Language at its worst.

LinkedIn shows language at its worst, and no one is doing anything about it. With no Manual of Style in either English or Spanish, it has become a language cesspool. Recently I wrote the following which immediately had 170 views but only 3 "likes."
"My remarks may often picture me as a naysayer or faultfinder, but I am simply trying to make people realize that grammar, punctuation, word order and clarity matter. These are relaxed times, I know, but the way we wrap up our thoughts says a lot about ourselves, and I notice that plenty who “publish” in LinkedIn do not seem to care. Please, have a heart and respect readers. And those working at LinkedIn are the worst, the real culprits. I am chagrined to have to write this."

Eats, shoots & Leaves -

In the absence of intonation, speed, pitch, pauses, body language, writing employs punctuation, which is a wonderful aid to helpt carry our maneaning to readers, untainted.When used properly, of course. But few do, and writers have become scofflaws who love to ignore commas, periods, semicolons, colons as if they were straighjackets to their writings.

Lynne Truss wrote a clever book in 2003, Eats, shoots & Leaves, The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, where she copies the definition for panda she had seen in a book: "A panda eats, shoots & leaves." That comma would change a translation into Spanish from: "Come brotes y hojas." a "Come, dispara y se va."  Just a comma.
The book was a success in the English-speaking world, with over 700,000 copies sold.
This business is not better in the Sànish-speaking world; perhaps it is worse. Amphiboly, ambiguity, must be avoided lest our readers misunderstand the message. And here´s when punctuation comes in.
In Spanish we have: "Y gritando que no la mató, se puso el sombrero y se fue." Witht a comma we end up with: "Y gritando que no, la mató, se puso el sombrero y se fue." Please, do be careful with your punctuation, in the two languages. 

The best Grammar

Two ways of looking at Grammar:
How it is used - when we observe the passing grammar, the marching language
How it should be used - commenting on what is right or wrong in language

To me, the best grammar is the one that puts forth one´s thought clearly and simply. The rest is applesauce.

Lenguaje imperfecto

Siempre que me dan la oportunidad explico que el lenguaje es el más importante y mejor invento del cerebro humano para comunicarse con otros cerebros. Pero, al ser el resultado de los esfuerzos neuronales, es caótico, impreciso, ilógico, imperfecto y personal. Esta manera de comunicación debe perfeccionarse aunque, hoy por hoy, es lo que tenemos y no se le puede pedir más. Sí creo que debemos tratar de pulirlo para que sea más preciso, menos ambiguo y más "científico", si es que se puede aplicar esta palabra a los idiomas; por lo menos al escribir, que es donde hay posibilidades de corregir, editar, cambiar y pulir. El minimalismo riguroso en la escritura debe imponerse; reducir al mínimo la expresión para comunicar conceptos con claridad.

Practice makes perfect

Surfing YouTube, and apropos of calligraphy, I stumbled upon this which I found both profound and interesting, and which can be applied to any type of learning:
I have good and bad news.
Good news: You will improve through regular practice.
Bad news: You will only improve through regular practice.

YouTube and speed listening

Sabida es mi aversión por el "speed reading" que me obligó a escribir un artículo en inglés sobre el tema, "Speed reading vs slow reading", (cited in Milena Tsverkova´s "The speedreading is in disrepute." 2017.) Sin embargo soy partidario del "speed listening": escuchar textos a más velocidad de lo que se considera normal. YouTube (una maravilla) tiene la opción de velocidad: normal, lenta, muy lenta, rápida, muy rápida, que es una bendición para los estudiantes de idiomas. Podemos escuchar la novela Eugénie Grandet, de Honoré de Balzac, a velocidad lenta, y luego, una vez nos hayamos familiarizado con el texto, a velocidad del francés normal, y luego más rápido. Y en inglés, y alemán, y sueco...
Los estudiantes de idiomas quejicas no saben la suerte que tienen con la "nueva" tecnología. El que no aprende idiomas bien (como Pablo Iglesias, politiquillo español) es porque no quiere; facilidades las tiene todas. 

Frases bordón de la lengua inglesa

Yo las llamo frases bordón: frases de relleno que no aportan nada y de las que podemos prescindir siempre, sin alterar el significado de nuestro enunciado. Como en todos los idiomas, el inglés tiene muchas. Por ejemplo:
To be honest, to tell the truth: que puede inducir a creer que en otras ocasiones no somos honrados o no decimos la verdad. "A decir verdad" dirá un hispanohablante.
Needless to say: ni que decir tiene... ¿entonces por qué decirlo?
Past experience: posiblemente porque la experiencia futura es desconocida.
With all due respect: con todos los respetos, pero que en realidad proclama la falta de respeto hacia los demás.
Thank you for your patience: leemos leemos y oímos mucho, como si tuviéramos elección cuando nos obligan a esperar.
At the end of the day: Una manera como otra de posponer las cosas y dejarlas como estaban.
I´m just saying: que tiene su equivalente en "lo que digo es..." que es redundante y absurdo, por no decir más.
I hear you: con el significado de comprender pero que en realidad dice que esa persona no tiene cera en los oídos.
No offense: que en castellano dicen "sin ánimo de ofender" pero que siempre ofende.
Por último poner en claro que la expresión es "I couldn´t care less" y nunca "I could care less", como muchos se empeñan en decir.

