Have you ever thought why is it that we speak differently than we write? Some words and slangs are used in casual conversation on everyday basis but, God forbid, if you use them in a formal letter to your boss. Nevertheless, they have become an undeniable part of our life but how and why is that?
We were honoured by a visit from a linguistic scientist Karel Oliva nearly two weeks ago on 2nd March. Undoubtedly, it was a pleasure to meet someone this eminent. Not only did he graduate from Charles University, but he has also worked in Bulgaria for a couple of years.
As far as the visit is concerned, we`ve been given 2 hours to meet him. We need to dive into the history of how our language has been developing to understand why we speak differently than we write. Furthermore, very old books were presented to us. Even gloves were used so the books could be kept untouched as much as possible.
To summarise, the lecture was filled with a lot of information. However, it was not exactly how we had expected it to look like. We thought that the meeting would be more interactive by virtue of the title and Karel Oliva himself is a respectable person. Moreover, being there felt like being in a lecture at a university, hence it was difficult for us to keep up. Having said that, I might just not be in his target group. You should see him and judge yourself.
Thu Trang Nguyen, 3. A
