European Day of Languages.

On September 26th all schools around Europe celebrate the European Day of Languages with different activities.
This year is a bit special as we also celebrate the International Year of Indigenous Languages all over the World. 

As they say in the official page of the event, "Languages play an important role in the daily lives of people not only as a tool for communication, education, social integration and development, but also as a repository for each person's unique identity, cultural history, traditions and memory"

The purpose of the initiative is to raise awareness of the critical risks these languages face and their value as vehicles of culture, knowledge systems and ways of life, most of these languages are endangered or becoming extinct. 

UNESCO provides a classification system to show just how 'in trouble' the language is:

• Vulnerable - most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home)
• Definitely endangered - children no longer learn the language as a 'mother tongue' in the home
• Severely endangered - language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves
• Critically endangered - the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently
• Extinct - there are no speakers left

There are endangered languages all over the world in developed and developing countries, but the situation is worse in indigenous communities as the community itself is in danger. So
ensuring their protection, which in many cases requires improving the living conditions of indigenous peoples, and strengthening their respective organizations is essential and knowing about them is the first step. Below you have some examples.

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES IN SPAIN

* Aranés, less than 3.000 speakers ( Vall de Arán, Pirineos) 
* Asturleonés  150.000 ( Asturias , Zamora, León , Salamanca) 

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES IN EUROPE

 * Capadocian, 300 speakers ( Greece) 
*  Saami con 400 speakers ( Sweden)
*  Manx con 1700 speakers ( Isle of Man,UK)  
 
ENDANGERED LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD

* Zacatepeco 140 speakers,( Mexico)
* Kenati  950 speakers ( Papua Nueva Guinea)
* Siux 32.000 speakers ( North America)  

Fortunately there are people who try to keep them alive and safe for future generations. 

 
 

FALSOS ANGLICISMOS

Nowadays we use lots of borrowings from different languages, we make them our own and we customise their use and even their spelling to adapt it to our everyday life. 

I have always considered the changes and evolution of the language very interesting, but some English words I listen to in the media or used by friends and family make me smile or blush,  that's why I have decided to post something about the "falsos anglicismos"  Some people think they are really English words, but they don't make much sense for native people.

1. FOOTING: People use it referring to "running, jogging" 
         Ex: Voy a hacer un poco de "footing" por la mañana ( I'm going running, jogging) 

2. PUENTING: This is Spanglish, we add -ing to a Spanish word and make it English.This is also referred to as "goming"
The real word for this in English is "bungee-jumping" 




 3. TUNING: we also say "tunear"  This is exactly what we do with English " customise it" 
Changing something to adapt it to our preferences. 
          Ex: Le ha hecho un "tuning" estupendo a su coche (he has customised his car) 

4. PARKING: We use this for the place where you can park your car, but in English it refers to the action of "parking". The place is called "car park"

 5. LIFTING: When we want to refer to  plastic surgery in our face we say "se ha hecho un lifting"  in English it is said "face lift" (she's had a face-lift) 

6. CAMPING: The place where you can camp is a "campsite"  camping is the action. "we go camping" 

7. SMOKING: People refer to an elegant type of suit as a smoking, but the real English word for this is "tuxedo".   Smoking is an action and in old times this type of suit was used for men when they went to a special room to smoke as it wasn't proper to smoke in front of women. 

8. ZAPPING: Changing the TV channel with the remote, but the English word for this is "channel surfing, hopping or flicking through channels"  
                     Ex: "Voy a hacer zapping" ( I'm surfing channels) 

9. FEELING: Used as a noun to refer to relationships or impressions on something " hay buen feeling entre ellos" we say " good vibes"  (they have good vibes). Feeling en English is emotion. 

10. FASHION: Used as adjective to refer to people who follow the trends. but in English is said "fashionable, trendy"   ex: Mi abuela es muy fashion  (my granny is fashionable) 

11. ALTO-STANDING: the word for this in English is "luxurious, high-class" 
Ex: lleva una vida de alto-standing"  (he has a luxurious life)

  12. AUTOSTOP: This is really "to hitchhike in English"


13. A CRACK: We use this to refer to someone who is really outstanding or a n expert on something. but in English this is "grieta" so the words we have to use is " an ace, a whiz, an expert or just say " you are a pro, you rock!   for "eres un crack"

 
14. FRIKI: this is a transformation of the English word "Freak" , we use it to refer to someone who is a "nerd, a geek or a weirdo" 






15. PLAYBACK: when a singer is not singing live, but just moving the lips to follow the song we say " está haciendo playback" in English we say " he is lip-synching"

16. WARNINGS: we turn the emergency lights in our car and we say " pon los warnings" but waht we refer to in English is "hazard lights" 

I hope you enjoyed the post!  

