How to Survive a Long-Haul Flight

By Mark Hodson, HuffPost, 16.01.13

I've spent the best part of two decades in travel journalism so I've taken a lot of long-haul flights. And I think I've got it down to a fine art. Flying is stressful, most people agree on that. And I believe one of the reasons it's stressful is that passengers have no control over the process. Airline staff even jokingly refer to us as "self loading freight".

So I believe the key to reducing the stress of flying is in taking control of the experience. At least, control the controllables.

First, let me admit that I am a bit of a control freak. I prefer to watch movies at home rather than in the cinema because I like to be able to set the volume at my preferred level, and not to have to listen to my neighbors snacking all through the quiet scenes. I like maps and timetables.

So I prefer an aisle seat, not just because I feel that I have more leg and elbow room, but because I don't want to ask anybody else's permission to go to the bathroom or fetch something from the overhead locker.

However, I'm not an anxious flyer. I don't much like airports but I enjoy being in the air. I like the views from 30,000ft and the feeling of excitement and anticipation before arriving in a new place. Some frequent flyers get jaded or fearful. I'm neither of those.

It starts like this. A couple of days before a flight I will check Seat Guru to find the optimum seat. I like to be as far forward as possible in the cabin, to reduce noise. I believe ambient noise is a major cause of stress on long-haul flights. However, I'll try to sit a couple of rows back from the bulkhead seats as this is where families with babies are usually seated.

Most airlines allow you to check in online 24 hours before departure. I'm on the website, right on the dot.

For the flight I dress as smart as I can without compromising comfort. The temperature on aircraft -- particularly on overnight flights - tends to fluctuate wildly so layering is the key. A combination of inactivity and low cabin pressure causes your feet to swell, so comfortable shoes are essential.

I arrive at the airport in plenty of time. When I was younger I would cut it fine, believing my time was valuable. Now I realize that it's less stressful to get there earlier, go through security and relax.

I also do a lot of walking in airports. If I'm going to be sitting down for the next 10 hours I don't want to be slumped in an airport chair. If I can find a quiet corner I'll do some yoga stretches.

Now for the most important thing: my travel kit. If I'm only away for a few days I try to avoid checking luggage, but realistically that's not always possible.

Anybody who flies a lot will have experienced the annoyance of arriving at the end of a long flight to find their checked bag didn't make it on the aircraft. So I always carry enough clothing to see me through the first 24 hours: spare underwear, sunglasses, a pair of swimming trunks / shorts, swimming goggles. At least I can relax on the beach or in the hotel pool while the airline tries to locate my checked bag.

As a journalist, I always carry a laptop (a rather bulky MacBook Pro). And, of course, I take a charger and a universal adapter in my cabin bag. Plus a surge protector, just in case.

One of the small pleasures of flying business class is the little amenity kit you are given. In reality these aren't anything special: a cheap toothbrush, a pen, a thin pair of socks. As I don't regularly fly business, I pack my own amenity kit and it's better than any I've been given by an airline.

Here's what my amenity kit contains:

• Earplugs. I never travel without earplugs. I like the foam variety, which I buy in bulk on eBay. They're very cheap. Some airlines hand them out, others don't (which I suspect is because crew get fed up with trying to talk to passengers who can't hear them).
• Eyeshades. I have a really good quality set.
• Flight socks. Aside from the fact they may help prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT), they stop your feet swelling and keep your toes and legs warm.
• Spectacles case. So I know my glasses are safe while I'm sleeping.
• Blow-up pillow. They aren't perfect, but better than nothing.
• Toothbrush and toothpaste.
• A small tube of moisturiser and eye drops to combat the dry cabin air.

Another key part of my kit is a pair of decent noise-reduction headphones. I like Sennheiser PXC 250-II, which cost about $120 in the US. I also have a headphone adapter so I can use my Sennheisers to watch a movie, rather than use the cheap pair provided by the airline.

I board the aircraft as soon as I can, to ensure I can put my bag in the overhead bin above my seat. I check the seatbelt works, and that I have a blanket. Anything in the seat back container that I don't need (airline magazine, duty free catalogue) I throw in the overhead bin and replace it with my own kit. If there appears to be a empty seat nearby, I might discreetly grab the "spare" blanket. One is rarely enough.

What about meals? I actually quite like airline food but I'm careful what I eat if I plan to sleep. I avoid anything with caffeine (including chocolate), stay away from sugary desserts, avoid carbonated drinks (which cause bloating) and restrict alcohol to a single glass of red wine. I take my own snacks - usually muesli bars - and a large bottle of water.

When I've finished eating I don't wait for the cabin crew to collect the tray - I take it to the galley (another advantage of an aisle seat) and ask if I can help bin the trash. This makes a good impression with the crew, which can come in handy later, and means I'm first in the bathroom. By the time my fellow passengers have their trays collected I'm settling down for a sleep.

One of the reasons people feel exhausted after a long flight is dehydration, caused by the thin dry cabin air. To combat that, I drink a lot of fluids throughout the flight. Yes, that can mean a lot of bathroom visits, but I'm in an aisle seat, so it's not a big deal. And it means I can regularly stretch my legs, reducing the risk of a DVT.

Another reason for exhaustion is jet lag. There is no cure for this, but on boarding the flight I always set my watch to the time of my destination and start trying to think myself into that new time zone. I pop a melatonin 20 minutes before trying to get to sleep. I'm convinced that helps to reset my body clock and ensure I hit the ground running.

Billy Wilder: Hollywood Comedy’s Caustic Social Chronicler

Compound Adjective Practice

Billy Wilder, who died on 27^th March 2002 at his Beverly Hills home at the age of 95, was the most pungent and literate creator of movie comedy in mid-20^th century Hollywood. As a writer and director, he helped shape an evolution in style and taste from the pre-war innocence blended with verbal sophistication of screenplays like Midnight and Ninotchka, via the satirical tragicomedy mixed with resonant one-liners (“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille”) of Sunset Boulevard (1950), to the hectic, irreverent slapstick of his best-known comedy Some Like It Hot (1956).

