Coffee Klatch

Did you know that your brain ages as you grow older? CognitiveLabs has put together some excellent tests and games to analyze (and improve) your memory, reaction time, and a variety of other facets of your brain activity. You can do most of them for free, or you can pay under $20 to have reports created, tracking done, and even have reminders sent out to you to take the tests again. More tests are because Stanford research studies have found that being mentally challenged (as opposed to “mentally challenged”) in a variety of ways helps keep your brain young. Yes, you can even “lower” your brain age! “Scientists believe building mental acuity through cognitive workouts acts like a buffer against decline.”

Cognitive Labs is now the world’s largest website dedicated to cognitive health. If you just want to read more about the research, they have links to reports, studies, etc., that can give you much more information. Visit http://cognitivelabs.com/ to get to all this information, as well as the tests, games, puzzles, etc.

[tags]cognition, brain, thinking, brain power, cognitive health[/tags]

As a society, we have lost touch with our linguistic roots. The average person’s familiarity with grammar and spelling is woefully inadequate; any basic knowledge of Latin is sadly nonexistent.

That point was driven home AGAIN to me today when I heard the common phrase “I’m an alumni.” I hear that ALL THE TIME! I don’t think it’s so farfetched of an idea that people might be expected to know that -i is plural and -us is singular. Just like cactus/cacti. THAT’S considered commonly known, so why not alumnus/alumni? Outside the southwestern U.S., I’d guess that alumni is a more frequently used word than cactus. People know that cactuses is wrong because they hear it in the singular enough, while alumnus is hardly ever heard, universities usually referring to them in the plural.

Just the same, I’m always amazed at how many people say, “I’m an alumni” and think they’re right. Or (more probably) DON’T think. If Americans thought as much as they talked (and BEFORE they talked), not only would grammar be better overall, but they’d probably be less offensive to the rest of the world.

A word that’s used a lot where I work is emeriti. It’s in regard to faculty that have retired but still stay affiliated with the school. They are considered “emeriti faculty.” So, of course, I often hear, “He’s emeriti.” At least people have the sense to not use “an” in the middle, because it sounds wrong to them, but they’re still using the plural for a person, just like “alumni.” Simply put, “he is an emeritus faculty member” while “THEY are emeriti faculty members.”

Technically, faculty is singular, too, referring to the body of teachers, so a person can be a member of the faculty, not “a faculty,” but we won’t get into that!
[tags]grammar, linguistics, alumni, language, americanisms[/tags]