Music and happiness

Hi everyone! Today I have two different messages for you, my dear Avanzado students.

Avanzado 1: Today I thought I would share this interesting video. Most of you know that I have more than a soft spot for all things musical. That’s why I was blown away by this warm, inspirational TED talk in which Benjamin Zander, an outstanding English conductor, shares his infectious passion for classical music. By TED standards his presentation is a little long but, believe me, it’s totally worth it. Remember we discussed music in unit 6A. You’ll enjoy it. The man is a force of nature.

Avanzado 2: Remember the videoclip about happiness? Take a glance at the textbook (p. 52) if you don't. If you find the topic only vaguely interesting you may want to check out this other video which discusses that very issue but in a more refreshing fashion. The vocabulary the presenter uses is a good enough reason to pay close attention to his analysis of happiness in the Western Hemisphere. Satisfaction and disappointment might be equidistant from a hypothetical state of emotional neutrality. Yet our proclivity to focus on the negative inevitably sets us up for disappointment. Apparently, the old American standard was dead-on: we have to “accentuate the positive”. At the end of the day (experts say) happiness depends greatly on one’s expectations. Of course, if your expectations are low chances are you will not be disappointed but you may not achieve your full potential or learn to look on the bright side. Anyway, the vocabulary in the video is quite interesting. Case in point: what do you do with expectations? Well, you meet them, you live up to them, you measure up to them, you fulfill them, etc... As a teacher, I have to confess that I have great hopes for you. My expectations are realistically high. Trust me. High but realistic.

Reminders: Avanzado 1: I asked you to write a description which combines physical and psychological traits. Avanzado 2: You are supposed to write an essay about any one of the topics listed on page 97 of the textbook (Exercise 9A).

Kudos to you

Here’s an old riddle. A father and son are in a horrible car crash that kills the dad. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he’s about to go under the knife, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate—that boy is my son!” Explain.

I have copy-pasted those 24 words from an old article you can read here. Why did I choose to share that “riddle” with you? Well, because the answer is obvious now (the surgeon is, of course, the boy’s mother) but it used to be quite mysterious just some years ago.

I believe I was in my late teens when I first heard that story. Back then, it really puzzled me. According to my (limited) worldview, a surgeon had to be a man. Interestingly enough, the English word surgeon is not marked for gender. Yet, many English speakers shared my bewilderment even then. This comes to prove how much the world has changed over the past thirty years.

When I told the story to a class of students in 2006 it felt great to realize that it was no longer a riddle. Every student assumed that the surgeon had to be the boy’s mother. The intriguing question today is... how many of you thought of a third possibility? The surgeon could be a man: the father’s gay partner. I suppose we need another 30 years for that third option to become an "obvious" answer.

Anyway, today is International Women’s Day. So kudos to you, wonderful women out there. You make up 50% of the world and yet... are still underrepresented in way too many areas. In the English-speaking world, whenever the issue of great women is broached, we are bound to remember Amelia Earhart (pioneering aviator), Marie Curie (pioneering scientist)... but how about Hedy Lamarr? She was a Hollywood actress in the 1940s as well as a surprising inventor. How about honoring the memory of Rosalind Franklin? Her fundamental contributions to the research that led to the discovery of DNA have been shockingly overlooked by the academic world. And how about Dorothy Parker, amazing wit in a male dominated world? She belongs with Oscar Wilde, Groucho Marx, Woody Allen and all the rest of them.

Anyhow, this is a language blog. So allow me to remind you that there is a huge difference between grammatically marked terms like mare or bridegroom and those which are only socially marked. As we know (but tend to forget) a butcher is not necessarily a man. A secretary doesn’t need to be a woman. Therefore the word nurse should be acceptable for both men and women. What does it all mean for you? It means you ought to refuse to use the expression male nurse (which is an inherently sexist retronym). Use humankind instead of mankind, etc. That can be your linguistic contribution to making the world a better place. I can't forget that the overwhelming majority of you (my students) is made up of women.