?

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Only the squarest will not know that EDM (electronic dance music) is what hipsters are tuning in to. And crucially dance music, as it was originally called in the UK in the 90s, has finally taken off in the USA. The big breakthrough came when concerts/event/raves/parties moved out of night clubs - only open to those over twenty-one in most American states - to stadiums where the top EDM DJs command vast sums for individual appearances. So lucrative have these club/stadium nights become that some of the biggest names - like members of the Swedish House Mafia -  now appear in the Forbes Rich list. Oldsters & the defiantly uncool will puzzled as to why playing records - or mixing sounds if we are to get technical - can earn upwards of $100,000 for a 90 minute show. But across the world these new sultans of swing will be helicoptering between stadia, hoovering up fortunes as they do. Personally I'm going to give bossing the decks a miss this year. I've made my millions

What is a pangram?

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A pangram is a sentence containing all 26 letters of the alphabet. The best know example is The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

What are the most common letters used in English?

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Scott Bryce  uses statistical analysis to provide Cryptogram fans/Scrabble players with a list of the most used letters in the English language: 1. E      12.51% 2. T 9.25 3. A 8.04 4. O 7.60 5. I 7.26 6 N 7.09 7. S 6.54 8. R 6.12 9. H 5.49 10. L 4.14 Interesting to note that there are four vowels in the top five, but 'u' is a surprisingly low 13th. More fun facts about the English language  here  (short audio with worksheet)

Is the importance of English overstated?

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A recent article challenges the idea that English is the unstoppable homogenizing world language  ...  it would also be a big mistake to overestimate the reach of English. Though it is widely assumed that the planet is becoming more linguistically homogeneous, hard evidence suggests otherwise. Most of the approximately six thousand languages in use today are indeed spoken by relatively small communities, nearly half by populations of less than ten thousand. Although a great many of these idioms are in danger of dying, many new languages and dialects are coming into existence as well. More broadly, there are a number of major world languages other than English, used by large portions of the planet’s inhabitants, in the context of dynamic social, cultural, and economic activities. Fifteen idioms are spoken by at least one hundred million people—including Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, Portuguese, and French. At around one billion, there are more than twice as many speakers

How do we learn language?

12 Key Political Terms for English Language Learners?

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With thanks to MyEnglishTeacher.eu

What is the 'fiscal cliff'?

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Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.   Mr Micawber in Charles Dickens David Copperfield (1850) The ' fiscal cliff ' is the phrase used by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to describe the situation US economy will face in January 2013 if political agreement is not reached in Washington. At that time a series of tax rises (the expiration of the 'Bush tax cuts') and spending cuts (part of a previous agreement) will take effect. As things stand the Democrats - including the freshly re-elected President - are refusing to cut expenditure on programs like Medicare. They insist on tax rises for 'the super rich' or 'millionaires and billionaires' as it expressed in electoral rhetoric. Both sides are hemmed in by the 'debt ceiling' - a legal limit to the amount that can be borrowed - and the a previous agr

Word for admirer of American culture?

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There does not seem to be an agreed term as you can see from the number of Google references here: yankophile 945 americanophile 716 americophile 233 americaphile 150 usaphile 14 usphile 1 Contrast this with the situation for lovers of French, English, Chinese or Japanese culture anglophile 102,000, francophile 84,700, japanophile 20,400, sinophile 3450 Why is this? Snobbery, perhaps - a 'new' culture looked down on by traditional ones? Or pure prejudice? Casual anti-Americanism is often indulged where  where other forms of bigotry are socially unacceptable. Or is it just linguistically awkward - americaphile really isn't a pretty word. You might want to check out:  (audio) discussion about the relationship between British and American English  here . Time Magazine piece on  The Next American Century The New American Century Alistair Cooke's America

How many letters does the Hawaiian language use?

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Only 12 letters when using the English alphabet. On 20 August, 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state of the USA. To mark the occasion here are some fun facts about the world's biggest producer of pineapples. listen to ‘Fun Facts about Hawaii’ on Audioboo

What is Dudeism?

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Look, let me explain something to you. I'm not Mr. Lebowski.  You're  Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude . So that's what you call me. That, or His Dudeness … Duder … or El Duderino, if, you know, you're not into the whole brevity thing.   On the face of it, the eponymous hero of  The Great Lebowksi  (1998) is an unlikely religious leader. According to the Cohen brothers film's tagline, the Dude is 'a lazy, time-wasting slacker'.  And by his own admission, Dude struggles to stay on top of life's vicissitudes. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head. Luckily I'm adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug regimen to keep my mind limber. At the centre of these 'what-have-you's' is the theft of a rug which - as every Dude admirer knows - 'really tied the room together'. And The Dude's quest to track it down forms the cen