I have an idea. Let’s start some new expressions that do not sound as lame as those we came up with in recent years. Here are just a few:

Don’t go there: Is there anyone who disagrees that this is just overused to the point of being nauseating? And wherever “there” is, “don’t go there” seems always to be a warning. Next time someone says, “don’t go there” to you, be sure to take the trip.

It’s all good: Ok I could agree that a lot of it is good. But is it really ALL good? I don’t think so. If you disagree, next time someone says “it’s all good” smack him in the head and ask, “what that good?”

My bad: This is the worst expression yet. Just how far can we push the English language until it becomes something else? When someone uses this expression, “my bad”, they typically haven’t done anything very bad. Usually it’s just a small error or insignificant mistake. So, next time someone says, “my bad” tell them, “no, your mediocrity” and that should cover it all.

What up: Do I even need to explain just how offensive this is to those of us who can actually form words and put them together into something intelligible?

When did waitresses and waiters start asking at the finish of a meal, “still pickin’”? That is just irritating. It implies many things and none of them are very good. To name a few, “still pickin’” may imply:

1. Aren’t you finished with this table YET?
2. You are a slow eater!
3. I’m watching you and attempting to ascertain exactly when you might give up your plate
4. I care if you eat too slowly
5. Even though you are a guest of this establishment, your time here is limited
6. When you eat, you do not have good manners, rather you pick at your food which is distasteful
7. Pckin’? You’re wasting my time! GET OUT!

Regardless of which meaning you infer the reality is, “still pickin’” is just rude. So to all you servers out there who have learned from those before you, STOP IT.

While we are talking about restaurants, I will address how a customer feels when they enter into a restaurant alone and the first thing they hear is “only one?” Immediately after being led to a table that is set for two, the hostess takes away the “other silverware” stating, “you won’t be needing THIS!” further emphasizing that you are alone. Then to make matters worse, the server comes and asks “will anyone be joining you?” Years ago, some restaurants required that you wear a tie and jacket to eat in their establishment. Why not carry that over and if you are alone, you must where a hat that says, “loser is alone”. Wow I feel good!

I eat alone in restaurants often and have no problem doing so. Sometimes, you are inevitably alone and coincidentally hungry in a place that is not your kitchen. Hence the reasoning behind eating in a restaurant “alone”. But do they have to emphasize just how disappointed they are that server 3 will not have a big tip from you today and that your overall bill will be half of what it “should” be?

BUS BOY: “ARE YOU FINISHED WITH THAT?”

Me: “No, but you can have some if you like.

BUS BOY: “No, I just wanted to clear your plate”

Me: “Why?”

(We actually PAY to be treated like this!) and we do it all the time.

I ate in a very excellent Pizza Restaurant last year. The pizza is excellent I should say. My friend and I sat down, ordered a pizza and a salad and two beers. The pizza was brought out and before either of us could take a slice, a bus boy came over and asked, “would you like a box for that?” Astonished I said, “no, we haven’t even started eating yet.” He said, “sorry, I thought you were finished.” Less than a minute later, having eaten a bite of my slice of pizza, a lady ( I am not sure what her job was) walked over and asked, may I take your plate?” I said, “certainly you may but before you do, will the owner mind if I eat on the table cloth?” She said, Oh I’m sorry, I thought you were finished.” My response was, “yes it seems to be the trend” I don’t think she got that. My friend thought it was quite hilarious and began choking on his pizza. This was because, while this restaurant is usually very busy, we were the only patrons in the place. Perhaps the rest of the customers got their food taken away before it even came out and they left without paying their bill. There’s probably a warrant out for their arrest.

So, I ask “what ever happened to thinking about what you do?” Is that really too much to expect? As I write this I am deep in thought driving down the main road of my town. Although I must glance up intermittently I type with thoughtfulness. Is this a lost art? Does anyone out there think about what they do? I have to close here because I am just about out of battery.

WITHOUT SPANISH, THE FILIPINO WILL BE DISFIGURED
Guillermo Gómez Rivera

That is what many of our thinkers and heroes and nationalist writers have affirmed. One of them is Claro M. Recto. He was the one who said that “without Spanish, the Filipino will be disfigured”. He even added that without Spanish, the Filipino will be led to lose all his rights and will be led unto sophisticated forms of slavery, oppression, and poverty.

