Week 3: Pop Culture: Trending Now

What's hot?  What's not?
It's hard to say where a trend starts, but a little easier to spot when it's over.  The word "trend" evolved from meaning "roll" to "turn in a particular direction/take a particular course."  Now, it is used to describe what is popular.

 Word History: trend

• Date of Origin Old English [OE]

The etymological notion underlying trend is of ‘circularity’ or ‘roundness’. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *trend-, *trund-, which also produced Dutch trent ‘circumference’, Swedish trind ‘round’, and English trundle (16^th c.), and it was originally used in the sense ‘revolve, roll’. This gradually evolved via ‘turn’ to, in the 16th century, ‘turn in a particular direction, take a particular course’. The first record of the derivative trendy dates from 1962.

Here are just two "trendy" things that have had popularity booms.
Current status: IN =OR= OUT?

FOOD: Ra-Yu spicy oil to eat

FASHION: Loose socks

What else can you add to the list? Looking forward to your comments/mails!

Week 2

Week 2 begins tomorrow.  Communication theme is "how-to" for presentations.  Student feedback regarding important elements of a presentation have mentioned body language (using gestures), visual aids (illustrations and more to make it easier to understand), and VOLUME (can everyone hear you?).  Good points, and there are more to follow!

It's also time to look at POP Culture...what are you following now?

Welcome!

This is the beginning of a compilation of student ideas about our world, culture and events of interest as we discuss and explore those ideas using English as our communication tool.