The advantages of a bilingual brain

Do you speak more than one language?

If you do the advantages are obvious. Or are they?

There's an increasing amount of scientific research that suggests the extra work bilingual brains do when translating has additional benefits - especially in old age.

Video produced by Ian Lacey(BBC NEWS)

Dr Catherine Loveday on how languages help your brain

Claudia Hammond talks to Dr Catherine Loveday about how being fluent in more than one language could help protect your brain from injury and assist in quicker recovery from strokes. (BBC News)

How important is English nowadays?

Today, English skill is becoming as important as technical skill.

In today’s global economy, English is the language of business It provides a common platform for international communication — and companies that recognize the importance of an English-proficient workforce have a competitive edge in the global marketplace.

Why English Matters, presented by the TOEIC® Program, explores this important topic. This Documentary Series offers important insights into the value of English proficiency through interviews with executives, HR directors and employees of leading multinational companies. Episodes will be released on an ongoing basis and each will highlight the importance of English — how it impacts communication, collaboration and business success.

From For Dummies

The rise of Singlish

Singapore's famous spouting Merlion statue - in Singlish "merlion" means to vomit profusely

Singapore's government has long insisted that everyone in the island nation should speak English - it's the language used in schools, at work, and in government. But in practice many people speak a hybrid language that can leave visitors completely baffled - Singlish.

Singapore is known for its efficiency and Singlish is no different - it's colourful and snappy.

You don't have a coffee - you "lim kopi". And if someone asks you to join them for a meal but you've already had dinner, you simply say: "Eat already."

Singlish first emerged when Singapore gained independence 50 years ago, and decided that English should be the common language for all its different races.

That was the plan. It worked out slightly differently though, as the various ethnic groups began infusing English with other words and grammar. English became the official language, but Singlish became the language of the street.

Repeated Speak Good English campaigns, drummed into Singaporeans in schools and in the media, have had only limited success. Singlish has not only shrugged off these attacks, it has thrived.

It's been documented in a dictionary and studied by linguists. And it has been immortalised in popular culture. Take for example the 1991 comedy rap song Why U So Like Dat? by musician Siva Choy, which dramatises an argument between two schoolchildren.

"I always give you chocolate, I give you my Tic Tac, but now you got a Kit Kat, you never give me back!" sings Choy.

"Oh why you so like dat ah? Eh why you so like dat?"

Over time, Speak Good English campaigns have evolved from trying to stamp out Singlish, to accepting that properly spoken English and Singlish can peacefully co-exist. The language has even come to be seen as part of Singaporean identity and heritage - it appears in advertising campaigns for SG50, the big celebration of Singapore's Jubilee Year, and will feature on floats in Saturday's National Day Parade.

Do you speak Singlish? Decode these five phrases

Wah this durian so shiok, best lah!

• Wow, this durian is very tasty, it’s awesome!
• Ugh, this durian is so smelly, best to avoid it!

From BBC News

Play the Quiz here

What Kenya tips do you have for Obama?

Travel tips for US President Obama

About 42 indigenous languages are spoken in Kenya, with Swahili being the national language. Residents switch languages based on their location, context and who they're chatting with.

BBC collected some more travel tips for US President Obama around the BBC East Africa bureau.

BBC journalists recommended:

• Bring a mobile wifi card, so you can work in your car. Traffic can last a long time.
• Dance a traditional Kenyan jig when you step off Airforce One.

• See thousands of wildebeests crossing the Mara River. The Great Migration is happening while you're in town.
• Visit both wealthy and poor neighbourhoods to sample the city's visual diversity.
• Visit your father's grave and the surrounding area.
• Don't miss out on eating nyama choma (roasted meat).
• Make sure you visit Lwang'ni Beach in Kisumu for the best fish.
• Should you leave your motorcade behind, don't take the taxis from the airport. They are too expensive. 
• Do not eat roasted maize from the road. Instead, have it made at home.
• Make sure you eat mrenda and ugali before leaving Kenya

From BBC magazine

Have some fun watching and listening to 17 different British accents

Take a quick and quirky tour through the British Isles in this new video from  Anglophenia, where comedian Siobhan Thompson hilariously tackles 17 British accents – and the celebrities that speak with them, from Ozzy Osborne’s Brummie tone to the thick Scottish drawl of Billy Connolly.