Los idiomas y su parentesco

El inglés y el alemán tienen genes similares. El castellano y portugués son hermanos. El castellano y el ruso ni se conocen. El inglés y el urdu no son, por no ser, ni siquiera amigos. Pero el castellano y el inglés son primos; quizá primos hermanos. Por eso aprender inglés o castellano resulta tan fácil y tan familiar y tan divertido.
Hoy voy a dar unos ejemplos de refranes, proverbs, los que comienzan con better, más vale:

Better late than never
Better a poor compromise than a strong case
Better beg than steal
Better the devil you know than the devil you don¨t know
Better aught than naught
Better to have than to wish
Better be envied than pitied

Más vale tarde que nunca
Más vale una mala avenencia que buena sentencia
Más vale pedir que hurtar
Más vale malo conocido que bueno por conocer
Más vale algo que nada
Más vale tener que desear
Más vale que nos tengan envidia que lástima

Stephen King to writers

Estas palabras de Stephen King sirven de guía para escritores (y responsables de contenido) de todos los idiomas:
"When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat."

A teacher of slow reading

I started reading Nietzsche at 16. Right now I am in the midsts of Irving Yalom´s When Nietzsche Wept. He was a philologist, as you know, and in his Preface to Dawn he writes:
"I have not been a philologist in vain - perhaps I am not one yet: a teacher of slow reading. I even come to write slowly. At present it is not only my habit but even my taste... For philology is that venerable art which exacts from its followers one thing above all - to step to one side, to leave themselves spare moments, to grow silent, to become slow... it teaches how to read well, i.e. slowly, profoundly, attentively, prudently, with inner thoughts... learn to read well!"

Recordar palabras /Remembering words

Aprender un idioma, learning a language, significa básicamente ejercer la memoria, basically means to exercise memory.
¡La memoria, esa gran desconocida de la ciencia! El gran reto de la neurociencia. Important because we are memory. Our brain stores all input from the senses and is then able to compare and classify data.
Para hablar un idioma necesitamos palabras y frases que debemos aprender de memoria, nos guste o no. But how can we do that speedily and effortlessly? That is the mystery of language-learning.
Pero lleva tiempo y práctica. And there are many "methods" and "techniques" to commit vocabulary to memory.
Una técnica más:
Open a file in Word where you will add vocabulary as it comes up:

July, 2020
Table - Mesa
Corkscrew - Sacacorchos
Hubris - Arrogancia
Caveat - Salvedad, advertencia

August, 2020
Watermelon - Sandía
A horse of a different color - Harina de otro costal
Inkwell - Tintero
So long - Hasta luego
I agree - Estoy de acuerdo

Esta lista está para refrescar y repasar. Se puede ir a palabras específicas o simplemente emplear como listado.
Bajo cada entrada se pueden añadir ejemplos prácticos y comentarios.
It is a technique I use myself, and with my students. I do not trust their memoristic abilities.
Give it a try; you have nothing to lose!

Boring grammar terminology

Grammar is just as boring as chemistry, math, accounting or taxidermy. Nonetheless I read teachers saying that it is boring and that we should not study it. That dumbfounds me because it is simply the study and classification of language. Then why all the ballyhoo against it? May it be that by "grammar" they all refer to its "vocabulary", its "terminology"? Words like conjuction, adverb, prepositions, persent perfect, conditional, subjunctive, article... may be the culprits, I was thinking. What about if we stop talking about "gender" and "definite article" and we plunge straight into the action of language?
El brazo, el ojo, el libro (do not explain about masculine definite article)
El brazo largo, el ojo negro, el libro gordo (do not explain about adjectives or agreements)
La taza, la cabeza, la nariz (do not mention feminine articles)
La taza grande, la cabeza gorda, la nariz larga
This is not new, I know, but it would probably help avoid a dislike students seem to have, and never understand, for "grammatical" terminology.
Isn´t it silly to try to explain that the noun brazo is masculine and the noun cabeza is feminine and that adjectives agree in gender and number with nouns? No wonder students will exclaim: Spare me the drama!
Just an idea, for whatever it is worth!

Math, Biology, History and pronunciation

The study of language is neither more nor less complicated than the study of math, or history, or biology... except that the latter do not have to be pronounced. Ah, there´s the rub!  "You must understand this equation and then you have to pronounce it well, like a native mathematician!" Silly, right? This splitting of hairs shows the real problem behind language-learning: phonetics. I keep flogging a dead horse, but I will not tire of saying it. English is an easy language, but difficult to pronounce. Spanish is a difficult language and also difficult to pronounce. I know plenty of readers will differ and cry out loud that Spanish is written and pronounced exactly the same. I refer you to Tomás Navarro Tomás, Manual de pronunciación española.
If there are many people who pronounce Spanish and English well, why shouldn´t you? Are you stupid or something? Say to yourself: If they can, I can!