Misc.

The Cultural Phenomenon of Jólabókaflóð, Iceland’s Book Flood

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Reading Time: 8 minutes ‘Twas the night before Christmas, in each Icelandic home,   When families gathered, not a soul felt alone; Kleinur and laufabrauð were arranged with great care, As the magic of Christmas filled the crisp evening air. The children were nestled all snug with a book in their hands,   Sailing through sagas and tales from faraway lands; And mamma with her mystery, and I with my book,   Had just settled our brains in our cozy nook. During the Christmas festive season, the Icelandic word Jólabókaflóð makes the rounds …

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Writing Insights (2023)

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Writing is more than stringing sentences together; it is boiling down thoughts on the relentless whiteness of the page, even though there is a tension between the limitation of language and the freedom of our thoughts.  And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.   For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly. Khalil Gibran – The Prophet  Acknowledging this constraint, repetition in writing is a response to language’s limitations, an …

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How Did English Achieve Its Worldwide Reach? (part 2)

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Reading Time: 9 minutes The English language’s global dominance is no accident. It can be traced back through a three-stage process: the initial spread of English by the British Empire, its proliferation through the two World Wars, and its reach through the soft power of the Internet age. The British Empire, often referred to as “the empire on which the sun never sets”, reached North America, India, Australia, Africa, and Asia. English became the colonies’ official language of administration, justice, business, and education. Proficiency in English was a …

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How Did English Achieve Its Worldwide Reach? (part 1)

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Reading Time: 4 minutes I first became interested in the topic of my thesis [the spread of the English language] while on holidays in Crete; there a guide jokingly told us that if the capital of the island would be destroyed and unearthed a thousand years later, future archaeologists would probably conclude that the inhabitants spoke English because all the shop-signs are in that language. Daniel Spichtinger – The Spread of English and its Appropriation Learning English presents a considerable challenge due to its linguistic irregularities. From spelling and …

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Unwrapping The German Tradition of Schultüte

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Image Credit: Pixabay Schultüte is a cherished tradition in Germany designed to ease the anxieties of the little ones starting first grade. Parents or godparents would make a Schultüte (“school cone”) or a Zuckertüte (“sugar cone”) at home, mark it with the children’s names, and take it to school to hang it in the “Schultütenbaum” (school cone tree). Then, on their first school day, children would pick their cones from the magic Schultütenbaum on the school grounds, careful not to break them. After the …

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End of the Year Favourites (2022)

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Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s that time of the year to look back and review all the things that made my life easier and more pleasant. None of the links below is a referral; I will update this note if I change the links to referrals. As this year was devastating with the war in Ukraine and protests in Iran, I don’t feel in the mental position to share more than the books I enjoyed this year.  Some of the books I liked had a dedicated article on …

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Reading Insights (2022)

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Before the printing press, only a small, literate elite, largely confined to the Church, had access to books, ideas and learning. The power of the Church was rooted in its exclusive access to scriptures and through them to the word of God. This gave the clergy unrivalled control over the people’s minds. The printing and distribution of books unleashed a voracious appetite for literacy and disseminated ideas across national and cultural boundaries on a scale that was previously unimaginable.  Sir Ken Robinson – Out of …

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Writing Insights (2022)

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Sappho is counted as one of the greatest poets of Antiquity, often named “The Tenth Muse” or “The Poetess”. Historically, the “lesbian” term originates from the name of the island of Lesbos, Sappho’s birthplace. A more in-depth description of what sapphic means nowadays can be found on the lgbtqia.fandom.com website.  Sappho wrote thousands of verses, but only about 650 lines have survived. Perhaps the Catholic Church disapproved of her poetry (there are claims that Sappho’s works were burned on the orders of Pope Gregory VII). Or maybe the dialect …

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