The Council of Europe

by Muzek, Wallner and Toma

1. Original paragraph

The Council of Europe is the most important organisation beside the European Union in Europe. What makes this organisation so important is their aim to protect human rights, promote democracy and cultural diversity and fight social problems. Also, the Council supports issues like education, sports and youth mobility, apart from many others. The reason why they do all this is to guarantee the economic and social progress of their 47 member states. It was founded in 1949 by only ten European states. Because the membership is open to any “European” state which has the same beliefs, the amount of members is growing ever since. Not only European countries can join the Council but also non-European ones can do so as observers or partners. Observers are usually non-European democracies which want to support the Council of Europe when spreading democracy in developing countries. These countries have the status of partners and are supported in their democratisation process by them. To sum up, it is very important that we have a clear picture of everything the Council of Europe achieved and still is, in order to understand its importance in our everyday lives.

[191 words]

Our corrected version

The Council of Europe is the most important organisation beside the European Union in Europe. ( Besides/Apart from the European Union, the Council of Europe is the most important organization in Europe.) What makes this organisation so (omit, because rather informal register) important (repeated word; significant, essential) is their aim to protect human rights, promote democracy and cultural diversity and fight social problems. Also (Moreover would be better here, as it is more formal) , the Council supports issues like (encourages topics such as) education, sports and youth mobility, apart from many others (omit because of “such as....” it’s clear that there are other topics) The reason why they (it is the council who does all that and therefore “they” is incorrect) do all this is to guarantee the economic and social progress of their 47 member states. It was founded in 1949 by only ten European states (incoherent, should have come at the beginning of the paragraph). Because (usually you don’t begin a sentence with because; “Since” would be better here) the membership is open to any “European” state which has (shares) the same beliefs, the amount (number) of members is growing (has been increasing) ever since. Not only European countries can (can European countries) join the Council(,) but also non-European ones can do so as observers or partners. Observers are usually non-European democracies which want (rather informal register; tend to) to support the Council of Europe when (by) spreading democracy in developing countries. These countries have the status of partners and are supported in their democratisation process by them. To sum up, it is very important (crucial/essential) that we have a clear picture of (we are aware of) everything the Council of Europe achieved and still is, in order to understand its importance in our everyday lives.

2. Original paragraph

With a total of 47 member countries, including all of the present EU member states as well as several countries located beyond the EU borders, the Council of Europe bears great responsibility for the preservation of democracy in Europe. The Council was founded in 1949 by Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, essentially in order to establish democratic stability in all European states.  The Council further strives to promote awareness of Europe’s cultural identity and diversity as well as their development. The latest member to join was Montenegro in 2007, after it signed and ratified the 83 conventions of the Council of Europe. The general requirement for a country to join the Council of Europe is to be at least partially located in Europe and to share the same common values. These values range from the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms to pluralistic democracy, the rule of law as well as free and fair elections. Countries that are located beyond the EU borders are designated, provided they are willing to contribute to the democratic transitions in Europe, such as Japan and the USA for instance. Observer states are permitted to participate in the committee of ministers and in intergovernmental committees. Otherwise they may attain observer status with the Parliamentary Assembly, as do Canada and Israel, meaning that they are authorized to engage in Assembly sessions. In addition to its member and observer states, the Council of Europe partnered with the EU, the UN and a variety of international organizations, including the ALESCO (Arab League Educational, Cultural, Scientific Organization), the OSCE (Organization for Security and co-operation in Europe) and the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between cultures. In conclusion, the main function of the Council of Europe is to assure democracy in Europe and cooperation between all European states in terms of human rights.

[315 words]

Our corrected version

With a total of 47 member countries, including all of the present EU member states as well as several countries located beyond the EU borders, the Council of Europe bears great responsibility (good expression+ good TS) for the preservation of democracy in Europe. The Council was founded in 1949 by Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, essentially (omit, because in order to is enough here) in order to establish democratic stability in all European states.  The Council further strives to promote awareness of Europe’s cultural identity and diversity as well as their development. The latest member to join was Montenegro in 2007, after it signed and ratified the 83 conventions of the Council of Europe. The general requirement for a country to join the Council of Europe is to be at least partially located in Europe and to share the same common values. These values range from the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms to pluralistic democracy, the rule of law as well as free and fair elections. Countries that are located beyond the EU borders are designated, provided they are willing to contribute to the democratic transitions in Europe, such as Japan and the USA for instance. Observer states are permitted to participate in the committee of ministers and in intergovernmental committees. Otherwise (comma required) they may attain observer status with the Parliamentary Assembly, as do Canada and Israel, meaning that they are authorized to engage in Assembly sessions. In addition to its member and observer states, the Council of Europe partnered with the EU, the UN and a variety of international organizations, including the ALESCO (Arab League Educational, Cultural, Scientific Organization), the OSCE (Organization for Security and co-operation in Europe) and the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between cultures. In conclusion, the main function of the Council of Europe is to assure democracy in Europe and cooperation between all European states in terms of human rights. (good CS)

