The history of English in 10 minutes1/5/2016 This fascinating and humorous animated video details the roots and history of our beautiful English language, a mongrel language which is comprised of words from 350 others. The video chronologically exhibits the influences the Romans, the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, the Vikings, and the Normans all had on English. Of course, no story of the English language would be complete without considering the contributions of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible. The video then goes on to examine the spread of English via Britain's colonisation of half the world. The North Americans get a mention here in regards to their 'not English but somewhere in the ballpark' and its influence on the Brits. The last two chapters consider the influence of the internet and English as a global language. The narration in this series is exceptional - full of all those wonderful English idiomatic phrases and metaphors. I highly recommend all native speakers and advanced non-native speakers take the time to watch this brilliantly done animated video. 'To put your foot in your mouth' means saying something, often stupid, that offends, upsets or embarrasses somebody. In most cases, you should also be embarrassed yourself. A very passionate young man addresses several such language-related, foot-in-mouth moments quite humorously in the following Youtube video. Aussie comedian Adam Hills on language24/10/2012 Adam Hills is a brilliant Australian stand-up comedian who, in this clip, considers how the British, French, Americans, Swedish and Australians might sound to speakers of other languages. Do you speak English?19/10/2012 Nothing represents the English language better than a couple of British lads being cheeky! This is a short clip from comedy sketch show Big Train on the BBC. |