That the same man directed the hardboiled thriller Double Indemnity, a classic of film noir, the archetypal Hollywood drama about alcoholism The Lost Weekend and the Oscar-winning sweet-sour romantic comedy The Apartment made Wilder a caustic social chronicler almost without peer in western cinema in the last century.

A European refugee who fled Germany in 1933, he showed a fondness for fish-out-of-the-water tales. In Ninotchka, stern Bolshevik Greta Garbo falls for pleasure-loving American Melvyn Douglas. In Ball of Fire mild-mannered linguistics professor Gary Cooper tangles with goodtime girl Barbara Stanwyck. Both these movies were scripted, for other directors, by Wilder and his then regular collaborator Charles Brackett. When Wilder himself began directing, in 1942 with The Major and the Minor, the same misfit themes recurred in films as diverse as Ace in the Hole, his hard-hitting satire on newspaper reporting; the prisoner-of-war drama Stalag 17; the wistful Audrey Hepburn romantic comedy Sabrina; and the strident but fiercely idiosyncratic comedies he made from the mid-1950s with new screenplay collaborator I.A.L. Diamond.

Wilder’s cinema reflected, albeit in a comical distorting mirror, the life of a man tossed about from country to country since his teens. Born in Vienna in 1906, Wilder first flirted with law studies and journalism in Austria. He soon migrated to Berlin, working variously as a reporter, as a so-called taxi dancer and finally as a script collaborator in half a dozen German films.

As one of a legion of refugees from Nazism in Hollywood, Wilder soon became the most American of immigrant film-makers. His brash, wisecracking style set a pace few natives could equal. He used favourite actors over and over —Fred MacMurray, Shirley MacLaine, Walter Matthau, above all Jack Lemmon— to help shape his world of abrasive dialogue, astringent romance, hapless physical comedy and defiant optimism. The final line of Some Like It Hot became the most famous in screen comedy history —when millionaire Joe E. Brown’s “fiancée” Lemmon (in drag) confesses that he is a man, Brown shrugs, smiles and says “Nobody’s perfect”.

After The Apartment won Oscars for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay, Wilder’s work declined in vitality and inventiveness. The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, Avanti! and Fedora were ambitious but thinly scripted whimsies. The Front Page and Buddy Buddy tried to re-ignite the spark of the Lemmon-Matthau partnership Wilder himself created in the 1966 Meet Whiplash Willie (aka The Fortune Cookie), which won Matthau an Oscar.

In the 1980s and 1990s Wilder toyed with projects that never saw the light, including directing Schindler’s List. He also gave his time to befriending younger directors, one of whom, Cameron Crowe (of Jerry Maguire) published in 1999 a definitive book-length interview with him, Conversations with Billy Wilder.

As a movie artist, Wilder left no one indifferent. Detractors included Pauline Kael, the New Yorker critic, and David Thomson, who in his Biographical Dictionary of Film called Wilder “a heartless exploiter of public taste who manipulates situations in the name of satire. He prefers dialogue to character, sniping to structure”. For others, Wilder combined a classical command of craft with iconoclastic courage in confronting taboo subjects. 

© NIGEL ANDREWS, Financial Times, 2002

Task 1. Look up the underlined compound adjectives that you did not know.

Task 2. Learn the expressions highlighted in pink.

Berlin Blossoms

In the December 1995 issue of Gay Times travel writer Stuart Linden looked at the post-Wall Berlin of the 1990s and asked what had been lost and what had been gained in the reunification process. I had kept this article in my paper archive since then and decided to type it up and post it online as it offers today's readers/travellers a new insight into what those analogical times were like as compared to our smartphone-centered digital age.

Die Löwenbrücke im Tiergarten / The Lion Bridge at Tiergarten Park

In the Stiller Don bar you can still find a huge painting of Lenin on the wall, although recently it's been moved from pride place into a dark corner , where it now gathers dust and a creeping nostalgia. Stiller Don is typical of the gay venues which you find in Berlin's former eastern sector. It's a small cafe bar with wooden furniture and low-hung, metal lampshades. On the pavement outside there are tables and chairs which become filled with men and women of all ages, deep in conversation. All of them quite happy to talk to a stranger, and share the secrets of where to find the best of gay Berlin. They are an intriguing, welcoming, un-westernised group of people.

For those into catching cultural change, there is perhaps no better time to visit Berlin. Six years after The Wall came down, the commercial differences between the west and east sectors of this city are quickly vanishing and, eventually, so too will the still-noticeable them and us differences in outlook. The former eastern sector houses one third of the gay scene and can still boast of a charm that is reminiscent of the gay scene in Prague, another former eastern block domain. Stiller Don is just one of the many gay bars that open at 6pm and close... well, when the last person goes home.  In contrast, the western sector bars are more like other pink-packaged venues of the civilised world --specialised, interior-designed, efficient and, above all, predictable.

In the months that followed the removal of the wall, there was an initial two-way flurry of mixing between east and west. But unfortunately, whereas former east Germans are till keen to visit West Berlin bars, the former west Berliners are not so interested in the bars of the east now they have tried them out. With this one-way ticket in operation, it may only be a matter of time before the scene of the east is forced to conform with the styles of its wealthier neighbours.

According to gay folklore, the colourful history of Berlin alone sets it alongside other European "gay capitals" such as Amsterdam, Paris or London. Times may have changed, but Berlin is still a happening place. Since reunification, both the eastern and western parts of the city have once again started to blossom. Berlin is to be the administrative focus of all German life once more, with the country's Parliament relocating to the rebuilt Reichstag by the year 2000. Money is being invested in buildings and infrastructure and, with this, the population is bound to increase. Whilst no German truly expects Berlin to continue as the avant-garde gay Garden of Eden that it has been in the past, there is a renewed air of excitement and daring found on the gay scene. This is a city set on maintaining its liberal traditions and the unified Berlin now has over 50 gay and lesbian bars, clubs and restaurants --all eager to suit every taste, no matter how bizarre.

