The Swan Song

Like others before us, and other that will follow, Think Blogal Essay Weblog has come to an end. We started out as a project set to comment on the world around us, from different perspectives motivated by our own standpoints. That was an objective as good (or bad) as any.

Think Blogal will not go offline for the moment. On the contrary, during the
months that this venture lastes, several very interesting texts were posted,
and they should be left online - eventually to become part of a growing
amount of cyber debris, but for the moment still a memory strong enough to
erase.

If you have any questions about this blog, contact Pedro Marcelino or Daiana Vasquez.

The Eternal Quest for English Proficiency by Angelo Meneses

Mandarin is currently the most widely spoken language in the world. It was born in a country which is now a booming economy and which is getting more and more important in the international scene. Still, Mandarin is not a world class business language. English is. Probably due to the fact that China produces cheap and in a large number components and not (yet) have a word in the decision making. The future will tell the fate of Mandarin.

English is still today the language for business. By ways of its large empire, English started spreading as a trade language that came to develop even more with the American assertiveness in the world. Today, English is spoken in every corner of the world, being an official language in every continent. So everybody is learning it. Latin used to be the language of an entire world, French the language of the intellectuals and German the language of science, but nowadays English is asserting itself as a universal language. Does this happen because English is an easy language? Or just because it’s already everywhere? There would be many different answers to these questions that are, in fact, not at all relevant. English is the most common language online, the most common second language and everybody knows, at least, one word in the Queen’s language.

Japan has implemented a program – Japanese Exchange and Teaching program – some twenty years ago, in order to bring the business language into the education system. Obviously, English was already there, but there are many challenges in teaching and learning English in the land of the rising sun.

It’s widely known that Japanese people have a natural hard time learning English. Mainly because of the differences in the sounds and the syntax. For the first, the katakana makes it almost impossible for a native Japanese speaker to read English properly. Katakana is one of the four Japanese ways of writing (being Kanji, Hiragana and Romaji the others) and it’s used to write the imported foreign words, such as bus or bread (read as basu and pan, as this last word comes from Portuguese). Many times, the teachers translate the reading of English words into katakana in order to make it easier for the students to read. The problem is that Japanese language comprises syllable sounds and not single sounds as English. This is, except for the vowels and the sound of , Japanese uses syllable sounds, for example, for , and so on. With this, Japanese speakers are tempted to read English with the syllable sounds of their own language, creating words such as redo (actually, red), ando (for and), cuto (for cut), shidi (for CD), among others. It’s the well known Katakana English.

The second reason – the syntax – is even more complex. Japanese doesn’t have a definition for masculine or feminine (although English itself doesn’t make the distinction most of the times), as it doesn’t plural or articles. The latter being extremely difficult to explain to English language students, specially the difference between a and the. And it’s not only this. The basic structure for Japanese is SOV (Subejct, Object, Verb), while in English it’s SVO, which often leads to a change in word order. Nothing to worry about after a lot of practice, though.

This article is mainly about the learning of English in Japan. And Japan is really trying hard with the program already mentioned. It brings thousands of people (currently over 6000) to teach English in Japanese schools (from elementary to high school) in a team teaching system. And all this can only be good, as a simple “exposure” of Japanese students to a English speaking environment can work wonders. The problem is that, many times, that “exposure” is not fully used. As every other country, there is a system in Japan. Language learning is still pretty much based on memorizing, repeating and translating. And this is more than proved not to be the best way. Improvisation and adaptation are. Most part of the test consists of multiple choices, translation or fill in the blanks, not including answers to questions began with why or when or what, therefore imposing a limit on improvisation, adaptation and mere interpretation.

Another very interesting factor concerning language blending, is the natural correlation of languages, leading to word adaptation. In English, everybody knows what the word sushi refers to, still the word is borrowed with no changes at all from Japanese. As mentioned before, Japanese tends to borrow words from other languages, mainly English, adapting them to its syllabic system but also shoretnening them and sometimes changing the meaning. Examples are depatto for department store, post for mail, mansion for flat, among many others.

Interestingly enough, there is another very important factor conditioning the learning of proper English in Japan: the electronic dictionaries. They are really common in Japan, but nowadays, technology does not take into account the language pragmatics and from this gap to coining new meanings or misusing words in specific contexts it’s only a small step.

Language pragmatics (the real usage by real speakers in real contexts) is closely connected to the natural cultural differences between English and Japanese. Despite the natural cultural differences between European countries, for example, it is pretty easy to find equivalents for most of the words or expressions throughout Europe. This is much harder when referring to English and Japanese, Simple words such as genki have different meanings, varying from happy to energetic and asking genkidesuka will undoubtedly be answered with a yes or a no (although almost all the times it’s the first answer!), while in English asking How are you? Can lead to a plethora of answers. It’s the cultural heritage working on a language.

This same heritage can lead to awkward situations as the translation of itadakimasu (a thanking for the meal, but not in a religious tone as common as in the west) and the over use nice to meet you or enjoy. Just words directly transported from Japanese and conveniently and automaticly used in English regardless of their proper use. After all, an English native speaker does not say nice to meet you every time it sees somebody. But, in fact, the verb to meet can cause some confusion.

But Japan is doing the big effort of teaching English from elementary school (where there will be an official curriculum very soon) and bringing internationalization (a very trendy word in this part of the world) into the communities. The same cannot be said, for example, about the United Stated of America. After all, a regular North American student can go through the school system without learning a second language. And although English might be the common language everywhere, billions of people are not born speaking the language. Just check the employment adds. And many American workers will certainly be overtaken by people able to speak another language rather than English. Even in their own country.

It’s a Statistical Universe In My Pocket by Pedro F Marcelino

Every year, cashing on a stats-obsessed world, The Economist publishes the Pocket World in Figures, a small booklet that every pundit-wanna-be can use as a favourite quoting source: China has the largest population; Niger has the fastest growing; etc. As usual, a note is made as to how unreliable statistics are, yada yada, how countries, say, like the US and Burkina Faso, collect data with… huh… let’s call them “different methods”, blah blah, how a limit must be set somewhere, and so only countries with more than 1 m. inhabitants or over 1 bn. US dollars GDP are considered. 182 of them. I am hardly the original creature that draws attentions to it, but here goes nothing: this is a highly questionable method. While The Economist‘s 2005 edition choses to open valid exceptions for Hong Kong and Macau – to name two – including them as statistical units albeit the fact that they are not actual countries, the above criteria leave behind places like the Cape Verde Republic and the Seychelles, both pointed out as the most successful nations in Africa for a long time. It leaves behind a score of Caribbean states, while including the figidy Cayman Islands or the very important Channel Islands. It includes Somalia and the Central African Republic, that surely supplied trustworthy statistic material, leaving behind Liechtenstein, Monaco or San Marino, all too insignificant to be considered and certainly with very unreliable institutions (Macau, oddly enough, is never too small).

The choices denote a sadly all too typical tendency to ignore anything that looks expendable, something Portuguese academic Políbio Valente once named “expendable States”. It denotes an utter, albeit polished, disrespect for any minor cultural unit struggling for its own identity in this ever flatter world. It is the selection of the big and powerful – at times uninformed and ridiculous, at times ethnocentric and revolting. Other than the ones already mentioned, were also missing: Saint Kitts & Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, East Timor, Nauru, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Samoa, Djibouti, Belize, West Sahara – only those detected without an atlas.

Nonetheless, it always looks smart when a blogger drops a few interesting numbers in an article. Hence the decision to make this a tribute to statistics, by drawing your attention to some numeric oddities of 2005. Let the percentages begin.

Japan is the oldest country in the world. Over 50% of its population is older than 41.3 years. But in 2025, says the book, Italy will have taken its place, ranking first with an average of 50.5 years (as Italian girls search la dolce vita, not the dolce fare babies). In fact, the top 25 ranking is an European, all-white exclusive. My own country, Portugal, will be no. 15 in 2025, at 45.8 (which, I guess, includes me). All the youngest populations live in African states. Not only that, they also make the fastest growing countries. All but a small but resilient archipelago that fights on: the Cayman Islands. Could this be all babies, or would it have more to do with the immigration of the rich and beautiful?

The 50 biggest cities in the world all have more than 4 m. inhabitants. Most of them are in developing countries, many in China, Brazil and India. It is not worth mentioning which ones are the fastest growing cities, as most are virtually unknown. Well, Oporto is in, representing the developed countries with an astonishing 11.5% rate, ranking 28. Some countries show a bigger tendency to accumulate population in urban areas. There are the city-states like Singapore or Hong Kong, but also unexpected conurbations like Panama City (41% of the total population), Lisbon (40%), Yerevan (37.5%), Tel Aviv (32.8%) or Athens (29.4%). In Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and Singapore everyone lives in cities. That is one bizarre concept. Even scarier, all of these have well over 90% of urban residents: Guadeloupe, Macau, Belgium, Kuwait, Martinique, Qatar, Iceland, Bahrain, Andorra, Uruguay and Luxembourg. I wonder how do children learn about cows and corn and stars in those places.

The best cities to live in the world are measured against New York, of all places (=100). Oddly enough, they are all better: Zurich and Geneva, Vancouver, Vienna (all 106), Auckland, Bern, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Sydney (all 105), Amsterdam and Munich (both 104). For the record, here is the list of places not to live in: Baghdad, Bangui, Brazzaville, Pointe Noire, Khartoum, Sana’a, Ougadougou, Nouakchott, N’djamena, Luanda, Niamey, Antananarivo.

