A hasty word on memory, autonomy, and evaluation

   

The coin is a silver Denarius from 32 BC. depicting Cleopatra on one side and Mark Anthony on the obverse. First off, we have always thought of Cleopatra as a breathtakingly beautiful woman and this coin seems to disavow that belief.

   The effigy on a minted coin always served a double purpose: on the one hand, the higher was the stature of the person portrayed in the hard money, the better supported the currency was, and thus the more acquisitive power it had; on the other hand, much like epidemics, fame follows the routes of commerce. Cleopatra was arguably the most famous woman of the world in the 1^st Century, yet it is unlikely that more than a thousand people knew her in person and would, in consequence, be able to recognize her face. For the longest time, memory was the foundation of all sorts of education because information was so scarce.

   Empires have always censored the dissemination of information that may undermine either their power or the belief in their infallibility. This happened in the Spanish-controlled provinces in America between the 16^th and the 19^th Century; it happened in Colombia in 1910 prior to the commemoration of the first century of the emancipation on July 20^th, when historians charged with revisiting and reediting the historical account of the day’s deeds decided unilaterally to destroy records of the violence unleashed that night in order to create one single state-approved history. And it is happening again today, when the political party in power has appointed as head of the National Center for Historical Memory a denier of our long and bloody internal armed conflict in order to whitewash the party’s role in the recent violence of our country. Censorship is a habit of rulers.

   The mode of censorship has changed. It has moved from limiting or banning access to certain troubling information to flooding media with irrelevant information or outright lies (euphemistically labeled “disinformation”).

   Consider now the “Knowledge Doubling Curve” as proposed by Buckminster Fuller. He noticed that up to 1900 the amount of information produced by humankind doubled every century; by the end of WWII, such information doubling occurred every 25 years; nowadays, with microblogging and incessant posting on social media (“Social Media is market’s answer to a generation that demanded to perform” -Bo Burnham), information doubling is happening in terms of Petabytes in spans shorter than 12 hours to the point of reality becoming, as Alan Moore puts it, a culture of steam.

   All this background attempts to demonstrate that the last thing that people need from education is more information, “…people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.” -Yuval Noah Harari.

   Liberal education models have long upheld the ideal figure of the “autonomous learner” as a student who is given data and freedom and, in return, produces a socially useful view of the world.

   Autonomy, however, does not come about spontaneously; it is the result of instruction, experimentation, correction, and application. Charlotte Mason, British pedagogue at the end of the 19^th century and foremost figure in the formulation of home education, listed instruction, habits, and opportunities as the key components of successful instruction aimed at fostering in the students the apparition of their own individual and community-oriented character, not the retention and reproduction of facts and figures.

   The other focus of classical education has been evaluation. For decades now, formal evaluation has been the subject of much debate and little actual change. The need for its transformation stems from having forced the design of courses to occur backwards: we do not build knowledge to test the structural consistency of the world, we do not learn to assess new waters. Instead, on the path of education we have aimed for the toll booth and paced our journey to have the exact change in our pocket at the same moment every term and head for the next toll booth.

   Memory and evaluation figure exceptionally low on the scale of useful skills in this 21^st century.

FEDERICO AC. | 01.07.XX

Ambigüedad Polisémica (y otras palabras complicadas)

(bilingual post – entrada bilingüe)

Something happens in second language education that irks learners and puzzles teachers: why are there words that have only one translation into the other language to mean two different ideas? Let’s see an example.

The word State translates into Spanish as two different words depending on the context: it can be the noun “Estado,” which refers to a stage in a process or to a political division of a geographical place; but it can also be the verb “Declarar” (to claim officially). So how can we know when to translate as either? The key is context.

One should never try to translate one word as an isolated unit. Language is better understood in chunks of meaning. In that regard, the best piece of advice when you don’t understand a specific word is probably to try and grasp the fragment of discourse containing the word from the last punctuation mark to the next. That way, there will be no confusion about the correct translation. Avoid literal translation, aim for cultural interpretation.

Beyond that, it is all practice, successful memory connections, and skill. Here we will give you a hand with a useful batch of flashcards featuring our very own Basil the Bunny and the case of some words in Spanish that have more than one translation into English. Learn and enjoy.

_________________________

Hay algo que ocurre en el estudio de un segundo idioma, algo que irrita a los aprendices y confunde al profesorado: ¿por qué hay palabras que se traducen de una sola forma en un idioma cuando en el otro existen dos palabras con aplicaciones distintas? Veamos un ejemplo.

La palabra inglesa “State” se traduce al español de dos formas diferentes dependiendo del contexto: puede ser el sustantivo Estado, que se refiere a una etapa en un proceso o a la división política de un lugar geográfico; pero también puede ser el verbo Declarar. Así que, ¿cómo podemos saber cuándo utilizar una traducción o la otra? El contexto es la clave.