The main hope for east Berlin is that it retains an architectural heritage mostly lost in the west of the city. After the Second World War, the west Germans brought in architects to rebuild their share of the city, whereas in east Berlin, the Communists slowly restored the bomb-damaged buildings or left them as they were. The result is that there remains and old-fashioned air about the east which seems to be reflected in the attitudes of the people too. East Berliners still value the art of casual conversation and their bars rely less on loud music and noisy architecture and more on one-to-one conversation, although you are still likely to hear Boy George crooning away in the background. In the west sector bars, cruising tends to be faster, and people seem shallower. 

Curiously, the reunified Berlin is now a city of not two but three distinct gay areas because the bars in the former west are themselves focused around two separate areas. Kreuzberg is the cheaper part, being alternative and almost hippy-like in decor and people. Here you will find the punks and the new bohemians of the gay scene, loitering in weird and wonderful places such as Cafe Anal (there are clear perspex partitions in the toilets, and flirtatious glances over chilled beers and frothy coffees are almost guaranteed). Bar Drama, a larger and very popular drinkers' bar, and Roses Club, a tiny bar to meet in and mellow the night away, both pull regular crowds which spill out onto the pavement on busy nights. 

It is in this area that you will also find an excellent mixed restaurant. The Last Supper serves a splendid mixture of vegetarian and fish dishes, divine to eat and each with delightful names like Madonna Duet (or how about Der Koch Auf Saude Maso Trip?). For me, the whole experience was made complete by the background music which included Marlene Dietrich singing Lili Marlene, followed by Liza Minelli belting out highlights from Cabaret. As with everything else with Berlin however, food does not come cheap, and a meal for two with a bottle of wine will set you back £50 or more. But, without doubt, the busiest gay district of Berlin is Motzstrasse. After taking the underground to Nollendorfplatz, you will find yourself in the Berlin equivalent of Soho, and here you are bound to stumble across somewhere to suit your personal taste. A useful starting point is the Berlin Lesbian and Gay Centre, which includes both a cafe, Man o Meter, and a dropping centre where they supply an excellent gay map covering the whole city. The information service also includes help to find budget accommodation.

This area is also home to Tom's Bar, a strictly men-only haven. A loing narrow bar with two rooms on the ground floor leads to a very popular room in the basement, which appeared to be lacking in ventilation as everyone who came out was blinking with blinking and perspiring somewhat. Next door to Tom's, Hafen is a very similar bar which attracts a younger crowd, but again one popular with the leather and tattoo brigade.

If you are interested in a more modern vision of gay Berlin then, just across the road, Lentz is possibly the busiest cafe bar in the city, oozing with Calvin Klein-clad bous of all shapes and sizes. The music here is up-beat and loud, the waiters are even louder and the crowd is youngest and the loudest of them all. The atmosphere is reminiscent of London's Village Soho or ManchesterManto --great fun, but bar prices that can sting at around £4 for a beer. 

In the Motzstrasse area, nobody hits the main gay bars much before 11pm because the clubs are open from midnight until 6am. But early evenings (and lunchtimes) can be spent in Cafe Bar Connection, a modern street cafe bar that makes excellent sandwiches too. The crowd is varied and, if you get there early enough, you can grab an outside table and get an eyeful of the kind of guys and gals you will be seeing later on in the clubs. 

Curiously, Berlin's main gay disco is called Club Connection, although there is no connection between the two. Surprisingly, the place is only open on Friday and Saturday, probably because the scene is very weekend-oriented. Five quid gets you in and buys your first drink. Music-wise, Techno is currently big in Berlin, but dancing is awkward  because the dance floors tend to be small and cramped. Only a quarter of Club Connection is given over to drinking and dancing, with the rest of the venue being more like a giant sex supermarket. There is a well-stocked shop selling all kinds of boy toys, two floors of cabins and video screens,  and the cellar provides a variety of naughty rooms with some lovely soft leather swings in one and a smelly bath in another.

In the daytime, the best place to find gay life is at the (in)famous Tiergarten, Berlin's answer to Hyde Park. A huge section of the park is known to all as Queen's Meadow if only because, in summer at least, you seem to find the entire resident gay and lesbian population of Berlin here --nude sunbathing, playing volleyball and riding around the many secluded pathways and ponds on bicycles. Should you visit Berlin in warm weather, relaxing with a picnic in the Tiergarten is a must, if only to soak up the atmosphere of the gay space. Cruising is blatant in the park and goes on all day and night. Whilst daylight is safe enough, caution is advised at night. Walking to the park past the Zoo, for example, you see reminders of the seedier side of Berlin night life in the form of of used needles carelessly discarded amongst the (more welcome) used condoms.

For another daytime pursuits, Berlin offers space and an element of calm that is lacking in most other cities. The city is comparable in size to London yet has a considerable smaller resident population, which means less traffic and less stress. The public transport system is extensive and has won many awards in Europe for its design and reliability (although I found it particularly difficult to master the underground due to the lack of sign-posting in the stations, often fining myself heading in the wrong direction). A trip on the underground (U-Bahn) or trams (S-Bahn) will cost around £1.75. If you are as hopeless as I was, then just throw yourself in the back of a taxi, wave a map in the driver's face and he will magically transport you to your destination. The only flaw in this approach is the cost. Taxi drivers in Berlin are honest to the point where they will even knock money off your fare if they have taken a wrong turn or got lost, but a taxi still costs £2.50 just to sit in, and from the Brandenburg Gate to the Stiller Don bar will cost a stonking £12.

