Can I get a coffee, Please?

The last year or so has seen a proliferation of the use of 'Can I get' instead of 'Can I have' and frankly it drives me mad. I'm not really sure where it has come from though I'm tempted to say that it falls into the Americanism's category. It is almost exclusively use by younger members of society and I've rarely, if ever heard it used by any anyone in Britain over the age of 50.

‘Can I get some more paper?’
‘Yes, it’s on the table over there – help yourself.’
 
This would be an unremarkable question and answer pattern but the colleague who was asked this question by several native speakers of British English recently was the invigilator of an exam and certainly did not give that response! The expectation of ‘going and getting’ some more paper cannot have been in the students’ or the invigilator’s mind.

So what the students meant was: ‘Can I have some more paper?’ (I’d like to be given some more paper).

This use of ‘Can I get’ for ‘Can I have’ has become increasingly common in the younger age groups of British English speakers. I first remember noticing it in the late 1990s, when the Friends effect was strong in the UK. Now you will often hear someone asking ‘Can I get a coffee?’ or ‘Can I get an egg sandwich?’ at a takeaway counter. It is, of course, common in American English.

Both the UK and US versions of the Macmillan English Dictionary record the ‘Can I have’ formula for requests, giving it the specific context of polite requests for food and drink. They also both record the ‘go and bring back’ sense of ‘get’. But, in common with the most recently published ELT dictionaries, neither appears to show that ‘get’ is being used in requests for something to be given, in British English as well as American English.

To get
[transitive] [never passive] to obtain, receive, or be given something

Ross's father got a new job.

Did you get tickets for the game?

I got a fine for reckless driving.

You get ten points for each correct answer.

get something from someone:

She got a ring from her grandmother.

get someone something/get something for someone:

The social worker got the family a new flat and clothes for the children.

get an answer/reply etc:

She called out to him but got no reply.

get the chance/opportunity:

Young players will get the chance to meet one of their heroes.

get permission/approval etc:

We got permission from the council to start building.

to obtain, receive, or be given something

Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

To get something or someone: get, come by, accept, obtain, gain, derive, get together, bring, find... more

1. a. to buy something
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To buy something: buy, get, purchase, invest in, buy up, import, place, get in, splash out, buy into... more
2.  b. to go and bring something back from somewhere else
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To go somewhere and get something or someone: get, pick up, call for, go for, collect, fetch... more
3. c. to earn or receive an amount of money
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To earn a particular amount of money: generate, get, get back, gross, net, realize, get together, turn over, make, draw... more
4. d. to obtain information
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To find out information: find out, read up on, hear of, discover, find, read, collect, get... more
5. e. to start to have an idea or feeling
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To form an opinion, or to have an idea: measure, come up with, judge, infer, appraise, conceive, hit on, sum up, conceptualize, draw a conclusion/an inference... more
6. f. to start to have an illness or medical condition
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To have or develop an illness or symptom: suffer, get, contract, come down with, develop, catch, have, afflict, go down with, swim... more
7. g. to obtain a benefit or have a positive feeling when you do something
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To enjoy something, or to enjoy yourself: like, enjoy, go in for, delight in, savour, revel in, love, have your fun, take/find pleasure in (doing) something, go out... more
8. h. to obtain a particular result
   

   Synonyms or related words for this sense of get

   To involve, or to be the result of something: result, follow, come out of, ensue, flow from, culminate in, end in, turn out, grow out of, add up to... more

Have can be used in the following ways:

as an auxiliary verb in perfect tenses of verbs (followed by a past participle): We have lived here for 20 years. ♦ Who's eaten all the grapes? (used without a following past participle): Ellen hasn't finished, but I have. Questions, negatives, and question tags using the auxiliary verb have are formed without do: Has the meeting finished? ♦ You haven't eaten anything. ♦ The customers haven't complained, have they?