Final version (incorporate good qualities from the two paragraphs)

With a total of 47 member countries, including all of the present EU member states as well as several countries located beyond the EU borders, the Council of Europe bears great responsibility for the preservation of democracy in Europe. The Council was founded in 1949 by Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom in order to establish democratic stability in all European states. The Council strives to promote awareness of Europe’s cultural identity and diversity as well as economic development. The latest member to join was Montenegro in 2007, after having signed and ratified the 83 conventions of the Council of Europe. The general requirement for a country to join the Council of Europe is to be at least partially located in Europe and to share the same common values. These values range from respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms to pluralistic democracy as well as maintaining the rule of law and guaranteeing fair elections. Countries that are located beyond the EU borders, such as the USA and Japan, are designated to the democratic transitions in Europe, provided they are willing to contribute. These so-called observer states are permitted to participate in the committee of ministers and in intergovernmental committees. They may also attain observer status with the Parliamentary Assembly, meaning that they are authorized to engage in Assembly sessions. In conclusion, the main function of the Council of Europe is to assure democracy in Europe and cooperation between all European states.

[249 words]

My Vocabulary Log

In order to actually study not only new words (such as the lovely words from the Porter book :P), but also the ones I already know but only vaguely, I’ve been keeping a ‘Vocabulary Log’ for the last one and a half years. I decided back then that it would be much more useful to keep a folder rather than a notebook, simply because you can add any further information to the existing entries if you need to.

The rationale behind my organizing principle is basically really simple. Whenever I find a word or a phrase (from the course, lectures, books, etc.) I am not really familiar with, I choose to record it with the help of a style I think is the best for this entry. Personally, I do like the formal/informal tables a lot as they can be extremely useful for my writing tasks; the word/ semantic fields maps, because you can easily see all the words that belong to one topic/group; the entry on preposition usage; the pictures with the descriptions; and last but not least the idioms tables. To put it in a nutshell, all learning styles (and entries) used in my Vocabulary Log are of great use to me as they make it easier and, more importantly, less boring to study with. Depending on which aspects of the word I need or want to know, I just choose the most appropriate style to write down the item.

And because I started with this Vocabulary Log a while ago, it was not difficult at all to keep writing down words from the Porter book whenever I needed to…that is, in addition to the exercises in the book, of course. They’ve been very helpful, and especially the ones with the collocations and the synonyms. What’s more, even though I am not the biggest fan of studying vocabulary online, I have to admit that I love www.vocabulary.com! I think it’s a great site for language learners, mostly because of the clear and detailed (and sometimes hilarious) explanations, but also because of the pronunciation tool that display both accents.

So, that is practically all I’ve done, all I do to study vocabulary; and I guess I will keep it that way because it’s seems to be working out well enough for me. 

(BTW, sorry for the bad quality...it's Samsung, not iPhone, obviously! Haha)

Why Bosnia should join the EU

by Emina Ribo, Carola Ponjevic and Monika Toma

Original text:

When driving through the scattered regions in the Republic of Bosnia, a country on the Balkan peninsula of South Eastern Europe, you might observe that the Yugoslavian war had clearly left its marks. 12 years after the Dayton Agreement, which ended the tragic Yugoslavian war, Bosnia has been starting to reconstruct and repair the remaining war damages. Since Bosnia is located in the heart of Europe, the question arises: Why is the country not yet a member state of the EU? The prospect of EU membership exists, however, the country needs to improve its standards of living and politics as well as other areas. The accession of Bosnia to the EU would definitely grant the country a great deal of benefits and vice versa. The EU could derive a benefit from Bosnia in terms of agriculture and cultural diversity. If the Republic of Bosnia became a member state of the Union, both sides could extract advantages from each other.

