Корпоративный блог DataArt

Чтобы понять, почему английский так важен, нужно сначала понять, что DataArt – особенная компания. Мы стараемся быть профессионалами во всем. Поскольку наши клиенты находятся в основном в США и Англии, без хорошего английского успешно работать с ними просто не получится. Документация – на английском. Переписка – на английском. Переговоры и обсуждения – на английском. При приеме на работу первое собеседование –на английском! У нас разработана специальная система тестирования коммуникативных умений.

Сотрудники компании периодически проходят проверку коммуникативных навыков, и для тех, кому надо бы подучиться, организованы специальные курсы. Программа занятий разработана специально для DataArt. Небольшие группы и гибкая система организации учебного процесса позволяют добиваться хороших результатов. Обучение ведется короткими циклами, что позволяет анализировать процесс и оперативно решать, что изменить и как двигаться дальше. Такой стиль работы позволяет вовремя вносить в программу коррективы и лучше адаптироваться к постоянно меняющимся внешним обстоятельствам.

Читать запись полностью »

Part I

New Words
At the start of the article we noted the use of the word “google” as a new verb. New words are entering the general English language all the time (hence our large vocabulary). We have been borrowing words from other languages for most of our recorded history. Consider 3 words with practically the same meaning: Kingly (Old English), Royal (French), Regal (Latin). Each was imported into Modern English. The English language is a bit of a sponge and it doesn’t tend to discard words unless people really stop using them.

And this perhaps brings us to the real influence of the Internet and new words. In the old days adoption of new words would have been much slower. It would have had to come into use in a particular region or profession and slowly spread into use by most of the population (at least if they have a use for that particular word – not many people find a use for the word floccinaucinihilipilification – it means evaluating something as being worthless). These days new words can come into existence overnight, and indeed they can die out almost as quickly.

An amusing example of this is the word “cromulent” invented for an episode of The Simpsons in 1996. Overnight people on the internet started using this word (to mean something fine or acceptable) and while its not really made its way into everyday English people still use it in humour 14 years later. It made its way into Webseter’s Dictionary giving the word some status in the English Language. The case of a word that embiggened (from the same Simpsons episode) the English language.

An example of a new word directly related to the internet is blog, a shortened form of web-log, and comes in many forms, such as blogger, blogged, blogging.

Other existing words are co-opted to mean different things. Here are a couple of examples:

Ping – this we all know as a useful network command to determine if a host is reachable. The inventor of the utility named it after the sound made by submarine sonar. These days we also use it to mean “contact me” usually by electronic means especially instant messengers although it could be stretched to email contact or even at a push, personal contact.

Читать запись полностью »

Part II

Introduction
It goes without saying that the Internet is a Big Thing™. Its development and growth has infected many aspects of our waking lives and perhaps even our sleeping lives as well (had any dreams about playing World of Warcraft or whatever your particular internet poison is?).

The English language, often referred to as the language of the Internet, has naturally not escaped the influence of the Internet. Internet words, phrases, and memes have entered our collective consciousness not to mention written and/or verbal usage.

The word google (note the lowercase) “officially” entered the British English language as a verb meaning “to search for on the internet” when in 2006 it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. The first widely know use of the word as a verb was by Google founder Larry Page who in 1998 wrote “Have fun and keep googling!” The amusing side of this is that Google Inc. now actively opposes this usage, including even legal actions taken against those who use it publicly, in order that their trademark is not watered down and joins the ranks of words like Aspirin and Zipper as common verbs, their trademarks invalidated.

It is perhaps hard to determine the exact origin of some the so-called “internet” words we use today. It is certain some come from the early days of mobile phones when “texting” became a common verb, abbreviations that became commonplace in text messages (eg: “c u l8r”, “LOL”), and of course, smileys ;-) and these now are commonly used in written communications. Others perhaps come from pre-internet days when the internet was more an aggregation of public and private networks tenuously linked and the early BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) were the ancestors of our current day forums.

Читать запись полностью »