Es mejor no intentar traducir un palabra como si se tratara de una unidad aislada. La comprensión de un idioma es mejor si se manejan extractos con significado. Así, tal vez el mejor consejo al respecto es tratar de entender el fragmento del discurso que contiene la palabra en cuestión desde el último signo de puntuación hasta el siguiente. De esta forma no habrá confusiones sobre la traducción adecuada. Evitemos la traducción literal, pongámonos por objetivo la interpretación cultural.

De ahí en más, todo se reduce a práctica, conexiones efectivas en la memoria, y habilidad. Aquí les vamos a dar una mano presentándoles un manojo de memofichas con la aparición de nuestro querido Basil the Bunny y los casos de algunas palabras en español que tienen más de una traducción en inglés. Aprendamos y disfrutemos.

False Cognates

False cognates are words that are similar in two languages but have different meanings. Since Basil (busy little bunny that he is) got a new look, enjoy and use these collectible images to keep in mind the differences in meaning for a few cognates in English and Spanish.

Basil Boards!

What is a Basil Board? Well, Basil is our little yellow bunny who is always eager to help us improve our English skills and his board is a teaching aid that brings clarity to students and teachers of EFL (English as a Foreign Language), especially in Colombia, on terms, translations and usages of expressions.

The Basil Boards are shared every week on our Twitter account @EnglishMatsuri -which we are sure all you already follow- under the hashtag #BasilBoard. Here is a collection of 12 Basil Boards that our more than 2000 followers on Twitter have given favorites en masse. Enjoy them and learn as much as you can from them. If you have questions or requests, please share them with us in the comment section. Peace!

¿Qué es un Basil Board (Tablero de Basil)? Pues bien, Basil es nuestro conejito amarillo quien siempre está dispuesto a ayudarnos a mejorar nuestras habilidades en el idioma inglés, y su tablero es una ayuda pedagógica que aclara términos, traducciones, y uso de expresiones para estudiantes y profesores de EFL (Inglés como Lengua Extranjera), en especial en Colombia.

Los Basil Boards se comparten semanalmente en nuestra cuenta de Twitter @EnglishMatsuri –que todos ustedes ya siguen, sin duda- bajo el numeral de tema #BasilBoard. A continuación hay una colección de 12 Basil Boards que han sido los favoritos de nuestros más de 2000 seguidores en Twitter. Disfrútenlos y aprendan mucho de ellos. Si tienen preguntas o peticiones, por favor compártanlas con nosotros en la sección de comentarios.

1.

Many words in English can be confusing as plural or singular nouns, particularly if compared to their Spanish equivalents.
Muchas palabras en inglés pueden prestarse para confusión como sustantivos singulares o plurales, especialmente si se comparan con sus equivalentes españoles.

2.

“Into”, “Onto” and “Unto” have one thing in common: the particle ‘-to’ indicates movement. The first particle (in-, on, un-) talks about the direction.
“Into”, “Onto” y “Unto” tienen una cosa en común: la partícul ‘-to’ indica movimiento. Las raíces (in-, on-, un-) nos señalan la dirección.

3.

To talk about existence in English just remember: the empty subject “There” is followed by the verb ‘TO BE’ and then what we want to mention.
En español tenemos el sujeto tácito (que no aparece en la frase pero se deduce por la conjugación del verbo). En inglés el sujeto tácito no se aplica, pero sí cuenta con el sujeto vacío (“There”) para hablar de existencia, seguido del verbo ‘TO BE’ y aquello que queremos mencionar.

4.

These verbs are usually accompanied by their corresponding prepositions depending on the case. In these situations, practice does make perfect.
Estos verbos normalmente van acompañados por sus preposiciones dependiendo del caso en que se usen. En tales ocasiones, la práctica si lleva a la perfección.

5.

Here is an interesting equivalence in the plural of certain nouns in English and in Spanish found by Basil curious little bunny that he is. These irregular plurals follow the rule that in English the final ‘F’ is substituted for ‘V’ and ‘ES’. In Spanish, those ending in ‘Z’ changes for ‘C’ and ‘ES’.
He aquí una equivalencia interesante entre los plurales de algunas palabras en inglés y español que Basil, ese conejito curioso, pudo encontrar. En español, los plurales de los sustantivos terminados en ‘Z’ reemplazan esta letra por la ‘C’ y añaden ‘ES’. En inglés, aquellos terminados en ‘F’ cambian a ‘V’ y también terminan en ‘ES’.

6.

“Over” is quite a dynamic preposition. It varies meaning depending on the verb they accompany or on whether it is used to describe a physical situation or a metaphorical one.
“Over” es una preposición harto dinámica. Su significado cambia dependiendo del verbo al que acompañe o si se trata de una situación física o metafórica.

7.

