http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/english/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/laughing-at-misfortune-of-others-a-big-moral-dilemma/ Like kitsch, schnauzer and – to a lesser extent – gemütlichkeit*, schadenfreude is one of those excitingly guttural expressions that has hitchhiked its way from Germany into English-speaking countries such as Australia. The loanword is a combination of Schaden (harm) and freude (joy), and describes pleasure taken in other people’s misfortunes. It’s a phenomenon which can be observed with increasing frequency on internet sites such as failblog.org which revels in human error, embarrassment and outright idiocy. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/laughing-at-misfortune-of-others-a-big-moral-dilemma/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/laughing-at-misfortune-of-others-a-big-moral-dilemma/#item6725 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.  http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ostraya-a-lucky-winner-of-the-linguistic-lottery/ The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.  penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ostraya-a-lucky-winner-of-the-linguistic-lottery/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ostraya-a-lucky-winner-of-the-linguistic-lottery/#item3159 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.  http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/translators-required-going-forward-episode-ii/ Another arrival from the crowd that brought us this indecipherable press release, but this time the gobbledegook’s even worse. SAP Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) today announced the availability of hosted offerings from its channel partners for midsize companies, providing a new delivery channel for SAP solutions for mid-size customers in ANZ. SAP integration partner CIBER is the first ANZ partner to offer hosting as an alternative to the traditional on-premise deployment option. The hosted offerings allow midsize companies to implement and run SAP® Business All-in-One solutions without the need to hire and train dedicated IT staff to implement and manage the software. SAP Business All-in-One is comprehensive and flexible software for midsize companies with deep industry best practices built-in. My eyes. Over to you: translations please? penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Lightweight http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/translators-required-going-forward-episode-ii/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/translators-required-going-forward-episode-ii/#item3062 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.  http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/translator-required-going-forward/ This just landed in The Punch’s inbox. Can anyone explain what it means? To meet a growing demand from companies of all sizes for software-as-a-service (SaaS) business intelligence (BI) tools that are easy to use, SAP Australia New Zealand today announced the local launch of the SAP® BusinessObjects™ BI OnDemand solution. Targeted at casual BI users currently under-served by products on the market, the solution will deliver a complete BI toolset in one flexible offering. Leading local on-demand services and solutions provider Sqware Peg is the first local partner to offer customers the new solution, which will provide analytics capabilities for customers using core on-demand solutions.  penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Lightweight http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/translator-required-going-forward/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/translator-required-going-forward/#item3006 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.  http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punctuation-mark-for-sarcasm-a-brilliant-idea/ It really is the best invention, ever. A company in the US has dreamt up a bit of punctuation to indicate that you are being sarcastic. As if you ever going to need it. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article, Lightweight http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punctuation-mark-for-sarcasm-a-brilliant-idea/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punctuation-mark-for-sarcasm-a-brilliant-idea/#item2156 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.  http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/call-for-entries-additions-to-the-punch-political-dictionary/ Are you a fan of The Wreckers? Do you reckon we’re out of the woods? Have you got your Julia Gillard Memorial Hall yet? And crucially, it is “fair suck” or “fair shake” of the sauce bottle? The Macquarie Dictionary has opened its word of the year competition and there are six nominations in the political category. But we reckon there should be a few more than that. Some suggestions of phrases from 2009 that can be permanently added to the Australian political lexicon are below - add yours in the comments. Detailed programmatic specificity: Appears to mean, er, a plan. But when you’re Kevin Rudd, why say it clearly in one syllable when you can say it confusingly in 11? penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/call-for-entries-additions-to-the-punch-political-dictionary/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/call-for-entries-additions-to-the-punch-political-dictionary/#item2102 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.  http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/10-reasons-to-love-the-poms/ WHEN mounting an argument sure to rub some people up the wrong way - such as, say, listing reasons to love the English on the first day of The Ashes - it can be useful to start by invoking supporting words of wisdom from a unifying, popular figure. Step forward, Donald Rumsfeld. The former US Defence Secretary - not exactly of Ghandi-esque stature in global public opinion - had a favourite phrase: that America would be vindicated in “the great sweep of human history”. In the great sweep of sporting history, the English have been the objects of increasing ridicule. They deserve much of it, especially with their tragi-comic efforts in soccer and cricket during the 1990s. But with the 2009 Ashes series beginning this evening, Australian time, we’re sure to be in for weeks of tiresome jokes about whingeing Poms, underachievers, chokers, yob fans with beer bellies, along with general mirth at moments of English failure. When Mitchell Johnson gets the ball in hand and eyes off Andrew Strauss in Cardiff before starting his run-up, it might be worth him - and Australians everywhere - pausing for a moment to reflect on England’s place in the great sweep of human history. For England, possibly more than any other nation, deserves respect. [More Ashes: Luke Foley on English elitists | Phil Hillyard’s photo secrets] And as one of the 10 reasons below argues, respecting England just might help Australia win The Ashes. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/10-reasons-to-love-the-poms/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/10-reasons-to-love-the-poms/#item567 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The expulsion of an Israeli diplomat this week took me back more than a quarter of a century, to the expulsion of the Soviet “diplomat” Valery Ivanov in 1983. Ivanov had been fingered as a KGB spy, and he was being thrown out for attempting to influence a senior A.L.P. figure, David Combe. Surrounded by media at the airport, he gave a brief statement in Russian. As he turned to go, a voice rang out: “Could you say that again in Australian?” Ivanov didn’t bother – he was gone. But the question stuck with me for one reason: it was the first time (though by no means the last) that I was to hear the language we speak referred to, not as English, nor as “Australian English”, but as “Australian”.