Senator Mariano Jesús Cuenco said that “only an anti-Filipino will work to eliminate the teaching of Spanish to the students in High School and College…” He added: “A Filipino, be he poor or rich, and more so if he is an educator, who works for the abolition of the teaching of Spanish, is a bad Filipino…”

The two statements coming from two great Filipinos complement one another because what they say is true.

Even former National Language Institute Director, José Villa Pañganiban, wrote that “the teaching of English, Spanish, and the native tongue in our schools contribute to compleat the Filipino identity and personality…”

It is then an established fact that those who are against Spanish are either bad or ignorant Filipinos. Or both.

A Minister of the Marcos regime declared, over TV and what was later called the controlled press, that Spanish is “useless because I find no use for it in my daily life…”

Irked by this official declaration, a young Hispanista asked him: “Are your first and last names not Spanish?”

“Yes,” answered the Minister.

“Don’t you use your Spanish hame and surname everyday? And when you want your bus to stop, don’t you say para?”

The Minister could not answer. He was proven wrong. Spanish is being used by Filipinos everyday, either partially or entirely because it is part of the national patrimony.

Spanish forms a good part of every major native language or dialect in the Philippines. The study of any of our native languages would not be possible without a previous knowledge of Spanish. This explains why Tagalog, called “Pilipino”, has not really advanced as a tool of education and science because the so-called “puristas” have been trying to undress it of its Spanish basis. The use of Lope K. Santos’ “Balarilà”, noted for its mispelling of Spanish words in Tagalog and the invention of new words to replace those of Spanish origin, is the principal cause of the stagnation of Tagalog as the basis of the national language project. Instead of spreading fast a national language, the “puristas” wasted time and money to first overhaul Tagalog of its Spanish influence.

We point this out to show that whenever Filipinos, involved in what could be a good project, turn instead to eliminate Spanish influence, the project they have fails. ¡Mga buisit!

In effect, there is an old Filipino tradition that teaches younger Filipinos not to despise Spanish, because to do so is to court bad luck, buisit. It is related to a prophesy (hulà). The Filipino should love the Spanish language because it is his language. He should study it with interest and not be ashamed to speak it always together with his other tongues. Filipino history, identity, culture, and literature are in Spanish.

Aside from having Spanish as part of his heritage, the Filipino youth should also know that Spanish is also an international language. It is the second language of the USA. It is the principal language of 1/3 of North America, the whole of Central America and the Caribbean countries, and the whole of South America (except most parts of Brazil), not to mention many countries of Europe and Africa. For trade, labor emigration, diplomacy, and the development of the professions, Spanish is important.

Aside from studying Spanish in classes, students will do better if they, by themselves, also make efforts to study Spanish outside of schools. To help them, they should encourage the inclusion of Spanish in publications and TV shows.

*******

This short motivational essay for students was taken from the textbook La Flor de Manila y Lecciones (Español Estructural) which was published in the late 1970s. I just made some very minor edits.

There are many times when you feel the need of improving and enhancing or editing English the proper way in order to cater your customers in a better way. Perfect and clear English helps you put forward your message to the clients very clearly. They in return will understand the services and products offered by you in a better way. So online editing companies solves you purpose in the most efficient way. These companies like www.oleng.com.au are very expert in developing the best English manuscript for you in the shortest span of time and they will at the same time give you the best value for your money. Online editing must be done from reliable source as this document and manuscript will speak your mind out to your customers. You will surely benefit by being a part of their clientele as they put in a lot of effort and endeavor to your project. They have a huge customer base of returning customers who are very satisfied the work done by them. They offer you the best editing services available online and you will be wonderstruck by the perfection they give you on your project. These editing services give you the latest in the technology and the best of price so that you get the best of both the world. This company is in the business for a long time now and their customers can vow by the excellent editing service they received this firm. Their editing service is very elaborate and effective which will make sure that you get cent percent perfect work.

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Most intriguing post for me is

Find this one and more at at http://www.duperrin.com/english/2010/01/03/links-for-this-week-weekly-30

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• Checking out Bertrand Duperrin’s Your knowledge helps you more than your productivity (fredzimny.wordpress.com)

(This is a picture of William Tucker in a blue shirt accepting a membership award from the Council Of Conservative Citizens. This award is given to the most active and influential members of the year. This award was given out at the C Of CC National Conference 2009 in Jackson, Mississippi.)