As for Bosnia, an accession to the EU could help prevent corruption, since it is, in fact, a big issue there. The level of unemployment is rising and the citizen’s living conditions are getting worse while the officials and politics are getting richer. The Justice is mostly corrupt and even the schools and hospitals are trying to benefit from the corrupt system. The unfairness the Bosnians are confronted with every day has led to a tension between the citizens and the government. Not only the government causes discontent though but also the strained relationship between the three ethnics living in Bosnia, namely the Bosnians themselves, the Croatians and the Serbs. The relationship between them is strained due to the fact that they obviously still suffer the consequences of the war 20 years ago. Time has shown that the Bosnian government cannot solve these kind of issues on its own. An EU accession would therefore help to improve the social, political and economical situation in Bosnia. The EU could interfere in politics and economics and try to mediate between the ethnical groups in order to bring peace within the country.

Our classmates' feedback:

When driving through the scattered regions in the Republic of Bosnia, you might observe that the Yugoslavian war had clearly left its marks.

I can't tell the the text is going to be about the advantages that Bosnia would have with the accession to the EU. If this is your focus, consider mentioning it in the topic sentence

12

If you want to start a sentence with a number, you have to write it out..

Submitted version:

When driving through the scattered regions of the Republic of Bosnia, a country located on the Balkan peninsula of South Eastern Europe, you might observe that the Yugoslavian war had clearly left its marks. Twelve years after the Dayton Agreement, which ended the tragic war of former Yugoslavia, Bosnia started to reconstruct and repair the remaining war damages to become stable again. Since Bosnia is, in fact, located in the heart of Europe, this raises an inescapable question: Why is the country not yet a member state of the EU? Although the prospect of EU membership exists, as negotiations started in 2005, the country will have to first improve its standards of living and politics as well as other areas. Once the Republic is somewhat stable enough to become a member state of the Union, there is no doubt that not only could Bosnia benefit from the accession, but that the EU would also derive great benefits from the Republic, for instance, in terms of agriculture and cultural diversity.

Since corruption is a major issue in Bosnia, an accession to the EU would undoubtedly prevent its negative impact on the citizens and consequently help to foster Bosnia’s stability and economic reform. The level of unemployment continues to rise and the citizen’s living conditions are becoming worse each day, while officials and politicians are living in prosperity. The justice system is mostly corrupt as well and even schools and hospitals attempt to benefit from the corrupt system. As a result of this unfairness that Bosnians are currently being confronted with, a certain tension has developed not only between the citizens and the government, but also between the three ethnics living in Bosnia, namely the Bosnians themselves, the Croatians and the Serbs. The relationship between them is strained due to the fact that they apparently still suffer from the consequences of the war which came about as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia 20 years ago. Time has clearly shown that the Bosnian government is not capable of solving these numerous issues on its own; and this is where the EU’s support could come into play. The Union could assist in improving the social as well as the political and economic situation in Bosnia by implementing effective EU regulations and policies in order to establish a well-functioning legal and governmental system. As far as the relationship between the inhabitants is concerned, the EU could also try to mediate between the ethnical groups by providing specific programs to promote a unity in order to restore peace within the country. It goes without saying that Bosnian citizens will be able to benefit from a wide range of EU programs and will be free to reside, work and study freely within the EU. Essentially, the membership is the only way to build up a social cohesion within the country and eventually make Bosnia an essential member in international businesses.

There are almost as many benefits for the EU to reap from this diverse country, as the numerous advantages Bosnia could receive from joining the EU. Since the EU respects and encourages cultural differences and views this as an essential sector of social and human development, it can certainly make enormous use of the Bosnian treasure house. The Union could take advantage of the country’s cultural diversity which is marked by regional differences where different ethnic groups live, each with traditions of their own.  Moreover, the vibrant country with its friendly inhabitants and lively atmosphere is characterized by a sublime, mountainous landscape and old historical buildings and monuments, all of which could contribute to promoting sustainable tourism. In other words, Bosnia could be one of the EU’s principal magnets of tourism. Apart from that, agriculture is a valuable source to invest in as well. Bosnia is famous for having extremely fertile soil, corn fields and plum trees which are usually used in the preparation of quality wine. These resources could be of great advantage to the EU as it would contribute to the Union’s profit.

Although Bosnia’s prospect of membership seems to lie in the distant future as the country is still in need of further development, the EU could definitely profit from Bosnia’s agriculture, cultural diversity, and much more. Just as the EU could gain a great deal from Bosnia’s accession, there is no doubt that Bosnia would improve in nearly every aspect and shine in new splendor.

