It is generally accepted, that a town mayor is an important head of the town, or city council. This is not quite the case in the UK.

Why? Because, over the years, government has become more and more centralised. Contrary to some other countries (including yours), it does not consist of historically important regions, or states. For hundreds of years, London has become more and more the effective centre of government. Now, the present government says that it plans to decentralise powers to the towns and cities.

‘The man in the street’, generally welcomes this, with the view that, for example, the requirements of life in Liverpool, are often quite different from those in London. Of course, parliament consists of members, representing all areas of the country. But they are mostly controlled by party politics, rather than the everyday life in local communities.

So, perhaps in the future, a town mayor might carry some authority in his briefcase, rather than only a gold chain around his/her neck. I’m sure you will forgive me if I end this blog, right here.

Glossary:

Mayor – the elected head of a city, town, or other municipality

‘The Man in the Street’ -   mister average

Party politics -   the themes of political parties

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-16754734

‘Courage’ is a wonderful word to the ear. There are many forms of courage, e.g. a lifetime of coping with a disabling illness; or defusing a road-side bomb in Afghanistan. We would usually see the latter as ‘bravery’. It’s more a form of instantaneous courage. I feel that both words could be used to describe the subject of this blog. I’m speaking of lifeboat crews. Allow me to say a little more about those men and their organisation, in the UK. Most importantly, it is completely based on volunteers. Secondly, it is not state-financed. It depends, entirely, on contributions of money by the general public. Consider the UK’s thousands of miles of coastline, which is historically dangerous to shipping. There are 60.000 sunken ships around the UK. More than anywhere else worldwide. Then think of how many life boat stations there must be, to cover these thousands of miles, efficiently. But, they are efficiently covered. Think further, of the unpaid crews of these life boats. They are ready, night and day to react to any emergency at sea and risk their lives. Their boats and equipment are of the latest and best technology. In this modern age, we tend to accept that such organisations are state-controlled and state-financed. It’s refreshing to the mind, to think that we are not all state robots; that such a large, modern, life-saving organisation, can be purely, individually, voluntary. It’s name, by the way, is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Perhaps we should have less, not more, state control in our lives. Brussels! Are you listening?

Glossary:

sailor -   seaman

latter -   last item of 2 or more

volunteer -   someone who offers to do something; not ordered to do it

entirely -   totally

contribution -   one of more payments towards a central cost.

to contribute –    may also be of time or effort

As a child I was frequently told, that everything must have a place, and that everything must be in it’s place. I didn’t always comply with this, and was given painful reminders, as a result. I think, most of us will agree, that there must be order in our daily lives, otherwise many things may become lost, and targets not achieved.

Is this always the case? How often have you visited someone else’s home and thought, how untidy everything looks? Yet, that someone may be quite successful in a different way. Then, there are the super-tidy people. They spend their time looking at their watch or clock, worrying about a timetable for everything they do, or want to do. Should something unexpected happen to their plan, they panic and are completely lost.

The above examples could suggest that a degree of flexibility is the best way forward. Many of the world’s top geniuses have not been very orderly in their everyday lives. Look, for example, at the Silicon Valley. Most of the successful people working there, go to work in T-shirts, have long, untidy hair, etc. They wouldn’t normally, impress us well-dressed folk.

Again, compare nations. Those with strict laws, ordering their populations what they can do, and what they mustn’t do, are far less innovative, than those operating freer, more democratic societies. Does this mean, that we should say ‘leave the dirty dishes on the table, we can clean up sometime later’. Or, ‘I can throw my dirty socks into a corner, somebody will wash them, sometime?’ ‘I could become a genius!’ Over to you, dearest reader!

Glossary:

comply -   to do something, as required, or ordered

achieved -   reached

(un)tidy -   disorderly / orderly

Here we are, looking forward to Christmas and all the festivities that go with it. Well, I’m not going to write about Christmas in this article. If you browse back through my blogs, you’ll find one about Christmas, now about a year old.

No, today, I’m going back one month to give you my impressions of the day of remembrance, for those who have lost their lives in the wars since 1914. In the UK, it’s a day of solemnity, but carried out with much ‘pomp and circumstance’. Almost everybody throughout the land wears a poppy on the left hand lapel of their jackets, etc.

The poppy is a red flower, which grew in profusion in Flanders (Belgium), an area of great and destructive military action, in the first world war. It was said that the poppy can lie dormant for many years, until the earth around it is disturbed. Emotionally, the poppy became a symbol of death. The poppy worn today are artificial replicas, which are sold to the public, in the streets, cafes, shops; almost everywhere where people go.