We at the National Capital Area Council Of Conservative Citizens encourage you join with us in remembrance of East Tennessee C Of CC Director William Tucker who passed away during New Years. He was a Conservative and Patriot and had unmatched talent in our movement. He was instrumental in promoting the C Of CC in East Tennessee and played a key role in helping to set up the National Capital Area C Of CC Web Site. William Tucker will be missed and will never be replaced in our movement. We pledge to work hard this year to promote the C Of CC and to carry on the William Tucker legacy in 2010! William Tucker RIP

.
<a href=" .”>هذا الموضوع عبـارة دليل مبسط ومرجع شامل لكل مايخص الخرائط الذهنية
وكل مايتعلق بتعلم اللغة الإنجليزية (وأيضا تخصص اللغة الانجليزية و آدابها)
عن طريق استخدام هذه الخرائط.

Title: Poison Chocolate
Artist: Saki Otoh/Yamamoto Kana
Circle: Negahyst
Parody: Katei Kyoushi Hitman REBORN!
Language: English
Pairing: Hibari x Tsuna
Rate: 18+
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?0kgodmozz4z

Have a great new years eve and all the best in 2010.

We have already gone over some strange English dialects on this site in past posts. One tiresome canard that is oft-repeated is that US English speakers have a hard time understanding other US English speakers. This is usually said by Europeans. This is a misunderstanding of the dialectal nature of US English. The most divergent dialects of US English have long ago merged in something called dialect convergence. We already discussed New York English on the site.

As I noted, a young Italian man from Queens came to the Sierra Nevada in California recently and enrolled at a local college. For 3 months, people could hardly understand him. He finally learned to speak California dialect and make himself understood. Really, what he did was drop his outrageous New York English dialect.

What was interesting was that the guy could not seem to accomodate the listeners very well. People would ask him to repeat, speak slower, etc. but nothing seemed to work. And after 3 months of regularly listening to him, most listeners hardly understood him better than on Day One.

To me, these are strong suggestions that we are dealing with a separate language (albeit a very closely related one) and not simply a dialect. Speakers of a separate language have a hard time adjustting their speech to make it understood better, and listeners of a separate language usually don’t understand it much better with time than on the first day. With dialects, things are different. Dialect speakers can modify speech and be understood and listeners of dialects can start to pick it up a lot better in a short period of time.

An example of a dialect of English would be South African English. I recently met a fellow speaking a very thick S.A. English dialect. I could understand him all right, every word in fact, but it was one Hell of a thick accent! To show you how these things go, the woman behind the counter couldn’t really understand the guy, and I had to interpret for him.

AAVE (Ebonics) is quite different, and I think it’s a separate language in its hard form. I recently spent a few hours with two young Black women speaking AAVE. I didn’t understand them any better at the end of 3 hours than at the start. And they may as well have been speaking Greek. They couldn’t really adjust their AAVE to make it better understood (I think they don’t want to be understood, really) but they could drop the AAVE at a moment’s notice and speak perfect English.

There is actually some support among linguists for splitting off AAVE into a separate language. It’s probably not happening for political reasons. Could you imagine the howls from the rightwingers and the gales of laughter from the anti-Black racists if they did? I can see it now: “Niggers speak a foreign language! LOL! I always thought so myself!”

My Mom recently heard a fisherman from the coast of Newfoundland on the radio for several minutes and she said she couldn’t understand a word. There are some Newfoundland English dialects that are quite hard to hear.

There is a Youtube video about continuing slavery in the US. I’m not sure what it’s all about, but it looks like work in return for room and board in the deepest Mississippi Delta. There are Blacks on that video speaking a very deep Mississippi Delta Black dialect that can scarcely be understood.

Mulungeon English (especially Monacan Indians) and West Virginia Appalachian English (hard forms) can be quite hard to understand.

We can understand almost all Australian and New Zealand English. It’s often one Hell of an English accent (especially with the Australians), but they can definitely be understood. However, on the radio I recently heard a speaker of a Tasmanian Australian English dialect. She was from a rural forested area and was protesting logging in her area. I had a hard time understanding that dialect.

I would be all for making West African English (at least the hard forms of it) separate languages. On US TV, African English from Kenya and Liberia gets subtitles.