[734 words]

Corrected version:

When driving through the scattered regions of the Republic of Bosnia, a country located on the Balkan peninsula of South Eastern Europe, you can observe that the Yugoslavian war clearly left its marks. Twelve years after the Dayton Agreement, which ended the tragic war of former Yugoslavia, Bosnia started to reconstruct damaged buildings and monuments in order to stabilize the country’s economic situation. Since Bosnia has, in fact, improved in many aspects, this raises an inescapable question: Why is the country not yet a member state of the EU? Although the prospect of EU membership exists, as negotiations started in 2005, the country will have to first improve its standards of living and politics as well as other areas. Once the republic meets most of EU’s requirements to become a Member State of the Union, there is no doubt that not only could Bosnia benefit from the accession, but that the EU would also derive great benefits from the country, for instance, in terms of agriculture and cultural diversity.

Since corruption is a major issue in Bosnia, accession to the EU would not only foster Bosnia’s stability and economic reform, but also make it easier for Bosnia’s citizens to lead a fair life. In addition, the level of unemployment continues to rise and the citizens’ living conditions are becoming worse each day, while officials and politicians are living in prosperity. The justice system is mostly corrupt as well and even schools and hospitals attempt to benefit from the corrupt system. As a result of the unfairness that Bosnia’s citizens are currently facing, a certain tension has developed not only between the citizens and the government, but also between the three ethnic groups themselves living in Bosnia, namely the Bosnians, the Croatians and the Serbs. The relationship between them is strained due to the fact that they are obviously still suffering from the consequences of the war which was caused as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia 20 years ago. Time has clearly shown that the Bosnian government is not capable of solving these numerous issues on its own; and this is where the EU’s support could come into play. The Union could assist in improving the social as well as the political and economic situation in Bosnia by implementing effective EU regulations and policies in order to establish a well-functioning legal and governmental system. As far as the relationship between the inhabitants is concerned, the EU could also try to mediate between the ethnic groups by providing specific programs to promote a unity in order to restore peace within the country. It goes without saying that Bosnian citizens would be able to benefit from a wide range of EU programs and would be free to reside, work and study freely within the EU. Basically, EU membership is the only way to build social cohesion within the country and eventually make Bosnia an essential contributor in international affairs.

There are almost as many benefits for the EU to reap from this diverse country as the numerous advantages Bosnia could derive from joining the EU. Since the EU respects and encourages cultural differences, and perceives this as an essential sector of social and human development, it can certainly make full use of the Bosnian culture. The Union could take advantage of the country’s cultural diversity, which is marked by regional differences where different ethnic groups live, each with traditions of their own. Moreover, the vibrant countryside, with its inhabitants and lively atmosphere, is characterized by a mountainous landscape and old historical buildings and monuments, all of which could contribute to promoting sustainable tourism. In other words, Bosnia could be one of the EU’s principal magnets of tourism. Apart from these advantages, agriculture is a valuable resource to invest in as well, because of Bosnia’s extremely fertile soil and corn fields. These resources could be of great advantage to the EU as it would contribute to the Union’s success.

Although the prospect of Bosnia’s membership seems to lie in the distant future as the country is still in need of further development, the EU could definitely profit from Bosnia’s agriculture, cultural diversity, and much more. Just as the EU could gain a great deal from Bosnia’s accession, there is no doubt that Bosnia would improve in nearly every area and begin to flourish.

[721 words]

Pecha Kucha Experience

I’ve never before heard of a presentation called “Pecha Kucha” until this semester, and I have to say, I enjoyed it a lot! I am usually extremely nervous when it comes to giving a presentation, especially when there is a native speaker in the audience. Because of this nervousness, I tend to speak really fast so that I swallow most of the words, or Iose track of what I prepared to say like when I had to give a presentation during the hot and stressful culture days last semester. However, this wasn’t the case this time (thank God!) and I felt really confident while delivering this special type of presentation. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I had more time to prepare it properly, or that I simply got to do it with my good friend Emina, which made this experience lots of fun for both of us. I was even more surprised to find out that our classmates thought the same thing! Apart from having noticed that we stupidly confused an Irish map with a Scottish one (again, really sorry about that!), most of them thought we were very fluent, self-confident and that our PowerPoint was very good and interesting as well. What can I say other than this feedback was really the icing on the cake.

From “Making of” to “the Product”

Well, after Emina and I decided to make the Irish language our topic, we met up twice (which wasn’t that much of extra work since we practically see each other every day), made an outline to see where this presentation was going, collected all the information we could find and started writing the transcript together. While doing that, we tried to make it as interesting and creative as possible, since this was the purpose of the whole Pecha Kucha thing, so we asked Fiona to record something in Irish for us, which she kindly agreed to do. After that, we agreed on dividing up the transcript in 40 sec. sessions so that it doesn’t get too boring. The PowerPoint was also done in no time, and we were left with nothing but practicing so that we don’t go over the 20 seconds per slide. This “rehearsing evening” was definitely the fun part!