The money collected (£ millions) goes to a charity organisation, to be used for ex-soldiers, who are in financial or health difficulties. Every year at 11 a.m., on the 11th of November, an impressive ceremony takes place in London, at the Cenotaph, the main national memorial. The Queen and other royalty, politicians and heads of state from many Commonwealth countries, attend and lay their wreaths of poppies at the monument. All this is accompanied by military music, marching ex-soldiers with their regimental flags flying – all televised around the UK. Similar ceremonies take place in towns and villages throughout the country.

Well, this year, at that time, I was in a small town, in the south of Germany, visiting my wife’s family and I went with them to the local church, where at 11.a.m. there was also a service of remembrance. There were two priests; one Catholic and the other Protestant. Several people from other nationalities stood side by side with Germans. There was perfect harmony between them. Without any ‘pomp and circumstance’, except for the local brass band, which played solemn music most beautifully; the dead and injured were beautifully remembered, not only of Germany and not only of the military. All those effected, from all walks of life and from all countries and creeds, were remembered. I was impressed. Now, I had experienced another side of remembering the tragedies of war.Then I asked myself the burning question:

Why? What have we gained from this repeated slaughtering of millions of our peoples? We could answer, that war creates new technical and scientific developments, which are often big assets for peacetime life. Radar is a good example. But at the cost of all the misery of war? And I thought that unfortunately, it is in the nature of humans to make war, and that probably it will never change. Especially as long as we have different country frontiers, languages and religions (and politicians?).

Yes, 11 a.m. on the 11th day of November, can be a deeply sad day. That is unless you live in the Rhineland, where it is the trigger that starts the festivities of carnival!

Glossary:

solemn(ity) – serious

lapel -   part of collar

profusion -  large amount

dormant -  sleeping

replica -  copy

wreath – circular arrangement of flowers

creeds -  forms of religion

trigger -  part of a gun, pulled by a finger(verb. to start, to activate)

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Remembrance.html

Looking at the above title you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s the beginning of a science or chemical formula. But, in fact, you know quite well, that that is not the case. So what is it?

HS2 means: ‘High Speed Rail Number Two.’ I’m sure you know that Stgt. 21 means: putting Stuttgart’s railway station underground. TAV means, building a 70 Km tunnel through the Italian mountains. What do they have in common?

All three are highly expensive building projects and have raised protest in their respective communities. It appears, that all projects will actually go ahead, despite protests. Only last week, after (I was surprised to hear) fifteen years of discussion, planning, etc, a vote of the German public, in South Germany, gave the ‘go-ahead’ with a small majority, however, with strict conditions, regarding financing.

HS2, however, is not yet, so far advanced. The cost estimate is £20 billion. HS1, has long been completed, being the fast rail connection between London and the Channel Tunnel. HS2 will be the fast connection between London and Birmingham. Why the protest? Because it will pass through some of Central England’s most picturesque countryside. Many of the protesters are NIMBYs (‘not in my back yard’). Other arguments say, that many passengers, already using the present trains, are able to work longer with their laptops on the journey. Still others say, that because the HS2 won’t make any stops between London and Birmingham, it will exclude many would-be passengers on the way. The main pro-argument is, that this is only the beginning of a larger high speed rail network, bringing the North of England into closer contact with London and other countries of Europe. A counter argument says, that it’s no better than the English ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’, because so many other European countries already have a high speed network.

TAV is planned to connect Turino in Italy with Lyon in France, again by high speed railway. Protests in the Piemonte area of Italy are in many aspects similar to those of HS2, but with the added issue of possible radio acitvity being present in the line of the proposed tunnel.

Personally, I shall not benefit directly from either Stgt 21, HS2 or TAV. Therefore, why am I taking the trouble to write this blog about them? Because, dear reader, the strength of the protests, helps to remind me of democracy being so clearly demonstrated.

Aren’t we all so lucky, living in countries, where we are free to disagree with our rulers? Long may it endure.

Glossary:

to have in common -  to have something equal or similar to

respective:  -  other / different

‘keeping up with the Jones’s -  to be not less than

endure – continue

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15642750

No matter where you are, or where you look, or listen, you are, in some way, exposed to sex, in one form or another.

In fashion, in shop windows, magazines and newspapers. Radio and TV couldn’t exist without it. How often do I hear someone saying: ‘Yes, it looks quite sexy.’ They may be looking at anything from a building to a bicycle, or a bunch of flowers.

Has the world gone mad? In its basic form sex is part of nature – without it we wouldn’t be here. But isn’t it meant to be private and personal?  Doesn’t it require depth of feeling? I find the biggest culprit is TV. There’s barely a  programme which doesn’t in some way allude to sex. Not to mention the most blatant displays of physical sex. Nothing is left to the viewer’s imagination, making the whole concept superficial.