We’ve already discussed the Scots language on this site before. That Scots is now judged a separate language and not an English dialect drives many English speakers into wild conniptions. You can Google the controversy on the Net and watch the wild, raging debates unfold over many pages. I’m not sure why it pisses speakers of a major language so much when divergent dialects are split off into separate languages. Maybe it’s a primal thing.

There’s only been one scientific study done, but it found 42% intelligibility of Scots by a US English speaker. Sounds about right, but I’m surprised it’s that high. I can often barely make out much of anything of Scots, just words here and there.

At this point it ought to be quite clear that Scots is more than one language. In the heart of Scotland, you go 20 miles in any direction and the other Scots speakers won’t understand you. I wonder if there is some kind of “Standard Scots” that could be spoken that would be understood everywhere?

I would like to start the debate off by proposing that Shetlandic Scots and Orcadian Scots be split off from Scots proper. It’s uncontroversial that these are the most wildly divergent Scots dialect, and they have poor intelligibility to speakers of the rest of Scots. Orcadian Scots is spoken on the Orkney Islands and Shetlandic Scots is spoken on the Shetlandic Islands.

Shetlandic and Orcadian Scots have poor intelligibility with Standard Scots.

As far as the rest of British English, we can understand most of you Limey bastards, believe it or not. However, I have a very hard time with Midlands English. I definitely get less than 90% of it and I don’t get better with time either.

Two of the most infernal English dialects have to be Geordie and Scouse. They are also quite famous.

Geordie is spoken in the far northeast of England near the Scottish border in and around Newcastle. Other dialects around that region like Cumbrian and Northumbrian are similar. Geordie is famous for being one of the hardest English accents to understand. There is actually some support among linguists for splitting it off to a separate language.

Scouse is the notorious, but delightful, dialect of Liverpool. In mild forms, it’s what comes out of the Beatles’ mouths in interviews. In hard form, it’s extremely difficult to understand. There is a report on the Net of a US English speaker who spent 7-8 years in Liverpool and never learned to understand Scouse very well. He said that young working class women were the worst. I’d be in favor of splitting this infernal dialect off into a separate language, but it’ll probably never happen. Can you imagine the shrieks?

Comparing the growth and decline of slang terms, neologisms and popular catch-phrases using the relative volumes of Google Search requests. (Click on individual charts to go to Google Insights, where you can adjust scale and filter by country, etc.)

• Gen-Z: Generation born after 2001, usually the children of Gen-Xers. (Also called “iGeneration”, “Net Generation”, etc)
• Chillax/Chillaxin’: Portmanteau combining Chill/Chillin’ and Relax.
• Phresh: Blending of Phat and Fresh.
• Frenemy: Combination of Friend and Enemy. Someone you’re on “friendly” terms with out of social necessity, (e.g. common friends, common workplace) — but are secretly enemies, a sentiment which can be either mutual or one-sided.

• Shizzle / Shiz: “Fo’ Shizzle” = “For Sure”, e.g. “Fo’ Shizzle My Nizzle” = “For Sure Mah Nigga”. Emerged from hip-hop & street-slang substitutions/neologisms. Newer usage, e.g. “The Shiz” seems more closely related to “The Shit”, i.e. something good. The noun-form, “the Shizzle”, achieves pop-consciousness in 04/05 — while “the shiz” emerges in late 05. However, “Fo’ shiz/shizzle” remains vastly more popular than “the shiz/shizzle”. [See comparison]
• “That’s What She Said”: Canned reply to a sexual double-entendre. Further popularized by TV show “The Office” (US version). Introduced early in its second season — but not exploding in pop-consciousness until the third season.
• “Off The Hook”: Originally meaning something fresh and new, now simply meaning “cool” or “awesome”, etc.
• “Keeping It Real”: To remain authentic; token opposition to consumer culture; to remain true to your roots, values and/or beliefs; to do nothing at all, i.e. to chillax.

• Wassup/Wazzup/Whassup: i.e. “What’s up?” Popularized by Budweiser ad-campaign 1999-2002. Exaggerated pronunciation for ironic effect. [Video: original ad.]
• “Crazy Talk”: A ridiculous or unrealistic idea or proposition.
• Cash-Money: i.e. fiat currency in paper form. Cash in hand. Popularized in gangsta-rap and hip-hop.
• “Show Me The Money”: Catch-phrase from the abominable 1996 film “Jerry Maguire”. Recently the title of a short-lived ABC game show hosted by William Shatner.