as a transitive verb used in descriptions and for talking about possession, relationships, or the state that someone or something is in: She has dark curly hair. ♦ He had two sisters. This use of have is never in progressive or passive forms. Have got is often used instead of have for these meanings, especially in spoken English and informal writing: Alan's got a new bike. Questions and negatives can be formed by using have got, have alone, or do: Have you got any money? ♦ Have you any money? ♦ Do you have any money? ♦ We haven't got any money. ♦ We haven't any money. ♦ We don't have any money. Question tags are formed with have when the main verb is have got: They've got a lovely garden, haven't they?

as a transitive verb used for talking about actions and experiences: Let's have a swim before lunch. ♦ I had a good time at the party. This use of have can sometimes be in the progressive but is almost never in the passive: She's having a baby. ♦ Are you having a drink? Have got is not used, and neither short forms of have nor weak forms of pronunciation are ever used in these meanings. Questions, negatives, and question tags are formed with do: Did you have a nice walk? ♦ I didn't have breakfast this morning. ♦ They had quite a bad accident, didn't they?

as a transitive verb (followed by an object and then a participle or infinitive without 'to'): How often do you have your hair cut? ♦ I'll have someone clean out your room. This use of have can be in the progressive: I'm having all the carpets cleaned. Questions, negatives, and question tags are formed with do: Did you have the engine checked?

as a verb used for talking about what is necessary (followed by a verb in the infinitive with 'to'): I had to wait for an hour. (followed by 'to' without a verb in the infinitive): We'll fight for our rights if we have to. This use of have can be in the progressive: I was having to work every weekend. Have got to is often used instead of have to, especially in spoken English and in informal writing: You've got to show your passport. Questions can be formed using do, have got, or have alone: Do we have to pay now? ♦ Have we got to pay now? ♦ Have we to pay now? Negative sentences are usually formed with do or have got: You don't have to pay yet. ♦ You haven't got to pay yet. Question tags are usually formed with do: We have to take a test, don't we?

The Speak Good English Movement

I came across this extraordinary campiagn on the internet and thought I would share it with you. It's the sort of campaign that we could well do with here in the UK. So let's see what they have to say and more importantly, how they say it. 

The Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) is putting out ten "quick and simple tips" for Singaporeans to use to help improve their standard of English.

 

The movement said these "quick and simple" tips show that "taking a little step each day, whether it is reading a book or listening to the radio, can significantly help to improve our English proficiency".
With these tips, the Speak Good English Movement wants all Singaporeans to take action by actively seeking out the tools and resources that are available to improve their language proficiency.
Of these ten tips, three of them are -- to read on a regular basis, listen to the way people speak good English, and think before speaking.

Launched in 2000, the Speak Good English Movement is a nationwide movement to encourage Singaporeans to speak standard English that is universally understood. Standard English, it said, is English with correct grammar and pronunciation, and is not about accent.

This year, the movement is placing special emphasis on working adults aged 20 to 39 years old, with the message that enhancing their speaking and communication skills will serve them well at work.
Mr Goh Eck Kheng, chairman of the Speak Good English Movement, explains the rationale for this core target group. He said: "We can and should keep improving our standard of English, even after we have left school and are working. It is your choice if you want the advantage that English proficiency brings or be left behind."

The movement will be rolling out several initiatives and programmes for this target group.
What's the difference between using "fewer" and "lesser"? Can you actually use the word "revert" instead of "reply"?

If you have the answers, consider taking part in a quiz the Speak Good English Movement has designed and which will be online next Wednesday.

This year, the movement is also partnering a number of F&B outlets in its campaign.
Mr G Shanmugam, the owner of Gayatri Restaurant, said: "We help to promote 'Speak Good English', though we don't need people to speak Oxford English but basic good English will be very useful to Singapore. And, it is not only for our Singaporeans, but we also need our service staff - most of them mainland Chinese, Indians from India, (Filipinos from) the Philippines - to speak good English because if they don't, we will have a lot of problems."