After delivering the presentation, I got to just lie back and enjoy some of the other interesting Pecha Kucha’s. All in all, I was very much satisfied with our successful presentation and wouldn’t have changed anything if I could (well, expect for the Scottic map, of course ;)).

Pronunciation Diary #2

A Work in Progress

As mentioned in Part 1 of my Pronunciation Diary, I’ve been going through some blogs to look for some advice on how to really work on my pronunciation, since this is a huge area that requires a lot of time and practice. And so what better way to improve your pronunciation than by trying to actually find out where you’re doing it all wrong! I couldn’t agree more. Unless you have some idea about what exact mistakes you are making, you will not be able to work on these specific problems and keep on repeating them! Of course, you can spot them by doing some imitation exercises on YouTube, or by receiving feedback from your teachers on one of your latest presentations. However, I personally think that the best way of finding out what mistakes you tend to make is by recording yourself and giving it to a native speaker so that he/she can tell you exactly which sounds you need to work on.  

And this is exactly what I liked about the Pronunciation Diagnostic Exercise we had to do separately before Christmas break, even though I was skeptical at first. I have to admit it felt really weird recording myself and even weirder hearing it afterwards (do I really sound like that? Haha), but after getting over it and concentrating on my pronunciation, I actually heard the sounds I need to deal with and the words I need to practice more often. The feedback given was, of course, a great help for me to see that I, for instance, pronounced the words “library” and “Mediterranean” wrong.

After finding out my mistakes, I looked them up and started “youtubing” to work more on specific sounds like the “g” sound in “vegetables”. Also, as it turned out, I pronounced the word “aluminum” with a rather British accent, and I realized that I've indeed been pronouncing some words more British, probably because I've had been listening to more British teachers lately. As I cannot mix these two accents together (obviously), I looked for some videos to help me with this and stumbled upon another useful one from Rachel Smith, where she teams up with a British native speaker to explain some of the pronunciation differences between these two completely different accents. I personally think that this should be an important part of everyone’s pronunciation practice as you need to recognize these differences to avoid mixing them up and confuse people in the future. Here’s the link to the video:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIZ78RwhSPc

And here are two more channels/links I started using and will definitely keep checking out, in addition to Rachel Smith’s. I would really recommend you giving them a try:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc2Y7xxkp5s&feature=youtu.be : Amy Walker’s “How to do an American accent”. She is simply adorable! She has a soft and pleasant voice and I like her detailed explanations and comments as she pronounces the words.
2. http://www.engvid.com/topic/pronunciation/ : “engVid’s free pronunciation lessons”. A very nice website with several native speakers going through the different sounds (v vs. w,…) and giving tips on how to understand certain expressions by breaking them down into words etc. Really helpful + witty!

After going through almost all links on the Pronunciation Practice Page, I can tell that these three are most definitely my favorite ones. Of course, this is just the beginning of this practice, and just because there are only two parts of this Pronunciation Diary, that doesn’t mean that I won’t keep working on my pronunciation afterwards. I am well aware of the fact that my accent is nowhere near as perfect; however, I wish to have a good accent by the time I finish my studies, and as I have come to realize, this can only be achieved by continuous practice and work...which I am willing to put into.

I am really looking forward to working further on my pronunciation during the semester break (that is, after surviving exam weeks) and I hope I haven’t bored you to death with this diary :)  

Pronunciation Diary #1

Well, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t really been giving my English pronunciation much thought or effort, probably because I always thought it would come in “naturally” with time, and especially after spending an extended period of time in an English-speaking country. Or maybe it doesn’t seem to be that big of an issue now, because we are always very busy with the never-ending writing tasks we have to focus on, which seem to be more important than ever. However, since good pronunciation is not only a big part of my English course this semester but also essential for people to understand me (and not make fun of me), I have decided to start working actively on my English during Christmas break, using some links from the Pronunciation Practice Page but also by reading some blogs on HOW to improve it.

Definitely American, however…

But first I would like to mention that even though I chose to sound more like an American, which I am trying to do by imitating native speakers I see on television or the Internet, I absolutely loooove British accents!! There is something about these accents that makes you melt and wanting just to be able to talk like these people. Of course, not all of them have this beautifully British accent…but check this guy out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqyi-165QR4 ; couldn’t you just listen to him all day long *sigh*? Anyways, what I am trying to say is that I would have very much loved to acquire such an accent, but I feel that it is not such a good idea to imitate British accents if you’re not a native speaker, as it will come out rather forced and “fake”.

