uTalk Election: a guide to political jargon
It’s General Election Day here in the UK, and as (hopefully) everyone heads to the polls to cast their vote, we’ve been considering some of the strange vocabulary associated with politics. Sometimes it can seem like a whole new language, so we’ve put together a little guide to a few of our favourites. Has anyone got any more examples to add?
Psephology
The scientific study of historical voting and voting patterns. The word is derived from the Greek psēphos which means pebble; the ancient Greeks used pebbles in voting.
Gerrymandering
When the borders of an electoral constituency are changed, resulting in an increased number of people in that area who’ll vote for a particular party or candidate.
Manifesto
From the Italian word meaning ‘clear’ or ‘obvious’, in election terms a manifesto is a public statement of a party or candidate’s intentions and promises, should they be elected.
Chiltern Hundreds
Members of Parliament aren’t officially allowed to resign their seat, so in order to do it they have to go through a legal procedure known as ‘taking the Chiltern Hundreds’. This involves them being elected to an ‘office of profit’, which means they can’t be an MP any more. The procedure was invented by John Pitt in 1750, when he was appointed as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds in order to resign his seat and take another.
Hung Parliament
This is what happens when no party gets a clear majority and therefore can’t form a government, so one or more parties may form a coalition – as happened in the UK in 2010 – or another election may be necessary.
Red Lines
The promises made by a party that they won’t change and on which they’re not prepared to negotiate, even if they find themselves part of a coalition government.
Landslide
When one party wins by a large majority: a landslide of votes.
Purdah
The period immediately before an election, usually six weeks. During this time, there are restrictions on the announcement of new government initiatives or policy decisions, which could give one party an advantage over others.
Floating voters
People who haven’t quite made up their minds yet on who to vote for – and who are therefore a target for campaigning candidates.
Swithering
Much like a floating voter, this is someone who switches their allegiance from one party to another in the run-up to the election.
Canvassing
Nothing to do with tents, this is when a candidate and their team speak to voters face to face (or sometimes by telephone) before an election. The main purpose of canvassing is to find out how people intend to vote and identify supporters.
If you’ve got an interesting word or phrase to add to our list, let us know in the comments!
Are you ever too old to learn a language?
As a small child, I was practically a real-life Harry Potter. Without the magic. Or the mean Aunt and Uncle. Okay, well really, the only similarity is that I spent a lot of my days in the cupboard under the stairs. Now, before you call the authorities, don’t worry. It was my favourite place! I had a comfy chair and my own TV and all the VHS tapes of awful 90s cartoons that a toddler could ever ask for!
Why is this relevant to EuroTalk I hear you ask?! Well, it was here, sat watching Tots TV, that I accidentally taught myself French! My parents had no idea, until one day I casually said to my Mum ‘Bonjour, Je m’appelle Codie! That means “Hello, my name is Codie”, Mummy!’. She was in shock. After all, what would you think if your three year old daughter started spouting French? Once I’d explained that I got it from Tilly (sorry to anyone born too early/late to understand the references here, YouTube it!), I was inundated with French books, tapes and excited relatives. Even the nurse at our local GP practice heard about my weird knowledge and insisted on making me count to ten in French whilst she gave me my injections. I was essentially a performing monkey – but I loved it!
Fast-forward a few years later and I’m in the second half of Primary School. We have a super cool substitute teacher who plays guitar and teaches us German. It takes him less than half an hour to teach an entire class of children to count to ten in German and 15 or so years later I still know it.
Fast-forward a few years even later and my adorable four year old nephew is counting to ten in Japanese! Something they learn at pre-school through the use of cute mnemonic devices (with even cuter actions!). Languages are being taught younger and younger and suddenly, my toddler French seems a whole lot less impressive.
So that leads me to wonder, am I too old to learn a language? I’m led to believe that the older you are, the harder it is to learn an instrument (well, at least I can sort of play the recorder, right?), so does this apply for other skills? I can’t do a cartwheel, so I figure that boat has sailed, but I did recently learn how to knit… badly. Do different things have different cut off points? As knitting is usually for old ladies, was I only able to learn it because I’m cracking on a bit now? (Maybe a slight exaggeration, I am only 23 after all.) Most importantly am I the right age to finally start learning a language? As I’m currently childless, I know it’s my biological clock I should be worried about, but I genuinely think it is being drowned out by the voice in my head that is yelling ‘What happened to the girl who was learning French before she could tie her shoes? What are you doing with your life?!’.
