Wales - part of the UK with its own language

You may remember this from year 7, when you did the chapter on Wales: The Welsh people's own language (Welsh) is still alive and spoken, and it is even the first language for many families, especially in rural areas. These people grow up speaking Welsh, and they learn English in kindergarten and at school. Welsh is a Celtic language - approximately as old as Latin, and closely related to Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) and Breton (in France).

You see bilingual signs everywhere - traffic signs, posters, official announcements - and there are even Welsh radio and TV channels. In the video below you can see that even native speakers of English have great trouble pronouncing Welsh words, for example placenames. Watch the video and see whether you can find any rule for the pronunciation of Welsh from the explanations that follow the hopeless attempts of the English tourists.

The Netherlands introduce themselves to DJT

Have a look at this video, please - don't be put off by the Dutch beginning - the main part is in English anyway, and there are subtitles for the Dutch intro.
Find out how exactly this video satirizes Trump and his way of communicating with the world. Write a comment about it (ca. 200 words).

The Golden Globe Awards 2017 - and a Speech with no Names

You may have heard or read about it on the news - Meryl Streep, who was honoured for her Lifetime Achievement at the Golden Globe Awards yesterday, made a speech in which she referred to the importance of Hollywood for supporting truth and the power of empathy. She referred to the behaviour of the president-elect without even once using his name - but everyone knew who she was talking about.
Even Trump himself realized that it was about him, and, as has become his custom in the meantime (whenever he is criticized, he throws out a couple of tweets that prove how childish and how easily - and unreasonably - offended he is), he insulted Streep and denied his behaviour which is, however, well-documented on video. Judge for yourselves. And don't miss Stephen King's tweet at the end.

Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

Erm ... and this is what Stephen King has to say about the incident:

Trump's response to Meryl Streep--childish, churlish, petulant--is exactly why most Americans fear his presidency. Emtoionally unqualified.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 9, 2017

Christmas movie: "It's a Wonderful Life"

Here's a colourized version of the movie, plus English subtitles. Don't let yourself be confused by the first couple of seconds, where the title and actors' names are mirror-inverted - in fact, the whole movie is.


If you'd care for a look at the script, here it is: It's a Wonderful Life - SCRIPT

However:
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. All the best.

NPR's Exit Interview with President Barack Obama

At this website, you'll find the complete transcript of the interview: NPR's Exit Interview with President Obama

"Post-truth" named 'word of the year' by Oxford Dictionaries

The central passage of the text, where the meaning of "post-truth" is defined, is this:

In the era of Donald Trump and Brexit, Oxford Dictionaries has declared “post-truth” to be its international word of the year.

Defined by the dictionary as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”, editors said that use of the term “post-truth” had increased by around 2,000% in 2016 compared to last year. The spike in usage, it said, is “in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States”.

But the whole article is worth reading, as is the list of words that were also considered for this choice of 'word of the year':

'Post-truth' named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries

Good follow-up reading for this: An article in The New York Times, where Zeynep Tufekci writes about the role of Facebook in the spreading of non-truths (better known as: "lies").

Mark Zuckerberg is in denial

And this is what Barack Obama thinks about this topic:

Barack Obama on fake news: 'We have problems' if we can't tell the difference https://t.co/ixd1v2mbph

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) November 18, 2016

The Economist: US election briefs 2016

Very informative comparison of the two main candidates' views:

US election briefs 2016 (PDF)