Hard times for our teenagers!!!!

Our society is really demanding nowadays, especially for our teenagers. We want them to have excellent results at school, to be fantastic at sport,  to be fluent in several languages (and especially proficient in English), to be skillful with multiple ITC tools, to be outstanding at social skills, to have time to go to the music school and play the violin like Yehudi Menuhin (Yehudi Menuhin playing the violin)... And this is impossible and frustrating for them most of the times.

 

 

Meanwhile, this society is especially dishonest as they try to manipulate our teenagers for political purposes, to experiment bizarre methodologies with them, to brainwash them... intending to have dull super-consumers with no critical analysis of their actions and decisions.

 

In a nutshell, nowadays our teenagers are just in the middle of a perfect storm they don't know exactly how to get through as there are no honest counsellors around.

Here are some interesting articles for you to read about the topic:

• What I'm really thinking: The teenager (The Guardian)

• Teenagers and their sleepless lives (BBC)

• It’s never been easy being a teenager. But is this now a generation in crisis? (The Guardian)

• What Do Older Generations Misunderstand About Teenagers Today? (The New York Times)

 

Here's a listening exercise to do: Inside a teenager's head (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

English in a Minute  >>>>   affect vs effect (BBC Learning English)

Shakespeare speaks  >>>>   "All that glitters is not gold"     

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 181212 / 12 December 2018    >>>  Using Buddy Benches to improve mental health -  Language related to 'mental health'.  Need-to-know language: psychiatrists, mental well-being, inclusion, express feelings & stigma.

English, a language in motion

     All languages are, of course, in a constant evolution due to the use of the language speakers of the different parts of the world, but this phenomenon is especially significant in the English language due to the lack of an English Language Academy. Instead, universities such as Oxford or Cambridge work on different corpora (plural form of the word 'corpus') to make their dictionaries or grammar books.

    For instance, thirty years ago we would learn the Future Simple using 'shall' for the first person singular and plural. We don't do that any more. Now we use 'will' for all the persons.

Here's an interesting listening exercise for you to do: 'Is English changing?' (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

Have a look at Lingohack and you'll learn about the latest on the US elections, a cyborg beetle and the teenage brain development.

And remember this previous post about the human brain.

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 160803 / 03 August 2016   >>>  Expressions presented: questioned, remotely & insight.