Financial English
Hello again Marcos (and hello to all the blog-watchers who wrote comments)!
You mention the important topic of the current financial crisis in your post, and ask how we have all been affected by it. In the UK, interest* rates have gone down a lot in the last few months. For people like me, who have borrowed money from the bank to buy a house*, the interest rate fall has been good. I now have to pay less for the money I have borrowed. For my parents, however, who are savers not borrowers, the interest rate fall has been bad. They now get very little in return for keeping their money in the bank. In addition to the falling interest rates, prices have gone up*.
Not as important as the serious effects on many peoples’ lives (as some of the comments show), but interesting for English language learners and teachers, are all the new phrases that have come into use since the beginning of the financial crisis. For example, a more informal version of ‘financial crisis’ or ‘economic downturn*’ is ‘credit crunch*’. Some of these new phrases describe financial or economic things that I had never heard of (like ‘special drawing rights*’). So the financial crisis is a language learning opportunity for me too!
There is more financial crisis-related vocabulary in the BBC LE Words in the News: G20's $1tn deal.
You also mention ‘getting down to work’ Marcos! If you want me to suggest ways of improving your grammar, vocabulary and writing, you’re going to have to make more mistakes! Or by ‘mistakes’ do I mean ‘(un)intentionally use your own variety of English’?! One of the very few ‘mistakes’ you make is the omission of the indefinite article in the phrases, ‘I am [an] economist’ and ‘I work as [an] independent consultant’. For more information about this complex area of grammar, see the BBC LE Grammar Challenge: Articles – Introduction.
Interestingly, research into the English that is spoken as a lingua franca*, sometimes called ‘Globish’ or ‘International English’ has shown that articles are usually omitted, perhaps because they are complex and don’t usually add anything to the meaning of a phrase. So maybe we should stop using them?! What do you think?
I haven’t had chance to take any more photos yet (after I accidentally deleted the ones I took on Wednesday….), so here is a link to a website about York, with very nice pictures:
I look forward to hearing from you again soon!
Rachel
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Words and definitions, using the online dictionary Marcos suggested in his ‘tip’:
* interest - a charge for a loan, usually a percentage of the amount loaned (e.g. ‘the interest rate on the money I borrowed from the bank has fallen from 4.64% to 1.49%).
* borrowed money from the bank to buy a house – another way of saying this is ‘mortgage’ - a temporary, conditional pledge of property to a creditor as security for performance of an obligation or repayment of a debt.
* prices have gone up – ‘inflation’ is another way of saying this - a persistent increase in the level of consumer prices or a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money, caused by an increase in available currency and credit beyond the proportion of available goods and services.
* downturn - a drop in the success of an economy or a business.
* credit crunch - a period of financial difficulty characterized by tight money and unavailability of credit.
* special drawing rights - the right to borrow additional amounts of money from the IMF reserves in order to deal with situations where a country's economy or trade suddenly worsens (this definition is from BBC LE Words in the News).
* lingua franca - a language used for communication among people of different mother tongues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some comments on (some of) the comments:
Deepak from India – good idea to read newspapers and watch English language TV!
Lali from Pakistan – I’m interested to hear what you have to say about ‘Pakistani English’ as a variety. Shabana (a student from Pakistan on my MA TESOL programme) wrote a good essay on this subject. I’ll ask her if she is willing to share it!
Robert from York – good point about the famous artists’ mistakes! I wonder if ‘famous’ is the key word here; if you have fame (and therefore power) you get to decide what is a ‘variety’ and what is a ‘mistake’??
Ernesto from Chile – I’m not sure whether British English is always (or ever?) the ‘standard’ for international communication….. I think international communicators probably work out ‘what works’ every time they speak. Sometimes, this might be similar to one of the British English varieties, sometimes it might be ‘better’ to mix in some Spanish, or use some vocabulary from Indian English, or choose not to use articles…………..etc…. This is because ‘better’ could mean ‘easier to understand’ or ‘friendlier’ or ‘supportive of an identity we want to display’. I’d like to hear more about your ideas on this!
Hyoshil from the UK – yes, I do have a student from Korea in my class, I’ll say ‘hello’ to her from you!
Comments
Hello Rachel! Oh what a pity, I wasn´t able to send a comment on your last blog. However, I read it and I´d like to know if you could tell us a bit about your very interested current project. Here in Brazil, we have a some problems with the teaching of English in public schools. The majority of the students leave the secondary school without knowing the to be verb properly. I could see that your project is related to an international enviroment, but do you think that is possible to provide a good knowledge of English as a second language in public schools in countries like Brazil? Have a nice weekend, Ana Paula.
Once again, Hello,First of all thank you very much. I read your comments on coments which is very specific and useful. I would like to have more words from you.The vocabulary you have given is very easy to remember. Once again thank you for that. A subject, economy is very important to all. Nobody will disagree to it. Because in this global world where there is no frontier economy has been parallel to life. It is for all. So, If it is a globel problem then there must be global solution. The world must be united on this crisis. I am confident that the world will emerge strong through this crisis. G 20 London Summit shows how the world leaders are eager to take measures to make situation good for all. Teacher,please comment on what i have written which gives me confidence and will make me good in english. Be happy. By Deepak
Hi Rachel, I've enjoyed a lot your post. In one word: stunning. The links to other sites, the open dialog that leads to new interactions and your huge experience have driven me to think that we are in front of a monster of the communication. Speaking about varieties of English, I suppose that I speak the latin variety (if it would exist) in my regular classes of conversation at medium level I'm used to use latin expressions that work in English environ. (you only must be aware of false friends, think in English -don't translate- and ......very difficult indeed) Final result: effective communication. Problem: I'm not sure if I would go outside of latin environ I would be understood. Well, it's enough for today. See you, Toni.
Hello Rachel, nice to meet you. Financial crisis is the most popular topic recently and unfortunately my country has been affected by it too. In contrary to you I have to pay more money I have borrowed. And this is because of the rates of exchanges. Many people here have mortgage loan in the foreign currency and now the price of our currency dropped, so we have to pay more. Moreover we have to pay more for holiday abroad. But I hope that polish currency will regain on the value because summer is comming.I've been saving money nearly 1 year /I started on June last year:)/on my dream India holiday and unfortunately I don't think so my dream comes tru this year. But... spring's just come, sunshine weather around us, after spring storms birds singing, so we must be positive.Take care and have good Sunday :)
Hello Rachel, Its good to hear from you again. I've checked the link about York it's awesome. I've heard York is a beautiful place, isn't it? Which is your favorite place in York?. Anyway, you've asked about the omission of articles. In my opinion, it is true because while speaking or writing adding articles doesn't make any difference on the meaning of the sentence. What do you think?. Please try upload more pictures. See ya, Mahjabeen.
Hello rachiel, you are right to say that a financial crisis has comeup with a lot of new phrases which help us learn new concepts and develop our language profiecency.But how do we know that this phrases are grammatically correct except being used by someones?
English language is an international medium of communication and subject to a lot of change that happens internationally defying the british grammar.
Hello Rachel!Great to hear from you again. As for the varieties of English, I think it mainly depends on the receiver. I mean, if a conversation is held between friends, it is not a mistake to use some colloquialisms. It would be interesting, if you keep on teaching us new words. Thanks for the link of your city. Have a good week ahead!!
Hi Rachel, I too agree with you on the learning new phrases related to the financial matter because of this financial crisis. I learned few words like economic downturn, turmoil, crisis, mayhem when I came across the business news. Whether or not I have impact of this financial crisis, however, it helped to learn few words at least. Also, you know I almost every day visit thefreedictionary.com website, besides BBC learning English, to learn 5 words a day and also read some interesting articles over there.
Hello Rachel, I have a query on my previous comment. Could you please clarify if you find time?. I said 'Whether or not I have impact of financial crisis'. is it correct? Or should it be like 'whether or not the financial crisis has impact on me'; 'whether or not I have been impacted on financial crisis’. Could you please correct me with the right sentence?. Also is it ok to use conditional word 'whether' in the beginning of the statement? Thank you.
Hello Rachel, It is good topic to discuss in the current global economic scenario. To whom you should be blame for this crisis. Share market bloomed on the other side few years back. Real estate business was doing wonderfully few months ago. Gold prices raised sharply in recent times. On line trading pushed the prices of major commodities.( I do not know much about that) on the other hand inflation raised, the banks cut down the interest rate, corporates announced lay off.. Corruption, malpractices went on without checking. Recently I have received e-mails from many people facts about the Indians maintain the accounts in the Swiss bank. It was worrying factor. Unless the Governments should make strong measures to tackle the present economic crisis other wise the common man will suffer a lot.
Hi Rachel, I've just read the Grammar Challeng you referred to. I found a strange thing, in an example they wrote "She's has two children – a boy and a girl." is it normal? The 's after She doesn't mean has?
You're absolutely right, Ale. We'll correct the mistake. Well done for spotting it!
:) Thank you for all your work, this website is precious. It's hard to believe that we can use it without paying!
Thanks for all your contributions. This blog has now closed and can no longer accept new comments.
