CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER Part 1

Source: Speak Up

Standard: British accent

Language level:  Upper intermediate

CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER Part 1

I have a confession to make. As well as being a writer, I am a teacher of Latin (and Ancient Greek).

Do the British study Latin? 50 years ago, a large percentage of school children did. Now it is mainly taught in private schools. Many teachers retire schools. Many teachers retire every years; only two universities train new teachers. Many students classical works only in translation. Surely this means the end of Latin – and, some will say, good riddance.

PROPHETS OF DOOM

Journalists and other prophets of doom constantly predict the end of Latin. To me it seems comical to predict the death of an extinct language.

When I admit I am a Latin teacher, people look at me as if I were a dodo. They often send me news paper articles about:

      How useless Latin is.

      How important Latin is.

      How Latin is making a comeback.

      Why do people get so worked up about it? Somehow  Latin provides a focus for all our fears about education: vocational against no-vocational, privileged against under- privileged.

      WHO AND WHY?

Why do we study Latin? It’s not the basis of our language, as it is for Italian, Spanish and Portuguese speakers. Yet, despite the Germanic structure of English perhaps 45 per cent of our vocabulary is Romance-derived. Significantly, intellectual vocabulary is often Latinate the language of science, art and technology.

Who learns Latin today? One definition of the typical English gentleman is: “Someone who once knew the classics but has forgotten them: “We think of aristocratic Oxbridge comics showing off on clever TV shows: actor/writer Stephen Fry: John Cleese and his Monty Python gang: Boris Johson, mayor of London.

This elitism elicits anger as well as admiration. The Campaign for Plain English has fought a war against unnecessary Latin layers no longer use Latin phrases where there are English alternative. Yet we love the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the centurion correct Brian’s graffiti. To get the joke properly, you need to know Latin. “Romanes eunt domus” is nonsense; he means “Romani, ite domum” (Romans, go home).

EVERYDAY LANGUAGE

Everyday English is full of Latin words. Many are borrowed directly; many more are derivations.

Science (from Latin) and technology (Greek) have filled English with classical vocabulary: galaxy, protons, electric, democracy and telephone (Greek): universe, circuit, election and Prime Minister (Latin): Bones are Latin, from patella to clavicle. Organs and diseases are often Greek: stomach, leukemia. Botanists and zoologists give plants and animals classical names. Other school subjects have Greek names: geography, history, maths, psychology, philosophy.

WHERE NEXT?

It’s all Greek to me is a phrase from Shakespeare used to dismiss anything we can’t understand. Yet we still admire those who have Latin on their curriculum vitae: George Bush Senior’s notoriously ignorant vice president, Dan Quayle, regretted not studying Latin harder in school when he visited Latin America!

People pay me to translate club mottos, degree certificates and tattoos. They buy furniture, stationery and T-shirts with Latin on them. David Beckham has Latin tattoos (and the Roman numeral VII). Why? Because it seems important. Latin has dignity, grandeour, gravitas, so, even if you think it is useless, remember: quod latine, dictum est altum vdetur, or What ever you say in Latin seems deep.

PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING

English speakers pronouncing Latin are confused. When a word is normal English, it is unashamedly anglicised: alias, alibi, audio, doctor, exit, flux, memorandum, status. Quasi in English has long and I sound. The second c in cancer is soft, the g in agenda is also soft, and there is a j in de jure.

When the English adopt a whole phrase, their pronunciation is a little more Latinate: sine qua non, me culpa, modus vivendi, quid pro quo. When the English sing Latin in church, they use Latinale style. But in school they follow stand and European Erasmus pronunciation –and is amusing when the English  read phrases like arma virumque cano…”

When British English adopts Greek words like encyclopaedia, it keeps the ae after the “p”. Whereas the American use a simple “e,” as in encyclopedia. This causes confusion with names. Aeschylus usually can either be written with an oe, or a simple e at the beginning, while Oedipus can either be written with an oe, or a simple e at the beginning: Edipus. And Daedalus can either be written with an ae – Daedalus – or with an e –Dedalus. And we love Latin abbreviations, even if we rarely know what they stand for, but here are some example.

AD Anno Domini

Am ant meridiem

Exempli gratia – by way of example

Ie id est: that is, to explain

Viz videlicet: namely

QED quod erat demonstrandium.