La teoría dice que hay al menos 10 grados de sinonimia para toda palabra en el idioma inglés, cada una con una diferencia mayor o menor en significado y aplicación. Aquí están los casos de “Intelligent” (inteligente) y “To walk” (caminar).

8.

Theory says that there are at least 10 degrees of synonymy for any word in the English language, each with a subtle or greater difference in meaning and application. Here are the cases for “Intelligent” and “To walk”.

9.

Adjectives (characteristics of a thing or person) also have an accompanying preposition depending on the words that follows them. Here are some of the most important cases for Spanish speakers.
Los adjetivos (características de una cosa o una persona) también tienen una preposición anexa dependiendo de la palabra que les siga. Aquí tenemos algunos de los casos más importantes para los hablantes nativos del español.

10.

Este Basil Board es muy importante. En español, cuando las palabras de una sola sílaba (monosílabas) pueden tener más de un significado, sus instancias se distinguen utilizando una tilde. Esta tilde se llama “tilde diacrítica”. No conocer el uso de esta tilde puede resultar en confundir palabras en inglés, como “You” y “Your” porque no usamos la tilde que distingue a “Tú” (la persona) y “Tu” (el adjetivo posesivo). Ojalá este tablero resulte útil para prevenir futuros errores.
This is a very important Basil Board. When monosyllable (one-syllable words) in Spanish have more than one meaning, they are told apart by a stress mark (tilde) called “tilde diacrítica”. Not knowing how to use this stress mark can lead to misplace words in English and to orthography problems in Spanish. Hopefully, this Basil Board will help avoid mistakes in the future.

11.

Who = Quién
Whom = A quién
Whose = De quién

12.

These words are very clear in English, but their translation into Spanish can be their opposite cognates (words with identical origin) or even the same word. Watch out for these explanations.
Estas palabras pueden ser muy claras en inglés, pero al traducirlas al español podemos encontrarnos con cognados opuestos (palabras de origen idéntico) o con que una palabra se usa para interpretar dos del inglés. Ojo con estas explicaciones.

Algunas explicaciones ilustradas (post bilingüe)

Hello, Hello! Schedules have been hectic and with a reason: teaching groups again takes up a lot of planning time and commuting; but it also affords the interesting opportunities to detect some mistakes and slips that are commonly made. Here are four situations about which we have to be very careful. I took the liberty to use my very poor drawing skills to illustrate differences and tips. Enjoy them and share them!

¡Hola a todos! Las horas del día no alcanzan ya y para eso hay una buena razón: enseñar a grupos y no a particulares consume mucho tiempo de planeación y desplazamiento; pero también ofrece algunas oportunidades muy interesantes para encontrar errores y deslices comunes del idioma. Aquí hay cuatro situaciones con las que debemos tener mucho cuidado. Me tomé la libertad de usar mis muy pobres dotes de dibujante para ilustrar las diferencias y los consejos. ¡Disfrútenlas y compártalas!

 

Be careful: the sentence “I have sixity years” tells us about the amount time you have spent in your job or your field. In English your age is something you are, not have.

Mucho cuidado: La frase “I have sixty  years” (Tengo 60 años) nos dice cuánto tiempo llevas en tu trabajo o en tu campo. En inglés la edad es algo que eres, no tienes (I am 60 years old = Soy sesenta años de vejez).

 

We have discussed this sound before (see here), but here is one more example.

Esto ya lo hemos visto antes (aquí), pero practica con este ejemplo.

 

“Good evening” is what you say when you arrive at a place after dark in order to mean “Hello”. “Good night” is what you say when you leave or when you are going to bed, as simple as that.

“Good evening” (“Buenas noches“) es lo que dices cuando llegas a algún lugar después del atardecer para saludar. “Good night” (“Buenas noches“) se usa para despedirte o antes de acostarte; tan sencillo como eso.

 

This mistake can be explained because in Spanish “Desayunar” is the verb “To have breakfast“. The necessity for a combination with “Have” has to be learned as opposed to being an instinctive discovery; but the confusion, as the graphic shows, can have tragic consequences.

Este error se puede explicar porque en español “Desayunar” es un verbo de una sola palabra mientras que en inglés debe hacerse la combinación con “Have” (Tener) y “Breakfast” (Desayuno) para referirse a la acción. Este uso es de aprendizaje y no de deducción lógica. Pero, como lo muestra la ilustración, la confusión puede tener resultados harto trágicos.

 

Many of the states that in English we are are things that in Spanish we have. This is a good example: when the temperature drops and we feel the need to wear a sweater, in English we say “I am cold“, whereas in Spanish we say “Tengo frío” which would translate literally to “I have cold“.

Muchas de las sensaciones que en español tenemos, en inglés son estados en los que estamos. En la gráfica tenemos un buen ejemplo. Cuando la temperatura baja y sentimos la necesidad de abrigarnos, en español decimos “Tengo frío“, lo que se traduciría literalmente al inglés como “I have cold“, muy parecido a  “I have a cold” (Tengo un resfriado).  Del mismo modo, “Tengo hambre” se dice “I am hungry” (y no “I have hunger“).

 

Simple difference: when you use the preposition “down” you imply contact with a surface during a trajectory. “Off“, on the other hand, suggests lack of contact.

Esta es una diferencia sencilla: Al usar la preposición “Down” (abajo), se entiende que en el trayecto hay algún contacto con la superficie [en la gráfica de la izquierda, la ovejita cayó colina abajo, the sheep fell down the hill]. Cuando usamos “Off” damos la impresión de que no hay contacto entre superficies [en la gráfica de la derecha la ovejita se cayó del risco, the sheep fell off the cliff].

2 pronunciation tips

Good day, everyone! What is the weather like wherever you are? Here it’s a bit chilly and it’s just perfect for a couple of recommendations regarding English pronunciation. So, let’s get to it.

Pronunciation of numbers

It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between 16 (sixteen) and 60 (sixty), or between 13(thirteen) and 30 (thirty). Especially when it includes sounds that are not part of your native tongue –see the case of “Thirty” and “Thirteen” which feature a starting interdental sound unused in Spanish that is studied in the first post of our blog-. Maybe a good way to tackle this issue is paying attention to the stressed syllable in the word.

Unlike Spanish, English doesn’t use stress marks. What this means is that the stress is not particular to every word in a sentence, but rather that the emphasis of a sentence is placed on one or two of its content words. However, when analyzed individually, every word with more than one syllable has its particular stress, and this can help us with numbers. Follow this easy rule: all the numbers that end in the syllable “-teen” have the stress on it; all those than end in “-ty” DON’T have the stress in this syllable. This is what the black circles at the top of the following columns mean: the small circle is the unstressed syllable and the big one the stressed (Yes, you are very smart and you noticed: both “Seventeen” and “Seventy” have three syllables, but if you don’t tell anyone, it will be our little secret).

The column on the left is called “The teens” because these numbers end in this syllable. When you meet a person who is between 13 and 19 years of age, you can say “S/he is in her/his teens”. The column on the right is called “The tens” because each number encompasses a group of ten units.

 

Three tricky terms

(There, try starting by saying “Three tricky terms” three times really fast).

After years of teaching, it becomes suspicious that certain words are constantly mispronounced. Perhaps in the future the error will become the rule for that is a law of language evolution, but in the meantime, the similarities between these three words can be used to our advantage.

First, let us be clear about something: there is no single absolute way to pronounce any of these words. Differences can be found in various English-speaking regions of the world, socioeconomic brackets and even age groups. The pronunciation suggested in this post is based on the ease it may represent to native Spanish speakers.

The syllables of a word in Spanish can be separated without even speaking the word; it just takes reading and breaking the chunks of consonants and vowels. This is possible because in Spanish the written form commands the other skills of the language. In English, it is the spoken delivery that shapes the presentation of the others. For this reason, syllables will look mighty different. Hence, “Vegetable” has 3 syllables (Vege-ta-ble), “Interesting” also has 3 (In-teres-ting) as well as “Comfortable” (Comfor-ta-ble). This is their first similarity, they all have three syllables.

The second similarity is that all of them carry the stress on their first syllable, as you can see in the green underlining.

As you might know from your own experience, not all the letters written in an English word are necessarily pronounced and this is the third similarity between these three words: they all have letters that vanish in the pronunciation; they are crossed out in red.

 

Well, and to wrap it up, why not a few exercises? As you know, years like 1997 in English are not read after the Spanish model. That is to say, we don’t say “One thousand nine hundred ninety seven”. Instead, we break years in two groups of two digits each and read it as teens and tens: “Nineteen ninety seven”.

So, read these sentences aloud:

1)      The year 1330 started on a Monday.

2)      The year 1440 was a leap year (It had 366 days).

3)      The Colombian city of Valledupar was founded on January 6, 1550, by Hernando de Santana.

4)      The year 1660 was also a leap year.

5)      There is a village in Queensland named after the year 1770.

6)      Guess what? 1880 was yet ANOTHER leap year. Weird, huh?

7)      On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years.

Surely you did wonderfully on that one. And to practice English spelling here is a piece of advice: every time you see a long word, no matter what language it is in, spell the vowels first and then the consonants. See how fast you can do it. Try these:

FLUOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION

ANTIDESESTABLISHMENTARIANISM

HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPEDALOPHOBIA

Hopefully you had some fun and are now able to use these tips to improve your pronunciation. Is there any topic you’d like to see on this blog? Then leave us a comment and we’ll get our monkeys slam away at their computers for you! Ta!