Other methods of transport include rickshaw taxis and riverboat cruises but, if serious sightseeing is your thing, then try catching the Bus 100, which will take you through the Brandenburg Gate and past the Tiergarten. You can hop on and off this bus at will to get a closer look at places such as the Reichstag and Unter den Linden. The walk from Juni 17te Strasse (where there's an excellent flea market on Sunday mornings) and the Victory Monument (as seen on the U2 video) to the Brandenburg Gate and on down Unter den Linden, is well worth the shoe leather for the architecture alone.

If you go looking for The Wall, Check Point Charlie or the remains of Hitler's Bunker, then disappointment is almost guaranteed,  because [some of these landmarks] have been swept away by a country more keen to look forward than to dwell on its past. The Führer Bunker is actually buried under a children's playground (behind a record store at Wilhelmstrasse 92); the feeling is that to dig this up and open it to the public is more likely to create a place of pilgrimage for neo-fascists, than to simply remember an era of Berlin's history. There are plans to mark where the Berlin Wall once stood , but the city has other forward-looking priorities. One nod in the direction of history is the current rebuilding of the legendary Hotel Aldon to its original designs and on its original site, next to the Brandenburg Gate. 

I was in Berlin for just four days which proved to be fine for a first visit, allowing ample time to sample both the former east and west of this huge city. There must, however, be many intriguing gay haunts here that I never had time to discover and, if you really want to get a feel for where Berlin has been or where it may be going, you would be wise to stay for at least a full week. After all, Berlin may soon be the gay capital of mainland Europe once again. (Gay Times, December 1995)

Related articles:

Behind the shimmering 90s and Berlin’s great divide

Berlin, the 90s. An insight from the OSTKREUZ photographers

Living Alone Does Not Mean Living Lonely

By ERIC KLINENBERG

The New York Times, February 4, 2012

MORE people live alone now than at any other time in history. In prosperous American cities — Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis — 40 percent or more of all households contain a single occupant. In Manhattan and in Washington, nearly one in two households are occupied by a single person.

By international standards, these numbers are surprising — surprisingly low. In Paris, the city of lovers, more than half of all households contain single people, and in socialist Stockholm, the rate tops 60 percent.

The decision to live alone is common in diverse cultures whenever it is economically feasible. Although Americans pride themselves on their self-reliance and culture of individualism, Germany, France and Britain have a greater proportion of one-person households than the United States, as does Japan. Three of the nations with the fastest-growing populations of single people — China, India and Brazil — are also among those with the fastest growing economies.

The mere thought of living alone once sparked anxiety, dread and visions of loneliness. But those images are dated. Now the most privileged people on earth use their resources to separate from one another, to buy privacy and personal space.

Living alone comports with modern values. It promotes freedom, personal control and self-realization — all prized aspects of contemporary life.

It is less feared, too, for the crucial reason that living alone no longer suggests an isolated or less-social life. After interviewing more than 300 singletons (my term for people who live alone) during nearly a decade of research, I’ve concluded that living alone seems to encourage more, not less, social interaction... 

B2 Advertising Techniques

Different ways to advertise a product:

Avant garde: the suggestion that using this product puts the user ahead of the times, e.g. a toy manufacturer encourages kids to be the first on the block to have a new toy.

Bandwagon: the suggestion that everybody is using the product and that you should too in order to be part of the group, e.g. a credit card company quotes the number of millions of people who use their card.

Facts and figures: statistics and objective factual information is used to prove the superiority of the product, e.g. a car manufacturer quotes the amount of time it takes their car to get from 0 to 100 kph.

Hidden fears: the suggestion that this product will protect the user from some danger, e.g. a laundry detergent manufacturer suggests that you will be embarrassed when strangers see “ring around the collar” of your shirts or blouses.

Magic ingredients: the suggestion that some almost miraculous discovery makes the product exceptionally effective, e.g. a pharmaceutical manufacturer describes a special coating that makes their pain reliever less irritating to the stomach than a competitor’s.

Patriotism: the suggestion that by purchasing this product you show your love for your country, e.g. a company brags about its product being made in Canada and employing Canadian workers.

Plain folks: the suggestion that the product is a practical product of good value for ordinary people, e.g. a cereal manufacturer shows an ordinary family sitting down to breakfast and enjoying their product.

Snob appeal: suggesting that the use of this product makes the customer part of an elite group with a luxurious and glamorous life style, e.g. a coffee manufacturer shows people dressed in formal gowns and tuxedos drinking their brand at an art gallery.

Transfer: words and ideas with positive connotations are used to suggest that the positive qualities should be associated with the product and the user, e.g. a textile manufacturer wanting people to wear their product to stay cool during the summer shows people wearing fashions made from their cloth at a sunny seaside setting where there is a cool breeze.

Testimonial: a famous personality is used to endorse the product, e.g. a famous basketball player recommends a particular brand of trainers.

Wit and humour: customers are attracted to products that divert the audience by giving viewers a reason to laugh or to be entertained by clever use of visuals or language.

Viral marketing: trying to get the customers themselves to advertise the product by telling all their friends about it on the internet.

Follow-up Exercises:

1. Can you think of one example of some of these techniques in real life? Here are three examples: ING Direct uses the bandwagon technique to get new clients. The Alimentos de Andalucía campaign appeals to consumers’ patriotism. Ferrero Rocher is a textbook case of snob appeal.

2. Look at the following ads and describe them with some of these adjectives: amusing, attractive, awful, boring, brilliant, clever, colourful, consciousness-raising, controversial, cool, dull, imaginative, offensive, ridiculous, serious, sexist, shocking, silly, tasteless, thought-provoking, unusual, weird, etc. What do they advertise? What do these advertising campaigns try to make the public aware of?

