December 26, 2015
Dear Fellow Communicator,
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous New Year!
In the spirit of the Christmas Season, and particularly for the benefit
of members of Jose Carillo’s English
Forum who joined us only after December 2014, I am reposting this special
Christmas feature that first appeared in the Forum five years ago. In this
retrospective, 10 Forum members from various parts of the world recall their
most memorable Christmas experiences or share their most intimate thoughts
about Christmas. Whether celebratory, affirming, or contrarian, their thoughts
remain timely and timeless as ever—a veritable springboard for our own
reflections about Christendom’s holiest of seasons.
THIS MONTH IN THE FORUM (December 2015):
· My Thoughts Exactly: Redux 5: Remembrances of 10 Christmases Past (Forum members from various parts of the world reflect
on Christendom’s holiest of seasons)
· Readings on Language: Contemporary Discourse in English Gets
Plagued with “Verbal Eczema” (British novelist
bewails the rise of subtly insulting and patronizing English expressions)
· Media English Watch: Frenzied Arrival Reporting for the APEC Dignitaries (News reporters wrack their brains for alternatives to the verb “arrive,” to
no avail)
· Badly Written, Badly Spoken: What Does a Sentence Need to Take the Perfect Tense (A later
event or point in time to show the completion of a prior action or event)
· News and Commentary: French Expected To Be World’s Most Spoken Language By
2050 (This will be due to sub-Saharan Africa’s
burgeoning francophone populations)
· Use and Misuse: Can “People” and “Persons” Be Used Interchangeably? (Yes, but for the singular form, using “person” is
the better, more flexible option)
· You Asked Me This Question: “Deployment” is Lingua Franca For Sending of OFWs
Abroad (This military term is now
generic for spreading out people for a deliberate purpose)
· The Finest in Language Humor: Christmas Q&A for English Buffs (Sampler – “Q: What do you call Santa’s helpers? A: Subordinate
clauses.”)
· Getting to Know English: The Perplexing Workings of the Double Possessive (The evident superfluity of this default usage
does seem like grammatical overkill)
· Time Out from English Grammar: Focusing on Three Things at Once is Courting
Information Overload (When a point called “decision fatigue” is reached,
it’s difficult to think straight)
· Advice & Dissent: Two Free-Thinking Advocates Discuss God, Sundry
Subjects (Now you can read online the 2011
interview that became a sensation when it first came out in print)
· Advocacies: William Zinsser on Writing: “Short is Better Than
Long. Simple is Good.” (Beloved advocate of
clarity and brevity in English prose writes 30)
· How Good is Your English?: Debatable Answer Choices in English Practice Test (They can confuse when too arithmetical, too arbitrary, and too culture-bound!)
See you at the Forum!
Sincerely yours,
Joe Carillo
