What is the opposite of Feminist?

A feminist is a person who supports the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. Feminism refers to all the movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. The feminist activities have undoubtedly helped a lot in changing the position of women in the society.

Well, it is now clear that a feminist is one who advocates equal rights for women. But what about a person who supports and defends the rights of men? The word is ‘hominist’! Don’t think it is a newly invented word; the term was coined by George Bernard Shaw, more than a century ago.

However, the word hominist did not gain much popularity. Now another word ‘masculinist’ (also masculist) is widely used instead.

Poor Silent Letters!! Crazy English Spelling & Pronunciation. Part 3

Here are a few more illogical spelling-pronunciation disparites in English...

Gnat, gnaw, gnome, gnarl, gnat, deign, foreign, reign, sovereign, sign, ensign, design, resign, etc have a ‘g’ in them when they are spelled but the poor ‘g’ is totally neglected when people pronounce these words!

And where did the intruder ‘k’ come from and place its butts at the beginning of these words: know, knee, knife, knit, knickers and knuckle? Linguists may have come up with some theories but they are not at all digestible to the laymen!

Learners of English take weeks, if not months, to be confident enough to spell the following words correctly although they are able to pronounce them:

psychology, psychiatrist, pneumonia, psalm, psoriasis – the list is too long. The letter ‘p’ in all these words stands as a mute spectator of the illogical rules of the English language spelling reforms! Thank God, at least the ‘p’ in psalm got a dumb friend (l) to company with!

Cousin, Second Cousin, Third Cousin, Distant Cousin....

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines cousin as ‘a child of your aunt or uncle’. The word cousin is a neutral term which applies to both males and females. Many people especially in South East Asia incorrectly use this word as cousin brother, cousin sister etc. Remember the word cousin is used to refer to:

1. Your uncle’s son/daughter (uncle can be your father’s brother or mother’s brother)
2. Your aunt’s son/daughter  (aunt can be your father’s sister or mother’s sister)

The listener can understand whether the ‘cousin in context’ is male of female from the pronoun which is used to describe them for example, in sentences like ‘He’s my cousin’, ‘My cousin is coming today with her children' etc. , the pronoun ‘he’ and the adjective ‘her’ clearly resolve the ‘gender confusion’. In some cases, it’s also possible to say ‘male cousin’ or ‘female cousin’ for specification or emphasis.

First cousin is another word which means exactly the same as cousin. Well, a (first) cousin is the child of your uncle or aunty. Who is your second cousin? It’s the grandchild of your grand uncle/aunty*.

Then comes the third cousin: the great grandchild of your great grand uncle**.

Of course the description of relationship tree in words is very confusing. The following graphics will make it a lot easier for you to understand the kinds of cousins:

*brother/sister of your grandfather/grandmother.

**brother/sister of your great grandfather/ great grandmother.

Crazy pronunciation Part 3

Here are a few more examples of illogical inconsistencies in English pronunciation:

The past form of say is said. It is pronounced as /sed/ but the past form of pay and lay are not pronounced as /ped/ or /led/! Rather you have to pronounce them as /peid/ and /leid/.

Bomb is pronounced as /bom/ and comb is pronounced as /com/ but what about tomb? It’s pronounced as /toom/!

Come and some do not agree with dome and Rome when it comes to pronunciation!

There is logic in pronouncing eve as /eev/ but I don’t understand why ewe is pronounced as /yoo/

Curry and hurry are two words that all of you might pronounce with ease. However, bury is a word a good number non-native speakers find difficult to pronounce; it is pronounced /bery/. It is rather crazy!

Crazy English pronunciation. Part 2

When I was in fifth class in which I started learning the spellings and pronunciation of English words, my English teacher used to tweak my ear for mispronouncing the word 'hood'. I used to pronounce hood with a long u – something like /hoood/ instead of /hud/. My budding mind, as in the case of any children, thought all the words with ‘oo’ should be pronounced in the same way as in food, fool, noon, mood, soon, moon, loo etc.

Crazily enough, while a number of common words like moon, food, noon, broom, zoom, boon, proof, roof etc are pronounced with a long ‘u’ sound, so many other words with the same pattern take only a short ‘u’ in pronunciation e.g. book, cook, hood, look, wood, foot and so on.

If you think that the confusion is over just after learning these two rules, what about the words like ‘door’ and ‘floor’? Though they follow the same pattern of spelling, the pronunciation is different!

Is that all? Wait! A fourth small group of words (thank God, only two words in this category!) behaves in a totally different way: blood and flood. The ‘oo’ in them rhymes with the ‘u’ in ‘mud’ ‘thud’ and ‘dull’ !

