The more time I spend interacting with the English, baby! community, the more I feel like a global citizen instead of American. I had a lot of fun on the 4th of July this year, but maybe someday there will be a holiday to celebrate global patriotism.

I took a few minutes to think about that idea–global patriotism–when I filled out a questionnaire for this feature on OPB.

Q: What does Patriotism mean to you?
A: When you have the sense that a complete stranger is your brother, that’s patriotism. When you take pride in the place that you live and want to make it better, that’s patriotism. As the word itself suggests, it’s the sense that those around are of the same paternity or fatherland.

But when I think of a fatherland, I don’t think of my country. I think of my planet. I guess you could say I’m a global patriot. I’m proud to be a citizen of the world and when I travel and meet other pilgrims, I feel a kinship with them. I also see pride for a global community emanating from every country in the work I do on English, baby! (englishbaby.com) a website where nearly a million people of all nationalities are learning English.

Q: Tell us about a time when you’ve felt patriotic, and why.
A: Last fall a Turkish man and Ukrainian woman who met on English, baby! got married in Istanbul and I got to make a video about the wedding.

Traveling with the bride and groom’s family members, many of whom don’t speak a common language, there was a sense that beyond culture, there are things that bind us: dancing, love, humor. It struck me that just as an interracial marriage is an American story, an homage to our melting pot and act of American patriotism, an international marriage between people who met online while learning English is a global story, a step towards forgetting borders and an act of global patriotism.

Q: Tell us about when you’ve felt LEAST patriotic, and why.
A: I think that the Iraq war is an example of provincialism and flies in the face of global patriotism. The decision to fight was made unilaterally by the US government without regard for the opinions of the world. If a state in the United States were to act so recklessly and illegally, it would be treason.

A similar example is the failure of the US to ratify the Kyoto protocol. As a state on this Earth, it’s our duty to keep it clean and assume responsibility for our use of recourses. That would be the patriotic thing to do, anyway. And on a global community like English, baby! it’s not uncommon to hear complaints when a nation fails to pull its own weight or justify its actions to the world.

Q: If you have lived in another country, how has this affected your ideas of patriotism and national identity.
A: As a student, I spent a semester studying in Spain in 2003. I met a lot of other young travelers from all over the world and felt that I had more in common with them than a lot of people in my own country. Our shared respect for other cultures and search for hunger to know about them was my first experience with global patriotism. As the Internet exploded in the years since then, I’ve seen this sort of community replicated online, sometimes on a massive scale as in the case of English, baby! They didn’t end up using any of my material, but it was fun to think all that stuff out, since global patriotism has been a concept in the back of my mind throughout my entire life. Apparently I’m not the only one with it on the brain, either. A man interviewed for this similar NPR story said, “I think we have to think more in terms of being earthlings than from one country or another.”

And if you make it all the way to the end of the OPB piece (which I recommend if you have time), there’s a little discussion about the Olympics, which was of great interest to me since we’re heading there in a month. A couple of sources on the program say they feel particularly patriotic at sporting events. But this episode’s co-host, history professor and author Matthew Dennis, replies, “I’m more fascinated with the internationalism of [the games] than the nationalism.” Hopefully Beijing will be a fine moment for global patriotism.

One of the hardest things about learning a language is the fear of making mistakes.  Of course, the environment of so many students working together here on English, baby! makes it easier to avoid a confidence problem. But I suspect that there are many out there who are afraid to type because they know it won’t be perfect.

Well, I’d like to share a cool little hand-printed book I recently came across. It’s by a woman named Raquel Machín Herrero from Madrid who came to Portland for three months. I  really like the title: “How Are U?” since that’s always the first phrase you learn in a language. The back cover even says “Fine, thanks,” even though the book is all about how the author is not fine exactly.

The book is a beautifully illustrated short guide to Herrero’s trip to Portland and the problems she encountered, most of which arise from lack of money. The book even spells out a special message about that when you look at it from a distance.

Here’s my favorite page. I like it because Herrero’s boyfriend is a local musician I know and I think the picture of him standing next to the records and nagging her is funny.