It is no novelty that Americans have a big purchasing power. The value, however, is not measured having in mind what one’s dollars buy while traveling, rather what your kwanzas buy in your corner store. Thus, Luxembourguese are the richest in the world, followed by Norwegian and American. Bermuda and Cayman Islands come next (surprise, surprise), and the top 10 includes Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, and Austria and Canada ex-aequo. Then come the oddities: Greenland is no. 34 (but what can you buy?), Brunei no. 39, Bahrain no. 48, and Equatorial Guinea is no. 70. That just blows me off. Turn into the quality of life page (human development index), however, and the alignment changes. Trinidad makes it to the top, like Belarus (hello??) and Lybia, as the only African country on the list (ahead of Cape Verde and the Seychelles, that would not be there anyway, as they were not worthy of the book). Rwanda closes the list, along with 20 other African nations.

Looking at economic growth, it is striking to find out where the Equatorial Guinean purchasing power came from: the country had the 4th biggest service growth in the last decade (after Bosnia, Georgia and Albania, all beacons of service quality in the world). For the matter, the top 10 still includes Ethiopia, Myanmar and Uganda. In short: if a country had virtually zero service and gets 100 new outlets, that is an increase of 1000%. Now do your maths.

In what regards foreign aid recipients, it is quite interesting to notice China in the 5th position, and even a rather proud country like Brazil in the top 50. Most recipients, though, are in Africa. China is actually one of the biggest donors to African nations as well, and it has been so for a few decades now. However, the Government does not disclose numbers, which raises the question: is it aid, or a poisoned present? The biggest Embassy in Cape Verde, for the matter, is not Portuguese, Brazilian or even American. It is – and by far – Chinese.

There is a funny group of charts concerning transport. Macau has the densest road network in the world, followed by Malta and Bahrain (!). Portugal comes 38, but it is no. 18 in the most used roads. The above mentioned countries are not on that list. The most nightmarish places to drive, by the way, are Hong Kong, the Emirates and Germany, where the number of cars largely outnumbers the driving areas… even if people have more cars in Lebanon, New Zealand, Brunei and Luxembourg than anywhere else (China, for instance… which proves that they’re not buying cars with the donated money). Stay off the roads in Rwanda, South Korea, Costa Rica, Kenya, India and even Portugal – where the most accidents happen. Above all, remember never to drive in Malawi, where more people die or are injured than anywhere in the world, in a proportion of 20:1 to the second on the list (India).

I guess that partially explains why are not India or Malawi on the life expectancy top places. Instead, we find Andorra, followed by Japan, Sweden, Hong Kong, Iceland and… the Cayman Islands (what miracle fell on the Cayman?). Could it be the number of telephones (84.9% of the population have one)? People in the Cayman phone more than anyone else, while Danish hear more music, Swiss are more on line, and Taiwanese spend a lot of time on their mobiles. Ukrainian teens watch more TV (over 20 hours a week, which makes me wonder when do they sleep or get some fresh air), Israeli drink more soft drinks and Americans are more obese. Greek kids are more on line than any others… followed by the Greenlandese! Maltese kids are always drunk, Canadian kids are always doped.

Speaking of drinks: Czech, the inventors of beer, have it aplenty, followed by other notorious drunks, the Irish and the German, and most western European countries – either beer is luxury or snobbery. The US come 11, and Canada comes 20 (no doubt, because beer is harder to buy than across the border). Wine, however, changes the ranks: Luxembourguese, French, Italian, Portuguese and Swiss give themselves to the pleasures of Bacchus by far more than others. With the exception of Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand, all the top drinkers are European. In terms of gross quantities, it is fair to assume that Luxembourguese are drunk quite often, as are Hungarian and Czech. Greek smoke more than anyone, and Japanese are not far behind (although they die later than others!).

Crime, in the form of serious assaults, is adrift in strange places: Australia (the sun?), Sweden (the snow?) and South Africa (bling bling?). In spite of that, only South Africa ranks the top 21 countries in number of prisoners (8th in the world) or even percentually (11th). The US have more prisoners, and in a bigger proportion than any other country: 701 per 100.000 people, against the 584 of Russia, 554 of Belarus… and 532 of Bermuda, 522 of Virgin Islands and 501 of Cayman Islands (it looks like not all is shiny in the kingdom of sun and sea).

Scandinavia and Canada are the most environmentally sustainable places, and even Costa Rica (9), Panama (17) and Brazil (20) make the cut. On the other end, Kuwait and the Emirates are an environmental time bomb, as are North Korea, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Haiti and Ukraine. The healthiest cities in the world are Calgary, Honolulu, Helsinki, Ottawa, Minneapolis, Oslo and Stockholm.

Now, if the Cayman are not healthier, and if the risk of going to jail is higher, why in the world are so many people going there? Laundry? (Pun intended).