Isn’t English crazy? Please comment…

GHOTI = FISH (?)

GHOTI

The pronunciation of this word is “FISH”! Surprised?This is a well known example which demonstrates the inconsistencies in English pronunciation. How can we prove that GHOTI is pronounced as FISH? Here’s how:

gh, pronounced /f/ as in tough /tʌf/;

o, pronounced /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/; and

ti, pronounced /ʃ/ (sh) as in nation /ˈne͡ɪʃən/.

This sarcastic example was first made by William Ollier, a 19^th century English spelling critic, but was popularized by Bernard Shaw in some of his writings. Indeed English spelling rules are crazy. Look at the different ways ‘ough’ is pronounced:

1. thought, bought, fought, brought etc. /o/
2. enough, rough, tough etc. /ʌf/
3. through /oo/
4. though, although, dough etc. /əu/
5. cough /ɒf/
6. bough, doughty /aʊ/
7. thorough /ʌ/

Funny English spellings! Right?

Good at or Good in?

Prepositions seem to be the most confusing aspect of English grammar for the speakers of English all around. While many people say ‘she is good at English’, the number of those who say ‘she is good in English’ is also growing. So, which sentence is the correct one?

Practically speaking, it is unwise to say only one of these two sentences is correct. The reason is English language is constantly undergoing a process of being plain, straight-forward and flexible. In spoken English, you may either say ‘good at’ or ‘good in’ as both these prepositions are nowadays interchangeably used by an increasing number of English speakers across the world. However, the standard form appears to be ‘good at’. Therefore, in formal contexts try to use ‘good at’ and in informal English either of the two!

More examples:

John is bad at Mathematics.

Jane is better at French than (at) Spanish.

Sania Mirza is very good at tennis.

The footballer was at his best performance last year.

(The sentences above can also take ‘in’ in the place of ‘at’ though the former (in) is not considered standard especially while talking about one’s ability in a subject. However, by convention, only ‘at’ is widely used with sports and games)

Don't submit your biodata!

Biodata is the most preferred term for Indian job-seekers when it comes to applying for a job. This term is the shortened form for biographical data. Biodata is a single word and it should not be written as 'bio data' or 'bio-data'.

Biodata focuses a lot on the personal details such as the date of birth, sex, marital status and so forth whereas a resume or CV emphasizes on professional skills and academic excellence. The reason perhaps could be that the looks, age, cast, colour and creed are weighed higher than the academic achievements and professional expertise in India!

Just as in the case of a CV, the academic qualifications and professional experience are arranged in chronological order in a biodata. Followed by them, a biodata lists the hobbies, interests and other activities of the person which are seldom included in a CV or resume.

These days, however, there is a tendency among many people besides Indians to include such particulars as age, sex, religion etc in their CVs but this is neither required nor considered in the burgeoning US job market!

(for details on ‘resume’ and ‘curriculum vitae’ and their differences from biodata, read the blogs which I posted yesterday and the day before yesterday)

What is CV?

The French word curriculum vitae must be pronounced somewhat like ka-ree-kyu-lam vee-taai. Vitae can also be pronounced vai-tee (consult a pronunciation dictionary). Some people wrongly spell this word as carriculam vitae, perhaps due to its striking resemblance with the other related words career, curricular etc. Remember that there is no ‘a’ in curriculum.

A curriculum vitae (also known as CV) differs from a resume mainly in two aspects: length and focus. While a resume is a crisp description in just a page or two, a curriculum vitae is usually as long as two to four pages; sometimes even up to eight pages as per the requirement! It focuses on the academic qualifications of the applicant whereas a resume highlights the professional experience and expertise.

A CV outlines all the educational qualifications and professional affiliations in chronological order so that the employer can take a quick look at the progress of the applicant qualification after qualification Besides, it includes honours, awards, presentations, research experience and so on. A college or university graduate who is starting to hunt a job prepares their curriculum vitae so that the potential employer can get an in-depth knowledge about their academic performance based on which they will be getting the right job.

A final word: though there a few such intricate differences between a resume and a curriculum vitae, the current trend is to use the two words interchangeably. The day is not too far when these differences between the two words will fade away. The most important thing is whether you write a CV or resume, the aim should be to get the employer call you for an interview!

Difference between RESUME and CURRICULUM VITAE

Résumé and curriculum vitae are two familiar words to every educated individual today. Though they are roughly the same in meaning, there are a few subtle differences between the two.