Sense8_series

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• Sense8 tells the story of eight strangers played by an impressive cast of international actors and actresses: Will (Smith), Riley (Middleton), Capheus (Ameen), Sun (Bae), Lito (Silvestre), Kala (Desai), Wolfgang (Riemelt), and Nomi (Clayton). Each individual is from a different culture and part of the world. In the aftermath of a tragic death which they all experience through what they perceive as dreams or visions, they suddenly find themselves growing mentally and emotionally connected. While trying to figure how and why this connection happened and what it means, a mysterious man named Jonas tries to help the eight. Meanwhile, another stranger called Whispers attempts to hunt them down, using the same sensate power to gain full access to a sensate's mind (thoughts/sight) after looking into their eyes. Each episode reflects the views of the characters interacting with each other while delving deeper into their backgrounds and what sets them apart and brings them together with the others.

  
  

  This group of strangers are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world's order. They all experience a rebirth which inexplicably links them intellectually, emotionally and sensually. We are taken along their journey to discover exactly what they are going through, witnessing their interactions from face-to-face conversations from opposite sides of the world without the use of any devices, simply using each other's skills and abilities, learning about each other, all the while being pursued by a secretive group that wish to lobotomize them in order to prevent an evolutionary path they do not wish to become humanity's future. Written and directed by the Wachowski sisters, this is an un unmissable science-fiction drama series! A total visual treat. I recommend watching it with English subtitles on.
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A Letter Home

Aisling Brennan, a 12-year-old Irish primary school girl, is the winner of the Young Travel Writers Competition at this year's Lismore Immrama Festival of Travel Writing, sponsored by Aer Lingus. Here is her winning "Postcard to Home", a delightful read:

The Grindrization of Gay Identity

By KRISHEN SAMUEL

Published in the November-December 2016 issue of The Gay & Lesbian Review.

GRINDR, Manhunt, Gaydar, Scruff, Jack’d—for any gay man who’s been “out there” for any part of the last two decades, these websites or applications have become a familiar sight. For many men they occupy a substantial fraction of the day’s stream of experience, and for many others they form an integral part of their personal identity or sense of self.

But long before the arrival of the Internet, the social media, the hookup apps, there were GLBT people who lived, like everyone else, in what is now referred to as “real life.” I would argue that historically gay identity has always been characterized by a fundamental duality. The first identity is a response to the cultural prohibition or negation of homosexuality throughout history. This has been manifested as a lack of rights, a lack of visibility, a lack of social acceptance, a prohibition on the trappings of gay identity: sex acts prohibited, legal unions barred or blocked, blood donations refused, and so on, ad nauseam.

A second identity arose, partly in response to this repression, that stressed the value of overt visibility, of being not just quietly self-accepting but publicly out to one’s family and friends and anyone else who would listen. This is the ideal that would come to dominate cultural representations of GLBT identity for decades to come. In the late 1960s and ’70s, this concept manifested itself as protest marches, the Stonewall riots, the first pride parades, gender non-conformity in public venues, and various kiss-ins, love-ins, and so on.

Gay Liberation was all about bringing gayness into the light of day and dragging people out of the closet. But the closet never went away, and the result was a bifurcated system in which some people were “out” and others “in the closet”—wholly or in part, or perhaps in the process of “coming out.” This dynamic of “in” or “out” created a kind of existential dualism that still operates as a guiding principle of GLBT identity formation.

So, what precisely do the Internet and this age of cyber domination mean for these two polarized identities and the emerging middle-ground identity? If we were to think of an example of each type of identity outlined above, and a GLBT individual who epitomized each, we could come a little closer to imagining the cultural impact of the Internet.

Painting in broad strokes, an identity mired in a sense of prohibition could potentially be a description of a closeted gay man. The feeling of not wanting to inhabit or exhibit a gay sexual identity—and all the efforts of hiding that go with it—could be seen as a “negative space” identity. This identity would have certain hallmarks: refusal to accept a gay orientation openly, lying to close friends and family, internal struggles, deceptive practices to keep everyone in the dark, surreptitious encounters, and so forth. In the past, this may have emerged as seeking out sexual encounters in discreet and anonymous ways: outdoor cruising, for example, with its hidden and anonymous encounters. The defining feature of this negative space was the need to remain invisible: to indulge sexually but not identify as gay; to straddle two worlds without losing any crucial benefits in either of them.

In the modern era of technology, this negative space is clandestine both in the real world and now in the cyber world. The Internet allows even higher levels of anonymity than venues of the past. The classic strategy on Grindr, Scruff, et al. is to display a photo of one’s torso without a head and its all-revealing face. (A related strategy would be to display a fake face photo.) Such a user is also likely to offer very few clues that would give away his actual identity.

Considering the impact of the Internet on this negative identity, we need to keep in mind the nature of cyber reality, which is able to do two opposing things simultaneously. It offers the possibility of total anonymity on one extreme, or the potential for incredible visibility, even a kind of fame, on the other. Between these two extremes, the user’s relative anonymity or visibility can be fashioned as a (semi-)fictitious creation either way: it can act as a projection of a total falsehood or an altered version of the reality of an individual’s life. Prior to the great technological advances of the last few decades, there was no technological platform that could provide this chameleon-like ability to inhabit different identities at will. (Stage costumes were probably the closest equivalent.) You don’t like your profile picture? Use a more attractive one or Photoshop your features just a tad. Or, if you’d prefer, remain the ultimate mystery: a presence behind a screen with no visible characteristics—the alluring (and annoying) blank profile.

To move back to the “negative space” for GLBT identity, it is in the nature of the Internet to enable the closeted to operate in full stealth mode. The unprecedented success of a mobile geosocial networking application such as Grindr, created by Joel Simkhai in 2009, is testament to the fact that cyberspace has become the new haven for closeted gay men. The app was designed using geolocation technology to pinpoint other men using Grindr in one’s immediate vicinity, whose pictures and profiles appear in real time on your smartphone. This is the modern equivalent of cruising a park or restroom hoping to happen upon another like-minded individual seeking similar sexual release.