You’ll notice that the English isn’t perfect, but that’s actually part of the charm. Not only was Herrero not afraid to make a few mistakes, but they endear her book to me. Phrases like “for study here” really give her text a memorable voice.

So anyway, of course you wouldn’t want to make mistakes on purpose, but I think that as long as you can get your point across, you shouldn’t worry about mistakes. Eventually your mistakes will go away, and until they do, they can be a lovable little quirk.

I gotta say, the Freakonomics commenters are definitely some of the sharpest on the Net. A lot of the responses to the quorum on globalization and Language that we got to participate in were as interesting as the official post! Here are some things I learned from the 80-some posts that are up so far.

Even though as John mentioned in his contribution to the post, there isn’t a country that has volunteered to change its language to English for economic reasons, a commenter named Ari Fromm says there’s an industry that has done so.

English is currently mandatory for ALL air traffic control worldwide. That’s a pretty strong indication of what the universal language of the world is……

It’s clear that with the rise of English, multi-lingualism is on the rise as well. But what’s the most bilingual continent? According to a commenter named Bjog, it’s Africa, which makes sense when you think about it.

Every African is minimally bilingual–more than any other people on the planet. Every African speaks their native language, the language of nearby ethnic communities, plus the language in which their country was colonized–any of the Europhone languages.

The Koreans are hedging their bets when it comes global super powers. Alan says:

…note that there are 100,000 Korean students at Chinese universities and 100,000 Korean students at American universites.

Finally, people seem really preoccupied with this notion that English is going to morph and change into pidgin or creole English. Probably half the posts on the quorum are about this idea. It seems intuitive and it’s not new to us, but a commenter named Neil Wilson has a suggestion to the contrary.

Look at the written word. It seems to me that there were far more changes to the English language between Jefferson’s words in 1776 and Lincoln’s words in 1863 than between Lincoln and Obama. This is true even though it has been 7 score and 4 years (It hasn’t been 5 years yet.)

English is far more stable today than it ever has been.

Thou art quite right, sir. ‘Tis sooth that our English tongue hath been a changling historickly.

Though were English to change as rapidly as everyone suspects, would the result be horrible and Orwellian? A commenter named Ramon Cashon says, “Yes!”

Think of the users’ manual of a Japanese or Chinese product and apply that to the spoken word. THAT is the English language that will gain dominance… if you can still call it a language at that stage.

At least information about any language is available now. It didn’t occur me to that it’s easier to pick up a local tongue of another locality than ever before until this comment from Tieler:

You can’t go to your local library or bookstore and buy books on Kurdish, but go online and there is a wealth of resources for grammar, vocabulary, online dictionaries, and so on.

All in all, it’s great to see how much interest there is in this topic. And I can’t wait to see if I’m speaking pidgin, Mandarin or the Queen’s English in five years.

Have you ever read Lolita? Controversy aside, the language is gorgeous. Many of the passages could be classified as prose-poetry and there’s a Shakespearean allusion and plan on words on almost every page. But the most amazing part? Vladimir Nabokov only began learning English five years before he began the book. And English was his fourth language.

Some people just have a gift for language, I guess. Or do they? Two stories came out in local papers yesterday about kids who came to the US not knowing English and quickly rose to academic heights through sheer determination.

Ngoc Trang Nguyen came to Wichita, Kansas, from Viet Nam just in time to start to high school. Five of her first six classes were ESL classes and didn’t count toward graduation. Now, four years later, she is valedictorian of her graduating class.

All of her teachers say they’ve never seen anyone work so hard. And there was a very specific point at which Nyoc’s work started to pay off. She says, “Being in classes with all American students and being exposed to more English, I was able to pick up the pace faster.” It took her forever to learn the basics, but the rest came easily after that. I think that’s the lesson to learn from Nyoc’s story: trust things will get easier as you suffer through the beginning stages of a project.

Benjamin Gutiérrez didn’t know any English when he came to Hanover, Pennsylvania, from Perú four years ago. The sixth grader recently won a spelling bee with contestants from 34 schools.

He studied for the competition for months with his mother, who is also learning English. But it sounds like a big part of his success was a cramming on English pronunciation in the week leading up to to the contest. The article says, “Though [Ben's] family devoted a lot of time to helping him study in the three months before the bee, they knew that what Benjamin really needed was to hear the words dictated to him in native English pronunciation. James Jones, a volunteer tutor and friend of the family, began a marathon study session with Benjamin the week of the competition.”

I think this is particularly interesting because, unlike Spanish, in which every word is spelled exactly as it sounds (the very idea of a Spanish spelling bee is preposterous), English pronunciation isn’t necessarily the key to spelling, in fact, it can be misleading. I wonder what Ben’s trick is.

In order to stay connected in today’s world you not only need to speak English, you need to speak Web 2.0 as well. In fact, I’d recently told John about the joys of Esperanto, an easy to learn language developed to become international language, but that never caught on. A few days later, John passed on this article about the new universal language: Nerdic, the language of technology.

Knowing the language of technology can help you learn English and vice versa. Katie, our resident teacher often writes about wikis and videos can be used in the classroom.

But it’s clear to me that a lot of our users here at English, baby! aren’t familiar with some of the latest functions of the Web. Take tags, for instance. We had to remove the tag field on lessons because members were entering in the craziest things! (Actual examples: “I need to find a wife in Iran”, “how are you?”, “Angelina Jolie” on a lesson about bowling, not to mention the stuff in Chinese.)

Although tags aren’t covered in this video, a lot of the basics of Web 2.0 are. The video is made by an English teacher in Barcelona and aimed at helping teachers integrate new technologies into their teaching methods and get over their fears of them. I particularly like that the audio of the video is very slow and clear, so ESL students can understand it too.
And here’s a fun video of William Shatner speaking Esperanto in the 1965 movie, Incubus, one of the only movies made entirely in Esperanto.

Photo: The creator of Esperanto’s tombstone. Yes, it is in Esperanto.

I’ve noticed that around the site, members sometimes refer to themselves as “English babies,” which is funny because that wasn’t the intention of the brand at all. But if we were to have some sort of diapered mascot, I think this would be him.

This video is at the top of the viral video charts, and a big part of what’s so endearing about it is that the child (named Hero Ha) clearly doesn’t know English, yet manages to make the song pretty intelligible and deliver it with passion. Entertainment is how a lot of the world learns its first English words, and the amount Hero has been able to absorb from music makes him a linguistic prodigy. But interestingly, most other bloggers and commenters on the video seem to regard him as a musical prodigy. One Korean television show even compares him to Mozart.

Now, call me jaded, but for as much charisma as Hero has, he doesn’t seem to have as much skill as a musician or performer as the other kids who appeared with him on this Korean show.

Folks have suggested that Hero is the next Michael Jackson or a reincarnation of John Lennon, and time will tell, but I’d peg him as a linguist, because his ability to learn English pronunciation just by listening to music is what is most remarkable about him. I mean, I have a CD of Cambodian rock songs that I listen to all the time, but every time I try to sing along, it just doesn’t work. There’s no way I could sing one of those songs from memory like Hero does with the Beatles.

We recently found a good article in the Shanghai Daily about how so many learners are taking the fun out of learning English. Does it have to be so painstaking, and is there proof that no-fun learning is more efficient?

It’s amazing to me that most people believe learning English and having fun are mutually exclusive. After years of painfully trying to learn the language by memorizing grammar rules, how often do students end up at the promiseland of fluency? Rarely.

People are trained that the harder they work at something, the greater the rewards. I agree with this principle and if your end goal is to be really good at diagramming sentences, then work hard and study them every night.

However, most learners aren’t studying English to analyze sentences or become linguists. They want to communicate, interact, and socialize – and here’s the key – with other people.

While books and rules remain important to build a sound foundation for the English language, genuine human engagement will take learners to the communication level they desire.