Ms Grace Lau, assistant marketing manager of Ya Kun International, said: "Our staff at Ya Kun tend to be slightly older in their ages. They grew up with the Mandarin language and their dialects.
"It's a challenge to get them to speak English because of the fear of a new language. We have simple training for them. We would also love to have customers to speak to them in English, give them a bit of challenge, and through this, I hope that our staff will have the opportunity to express themselves in English more and to take up this chance to practise what they've learned about basic English."

Here are 5 top tips to get you going.

1. Don't study grammar too much

This rule might sound strange to many ESL students, but it is one of the most important rules. If you want to pass examinations, then study grammar. However, if you want to become fluent in English, then you should try to learn English without studying the grammar.

Studying grammar will only slow you down and confuse you. You will think about the rules when creating sentences instead of naturally saying a sentence like a native. Remember that only a small fraction of English speakers know more than 20% of all the grammar rules. Many ESL students know more grammar than native speakers. I can confidently say this with experience. I am a native English speaker, majored in English Literature, and have been teaching English for more than 10 years. However, many of my students know more details about English grammar than I do. I can easily look up the definition and apply it, but I don't know it off the top of my head.

I often ask my native English friends some grammar questions, and only a few of them know the correct answer. However, they are fluent in English and can read, speak, listen, and communicate effectively.

Do you want to be able to recite the definition of a causative verb, or do you want to be able to speak English fluently?

2. Learn and study phrases

Many students learn vocabulary and try to put many words together to create a proper sentence. It amazes me how many words some of my students know, but they cannot create a proper sentence. The reason is because they didn't study phrases. When children learn a language, they learn both words and phrases together. Likewise, you need to study and learn phrases.

If you know 1000 words, you might not be able to say one correct sentence. But if you know 1 phrase, you can make hundreds of correct sentences. If you know 100 phrases, you will be surprised at how many correct sentences you will be able to say. Finally, when you know only a 1000 phrases, you will be almost a fluent English speaker.

The English Speaking Basics section is a great example of making numerous sentences with a single phrase. So don't spend hours and hours learning many different words. Use that time to study phrases instead and you will be closer to English fluency.

Don't translate

When you want to create an English sentence, do not translate the words from your Mother tongue. The order of words is probably completely different and you will be both slow and incorrect by doing this. Instead, learn phrases and sentences so you don't have to think about the words you are saying. It should be automatic.

Another problem with translating is that you will be trying to incorporate grammar rules that you have learned. Translating and thinking about the grammar to create English sentences is incorrect and should be avoided.

3. Reading and Listening is NOT enough. Practice Speaking what you hear!

Reading, listening, and speaking are the most important aspects of any language. The same is true for English. However, speaking is the only requirement to be fluent. It is normal for babies and children to learn speaking first, become fluent, then start reading, then writing. So the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, then writing.

First Problem
Isn't it strange that schools across the world teach reading first, then writing, then listening, and finally speaking? Although it is different, the main reason is because when you learn a second language, you need to read material to understand and learn it. So even though the natural order is listening, speaking, reading, then writing, the order for ESL students is reading, listening, speaking, then writing.

Second Problem
The reason many people can read and listen is because that's all they practice. But in order to speak English fluently, you need to practice speaking. Don't stop at the listening portion, and when you study, don't just listen. Speak out loud the material you are listening to and practice what you hear. Practice speaking out loud until your mouth and brain can do it without any effort. By doing so, you will be able to speak English fluently.

4. Submerge yourself

Being able to speak a language is not related to how smart you are. Anyone can learn how to speak any language. This is a proven fact by everyone in the world. Everyone can speak at least one language. Whether you are intelligent, or lacking some brain power, you are able to speak one language.

This was achieved by being around that language at all times. In your country, you hear and speak your language constantly. You will notice that many people who are good English speakers are the ones who studied in an English speaking school. They can speak English not because they went to an English speaking school, but because they had an environment where they can be around English speaking people constantly.

There are also some people who study abroad and learn very little. That is because they went to an English speaking school, but found friends from their own country and didn't practice English.

You don't have to go anywhere to become a fluent English speaker. You only need to surround yourself with English. You can do this by making rules with your existing friends that you will only speak English. You can also carry around an iPod and constantly listen to English sentences. As you can see, you can achieve results by changing what your surroundings are. Submerge yourself in English and you will learn several times faster.