What I have been doing so far

So, as already mentioned, pretty much all I have been doing for my pronunciation is simply imitating the way some of my favorite Americans (mostly actors/actresses and people on YouTube) speak. Also, when I come across a rather difficult word, I immediately look it up to see how it is pronounced correctly so that I don’t end up getting used to pronouncing it wrong for a longer time and not being able to “recover” from it. I have been using sites like howjsay.com, macmillandictionary.com, or sometimes just typing in the word into YouTube to actually SEE how natives pronounce it. Apart from that, I guess I can say I am quite lucky to have an American friend who lives in Vienna and who hates speaking German so that we usually end up talking a lot in English, which he enjoys, of course, as he gets to correct me.

Let’s get this started!

However, something I have definitely been lacking is practice, practice, practice! There is surely no way around it, so I might as well start now:

1. I started with practicing the voiced and unvoiced TH sounds (three/thin/teeth vs. this/these/worthy) by going to Rachel Smith’s channel and also the BBC website. This woman really knows what she is doing! Even though I were familiar with these sounds, it was fun practicing them out loud and being aware of the position of the mouth. For me, these sounds are certainly no piece of cake as you sometimes tend to pronounce them incorrectly when being nervous or talking too fast. Also, when the word is unstressed like in “What’s in THE car?” you pronounce it only with your teeth closed…I have never really paid attention to that fact; very interesting, though!
2. http://www.manythings.org/b/e/5078/ : This video on how the word “often” is pronounced was really interesting since I’ve always wondered whether to say it with “t” or not, and as it turned out: both ways are acceptable!! Unlike words like “soften” and “listen”, you can pronounce “often” with a t, but I have to say I will try to stick with the version without the “t” as it sound much more “American” to me.
3. http://www.rachelsenglish.com/videos/sound-native-speaker : I really enjoyed this video with the Ben Franklin and especially the imitation exercise. When you break it down like this, you start to get a good handle on how the words are pronounced in connection to other words. I repeated it quite often (pronounced without the “t”) until my sister told me it’s getting ridiculous…

So, that’s it for today! I have to say it’s really interesting and fun once you get started and try to find things interesting (cf. Henry:)). 

Before/after

Summary of ‘Europe already has on foot in ‘Japanese’ deflation grave’

Before:

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 discusses deflation and its disastrous effects on debt-ridden European countries.

Evans-Pritchard states that deflation currently appears to be insignificant in “low-debt” countries, such as Spain and Italy. However, as the debt ratio proceeds to rise over 300pc of GDB and inflation recently dropped to 0.9pc within the eurozone, causing a gradual fall in prices, these countries will soon be fully affected by deflation and, consequently, face a debt crisis.   

According to the article, this deflationary tendency pushes countries into a “runaway debt trajectory” that is impossible to acquit. These countries are faced with two options to prevent this predicament: Either implementing an austerity policy or increasing the inflation rate to ensure economic growth. Both solutions, however, seem to be doomed to fail as politicians do not make efforts to cut spending, and Germany refuses to cooperate to drift up inflation, simply because the country benefits from declining inflation.

The author believes that the best solution is for Italy, Spain, France and Club Med to join forces and persuade Germany to keep inflation high enough to avert deflation, as it will inevitably result in a “Japanese deflation grave” for all European countries. 

200 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE

After:

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 discusses deflation and its disastrous effects on debt-ridden European countries.

Evans-Pritchard states that deflation currently appears to be insignificant in “low-debt” countries, such as Spain and Italy. However, as the debt ratio proceeds to rise over 300pc of GDP and inflation recently dropped to 0.9pc within the eurozone, causing a gradual fall in prices, these countries will soon be fully affected by deflation and, consequently, face a debt crisis.   

According to the article, this deflationary tendency pushes countries into a “runaway debt trajectory” that is impossible to escape. These countries are faced with two options to prevent this predicament: Either implementing an austerity policy or increasing the inflation rate to ensure economic growth. Both solutions, however, seem to be doomed to fail as politicians do not make efforts to cut spending, and Germany refuses to cooperate to drift up inflation, simply because the country benefits from declining inflation.

The author believes that the best solution is for Club Med to join forces and persuade Germany to keep inflation high enough to avert deflation, as it will inevitably result in a “Japanese deflation grave” for all European countries. 

196 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE