Journalism in the 21st Century

What's happening to the English language? A twinkly-eyed customs agent at Heathrow would say I don't even speak English. When I arrived at his station in 2008, fresh off a trip to Prague, I breathily spat that I was "so glad to be back where I could speak English." He looked at me with an eye roll. "So is that what you call what you speak in your country." It was enough to bother me for, oh, since 2008. It's a story I recant as often as it's appropriate, but lately whenever I'm explaining to my French ESL student why we speak and write the way we do and how this differs across the pond. Unfortunately, I'm finding I have to also defend myself in my own country and outside the tutoring environment. Like when I'm watching a L'oreal Paris commercial and they brag that their product means "less wrinkles". Less wrinkles?! What happens when my student sees this, especially after one of our lessons on n...

What's happening to the English language? A twinkly-eyed customs agent at Heathrow would say I don't even speak English. When I arrived at his station in 2008, fresh off a trip to Prague, I breathily spat that I was "so glad to be back where I could speak English." He looked at me with an eye roll. "So is that what you call what you speak in your country." It was enough to bother me for, oh, since 2008. It's a story I recant as often as it's appropriate, but lately whenever I'm explaining to my French ESL student why we speak and write the way we do and how this differs across the pond. Unfortunately, I'm finding I have to also defend myself in my own country and outside the tutoring environment. Like when I'm watching a L'oreal Paris commercial and they brag that their product means "less wrinkles". Less wrinkles?! What happens when my student sees this, especially after one of our lessons on non-count vs. c...