It’s interesting to note, but perhaps not surprising, that this app was pioneered by a gay man for use by gay men cruising. The straight equivalent came quite a bit later and was based upon the existing gay platforms. It’s also noteworthy that Grindr’s market was originally assumed to be closeted gay men, those who shied away from public venues like gay bars. But if it started as a “negative space” for a closeted gay identity, Grindr and its kind have gone on to become the defining feature of the gay community, the one thing that just about everyone has in common.

What this suggests is that there is also room for a “positive space” identity, which would be the individual who is out in real life and authentic in the cyber world. This individual publicly acknowledges a GLBT identity while also maintaining visibility in virtual spaces. This is usually represented by someone who publicly displays a clear face picture and is comfortable—possibly even militant—in doing so, often specifying in his profile that no one without a face pic need apply.

On that topic, a recent trend on dating and hookup apps is the ostracism of users who don’t include a face picture with their profile. And not just any face picture: it must be recent, well-lit, and free of sunglasses. (Many profiles use slogans like “If you’re faceless, I’m speechless” or “Be a man and show your face.”) Someone who doesn’t have a face pic on their profile (those infamous “torsos”) will probably be asked to provide one on first contact with another user. For this individual, the opposing forces of the two GLBT identities are at work. The need to hide and move in darkness behind a blank profile is countered by the demand for visibility, for revealing one’s authentic self. (And what is more inescapable than a photograph?) Ultimately, it’s a demand that the person “come out of the closet” in almost the old-fashioned sense.
THE SHEER RANGE of identity expressions that avail themselves to those who acknowledge their GLBT identity on some level and present themselves to the world is substantial and far-reaching. The first question is the Internet’s impact on the manifestations of these “positive space” identities. The paragon of positive identity would be the GLBT person who uses the Internet as a platform and a means of identity expression that is merely an extension of his real-life persona: the openly gay man who is out on-line and clearly displays his face for the world to see.

However, the world of virtual encounters is rarely that straightforward, and there are various means of identifying oneself that involve more layered identities. In the virtual world, participants have to swiftly alert other like-minded participants to their existence. Part of the lure of the Internet is its ability to reveal vital statistics quickly, with little left to the imagination, so as to screen out undesirable attributes and speed up the interaction. Thus a verbal shorthand has evolved to speed up the screening process. One example would be the widespread use of the phrase “straight acting/appearing” as a way to screen out those with camp sensibilities or effeminate mannerisms. While the use of these screeners can be traced back to gay personal ads in the 1970s, the cyber world makes ample use of them. Some apps have identified “tribes” that men can subcribe to—such as “Bear,” “Geek,” “Jock,” “Poz,” and so on—affiliations that become part of your identity whenever you inhabit this world. While this self-sorting method does have its efficiencies, it might also be seen as divisive, a source of exclusion and cliquishness.

With the “pure” positions of “positive space” and “negative space”—the guy who’s out in real life and presents his authentic self in cyber world, versus the guy who’s closeted IRL (in real life) and conceals his identity, or presents a false identity, on the app—it’s time to consider the mixed positions. To understand these different groups and their cyber avatars, we need to be able to imagine four distinct positions or ways of identifying. In addition to the two consistent positions, there are two others that present a dissonance between everyday reality and virtual reality.

The first is the gay guy who is closeted or semi-closeted in real life spaces yet is quite open in the cyber world. Whereas the “negative space” identifier refused to display an accurate face picture, this person does not mind being out in virtual space. There may be high levels of deception—such as not giving away too many personal or real life details, the use of a false name, only choosing to meet at specific venues or under certain conditions—but by all appearances this guy is a star, everything you could want in a casual hookup. For such a participant, the app is a fantasy playground that’s a world apart from everyday life, and it should remain so. This individual may be heard saying, “I may be gay but it doesn’t define who I am” or “My private life has nothing to do with my work life.” There may even be a certain level of self-deception that leads this individual to believe that the virtual world and real world are further apart than they actually are, which may result in vastly different behavior in the two compartmentalized domains.

The second position is that of the gay person who’s out and proud in real life, and may even be actively involved in GLBT social and political arenas, but who doesn’t necessarily want it to be widely known that he’s active on Grindr or Scruff. When it comes to the cyber world, a certain degree of surreptitiousness comes into play. This behavior is motivated by a desire to remain anonymous in the world of virtual encounters: a certain distancing of roles occurs that is typified by secrecy on-line (a reluctance to show a face picture), versus a high degree of visibility in the real world. For this person, there may be shame in reconciling the differing aspects of his personal identity—the prominent and successful person for whom cruising on the dating apps is a kind of “slumming.” Such a person might have a desire to go incognito when on-line and engage in less wholesome activities there.

The two “mixed” identities demonstrate that, beyond pure visibility or pure anonymity, the social network allows for various permutations on visibility and on personal identity itself. How a person chooses to identify himself in this world has much to do with what he wants from it, whether a simple hookup, the faster the better, or the opportunity to play the game of hooking up, or to be on display, or just to make friends, as many users claim. Are Grindr et al. ultimately a furtive world, the Ramble in cyberspace, or is it the ultimate Panopticon, where everyone has a perfect view of everyone else? People can try to separate the two worlds, but ultimately they leak into one another, as when you spot your neighbor on Grindr or your coworker on Scruff. And, of course, hookups do take place on occasion, perhaps quite frequently, which is the whole point, after all—and the point at which “real life” gets the upper hand, and the reliability of profile pics and specs is put to the test.