Adapted from BBC http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20140619-one-woman-17-british-accents

The "words"Yolo and binge-watch added to online dictionary

Yolo, adorbs and clickbait have all been added to the Oxford online dictionary.

The website keeps a record of English words and is often updated with new words.

Some of the new words...

adorbs	a shortened version of adorable
"I love kittens they're adorbs."
binge-watch	watching a whole series of a TV show in one sitting
"My plan for today is binge-watching Tracy Beaker on BBC iPlayer."
clickbait	a link on the internet that is worded in an enticing way to make you want to click it
"The website promised me a free smartphone but it was just clickbait."
cray	crazy
"Melanie put mayo on her breakfast cereal. She cray!"
SMH	online acronym of shake my head
"Kirsty is late for school again. SMH."
spit-take	spitting out liquid when something funny or surprising happens
"I was so surprised when I won the competition, I did a spit-take!"
tech-savvy	somebody who is good with gadgets
"Ask Sameena to fix your phone, she's tech-savvy."
yolo	you only live once - used when doing something spontaneous
"I probably shouldn't dye my hair blue but yolo."

The words will not appear in the printed version of the Oxford English Dictionary yet - but they could be added if they remain popular for many years.

From CBBC newsround

English language 'originated in Turkey'

Modern Indo-European languages - which include English - originated in Turkey about 9,000 years ago, researchers say.

Words in common use betray the language of our past

Their findings differ from conventional theory that these languages originated 5,000 years ago in south-west Russia.

The New Zealand researchers used methods developed to study virus epidemics to create family trees of ancient and modern Indo-European tongues to pinpoint where and when the language family first arose.

Their study is reported in Science.

A language family is a group of languages that arose from a common ancestor, known as the proto-language.

Linguists identify these families by trawling through modern languages for words of similar sound that often describe the same thing, like water and wasser (German). These shared words - or cognates - represent our language inheritance.

According to the Ethnologue database, more than 100 language families exist.

The Indo-European family is one of the largest families - more than 400 languages spoken in at least 60 countries - and its origins are unclear.

The Steppes, or Kurgan, theorists hold that the proto-language originated in the Steppes of Russia, north of the Caspian Sea, about 5,000 years ago.

The Anatolia hypothesis - first proposed in the late 1980s by Prof Colin Renfrew (now Lord Renfrew) - suggests an origin in the Anatolian region of Turkey about 3,000 years earlier.

Cognate words represent our language inheritance

To determine which competing theory was the most likely, Dr Quentin Atkinson from the University of Auckland and his team interrogated language evolution using phylogenetic analyses - more usually used to trace virus epidemics.

Read the whole article

Hobson-Jobson: The words English owes to India

In 1872 two men began work on a lexicon of words of Asian origin used by the British in India. Since its publication the 1,000-page dictionary has never been out of print and a new edition is due out next year. 

Hobson-Jobson is the dictionary's short and mysterious title.

The subtitle reveals more: "A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. By Colonel Henry Yule and AC Burnell."

But even the word "discursive" doesn't quite prepare the reader for what is to come.

"It's a madly unruly and idiosyncratic work," says poet Daljit Nagra.

"Not so much an orderly dictionary as a passionate memoir of colonial India. Rather like an eccentric Englishman in glossary form."

Take the entry for the Indian word dam. The dictionary defines it as: "Originally an actual copper coin. Damri is a common enough expression for the infinitesimal in coin, and one has often heard a Briton in India say: 'No, I won't give a dumree!' with but a vague notion what a damri meant."

50 words from India

• A - atoll, avatar
• B - bandana, bangle, bazaar, Blighty, bungalow
• C - cashmere, catamaran, char, cheroot, cheetah, chintz, chit, chokey, chutney, cot, cummerbund, curry
• D - dinghy, doolally, dungarees
• G - guru, gymkhana
• H - hullabaloo
• J - jodhpur, jungle, juggernaut, jute
• K - khaki, kedgeree
• L - loot
• N - nirvana
• P - pariah, pashmina, polo, pukka, pundit, purdah, pyjamas
• S - sari, shampoo, shawl, swastika
• T - teak, thug, toddy, typhoon
• V - veranda
• Y - yoga

Sources: Hobson-Jobson, Oxford English Dictionary

From BBC