TalkEnglish Offline Version is now ready for download. In this package, you can utilize over 8000 audio files to completely surround yourself in English. There are over 13.5 hours of audio files that are not available in the web form. All conversations and all sentences are included, so even if you don't have many English speaking friends, you can constantly surround yourself in English using your MP3 player. This package is available at the English Download page. Take advantage of this opportunity and start learning English faster. Click on the link or go to http://www.talkenglish.com/english-download.aspx.

5. Study correct material

A common phrase that is incorrect is, "Practice makes perfect." This is far from the truth. Practice only makes what you are practicing permanent. If you practice the incorrect sentence, you will have perfected saying the sentence incorrectly. Therefore, it is important that you study material that is commonly used by most people.

Another problem I see is that many students study the news. However, the language they speak is more formal and the content they use is more political and not used in regular life. It is important to understand what they are saying, but this is more of an advanced lesson that should be studied after learning the fundamental basics of English.

Studying English with a friend who is not a native English speaker is both good and bad. You should be aware of the pros and cons of speaking with a non native speaking friend. Practicing with a non native person will give you practice. You can also motivate each other and point out basic mistakes. But you might pick up bad habits from one another if you are not sure about what are correct and incorrect sentences. So use these practice times as a time period to practice the correct material you studied. Not to learn how to say a sentence.

In short, study English material that you can trust, that is commonly used, and that is correct.For a more comprehensive study course try the English Survival Kit - click link.

Britain declares war on words that snuck into our skedule...By Matthew Engel

Mark Easton is the BBC home affairs editor. He spent some of his childhood in Winchester, apparently, not Wisconsin. And his job seems unlikely to offer extensive travel opportunities to the United States.

Yet the other night he referred to ‘specialty shops’ (note the missing i) on the Ten O’Clock News. The rest of his report must have been drowned out by the screaming and spluttering of thousands of Mail on Sunday readers, who share my horror at the way British English is being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of mindless Americanisms.

My article in last week’s Review (Say No To The Get-Go) brought forth a huge response, almost all of it supportive. Most gratifyingly, very few of the emails began: ‘Hi Matthew.’

Taking liberties: Have Brits lost their grasp on the difference between our form of English and America's?

I believe language thrives on give and take, but with the United States it is all take. Americans rarely hear any of our words, let alone adopt them.

But we are so overwhelmed by everything American that the British have lost their grasp on the difference between our form of English and theirs. This is the reality of cultural imperialism.

More...

* Say no to the get-go! Americanisms swamping English, so wake up and smell the coffee

Easton was not even speaking good American. ‘Specialty stores’ would be far more normal in the United States.

‘Speciality’ (with the i) is a lovely word, full of rolling syllables. His version is the kind of usage that comes out of the mid-Atlantic and needs to be dropped back there, from a great height.

And there is a great deal of other useless baggage that needs to be dumped along with it. You offered hundreds more examples.

Top of the long hate-list was probably ‘Can I get a coffee?’ (and these days it probably would be an overpriced, overmarketed American coffee rather than a nice cup of tea).

‘Can I get a coffee?’ was top of the hate list

The answer, says Louisa C., is no ‘. . . unless you are planning to clamber over the counter and start fiddling with the steam spouts’.

It was closely followed by ‘I’m good’ as opposed to ‘I’m very well, thank you’. This phrase is even more infuriating when used as an alternative to ‘No, thanks’, in declining a second helping.

‘I just want to yell, “NO, you are NOT good – you might be really, really BAD,” ’ wailed Patsy Holden.

Other leading hates include ‘snuck’ as the past tense of ‘sneak’ and ‘dove’ as the past tense of ‘dive’; driver’s license instead of driving licence; overly rather than over; autopsy for post-mortem; burglarized instead of burgled; filling out forms instead of filling them in; fries for chips; chips for crisps; and food to go as opposed to take away.

There is also period instead of full stop; and of course ‘Hi, guys’, guys in this case being of either sex. These last two usages are associated with Tony Blair, which seems to redouble the irritation factor.

Not everyone suffers in silence. Martin Levin of London E4, says he keeps emailing Radio 2 to remind them there is no k in ‘schedule’, as does Keith Rodgerson, whose verbal enemies list is so long he can’t have time for much else other than letters of complaint.

Let battle commence: A war of words has been declared between the British form of the English language and Americanisms

It includes airplane for aeroplane, pharmacist for chemist, advisory for warning, and calling McDonalds a restaurant, which is a related but subtly different complaint.

The land is also full of ‘gotten’ haters – understandable because it is an extremely ugly word. This is a complex area, though, in that it was formerly used in Scotland and can be found in the works of Sir Walter Scott.

However, it was described as ‘archaic and affected’ in 1926, so has no business making a comeback.

And there is widespread loathing of the verbalisation of nouns: incentivizing and all that rot. David Barton of Kent says he used to work for an American company that decided to ‘sunset’ a department.

In sport, Bob Carr winces when his team suffer an American ‘loss’ far more than when they go down to an English defeat.

Wayne Bryant says that, if he were still playing competitive sport and was told ‘you’re ON the team ON the weekend’, he would refuse to turn up. Gordon Spalding adds ‘Can we touch base?’ to the collection of ludicrous baseball metaphors.

There is a simple answer to this. There should be a blanket ban on references to baseball in British conversation unless the perpetrator can explain the infield fly rule, which makes the lbw law look a doddle.

There is a more general solution: a growing understanding that Britain has a language of its own.

It may or may not be better than American, but it’s different and it’s ours, part of what makes us distinctive. People do care. It’s time for those with some responsibility for the language to start caring, too.

Say no to the get-go! Americanisms swamping English, so wake up and smell the coffee. Matthew Engel

The following article appeared in The Mail on Sunday and beautifully describes some of the awful mis-uses of the English language. I make no apologies for reproducing this wonderful piece of work.

It happened early this month, shortly after the first cuckoo. I heard it, I swear I heard it. The first get-go of spring. It was on the BBC Breakfast programme on May 11: a presenter was wittering, and distinctly said that something-or-other had been clear 'from the get-go'.

From the what?

Actually, I know all about the get-go or, worse still, the git-go. It's an ugly Americanism, meaning 'from the start' or 'from the off'. It adds nothing to Britain's language but it's here now, like the grey squirrel, destined to drive out native species and ravage the linguistic ecosystem.
Empire State Building in New York

The British have been borrowing words from America for at least two centuries

We have to be realistic: languages grow. The success of English comes from its adaptability and the British have been borrowing words from America for at least two centuries.

Old buffers like me have always complained about the process, and we have always been defeated.

In 1832, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was fulminating about the 'vile and barbarous' new adjective that had just arrived in London. The word was 'talented'. It sounds innocuous enough to our ears, as do 'reliable', 'influential' and 'lengthy', which all inspired loathing when they first crossed the Atlantic.

But the process gathered speed with the arrival of cinema and television in the 20th Century. And in the 21st it seems unstoppable. The U.S.-dominated computer industry, with its 'licenses', 'colors' and 'favorites' is one culprit. That ties in with mobile phones that keep 'dialing' numbers that are always 'busy'.

My dictionary (a mere 12 years old) defines 'geek' as an American circus freak or, in Australia, 'a good long look'. We needed a word to describe someone obsessively interested in computer technology. It seems a shame there was never any chance of coining one ourselves.

Nowadays, people have no idea where American ends and English begins. And that's a disaster for our national self-esteem. We are in danger of subordinating our language to someone else's - and with it large aspects of British life.
Enlarge Engel's terrible ten

Yet no one seems to care. The stern old type of English teacher has died out and many newspapers cannot now afford 'Prodnoses', the last-line-of-defence sub-editors who used to guard the language with a thick pencil.