At the risk of schematization, the two realms of identity formation can be crossed with the two ways of being (out versus closeted) to produce a typology with the four positions that I’ve described:

The four ideal types that I’ve suggested are formed by the intersection of real life spaces and the cyber world. The Internet allows GLBT individuals to put their identities into motion in varied and volitional ways: it provides a range of choices for how you will be identified and what version of yourself you will choose to put forward in the virtual world. The significant interplay between the Internet and GLBT culture has occurred due to precisely the duality inherent in both: secrecy versus openness, anonymity versus identity. Given the whole history of the closet and the concealment of one’s true nature, the dualities of social media encapsulate those of the GLBT community in a special and particular way. The importance of social media to modern gay identity is evident every time you sign in to your favorite mobile dating application: for better or worse, this is where much of the cultivation of personal identity takes place in the digital age.

Krishen Samuel is a writer and speech pathologist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He can be reached at krish-s@hotmail.com.

Para mejorar el inglés, deberíamos dejar de doblar películas radicalmente, de un día para otro

By Nacho Meneses, El País, 21 de marzo de 2024

Llamar la atención sobre los aspectos negativos de un desafío tan persistente como el aprendizaje del inglés no implica dejar de reconocer los progresos conseguidos. Por eso no es contradictorio afirmar, con una mano, que el nivel de inglés en España lleva años atascado (según el EF English Proficiency English (EPI) de 2023, no ha habido cambios sustanciales desde al menos 2015) mientras, con la otra, se hace gala de un nivel competencial de idiomas cada vez mayor en los jóvenes que se gradúan de Secundaria y Bachillerato, así como del impacto de los programas de educación bilingües en las distintas comunidades autónomas.

Según la última edición del EPI, España ocupa el puesto 35 de 113 países y regiones repartidas por todo el mundo. Una posición que se corresponde con una competencia lingüística intermedia que, sin embargo, resulta engañosa, ya que la mayoría de naciones europeas se sitúan por delante de España: en Europa, nos quedamos en el puesto 25 entre 34 de un ranking que lideran Países Bajos, Singapur, Austria, Dinamarca y Noruega. De los primeros 10 países, ocho son del Viejo Continente, y Portugal, sin ir más lejos, lleva años cómodamente asentado en el Top Ten (octavo puesto en 2023). La pregunta, inevitable, es: ¿por qué tanta diferencia con nuestros vecinos ibéricos?

Los motivos son variados y están, en gran medida, relacionados con nuestras costumbres: desde un sistema educativo que tradicionalmente ha priorizado la gramática sobre la práctica oral y auditiva, a la prevalencia del doblaje en los medios audiovisuales. “Esto es mucho más importante de lo que se pueda pensar... La industria de doblaje española es la más fuerte del mundo, pero lo es porque hemos normalizado que las películas en España se vean en español traducido. Cambia mucho que un niño vea las películas en español respecto a no verlas. Y si en el cine lo ve en español, en casa también quiere hacerlo”, reflexiona Xavier Martí, director de EF Education First en España. La solución, apunta, pasa por echarle valentía y, por ejemplo, “no doblar más películas de un día para otro. Así, radicalmente, para que la gente se acostumbre a ver películas, series y dibujos animados en inglés”. En Portugal, las películas se muestran en versión original subtitulada.

Por otra parte, continúa, “con las condiciones actuales, creo que se podrían dedicar más partidas a enviar niños y jóvenes al extranjero, como en la época de Zapatero, cuando hubo 10.000 niños que así lo hicieron. Y no solo por el impacto que tiene en el promedio de la sociedad, sino porque se habla mucho del tema, y se genera un debate y una concienciación absolutamente básicos para las naciones”.

Objetivo, la competencia comunicativa

Para Martí, cuya organización cumple estos días 50 años de presencia en España, parte de las causas hay que buscarlas también en factores estructurales como el hecho de que ni el inglés (ni la educación en general) son en realidad una prioridad política: “No nos hemos tomado en serio modernizar la educación; no hay un plan claro de cómo enseñar inglés y, como no planeamos de forma estratégica, tampoco se quiere medir de forma sistémica cuáles son los resultados de las inversiones que se hacen en ese sentido”, afirma.

Otro de los obstáculos que dificultan la consecución de un mejor nivel de inglés tiene que ver con la falta de oportunidades para practicar el idioma en contextos reales, además de las exigencias de la cultura de la inmediatez en la sociedad actual. “Se plantean cosas cada vez a más corto plazo, lo cual significa que no encaja realizar un curso de 10 meses para aprender un idioma... Conseguirlo requiere tiempo y constancia y hay que planificar a largo plazo”, explica David Bradshaw, responsable de Evaluación de Cambridge University Press & Assessment, antes de añadir que “la tentación de aparentes atajos en este proceso lleva a que muchas personas no alcancen sus metas”.

Fomentar la exposición al inglés desde edades tempranas es otro de los factores que puede contribuir a una mejora competencial, integrando contenido en inglés en los medios de entretenimiento: “Cada vez son más los chicos que salen de la escuela con un nivel de inglés que les permite comunicarse fluidamente en este idioma, demostrando un nivel B2 e incluso un C1 antes de entrar en la universidad”, señala Bradshaw. Así también lo considera María Perillo, presidenta del consejo educativo en ABA English, para quien las políticas educativas “tendrían que enfocarse más en la práctica comunicativa, y debería haber más iniciativas públicas, como campañas de sensibilización sobre la importancia del inglés para el desarrollo personal y profesional, incluyendo subsidios para cursos y certificaciones”.

Aunque el nivel de inglés no incrementa por sí solo ni los salarios ni el comercio de un país, las fuerzas laborales más eficientes tienden a hablar un mejor inglés (según concluye el mencionado estudio de EF), sin olvidar el impacto positivo que la diversidad en el entorno laboral tiene sobre los resultados de las empresas. “Cada vez hay más necesidad de formar equipos internacionales en cualquier disciplina, para absorber el conocimiento de otros países y conocer otros puntos de vista”, esgrime Perillo.