My main concern, is how easily it is available to children. The producers tell us that these programmes only start at a later hour of the evening! How many children of a vulnerable age are already in bed at this ‘cut-off’ time? And can’t they download any TV programme, at any hour of the day, on their laptops? Many people will say,’ So what! They are not any better or worse children because of it.’ Well, I can only speak of the UK, which has the highest rate  of teenage pregnancies and unmarried mothers in Europe. This represents the UK in the age of I.T., not before.

I’m sure that many of you have views on this subject which differ from mine. I’d certainly like  to hear them. Put your points of view on our website.

Glossar

bunch -  handful, vase full

mad -  crazy

culprit -  wrong doer

allude -  suggest

blatant — open, nothing hidden

superficial -  skin deep

available -  to hand

vulnerable -  exposed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15921903

Is there anywhere in the civilised world where one group of society doesn’t think they are better than another group?

The Indian caste system is a good example. Skin colour difference is still with us, even if the more humane amongst us realise that it is illogical. It’s rewarding to live in a place like the UK, where skin colour is becoming less and less important. However, the UK is less than perfect in a different direction.

It’s what we call ‘class distinction’. We don’t have to go far back in our national history to the times when the aristocrat was a large land-owner and everyone else, with the exception of the church, was a nobody. This started to change with the industrial revolution, when many non-aristocrats became successful business giants. But the system itself, barely changed, as the new rich stepped into the old aristocrat’s shoes and began assuming aristocratic titles, such as ‘Sir, Lord, Earl, etc’. The poor peasant remained poor, but more and more, became the abused factory worker, and less and less the abused land worker. It’s not surprising that trade unions were born in England. It is not more than 200 years ago that London slum dwellers, drank themselves to death on cheap gin, which was cheaper than bread.

Yes, we might say, but that is all history. Today, gin is far more expensive than bread, and anyway, nobody in the UK has to starve in these modern times. But, in this land, history can be slow to change. Not since the year 1066 has an invader come and changed the whole infra-structure, contrary to many other countries. I’m sure you’ve already read my thoughts. Yes, you are right, we still have a form of class distinction. Many of the aristocrats have disappeared (though not all).

Today, their rich, old, ’stately homes’, are open to anybody who wishes to visit them. Their place has been taken by the modern millionaires ‘the upper class’, who see themselves as better than others. They often change speech accents as they climb the ladder to the top. (See my last blog).

Then there are those who manage to get half way up the ladder, the ‘middle class’, who look down at those at the bottom of the ladder, the ‘working class, who can’t look down, past the bottom of the ladder, so they proudly (or stubbornly), hate everyone who is above them on the ladder. Of course there are exceptions to these classifications. There are many people who do not identify themselves with any particular class. These are usually people with moral standards which transcend class distinction.

But what about your own country? I lived many years in Germany, during which time I often tried to identify the class distinction. Certainly, there is always the ‘I am better than you’ snobbish attitude, but I couldn’t  find a UK parallel. The nearest I found was rather in the matter of higher education and the use of titles, e.g. ‘von’ ‘Herr Professor’, ‘Dr.’, ‘Dr. Dr.’ etc. Am I correct here?

Perhaps you can see other distinctions which I can’t. I’d be greatly interested to hear your views on these classifications.

Glossary:

reward (ing) – a one time payment as thanks

barely -  not much

assume -  to suppose, to expect

abuse -  being wrongly handled

dwellers -  people who live there

starve -  go hungry

stubborn -  slow to change

transcend – rise above

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_climber

Generally, the written form of most languages changes slowly, from century to century. I can say, that the written form of English has changed, say since William Shakespeare, but it has been gradual and is still today, not too difficult for the average Brit to read.

Here, I’m mostly concerned with dialect  and pronunciation. There is a basic difference between these two. But most dialects also carry their own distinct pronunciations. However, although many dialects in the UK have disappeared, they have often left behind, sometimes a lot, sometimes less, of their distinctive pronunciations. For example, in my childhood I was surrounded by some dialect, but a very strong, local pronunciation. Today, there is almost no dialect and very little local pronunciation left.

If you travel from the south of England to the north, you may find more local pronunciations and some dialects, starting from the Midlands. I will not include Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland here, since their differences are often more distinct. My theme, concerns more the south of England.

Until around the 1960s BBC English contained no dialect, and had every sharp pronunciation. Then it began to change into a more relaxed, less separate form of ‘everyday English’. The local differences quickly began to merge into a non-distinctive form. Obviously, society was changing; wage-earners were rising to become salary-earners, the masses were becoming more mobile, partly in the search for ever better jobs, etc. They soon started to lose their local speech identities, so as not to be classified as being inferior to others. The result being that most Southerners now speak a similar form of English.