Women and fashion

The feminine dress has been another way of controlling women though history and we have had to struggle to make a difference or change it to adapt it to our needs and not to society standards. They were like dolls who didn't have an opinion or personal thought, they were something beautiful to be shown.

 On the International Women's Day I thought it would be interesting to comment on some revolutionary changes and some women who made it possible. 

The Empire line dress ( 18th- 19th century)

The waist was set just below the bust, giving a high-waisted appearance. It represented freedom from the corset that caused women couldn't breathe properly. Clothes were lighter, shoes were more comfortable and they could move freely. There were important women writers (Jane Austen, Brönte sisters) but they had to use a pen name to publish, they couldn't show their ideas as freely as they liked.

  The Bloomers (19th century) 

In the 19th century women went back to corsets and crinolines, but women had their own ideas. They wanted to vote as men did.  The women's rights activist Amelia Bloomer was the promotor of the bloomer troussers. She was the first woman to edit a newspaper for women. This revolutionary attire provided more physical freedom to women and represented the equal rights women demanded. Now women could ride bycicles and move without restraint. Society oposed to them because they were considered  an usurpation of male authority.

Coco Chanel (1883-1971) 

She was a revolutionary, she wanted to liberate women from uncomfortable fashions, and she created a new style with women wearing troussers, loose dresses, suits, knitwear, sporty and casual clothing.

The Roaring Twenties: the flappers

After the war women wanted to be free, independent, they wanted to vote and work. They started to wear make up and didn't use corsets anymore, comfortable underwear was created and skirts were shorter.

The 60s: Mary Quant

She became an outstanding  figure in the Mod and youth fashion movements. She was one of the designers who took credit for the miniskirt and hotpants, she encouraged young people to dress to please themselves and to treat fashion as a game. 

Women wore colours and bell-bottom troussers and lived the life they wanted. 

The Punk Movement: Vivienne Westwood

Westwood was one of the architects of the punk fashion phenomenon of the 1970s. she was the designer who wanted to let her clothes speak for themselves, she is a rebel who uses new materials: chains, zips, plastic, tartan, she represented the fashion of the streets, the urban fashion. Women are definetely free to wear whatever they like to. 

But are we really free?  How do you think fashion limits women's rights? 

• What about sizes in clothing?
• What about the different prices for women's and men's articles "The pink tax"?
• What about the "objectification" of women in fashion advertising? 
• What about women not being able to go out wearing what they like because they could be accused of provoking men? 

Things have changed but prejudices and fears still exist.  

 

 

 

1st Landing on the Moon 50th anniversary

In 2019 we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Landing on the Moon, but everything had started some years before. 

In 1961 John Kennedy was the President of the USA and to be superior to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, he wanted to send a manned mission to land on the moon, so the Apollo 11 was prepared for it and the crew included three astronauts:  Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins. Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969.  The three astronauts didn´t even have a life insurance.

 

Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon in a Lunar Module called the Eagle. Meanwhile Collins stayed in orbit around the moon doing experiments and taking pictures. 

On July 20th, 1969, at 10:56 p.m Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on another world:  the moon. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbed down the ladder and exclaimed: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." 

Aldrin joined him shortly, and described the lunar surface as "magnificent desolation." They explored the surface for two and a half hours, collected samples of moon dirt and rocks, took photographs and did some experiments, they walked around for three hours. Back in the spaceship they had the possibility to smell the moon dust attached to their suits which they described as similar to gunpowder. 
Buzz Aldrin also celebrated the landing opening a small flask of wine, eating some bread and reading the Gospel of Saint John as a kind of communion to thank God.

They left behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, a plaque on one of Eagle's legs which reads, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." and a memorial bag containing a gold replica of an olive branch as a traditional symbol of peace and a silicon message disk. carrying the goodwill statements by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon and messages from leaders of 73 countries around the world.
   

The two astronauts returned to orbit, joining Collins. On July 24, 1969, all three astronauts came back to Earth safely and splashed down with the Module Columbia in Hawaii.  They had to stay in confinement for three weeks, as part of the quarantine protocol and after that they spoke in the Congress and toured the world as heroes.


This year has started with the first landing on the dark (far) side of the Moon, whose geography is completely different. China has sent  Chang'e-4, a space probe, which has landed on Thursday 3rd January at 10:26 (Peking Time).
It is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region's geology, as well to conduct biological experiments with seeds and silkworms' eggs. 

The Chang'e-4 probe is aiming to explore a place called the Von Kármán crater, located within the much larger South Pole-Aitken Basin - thought to have been formed by a giant impact early in the Moon's history.