En cualquier caso, tal y como recuerda Martí, “tu objetivo no es defenderte en inglés; tu objetivo es dominarlo” y, al hacerlo, comunicarte con fluidez. No necesariamente en todos los ámbitos, pero sí en aquellos que más se relacionen con tu actividad laboral o con tus pasiones y aficiones, ya que combinar estas con el aprendizaje del idioma hace que este sea más efectivo.

¿Qué se ha conseguido hasta ahora?

A la hora de juzgar un posible bajo nivel de inglés en España, es necesario tener en cuenta otras consideraciones. Si bien es cierto que el sistema educativo ha estado tradicionalmente centrado en el componente gramatical, también lo es “que ya se han producido numerosos avances hacia metodologías más comunicativas, y el uso de tecnologías en el aula permite romper la barrera del estudio formal, porque los estudiantes más jóvenes se sienten más a gusto trabajando y eso hace que su motivación aumente”, sostiene la responsable de ABA English. Además, el acceso al inglés es mucho más sencillo y generalizado que antes, gracias a la digitalización de la televisión, las distintas oportunidades formativas online y la llegada de las plataformas de streaming.

Por otro lado, y a pesar de las dudas que puedan persistir sobre este tipo de programas, lo cierto es que los programas de enseñanza bilingüe implementados en las distintas Comunidades Autónomas permiten una exposición al idioma mayor y, en muchos casos, más rica y profunda. De entre todos ellos, el de la Comunidad de Madrid (inaugurado en 2004) es el más decano, “y solo es ahora cuando los primeros de esos alumnos están incorporándose al mercado laboral, después de la universidad. Puede que, en los próximos años, se note un cambio en los niveles de inglés, con la llegada de cada vez más alumnos fruto de estas iniciativas en las diferentes regiones”, aventura Bradshaw. Unos programas que, no obstante, “son tan buenos como los profesores que lo imparten”, recuerda Martí, “lo que también ha llevado a zonas de educación bilingüe con un mal profesorado, y entonces no es suficiente. Por eso es tan importante que al profesorado se le apoye, se le forme y se le cuide”.

Las universidades, por su parte, también están tomando medidas para mejorar la internacionalización de sus estudios. Así, gracias al programa Erasmus y otras iniciativas, los estudiantes tienen mejores oportunidades de estudiar en el extranjero durante sus estudios de grado, en muchos casos empleando el inglés como lengua vehicular tanto en su vida cotidiana como académica.

¿Y qué ocurre con las empresas? “Creo que muchas de ellas ya toman un papel activo en la formación de sus empleados en inglés”, cuenta Bradshaw, si bien “donde podrían mejorar algunas es en la dirección dada a la formación: suelen ofrecer oportunidades para estudiar inglés, pero sin centrarse necesariamente en objetivos claros para cada empleado, basados en las necesidades de comunicación que tiene su papel en la organización”. Workplace English Tool es una herramienta desarrollada por la Universidad de Cambridge para identificar los niveles lingüísticos que necesitan los empleados en cada destreza para realizar su trabajo.

¿Cómo es una buena metodología de aprendizaje del inglés?

“Existe un orden natural de adquisición de las competencias de un idioma”, explica Perillo. “Primero hay que escuchar y comprender; luego hablar; y, a continuación, leer y escribir. Los niños aprenden escuchando e imitando, y también los adultos que van al extranjero a vivir una inmersión lingüística. Eso significa que el punto de partida para el aprendizaje es la escucha, y no la gramática o la lectura”. Muchas veces, añade, hacemos lo contrario, y eso nos lleva a tener unas competencias muy desequilibradas: podemos comprender textos escritos, por ejemplo, pero no hablar con fluidez.

En el mismo sentido se expresa el responsable de Cambridge University Press & Assessment en España: cualquier metodología debe centrarse en el uso del idioma para comunicarse en situaciones reales, “sin preocuparse, al menos en un principio, de la perfección con que se dice”. Si se tienen en consideración los niveles establecidos por el Marco Común Europeo de Referencia (MCER), en los niveles inferiores la comunicación siempre será imperfecta, y será el alumno quien deba ir limando dichas imperfecciones según vaya avanzando en el aprendizaje de la lengua.

Consejos para mejorar el inglés en el día a día

Vivir en un entorno de inmersión en el idioma que se quiere aprender es, sin duda, la opción que arroja mejores resultados de aprendizaje. Sin embargo, para una inmensa mayoría de alumnos, esta posibilidad se antoja imposible, ya sea por sus propias circunstancias personales, familiares o profesionales. Por eso Martí, Bradshaw y Perillo, los expertos consultados para este reportaje, recomiendan una serie de pasos que pueden darse para mejorar el inglés sin tener que renunciar a ninguna de nuestras obligaciones cotidianas: 

• Planifica tus objetivos de aprendizaje, y mide tu progreso cada cierto tiempo.
• Dedica al menos 20 minutos diarios a ver una película, leer algo, cantar, chatear con amigos extranjeros o escuchar un podcast o audiolibro en el idioma que quieres aprender.
• A lo largo del año, trata de salir al extranjero al menos una semana o dos, para exponerte a una inmersión total.
• Mantente constante: se aprende más dedicando poco tiempo de forma frecuente y regular que dándote atracones ocasionales espaciados por largos periodos de inactividad.
• Empieza un cuaderno de vocabulario lo bastante pequeño como para llevarlo contigo, y cuando tengas momentos libres repasa las palabras incluidas. No hace falta que las memorices, solo reléelas.
• Hay muchas apps que pueden ayudarte: desde Duolingo hasta otras como Write and Improve o Speak and Improve (esta aún en beta) de Cambridge.
• Busca un compañero de estudios para compartir progresos y motivaros mutuamente.
• Grábate de vez en cuando para autoevaluar tu progreso.
• No te obsesiones con la gramática.