O.K. so far? Ah! but it doesn’t end there. The middle and north of England were where most of the country’s coal mines and heavy industries were situated. No longer! Coal mines have closed. Much historical heavy industry either closed down, or moved to other countries, leaving large areas of unemployment, behind them. In the meantime, many people have been re-employed, but have largely retained their original pronunciations. This is where radio and especially TV steps into the picture. They have to market their programmes.

Commercial TV is very competitive, and the BBC can’t afford not to compete with them. Think of all the ’soap  opera’ programmes, among many others, that have to appeal to ‘the man in the street’. What better than to use his style of language.

Today, so as not to appear snobbish or posh, most popular programmes do this. So, even if you live in London, your favourite programme could make you think you live, e.g. in Yorkshire or Liverpool. What next? But then as the old saying goes: Variety is the Spice of Life.’

Glossary:

gradual -  not suddenly

concerned with -  concentrated on

disappeared -  gone, stopped

surrounded by -  to be in the middle of

merge -  come together

wage-earner -  paid weekly for untrained physical work

salary-earners – paid monthly for trained work

retained -  not lost

BBC -  State owned radio and TV organisation (British Broadcasting Corporation)

www.bbc.co.uk

When I first arrived in Germany, few people there, could speak any English. Those who did have a few words, often used them to impress other people in their own circle of society. These words, were usually nouns, sometimes objectives, with no sentence structure. The sentence structure remained German. There was usually a bit of snobbishness involved.

In the meantime most Germans have at least a working knowledge of English (no small thanks, to the around 60 inlingua language centres). You may say ‘ok, German is German and English is English.’ But is it?

In the early English-learning days, a German would often insert German words in the ‘English’ sentence, because he/she wouldn’t know the required English word. Now, the reverse is happening. One hears more and more Germanised English words being put into normal German sentences. For example ‘fight’ becomes ‘fightet, or fightened. The words ‘life’ and ‘live’ are frequently being used on German TV, but not with original English pronunciations. I’m sure you are also aware of the many, many more English words being Germanised. There is no doubt that computer language, is responsible for some of these changes, but not all, by far.

What is the attraction of these English based words? I’m sure that snobbishness is no longer a reason, because there are too many. Is it a form of internationalism trying to establish itself? Can it be a result of most modern music having English lyrics?

Whatever it is, it is not unique in the history of language. A very obvious example, is the English language itself. Basically, Germanic, composed of different dialects, it was suddenly influenced by the Norman form of French, after the Norman invasion of the 11th century. Some simple examples are: cow becomes beef, on the table; calf becomes veal, sheep becomes mutton, etc, etc etc.  Then Latin and Greek, modern French, among others, took their place to form what is now English. Will English word invasion succeed in producing a new form of German?

I once predicted that the lingua franca of Germany, would be a Germanic English dialect within the next 50 years. My prediction is probably wrong. But -, but, – but, – ? In the meantime, if you find problems with English, German, or any other language, contact inlingua Düsseldorf. They will put you right!

Glossary:

reverse -  opposite

obvious -  clear to see

predict -   to speak now of a future development

http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Genglish/

“>

As I’m sure you already know, the meaning within the above saying is, ‘Do something. ‘Don’t only talk about it.’ But today, I have a variation of the meaning.

Here I am, in the middle of a 2-week holiday in Italy. Although being on holiday, I still feel obliged to write my weekly blog for you. Being in Italy, this subject for my blog readily came to me. I’m sure, you’ve heard the old expression, ‘if you want to stop an Italian from talking, chop off his arms.’ There’s a lot of truth in this saying (without the brutal aspect of course).

An Italian friend told me, that he was once idly watching two Italians holding a conversation. However, out of the friend’s earshot. He said how he could follow much of what they were saying, simply by observing their hands and arms movements. Well, I certainly wouldn’t be able to follow such a conversation. But during this holiday I’ve been fascinated by these loquacious gestures. Where Rossini created music for the ears, this animated display of speech, is music to the observer’s eyes.

By comparison, Northern Europeans are dumb. Germans have some semblance of connection between hands and tongue, though nothing near the fluency of the Italians. As for the British! They are just out in the cold! British journalists, for example, on television, have their upper arms close to the sides of their chest, while the lower arms and fingers are horizontally extended. As they gesticulate to make important points of their narrative, ten fingers seem to be making multiple stabs into the thin air, in front of them. They look grotesque, when compared to their counterparts, on Italian TV.

With only one week left of my holiday, try as I will, I don’t think I’ll manage to speak ‘manual’ Italian, before returning to my ‘manually’ speechless countrymen. By comparison, learning a foreign language orally, is relatively easy, at inlingua Duesseldorf. Try for yourself.

Glosary:

readily -  easily

idly, idle -  not working, not busy, relaxing

earshot -  hearing distance

dumb -  speechless

semblance -  similarity, likeness

loquacious -  orally expressive, talking freely