Sometimes, the language can be improved by the imports. The British would never be able even to define the deficit had we not adopted the American billion (a thousand million) to replace our old hardly used billion (a million million).

I accept that estate agents find it easier to sell fancy apartments rather than boring old flats. And it's right that our few non-passenger trains should carry freight not goods, because that's a more accurate description of the contents.

But the process is non-selective and almost wholly one-way. And it works very strangely. Almost all the parts of a car have different names in America, yet there is no sign of hood replacing bonnet, or the trunk supplanting the boot.

Meanwhile, the most improbable areas of activity are terminally infected. Take the law. Ask any lawyer and they will explain: witnesses in British courts do not testify, they give evidence; nor do they 'take the stand' to do this, they go into the witness box. They do things the American way in media reports of court cases, though - day after day.

We are witnessing a transatlantic takeover in politics as well. This month, Britain acquired a National Security Council. Last year, it gained a Supreme Court. There is talk that the House of Lords will be renamed the Senate.

It also used to be understood that, while American politicians 'ran' for office, British politicians always 'stood'. I liked that: it implied a pleasing reticence. Now in Britain both words are used interchangeably and in this month's General Election candidates stood and ran at the same time. No wonder they kept falling flat on their faces.

Then take sport, where Britain's national tastes are totally different from those of the Americans. I happen to belong to the .0001 per cent (approx) of the British population who count as baseball fans. This makes it even more offensive to me when politicians parrot phrases such as 'three strikes and you're out' although they haven't got the foggiest idea what it means.

Technical baseball terms are everywhere. We constantly hear about people 'stepping up to the plate'. For some weird reason, cricket coaches are especially fond of this one. And ideas keep coming from the baseball position of 'left field'. Wouldn't silly mid-on be more appropriate?

And so, hi guys, hel-LO, wake up and smell the coffee. We need to distinguish between the normal give-and-take of linguistic development and being overrun - through our own negligence and ignorance - by rampant cultural imperialism.

We are all guilty. In the weeks after 9/11 (or 11/9, as I prefer to call it), British journalists, and I was one of them, solemnly reported that the planes had been hijacked by men waving box-cutters, even though no one in Britain knew what a box-cutter was. Very few of us bothered to explain that these were what we have always called Stanley knives.

But it is time to fight back. The battle is almost uncertainly unwinnable but I am convinced there are millions of intelligent Britons out there who wince as often as I do every time they hear a witless Americanism introduced into British discourse.

Stand up and say you care. Feel free to write with your favourite horrors. Come out of the closet. Or better still, the cupboard.


Matthew Engel is a columnist on the Financial Times. Send your pet hate Americanisms to englishincrisis@gmail.com.

Alex Guttenplan - Sensational University Challenge Captain

Verbally challenged: University Challenge sensation reveals that Jeremy Paxman can’t even get his pronunciation correct

The University Challenge finalists captained by online heart-throb Alex Guttenplan have lifted the lid on what goes on behind the scenes of the TV quiz.

They described how Jeremy Paxman – seemingly so sure of himself in the presenter’s chair – is actually prone to mispronunciation and sometimes has to re-film his contributions at the end.

Even more embarrassingly for Paxman, the team from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, revealed what the famously abrasive host is really like.

Quiz show stars: Alex Guttenplan (centre) with his Emmanuel College teammates on University Challenge

Apparently the presenter who has built a fearsome reputation with his Newsnight grillings of politicians is actually ‘a nice guy’ who bought ‘beers all round’ after the show.

 More...

• University Challenge contestant becomes Facebook sensation and unlikely heartthrob after leading team to final

Bespectacled Alex, 19, has become a heart-throb as a result of his appearances on  the BBC 2 quiz, spawning Facebook groups of followers who call themselves Guttenfans.

The natural sciences student with the encyclopaedic knowledge has modestly declined to speak about his sudden fame.

Verbally challenged: The contestants have revealed that Jeremy Paxman is actually prone to mispronunciation and sometimes has to re-film his lines

However, interviewed with his teammates by Cambridge student newspaper The Tab, he did have some wry remarks to make about the host.