• “Bad Ass”: Tough, rebellious and/or good/cool.
• Mofo: Shortened form of “motherfucker”. Was 2009 the year of the Mofo?
• “Stay The Course”: Macho catch-phrase from the Reagan/Bush era, revived by Bush Jr to explain the post-invasion “strategy” of indefinitely occupying Iraq and Afghanistan — as opposed to “cutting and running.”
• “Tramp Stamp”: A tattoo on a woman’s lower back. Usually banal and/or tasteless, often belying a deeper sense of cultural alienation and/or spiritual consumerism. Asian-language characters, Sanscrit, Celtic/tribal/primitivist designs, butterflies/fairies/dragonflies are all popular choices. See: “tramp stamp stigma.”
• Douchebag(s): Quickly becoming the pejorative-of-choice in reference to obvious (and oblivious) “hipsters”, superficial (yet opinionated) fools, hipper-than-thou fashion-victims, and abhorrent people in general. See chart below — the simmering association with “hipster” finally breaks-out in mid-07:

• “You Got Served”: i.e. You were just shown how to do something properly. Similar to “pwned”. Intended to be humiliating — implies a lack of ability.
  
• “Yes We Can”: Team Obama’s appropriation of “Si Se Puede”, the United Farm Workers slogan originated by Cesar Chavez & Delores Huerta, circa 1972.
• Pwn / Pwned: Mis-typed “Own” / “Owned” — from online gamer slang. An insult following a comprehensive defeat.
• Noob(s): i.e. Newbie, New person, new user, new member, etc. Someone who appears clueless. Originally an online term from the BBS era. [80's/90's online culture is also where "leetspeak" -- alternate spellings/substitutions -- stems from, e.g. pwn, d00d, pron, teh, E1it3, war3z; as well as early chat-specific acronyms such as "brb" -- be right back.]
• Bromance: (or “man-crush”) a close friendship between two heterosexual males. Used as the title of a short-lived MTV show.

Other Slang/Linguistic trends and Neologisms:

• Sexting: Sending sexually explicit txts, or more subtle txts requesting a “hook up”. Takes off massively in 09.
  
• Emo: Definitive youth subculture of the 00’s. Emotionally fragile, gothy/pop-punk-y, melodramatic, often humourless, and always pessimistic — with group-bonding through niche consumerism and easy-listening music. (Much-maligned as a result.) Elements of gender-confusion/androgyny, gestures of self-harming, victimhood-festishization, etc. Interest grows strongly from early-05, and peaks in May-08. See also: Mexico Anti-Emo Riots, 2008… Eeyore from ‘Winnie The Pooh’.
• AfPak (or “Af/Pak”): Breaks-out mid-Feb, ‘09. Washington policy-wonks’ media-seeded terminology (through journos such as David Ignatius of WaPo.) A psyop aimed at creating a pop-consciousness association between the US occupation of Afghanistan and the supposed “necessity” of a future intervention in Pakistan. [Read my Af/Pak posts here.]
• Unfriend: Social Networking term for deleting a “friend” from your list. Growing steadily in 08/09 — then a Nov-09 spike as Oxford Dictionary ridiculously chooses it as their “word of the year”. ["Frenemy" would be a more organic and sophisticated term which reflects on the evolving dynamics of the social battlefield.]
• Lol: Online/txt abbreviation for: “Laugh Out Loud.” Rising steadily.
• IMO: “In My Opinion”. Grows rapidly during 08/09, peak interest occurs Sept-09. An earlier form, “IMHO” (in my humble opinion) has not experienced growth but is still part of the Zeitgeist.
• WTF: “What the fuck?” Growing steadily.
• Lmao: “Laughing my ass off.” Rising steadily, accelerated growth in interest since late-08.

adioms,proverbs and allusions

English idioms,proverbs and allusions are an important part of  the English language and English culture.To learners of english as a foreign language they are often hard to understand and harder to use correctly because they are culture rich language items.To learn them means to learn not only words and grammar but also the underlying culture .This is by no means easy.However,their proper use is often a mark of one’s command of English.It is worth while to make efforts to learn them well.