And that, my friends, is the existential crisis that has inspired me to try and learn Japanese, with the help of EuroTalk. Maybe I’ll shut myself in the cupboard under the stairs for old times’ sake!
Codiekinz is a twenty-something blogger from the South, currently masquerading as a Northerner. She makes YouTube videos and posts about life, books, travel and her bearded dragon, over at www.codiekinz.co.uk. She’ll also be using uTalk to learn Japanese, so keep an eye on her blog for updates!
You can also follow her on Twitter @CodieKinz
Photo credit: codiekinz.co.uk
Teenage Kicks: why language students aren’t listening
Today we welcome back language teacher Kelly, with some advice on engaging teenagers in language learning. Have you tried thinking outside the box with students? Tell us about it in the comments…
Another Brick In The Wall
Musicians have been flogging this particular dead horse for years: stop treating teenagers like an alien species that we have no relation to. Language teachers: take note.
Textbook learning: a one-trick pony
It doesn’t matter how much you enjoy language learning. Even the most enthusiastic learner will want to escape to a blanket fort at the prospect of studying purely from a textbook. And with good reason. Language textbooks, no matter the effort put into making them interesting, are one of the dullest resources to use when learning a language. And, incidentally, to teach one.
In my day…
Cast your mind back to your own time in school. Who doesn’t remember the tattered books on our desk with the rude scribblings in, the out of date ‘modern’ pictures and the stale, dated language that was being taught? There’s no easy way to jazz up your role play ordering of a baguette if you only know the standard fillings. Cheese? Ham? Tomato? Teacher: ever heard of Subway? We want to choose our own bread, avoid the olives, embrace the jalapeño and yes, of course we want it toasted.
If you can relate, pity the poor teenager in school as we speak.
Cue eye roll…
Being a teenager is an eventful enough time in your life; where’s the motivation to learn a language if all you get to talk about is school work and pets? Do you imagine that these are the only things teenagers discuss on Snapchat, Whatsapp or Kik? Have you never been on Tumblr?
Teenagers are just, as we are, feeling their way in the world. And what they are not feeling is the urge to learn languages when the methods of teaching are so out of touch. The issues that bother us are the same ones that bother them. So why not use that to a teaching advantage?
Attempting to change
A recent Guardian article looked at the ways in which an English exam board is planning on overhauling teaching languages using realia that teenagers can relate to and have a part of. Tattoos and tweets, authentic material foreign literature: things that are happening today.
For any ESL/EFL teacher out there, we hear you. We know. We have been saying this for years. If you use something relevant to the world around you to teach that your students can actively engage in, you’re going to get effective results. If you’ve ever taught at a language school with zero resources and had to make lessons out of nothing but your imagination, you’re probably looking down on the efforts being made to make language interesting in schools with well-founded ‘told-you-so’ disdain.
Teaching what matters
Teenagers – all students – want to learn about real, useable language, not tired, formal words and phrases that are technically correct but make you stand out like you’ve gone to a Slipknot gig in your preppy finest. There is nothing controversial about teaching people how people really speak; even within your own language you can learn something new every day. From colloquialisms to slang, language is a constantly evolving beast and we speakers are merely along for the ride. Digging our heels in and clinging on to the old ways is only going to result in hair (fur) pulling.
True learning comes from learning the basics and putting them into practice. Imagine learning the theory behind driving but never sitting behind the wheel of a car. Pointless and uninteresting. And while the theory is important – in the case of language, grammar and vocabulary – what is more important is putting it into practice. Role play how to find the post office all you want; what use is it if you’re needing directions to Primark on Oxford Street and you’re trying to navigate the Underground?
Kelly
How to be English: a beginner’s guide
Because there’s nothing the English do better than laugh at ourselves, we had a lot of fun yesterday putting together this beginner’s guide on how to be English.
Send us your suggestions and we’ll add our favourites!
How well do you know Saint George?
23rd April is a busy day. Besides being St George’s Day here in England, and the day of Sant Jordi in Catalonia, it’s also Shakespeare’s birthday, the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, World Book Day and UN English Language Day 2015. That’s a lot to pack into one day…
Are you celebrating anything today? We’d love to hear about it! And in the meantime, here’s a fun quiz to find out how much you know about the English patron saint. How did you do?
