News
Keeping up with changes in the English language
by susie on May.09, 2009, under News
Colloquialisms. Some are just slang words and whilst it’s good to understand their meaning, it’s not necessarily good to put them into practice! A good example of this is the word ‘Buff’. For example, one could say “That new guy in our class is well buff’. This is an adjective which, in youth slang, means attractive or well-toned. Somebody who is buff has an attractive body, they look ‘fit’.
I guess one of the difficult things for anyone trying to learn English, and trying to keep up with the latest vocabulary, is the fact that some words seem to have so many different, and totally unrelated meanings. How on earth are they supposed to know which is the correct meaning?
Well, of course, context is important. By looking at the context in which you see or hear the word, you should be able to work out which meaning is most likely when you look it up. ‘Buff’ is one of those words which has several meanings and whose latest meaning may not be in your dictionary at all.
As a noun it is often used to describe a person who is really into a particular hobby or pastime. It’s usually combined with the word describing the hobby, so a film buff is someone who really loves film and probably knows quite a lot about it. The word buff here implies an enthusiastic or almost obsessional interest in something.
As a verb ‘to buff’ means to polish or shine something with a cloth, to give something a shiny finish. This meaning is said to come from the word buffalo, an animal whose skin was used for leather and this leather was in turn often used to polish metal objects. From there came the adjective ‘buff’ meaning a dull yellow colour, the colour of the buffalo leather.
And more recently, as an adjective it has come to mean ‘attractive’ or ‘fit’. It’s not exactly clear why. Perhaps because a well-toned, tanned, fit person may look buff, like they’ve just been ‘buffed’, so they have a kind of ‘polished’ look.
There is one last expression with ‘buff’ which you should probably know, and that is ‘in the buff’ – it means naked, with no clothes on. This might be because the original meaning of buff referred to leather or skin so ‘in the buff’ means just in our skin.
A generation of children unable to speak English properly
by susie on Apr.12, 2009, under News
The drive to improve literacy in schools has killed the subject of English and left a generation of children unable to speak properly, a teachers’ leader warned today.
According to Mary Bousted, the General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, pupils no longer read whole books or write in class for pleasure, but instead analyse “extracts” for tests. She said ”My subject, English, is no more. It has been replaced by a newcomer - literacy - which as a subject is based on the naming of parts. Children rarely read whole books. They read parts of books - extracts.”
Dr Bousted complained that children had lost the chance to learn how to talk and listen to others under the Government’s literacy strategy. There is wider growing concern among authors over the erosion of literature studies and employers have complained about school-leavers’ weak communication skills. For example, pupils are no longer required to study whole Shakespeare plays in detail, but can rely on revising sections from extracted scenes.
Inspectors have warned that poetry is a dying subject in too many schools, while Michael Rosen, the Children’s Laureate, has criticised the Government for failing to promote reading for fun.
English - “the language of communication”
by susie on Apr.08, 2009, under News
Why learn English? Approximately 1,500,000,000 people in the world speak English and 600,000 people come to the UK every year to learn the language. Knowing English opens up doors all over the world and English is unquestionably “the language of communication”.
Speaking English can enhance your experience of visiting the UK, by enabling you to communicate more effectively and therefore making getting around easier and more enjoyable. Making polite conversation on the tube, asking for directions, asking for help in a shop or buying a train ticket can be made easier by merely knowing the basics in English. The buzz of being understood is an amazing feeling.
Understanding English can also help you communicate with people worldwide. English is spoken in over 100 countries around the globe and is often the language of choice in politics, at conferences, in major television broadcasts, publications and so on. It’s a huge advantage to be able to communicate in English and the 600,000 foreigners who come to the UK every year to learn it certainly agree.