Describing Paxman as a ‘nice guy’ he added with a smile that the presenter was ‘very conscious that he is Jeremy Paxman!’

Asked if he resented the host’s ‘quippy’ comments, he said: ‘You do get the idea on TV that he knows everything’.

And after teammate Josh Scott described Paxman’s habit of mispronouncing ‘stuff all the time’, Alex said: ‘Sometimes if he mispronounces particularly badly they will re-take the shot at the end of the match.

‘As far as the results and the buzzing goes, the match goes all the way through but then occasionally either Paxo will pronounce something wrong or the cameraman will get it wrong and zoom in on the wrong contestant which has to be re-filmed after.’

Andy Hastings, who is studying medicine, said: ‘Sometimes they will stop and either someone will dispute an answer or they’re not sure if your answer is the same as the one he said, and then you hear people on Wikipedia trying to work it out.’

Underlining Paxman’s softer side, Mr Scott, who is also studying medicine, said: ‘Paxman does often dispute answers with the editor, if he wants to give it to people who are close but not bang on. I think he did give one in our favour after disputing it with the editor.’

A spokesman for the show said the crew did sometimes have to shoot ‘pick-ups’, adding: ‘A lot of the material contains tricky pronunciations that are hard to deliver at speed.’

She also claimed Mr Guttenplan had not remarked on Paxman’s pronunciation.

Emmanuel meet St John’s College, Oxford, in the final on Monday.

The student led Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to beat Manchester University 315 to 120 during Monday night's clash

The English Survival Kit

"Take your communcation skill to another level. Don't let English speaking block your potential. Do you want to speak English using a simple method?"

Is English your second language?
If you said “Yes!”, do you want to learn how to talk fluently? Then I have something that will help you to improve your speaking ability.

* Are you new to an English speaking country?
* Are you struggling to speak in English?
* Are you having difficulty talking to someone in public places?
* Are you embarrassed when you can’t say something in English?
* Are you having difficulty expressing your ideas?


According to linguists, people learn foreign languages by remembering phrases rather than words or sentences. Based on this fact, I have created this book to help you speak English in a short period of time. Most of the people are familiar with many words, but they don’t know how to talk. Their ability to form sentences is limited due to the inadequate number of phrases.

Everyday Survival Kit for English Learners includes more than 100 situational conversations with many common phrases. You can use these phrases in all the situations that you encounter everyday. The purpose of this book is to help you communicate effectively. Look at the following example:

~ You are calling some restaurant to reserve few tables for your friends. How would you talk to the customer service? This book gives few examples and provides many phrases that you can use to that particular situation.

Let’s look at another example:
~ You are calling the local phone company to get a new phone line to your home. If you don’t know few specific phrases on this subject, you wouldn’t be able to talk to the person on the other line.


Now is the Right Time to Start Speaking English Confidently!

Here are few topics the book includes:

* More than 100 necessary situations that you may encounter in everyday life where you need to talk in English. These everyday conversations will help you to express opinions without hesitation.

* Tips and information on how to communicate effectively. These tips will improve your people skills and develop your communication.

You are probably wondering how much it is going to cost. I am sure that you have spent hundreds of dollars on your English lessons. You have probably spent so many days on conversational and listening classes. I’m not going to do that. I’m handing you this book to learn English by yourself whatever time that you choose. The book is not going to cost you hundreds of dollars like your English classes. It was suggested by my colleagues to sell this book for $40, but I’m not going to do that either.

To find out more about this GREAT ebook
CLICK HERE

By reading these situational conversations, you can improve your English speaking skill to an advanced level. All you have to do is TAKE ACTION.

Bob Wire's thoughts on bad English

The following was written by Bob Wire and is an article on how language is misused. It's a funny, clever piece, I hope you enjoy it.

I’ve compiled a short list (a full list would stretch from here to Two Dot) of offending words and phrases, with their proper usage or meanings. Grab a hot cup, settle in, and pay attention. The reputation you save may be your own.