Résumé is basically a French word meaning ‘summary’. It is one of the widely mispronounced words too. The pronunciation of the word is something like re-zyu-mei with a stress on ‘re’. Please use a pronunciation software to get it right. A resume primarily highlights a person’s professional skills, recent work experience, responsibilities held, outstanding achievements etc. The details are given in reverse chronological order i.e. latest experience first, followed by the previous ones. It also outlines the applicant’s educational qualifications but in brief, unlike in a curriculum vitae.

The length of a good résumé is generally one page (preferably A4 size). If too difficult to summarize on a single page, use two, not more than that. It is not necessary to include your sex, religion, hobbies, interests and so on in a résumé.

In short, a résumé is a customized summary which is used by experienced professionals to get a better targeted opportunity. Freshers on the look out of a job should prepare and submit a curriculum vitae about which we will discuss in my next blog.


Click to jump to next post about CV: http://novaenglishcampus.blogspot.in/2011/05/what-is-cv.html

Why do we celebrate Mother's Day?

It is Mother’s Day today. The occasion is celebrated throughout the world by those who love their mothers. They buy gifts, send greetings and spend the day with their beloved mothers to honour them.

Though the origin of Mother’s Day is somewhat obscure, most of historians say that the practice must have been influenced by the Mother Goddess cult in Asia Minor as long way back as in 6000 BC. Later on the Greeks imported the cult which was subsequently copied by the Romans as well. This practice gradually crept into Christianity too in the form of Mothering Sunday, an occasion on which Christians belonging to certain denominations honour Virgin Mary and their mother church.

In modern times, Mother’s Day is celebrated by the majority of people on the second Sunday in May. Anna Jarvis, an American lady is credited with the establishment of Mother’s Day as a recognized holiday in 1914 though she embarked on her campaign in the year 1907 following her mother’s death a couple of years ago.

Soon, like anything of the American origin, the celebration spread across the world and in a few years’ time Mother’s Day started to get commercially exploited – something Anna Jarvis never expected! Companies started wooing people with expensive greeting cards and gifts, jewelry industry and hotels reported higher revenues on or before the Mother’s Day. Frustrated, Jarvis along with her sister spent all her inherited and acquired wealth to fight against the commercialization of Mother’s Day. Both the sisters died in poverty a few years later.

It is also interesting to note that Anna Jarvis neither married nor had any children!

FAMILY is or FAMILY are.......

My family is a wonderful family.

My family are very close to one another.


In the first sentence, the noun family is used as a single unit of people. This sentence is correct if you think of the family as ‘a single body’.

But in the second sentence, family is treated as plural as the speaker wants to emphasize that every member in their family is close to one another.

The word 'family' is an example of a 'collective noun'. Some other words in this category are 'group', 'committee', 'jury', 'team', 'public', 'army', 'congress', etc.

So, the question that whether a collective noun should be treated as singular or plural solely depends upon up on what you want to say i.e. if you think of the collective noun as a unit, treat it as singular, as in

'My family is settled in USA’, ‘The team is in its best form these days’, ‘The jury needs to be impartial in its verdict’, ‘The committee was able to take a firm step against the culprit’ etc.

But if you take a collective noun as individuals acting separately, treat it as plural, as in

‘My family are very co-operative with one another’, (emphasis on each member of the family)

‘Strangely, the team are wearing jerseys of different colours’ (emphasis on each player in the team)

‘The jury have unanimously agreed to the new proposal of the government’ (emphasizing each judge in the jury)

The committee meet once a month’ (emphasizing that each member is present once in a month without fail)

This rule is often strictly followed in British English though this confusing grammatical rule is slowly becoming flexible in modern English.

In American English, collective nouns are almost always treated as singular for example, if you type ‘The jury are considering the verdict’ in MS Word, the software will underline the words ‘jury are’ and prompt you to use ‘jury is’. The reason, as you probably know, is that MS Word accepts only American English grammar and spelling unless you have changed its settings to British English.

How NOKIA got its name?

The brand name Nokia has already become one of the most widely recognizable names in the world. Headquartered in Finland, the telecommunication giant has its business spread across the world.

The brand’s name Nokia is the name of the Finnish city where the company was originally established. But the interesting fact is that the world’s biggest mobile manufacturing company, Nokia Corporation was originally founded as a wood-pulp mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river from which the city itself got its name, ‘Nokia’. The company later adopted the city's name as its brand name.

However, Nokia no longer seems to have any operations in the town of Nokia! The headquarters were moved to Espoo, located nearly 200 kilometres south of Nokia.