The best part about the social component of learning English is that it makes learning fun. Take any hobby or interest that involves other people and do it in English, making the language part of your lifestyle. Instead of spending nights memorizing arbitrary vocabulary lists, join a bowling league, hang out at a sports bar, or find your nearest hiking club. The possibilities for practice are endless. You’ll feel your improvement every day and even have some fun at the same time.

My students are not only from all around the world, but they all immigrated to the US at different times. Some have been here for years, while others just got here. So I was a little worried when I gave my students a list of American celebrities and politicians for a discussion activity.

I wanted groups of four to practice present perfect by doing a mock interview with a celebrity. They could ask some great “Have you ever thought/done/gone….?” questions in present perfect. But the activity hinged upon the group members all knowing and being interested in the same celebrity.

Out of my long list, I was shocked to find that Brad and Angela were the most popular couple to interview. I mean really, are Brad Pitt and Angelina that well-known and that interesting? Well, my students thought so. They were so excited to play movie-stars and ask really personal questions. Like, “Angelina, why haven’t you ever been pregnant?” The student playing Angelina had a good answer: “I haven’t had enough time. I am a busy woman!”

So their pop culture knowledge is a little outdated. Angelina has had a child, but it is important to notice that the students had something to say. They were really interested and engaged. I had honestly thought that people would interview politicians, like Hillary and Obama. But it was really hilarious to see my students get into the celebrity gossip.

It goes to show that we can never quite predict what our students will find interesting!

Almost every day I eat at the same Thai food cart a few blocks from the English, baby! office in downtown Portland. It’s called Thai Basil and they know me now and give me free spring rolls and tea.

As I wait for my food to be prepared, I often find myself staring at the menu between spacing out and sending text messages. The specials change daily on a white board next to the window, and for this reason, I always come back to the office with a black smudge on my forefinger.

I never realized how tricky it would be to figure out what foods you pluralize on a menu in English. But every day I erase the ‘s’ on words like “pumpkins,” “brocolis,” and “shrimps.”

I’d mention it to the very nice woman who runs the cart (or her foxy granddaughter, but that’s another story), but I can’t figure out what the rule is for things like this. It seems arbitrary. I mean, “brocolis” is never correct, but “pumpkins” is a word if you’re talking about multiple pumpkins, but I seriously doubt there’s more than one pumpkin in their pumpkin curry. Then again, there probably isn’t more than a whole bell pepper in it either, but it is proper to say that a dish has “bell peppers” and not “bell pepper.”

If anyone can make any sense of out this and tell me what the rule is, I will relay it to Thai Basil.

Photos: Taken on my cell phone today, post erasure.

I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of days because I couldn’t decide what I think about it. Basically, a judge sentenced three Spanish-speaking men who were convicted of harassing and assaulting someone to come back in two years with a GED, a full-time job, and the ability to speak English, or he’ll send them to jail for two years.

Definitely amusing. The most compelling argument against this creative sentencing I’ve heard is that we don’t want language learning to seem like a punishment. But when I saw some people in orange vests picking up trash today, I thought, “That’s useful. Why shouldn’t convicted criminals always do useful things instead of sitting in jail, spending public money?”

And useful for society or useful for the criminal, it doesn’t really matter to me.  In fact, it would be kind of cool if you couldn’t leave jail until you learned a new language. We’d have all these ex-con translators instead of ex-con repeat offenders.

So I applaud the idea of sentencing someone to learn a language. I can only hope that I’ll be sentenced to learn Mandarin if I ever get busted for trespassing (my main hobby).

But in this case, the sentence might be a little light. Let’s think about what these guys did.

The four, ranging in age from 17 to 22, were in a group that police said accosted two men on a street in May. The two said they were asked if they had marijuana, told to empty their pockets, struck on the head, threatened with a gun and told to stay off the block.

I mean, that sounds pretty crazy. I’d like to think that some verb conjugations or some Ebaby! or some Shakespeare might set these guys straight, but I’m glad they’re going to be learning English in Pennsylvania and not on my street, you know?