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Some People's Names Have Special Meanings in American Expressions

Reference: www.manythings.org and www.voanews.com 

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

A person's name is very important. Some names also have special meanings in popular American expressions.  To better understand what I mean, sit back and listen.  You might even want to get a cup of Joe, I mean, a cup of coffee.

One day, an average Joe was walking down the street.  An average Joe is a common person – either male or female.  This average Joe was lost.  He did not know Jack about where he was going.  By this, I mean he did not know anything about where to find things in the city.

So average Joe asked John Q. Public for directions to the nearest bank.  John Q. Public is also a common person – male or female. 

"Jeez Louise," said John Q. Public.  This is an expression of surprise.  "Jeez Louise, don't you know that all banks are closed today?  It is Saturday."

"For Pete's sake," said average Joe.  This is also an expression used to show a feeling like surprise or disappointment.

"For Pete's sake.  I do not believe you," said average Joe.  He was being a doubting Thomas, someone who does not believe anything he is told.

At that moment, Joe Blow was walking down the street with a woman.  Joe Blow is also an expression for a common man. Now this Joe Blow was NOT walking next toa plain Jane.  A plain Jane is a woman who is neither ugly nor pretty.  She is simply plain.  No, the woman with Joe Blow was a real Sheila – a beautiful woman.   

Average Joe asked the woman if all banks were closed on Saturday.  "No way, Jose," she answered.  This is a way of saying "no."  "No way, Jose.  Many banks are open on Saturdays."

Average Joe did not know either of these two people from Adam.  That is, he did not know them at all.  But he followed their directions to the nearest bank.  

When he arrived, he walked to the desk of the chief bank employee.  Now this man was a true Jack of all trades.  He knew how to do everything.

"I am here to withdraw some money so I can pay my taxes to Uncle Sam," said average Joe.  Uncle Sam represents the United States government.  The banker produced some papers and told average Joe to sign his John Hancock at the bottom.  A John Hancock is a person's signed name – a signature.  Historically, John Hancock was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence.  Hancock had a beautiful signature and signed his name larger than all the others. 

As average Joe left the bank he began to sing.  But sadly, average Joe was not a good singer.  He was a Johnny One Note.  He could only sing one note.

This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss.  I'm Faith Lapidus.

Family Album, 49

Source: Family Album, USA.

Betty Friedmanm

Source: American Mosaic, Voa Special English 
http://www.voanews.com

I'm Faith Lapidus. And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE  IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.  Today we tell about Betty Friedan.  She was a powerful activist for the rights of women.

(MUSIC)

Betty Friedan is often called the mother of the modern women's liberation movement.  Her famous book, "The Feminine Mystique," changed America.  Some people say it changed the world.  It has been called one of the most influential nonfiction books of the twentieth century.

Friedan re-awakened the feminist movement in the United States.  That movement had helped women gain the right to vote in the nineteen twenties.  Modern feminists disagree about how to describe themselves and their movement.  But activists say men and women should have equal chances for economic, social and intellectual satisfaction in life.

Fifty years ago, life for women in the United States was very different from today.  Very few parents urged their daughters to become lawyers or doctors or professors. Female workers doing the same jobs as men earned much less money.  Women often lost their jobs when they had a baby.  There were few child care centers for working parents.

Betty Friedan once spoke to ABC television about her support for sharing responsibility for the care of children:

"If child-rearing was considered the responsibility of women and men or women and men and society, then we really could pull up our skirts and declare victory and move on."

(MUSIC)

Betty Friedan was born Betty Goldstein in nineteen twenty-one in Peoria, Illinois.  Her immigrant father worked as a jeweler.  Her mother left her job with a local newspaper to stay home with her family.

Betty attended Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. It was one of the country's best colleges for women. She finished her studies in psychology in nineteen forty-two.

After college she attended the University of California at Berkeley to continue her studies.  But her boyfriend at the time did not want her to get an advanced degree in psychology. He apparently felt threatened by her success.  So Betty left California and her boyfriend.  She moved to New York City and worked as a reporter and editor for labor union newspapers.

In nineteen forty-seven, Betty Goldstein married Carl Friedan, a theater director who later became an advertising executive.  They had a child, the first of three.  The Friedans were to remain married until nineteen sixty-nine.

When Betty Friedan became pregnant for the second time, she was dismissed from her job at the newspaper.  After that she worked as an independent reporter for magazines.  But her editors often rejected her attempts to write about subjects outside the traditional interests of women.

In nineteen fifty-seven, Friedan started research that was to have far-reaching results.  Her class at Smith College was to gather for the fifteenth anniversary of their graduation. Friedan prepared an opinion study for the women.  She sent questions to the women about their lives. Most who took part in the study did not work outside their homes.

Friedan was not completely satisfied with her life. She thought that her former college classmates might also be dissatisfied.  She was right.  Friedan thought these intelligent women could give a lot to society if they had another identity besides being homemakers.

Friedan completed more studies. She talked to other women across the country.  She met with experts about the questions and answers.  She combined this research with observations and examples from her own life.  The result was her book, "The Feminine Mystique," published in nineteen sixty-three.

The book attacked the popular idea of the time that women could only find satisfaction through being married, having children and taking care of their home. Friedan believed that women wanted more from life than just to please their husbands and children.

The book said women suffered from feelings of lack of worth. Friedan said this was because the women depended on their husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support.

"The Feminine Mystique" was a huge success.  It has sold more than three million copies.  It was reprinted in a number of other languages.   The book helped change the lives of women in America. More women began working outside the home. More women also began studying traditionally male subjects like law, medicine and engineering.

Betty Friedan expressed the dissatisfaction of some American women during the middle of the twentieth century. But she also made many men feel threatened. Later, critics said her book only dealt with the problems of white, educated, wealthy, married women. It did not study the problems of poor white women, single women or minorities.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen sixty-six, Betty Friedan helped establish NOW, the National Organization for Women.  She served as its first president.  She led campaigns to end unfair treatment of women seeking jobs.

Friedan also worked on other issues.  She wanted women to have the choice to end their pregnancies.  She wanted to create child-care centers for working parents. She wanted women to take part in social and political change.  Betty Friedan once spoke about her great hopes for women in the nineteen seventies:

"Liberating ourselves, we will then become a major political force, perhaps the biggest political force for basic social and political change in America in the seventies."

Betty Friedan led a huge demonstration in New York City for women's rights. Demonstrations were also held in other cities.   A half-million women took part in the Women's Strike for Equality on August twenty-sixth, nineteen seventy.  The day marked the fiftieth anniversary of American women gaining the right to vote.

A year after the march, Friedan helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus.  She said the group got started "to make policy, not coffee."  She said America needed more women in public office if women were to gain equal treatment.

Friedan wanted a national guarantee of that equal treatment. She worked tirelessly to get Congress and the states to approve an amendment to the United States Constitution that would provide equal rights for women.

The House of Representatives approved this Equal Rights Amendment in nineteen seventy-one. The Senate approved it the following year. Thirty-eight of the fifty state legislatures were required to approve the amendment.  Congress set a time limit of seven years for the states to approve it. This was extended to June thirtieth, nineteen eighty-two.  However, only thirty-five states approved the amendment by the deadline so it never went into effect.

The defeat of the E.R.A. was a sad event for Betty Friedan, NOW and other activists.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen eighty-one, Betty Friedan wrote about the condition of the women's movement.  Her book was called "The Second Stage."  Friedan wrote that the time for huge demonstrations and other such events had passed.  She urged the movement to try to increase its influence on American political life.

Some younger members of the movement denounced her as too conservative.

As she grew older, Friedan studied conditions for older Americans.  She wrote a book called "The Fountain of Age" in nineteen ninety-three. She wrote that society often dismisses old people as no longer important or useful. Friedan's last book was published in two thousand.  She was almost eighty years old at the time.  Its title was "Life So Far."

Betty Friedan died on February fourth, two thousand six.  It was her eighty-fifth birthday. Betty Friedan once told a television reporter how she wanted to be remembered:

"She helps make it better for women to feel good about being women, and therefore she helped make it possible for women to more freely love men."

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson.  It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Faith Lapidus. And I'm Steve Ember. You can download a transcript and audio of this show at voaspecialenglish.com.  Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Present simple Exercises.

Author: Anaas from Norway

Source: www.englishexercises.org 

Click here http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=1232 and do the homework, English Exercises.org is an excellent ESL resource material for Teachers and Students, telling for friends about it. I use to take care of each reader because without you, my blog doesn't make sense. Thank you for visiting and sharing peace, love and Education around the world. See you tomorrow. Liked my blog? Please promote it for friends.

  

 

Memory, turn your face to the moonlight
Let your memory leadleads you
Open up, enter in
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is

Then a new life will begin

Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I waswere beautiful then
I rememberremembers the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

Burnt out ends of smokey days
The stale cold smell of morning
The streetlamp diedies, another night is over
Another day is dawning

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comecomes tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin

Sunlight, through the trees in the summer
Endless masquerading
Like a flower as the dawn is breaking
The memory is fading

Touch me, it's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me you'll understand what happiness amareis

Look, a new day has begun

Poetry, Castro Alves

Poetry Corner

By Adriana Lorenzi

Source: www.maganews.com.br

Castro Alves was one of the most brilliant Brazilian romantic poets and one of the greatest supporters of the abolition of slavery. In his youth, Castro Alves studied law. Besides standing out in literature, the poet from Bahiawas also a composer, draftsman  and painter. He died young, at 24 years of age, in the year 1871.

         Este é um breve resumo (escrito em inglês)  da vida de um dos grandes poetas brasileiros. Ele nasceu no dia 14 de março, e é justamente nesta data que o Brasil comemora o Dia da Poesia. Esta data foi escolhida para homenagear o poeta que tanto lutou pelo fim da escravidão. A seguir você confere três poemas escritos em inglês. A autora é Adriana Lorenzi, uma professora de inglês que já morou  nos EUA.  Na próxima semana você poderá conferir um outro poema escrito por uma outra professora de inglês.

THE HEART

It beats

It bleeds

It breaks

It feels

It loves

It hates

Hard

Tender

Cold

Passionate

Brave

Coward

Intriguing

Fascinating

"Objet d'art"

Organ inside the chest

A mystery!

I AM

I am an act of God,

life turned into a miracle,

I am the missing rose,

honey from the bee,

a dream dreamed long ago

still waiting to come true,

aside from Him

I am really nothing,

I am a burning fire,

a candle that flickers

but never fades,

a life out of ashes,

a fresh fragance

hidden inside a small bottle,

strong as a rock

and yet fragile as a china,

I am,

I simply am,

that's why I write,

and that's also what I am

W.O.R.D.S.

Words are fun to be with,

They can be neat,

But they also can be cheap,

Words can tell,

Sell,

And sometimes

They can be hell,

Words give names

To people

That you like

And that you also dislike,

Words are precious,

They can be sweet,

But they also can be bitter,

Words have the power

To bring us peace,

Hopes,

But they also make war,

Break our hearts,

Make us cry,

Words represent ideas,

Actions,

They can sing a song,

They can say I LOVE YOU,

And how much I LIKE YOU,

They can show what you can do,

Shout BOO and even frighten you,

Words can reveal the way you feel,

They can always make a deal,

Heal,

Words relax,

But they also attack,

They can be slang,

Device,

Strategy,

Words can be said,

But not always meant,

Given,

But not always kept,

Spoken,

And sometimes broken,

Words are just words,

And no matter what,

They always add flavor

To your life.

By Adriana Lorenzi

Picture by “la bella polenesia”

* My name is Adriana, and though I have a nickname, an  American friend has told me I have a beautiful name, and uses only my full name.  I am a woman, a dreamer who has a passion for life, and loves writing, and I must say, that I breathe words in and out.  I started writing in 2003, as I was internally urged on to do so.  Poetry is a natural outcome of my life, and I felt that I was guided or maybe even destined to write, a feeling that took over and could not be stopped. I love writing all types of poems and am glad when emails arrive from other people on the web, telling me that I put into words exactly the way they feel.  Helping people is a nice way to forget about one's own personal problems and keep on going.  Another reason that I have been writing is to improve my English..  As English is not my native language, writing in English is another way to be even closer to this beautiful language.  It has always come so naturally to me, that I can consider it a gift from Heaven. I was born and raised in Brazil.  In marriage, I spent some time in the USA with an American citizen.  Sadly though, it did not work out, and I returned to my native land, Brazil.  Memories of the time I lived there are nice, and one day I hope I am able to go back to that beautiful country to visit and enjoy all the good things it has to offer. Teaching is what I do as an occupation and have a love for it, while writing is not only my love, but a hobby and a friend as well. As life's trials come I realize just how blessed I am in God and that He is everything to me. My children are grown and are young adults now.    One is currently living in Italy and works as an Architect, and the other is a psychologist and lives here, in São José dos Campos.   Soon, I will be a grandmother and will continue writing poetry and enlighten people's lives with my gift. My ultimate dream is to have one of my original poems used as lyrics in a song, and then hear it on many radio stations. 

By Adriana Lorenzi

Family album, 48

Source:Family Album