I’ll start with one of Barb’s most-hated specimens: “Orientated,” as in, “We gathered in the conference room and the systems manager orientated us all to the new porn search program.” People do not get orientated, they get oriented. Unless they are new students attending Orientation at a university in Asia, where they become “Westernized.”

I hate how the word “literally” is used as a modifier, not as the opposite of “figuratively.” If you drank too much tequila and vomited into your wife’s purse, and you told her it literally made you feel like an ass, then you have actually taken the form of a donkey. If your lawyer is literally a baboon, maybe he can ride you into divorce court.

Local broadcasters and advertisers on TV and radio are always saying VEE-hickle when talking about a vehicle, which makes them sound like refugees from Hee-Haw. It figuratively makes me climb the walls. Local sportscasters talk about teams “chomping at the bit” to play another team. The correct term is “champing,” as in, “this team will be champing if they win every game on their schedule.”

These same talking heads and chattering dupes are also guilty of uttering the Holy Triumvirate of mispronunciation: excetera, exscape, and expresso. I love seeing a newscaster reporting that a couple of jailbirds have “exscaped” from the state prison in Deerlodge. Gee, do you think they rode out of there on their “escape goat?” I suppose they were imprisoned for committing a “senseless murder.” You know what murder would make sense? If somebody killed that asshole who made the Blackfoot Communications bullhorn commercial (“Attention people of Montana…”) that plays incessantly on the radio.

When it comes to foreign words and phrases, my advice is to just steer clear unless you have a firm grip on their usage and spelling. The internet provides a platform for a tsunami of unchecked writing, and it’s an unending source of clueless usage from ignorant people who just don’t care how stupid they look. For instance, we’ve all grown up with the phrase, “voilà,” usually uttered by a magician as he allows a pigeon to fly out of his pants. But I often see it written as “walla” or “wah lah.” Jesus H. Christ, that’s right up there with “bonified,” an attempt at “bona fide,” and “per say,” when they mean “per se.” This kind of error shouts to the world, “Yes, I’m reading on a fifth grade level.”

Here’s another example: “Mano a mano.” The literal meaning of this Spanish phrase is “hand to hand,” like hand to hand combat. If your boss comes up to you and says, “Simpson, we need to have a talk, mano a mano,” it will be accurate only if you are both deaf. And your name is Simpson.

One of my favorite bonehead gaffes is “on the lamb,” for someone who’s running from the law. Listen, if you’re literally on the lamb, you’ve got bigger problems than John Q. Law breathing down your neck. Not only are you a bestiality freak, but you’re a pedophile as well. Better stay on the lam.

I love when someone says they’re waiting “with baited breath.” I can only picture her with a mouthful of chum, or perhaps gnawing on a small squid. Or maybe chomping at the bait.

Speaking of bestiality, I hear a lot of language-mangling coming from the pie holes of political candidates, too. They’ll say their opponent “misrepresented the truth,” when they mean he “lied his ass off. His pants are literally on fire.” These politicos don’t want the American public to “take anything for granite,” because they will deliver on their campaign promises, “irregardless” of the painful choices they’ll have to make, like “having to do a complete 360” on certain issues. That means, of course, that they change their “anti-abortion” agenda to one that is “pro-life.”

I’ll leave you with this juicy example of a wrongly used word, from the cinematic classic, Animal House. It’s the scene where Otter has taken some pledges to the Food King to shoplift some groceries, and he’s trying to hustle Dean Wormer’s wife in the produce section:

Eric ‘Otter’ Stratton (waving a large cucumber): Mine’s bigger. My cucumber. It’s bigger. I think vegetables can be very sensuous, don’t you?
Marion Wormer: No, vegetables are sensual. People are sensuous.
Otter: Right. Sensual. That’s what I meant. My name’s Eric Stratton. People call me Otter.
Marion Wormer: My name’s Marion. People call me Mrs. Wormer.
Otter: Oh, we have a Dean Wormer at Faber.
Marion Wormer: How interesting. I have a husband named Dean Wormer at Faber. Still want to show me your cucumber?

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