Magazine Articles – FLE
Extract 1:
English is picking up brilliant new words from around the world – and that’s a gift
By Danica Salazar
Who owns the English language? The answer to this question is no longer as
straightforward as ‘the English’. According to the latest figures from the British Council,
English is ‘spoken at a useful level’ by about 1.75 billion people. [...]
English spread across the globe largely as a result of imperialism, as the language was
imposed on colonies in Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas. When these former
colonies achieved independence, many chose to retain the use of English [...]. As
countries such as India, Nigeria, South Africa, Jamaica and Singapore adopted English
as a language, they also adapted it – giving rise to new varieties now collectively known as
World Englishes. [...]
Speakers of world varieties of English are remaking its vocabulary to better express their
identities, cultures and everyday realities. In Hong Kong, people exclaim add oil as a
show of encouragement or support, an expression literally translated from the Cantonese
gāyáu, with reference to petrol being injected into an engine. [...]
In Oxford University Press’s Gift of Words campaign this year, we have asked people
who speak more than one language to ‘gift’ a word from their first to their second
language, and vice versa. [...] Calling these borrowed words ‘gifts’ is an important
reframing, as many value language purity over diversity and consider external influences a
threat to the integrity of a language. But this is in contradiction to how language works, as
the borrowing of words is part of the natural evolution of all living languages. [...]
Changing our attitudes towards multilingualism and language variation is vital to fight the
linguistic prejudice that causes people to be discriminated against for not using the ‘right’
words or for speaking in the ‘wrong’ accent [...]. It is only when we share ownership of
English, and embrace the language in all its diversity, that it can truly be a gift that
everyone can benefit from.
From The Guardian
Extract 2:
How social media is breathing new life into Bhutan’s unwritten local languages
by Tashi Dema
Dechen, 40, grew up in Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan. Her native language was
Mangdip, also known as Nyenkha, as her parents are originally from central Bhutan. She
went to schools in the city, where the curriculum was predominantly taught in Dzongkha,
the national language, and English.
In Dechen’s house, everyone spoke Dzongkha. She only spoke her mother tongue when she
had guests from her village, who could not understand Dzongkha, and during her
occasional visits to her village nestled in the mountains. Her mother tongue knowledge
was limited.
However, things have now changed.
With 90% of Bhutanese people using social media and social media penetrating all
remote areas in Bhutan, Dechen’s relatives in remote villages are connected [...]
She is in three [social media] groups where people usually communicate through voice
messages in their native language. Most [social media] users in rural parts of the country
communicate in their oral native language.
“I learn many words. I learnt how to say a lot of things in my own language,” the mother
of two now living in Western Australia told me.
Dechen’s story is not isolated. Social media is giving a new lifeline to Bhutan’s native
languages, which do not have written script and lack proper documentation. By
communicating through voice messages, social media is giving Bhutanese people in both
urban and rural areas a new opportunity to use their local language.