月別アーカイブ：2017年7月

3 July 2017

How do you say “GIF”? 

One of the areas of concern when learning a foreign language is if we are pronouncing the words correctly, indeed incorrect pronunciation can lead to an embarrassing situation and we all want to avoid those. Of course, we are aware that there may be subtle differences in pronunciation can depend on accent and location. There has been some debate on the pronunciation of the term “GIF”, the term itself is an acronym and more common than it’s full name: Graphics Interchange Format. These images are very popular on the internet and many companies use them for logos, marketing, games and small animations. But how is the term actually pronounced?

Many dictionaries indicate that there are two pronunciations that are acceptable:

1. The soft “g” (think of gym or giraffe)
2. The hard “g” (think of gift or game)

Although the creators of the technology use the soft “g”, recent surveys have indicated that the majority of people pronounce the term with the hard “g” sound. So don’t worry if you meet someone that pronounces it differently, you are both correct!

We tend to view silence (especially in the Western world) as mere absence of speech—but in reality, silence can be a powerful tool of communication.

Indeed, it can convey much information that language fails to do. It is a kind of nonverbal communication and it can express a wide range of emotions and feelings that go from happiness, joy, and embarrassment to anger, grief, denial, fear, and withdrawal of acceptance.

Additionally, silence is also a tool to enforce etiquette and social standards and a way to communicate agreement or disagreement.

The importance of silence is recognized by all cultures in the world; traces of its significant role in the communicative context can be found in sayings such as “speech is silver, but silence is golden” or the Chinese maxim, “silence is better than eloquence.” However, silence becomes a real philosophy when we move to the Far East, especially in Japanese culture.