After quite a while we throw another glimpse at the work of Prof Stephen Reicher, researcher of group behaviour at the University of St. Andrews. Roger continues to explain the key aspects illustrating them with Donald Trump's methods and success as a leader. And we are going to learn the secret of being a leader which boils down to a pretty simple recipe afterall: group identity! Other One important concept mentioned only in passing is that of "othering" as explained in the introductory...

Roger is back in the studio to tackle the topic of Donald Trump's use of twitter together with RoPeCast technician Chris. Roger presents some interesting studies and analyses that show how Trump's usage of the social internet platform has evolved over time. Join them now and listen in! Two linguists use their skills to inspect 21,739 Trump tweets Use this link if you want to read up on the studies which Roger referenced.

These days it seems everybody is talking about the impeachment process and party politics in the US. We are taking a big step back to look differently at the picture and approach two American presidents from an entirely different angle. Roger has read articles and done some of his own research on their linguistic peculiarities: How do they speak and act and what words do they use? Chris, who's today's guest in the studio, is quite surprised about the linguistic evidence, and maybe so are...

Ginny is back in the studio, but this time with Peter. He's presenting his personal take on the differences between German or European and US culture to her. Their views on things turn out to be rather contrary, particularly when it comes to boundaries and the attitude towards enclosed spaces in the two cultures. Listen in now to learn from a lively illustrated example how the same aspect of a culture can appear totally different and only depend on your personal perspective and stance...

Why not join Roger and his colleague Ginny on a journey to the centre of the universe? Ginny shares her impressions of what it's like when you first come to China as a westerner, when English eventually fails as lingua franca and so does standard Chinese, i.e. Mandarin. But not to despair, people who live in the centre of the universe will know what you need. It's food and always food in China. That much at least they do have in common with the Saarlanders producing this podcast! ;-)

Some time back we dealt with English as a lingua franca. Today we are revisiting that topic with a narrower focus: Chinese students are travelling the world and attending western universities, in America, Britain and also Germany. Today's guest is Roger's friend and former colleague Ginny, who lived and worked in China for a while. She provides insights on where exactly the cultural similarities and differences lie, and how you can make Chinese people and particularly Chinese students feel...

Roger's explanation of the finer points of the current Brexit situation continues. Today Peter will get an answer to his question from last episode: He'll finally get to know what the so-called "backstop" is actually about and why so many Brits consider it problematic. Now the RoPeCast team is holding their breath for tomorrow's parliamentary decision.

Political language can sometimes be rather cryptic. Currently, that is definitely the case with all the issues surrounding the "Brexit". We will solve the problem ... Well, that is, we'll clear up the language-related parts. We leave politics and the British economy for someone else to deal with and hope for the best.

After two busy but not overly productive months, the RoPeCast tech departments sends out apologies for a delay in production and some issues with the MP3 podlog. Roger and Peter wish you a pleasant and relaxing festive season.

Carry is back in the studio with some more insights on phonetics. Today she and Roger focus on pronunciation problems typical for learners from a certain area and what teachers can do about those. Be aware, while the episode takes reference to Germany and the Saarland foremost, many of the problems mentioned are relevant for speakers of other native languages, too. Our Russian listeners for example might also be affected by what is referenced with the German term "Auslautverhärtung", that is...

Carrie and Roger continue their discussion about the quirks and pitfalls for non-native speakers when dealing with English. Today they dive deeper and come to the conclusion that phonetics and accent are not the biggest problems to overcome for a student of English ...

You may have recognised the title as a modified version of the saying "Think before you speak!" We have changed it into a good piece of advice for English learners, based on what today's guest tells Roger about her research on phonetics for foreign learners of English. Pronunciator Oh, and if you wonder after listening... Yes the word really exists and wasn't invented for this podcast. ;-) IPA-Chart And this is the promised link to an interactive chart of the International Phonetic...

Heike is back with Roger for a more detailed look into gender studies. They are discussing what this particular field of social sciences is about, who does and who maybe should study it, and what aspects there are in terms of research topics and interdisciplinary facets. The UdS Gender Studies Certificate If you want to read up on Saarland University\'s gender study course, follow this link for more information.

This time Roger invited Heike, an expert for gender studies. She is going to explain to us, how the term gender evolved from a mere grammatical phenomenon to what may very well be the most discussed topic of social and linguistic sciences in the last decades. We\'ll hear about many facets: From the influential heads that started the discussion up to the current situation and influences on our everyday life.

Peter is back in jazzy 2018 for another episode with Saul Rubin, his guitar teacher from New York. Today Peter asks about the jargon of Jazz music and how that differs from other styles\' vocabulary. Talking about music is not an easy task afterall. Finally, Saul can solve the mystery of the Real Book\'s name for Peter. Just listen in to learn how that name came about and why you could be faking a song if you play it from the Real Book. Please note: We recommend watching this episode as...

You probably remember our Christmas specials about holiday traditions and music from the past years. This December we thought we\'d make music our topic again (this time as a regular episode) with a focus on some music vocabulary. Peter\'s guest today is Saul Rubin, a renowned Jazz guitar player from New York. Saul tells Peter about the special feature of his guitar. Please note: We recommend watching this episode as vidcast. See the YouTube link on the right.

Roger and Neil continue their discussion of the \"Teaching Excellence Framework\" that has been established in England and Wales to judge the quality of teaching in higher education. Neil illustrates how increasing competition between education institutions can turn out rather problematic, and Roger adds how he thinks it unlikely that something similar could be established in Germany.

Roger is talking to his brother Neil, who\'s back for another episode. This time they look into ways of measuring the quality of university teaching, the approach taken in the UK and potential problems affecting the \"measuring process\". Can the results of such an inquiry really be unbiased? The TEF project Read up here on the TEF, the \"Teaching Excellence Framework\" currently being established in the UK

After last episode\'s discussion about cultural values in fixed expressions, our two hosts return to a topic they\'ve already delved into a long while ago: Proverbs. Peter mentions a new cool proverb that he\'s come across but Roger reminds him, that proverbs in general are really not that frequent in language. But Peter doesn\'t give up on his favourite easily ... Episode 19 The first episode dealing with proverbs that Roger references

Did you ever wonder where the Rolling Stones got their name from? Peter did and asked Roger about it. Roger suspects it\'s derived from an English language expression, which he explains to Peter. That explanation leads to a discussion about how much of a culture\'s value system is reflected in its language, expressions and proverbs.

Last time we dealt with culturally specific concepts that do not easily translate, because they are missing their counterparts in other languages. This time our two hosts find a bunch of peculiar things in the American school system, that don\'t exist in Germany and - to some extent - are also foreign to Brits.

When Peter arrives late for the recording of this episode he has a very good excuse: He was looking for a word. A word that doesn\'t exist. You wonder how that\'s possible and why Peter still made it for the recording? Well, Roger saves him some of the trouble. Listen in now...

We are back with David Erent and English as a lingua franca. David and Peter are going to look at how the use of English outside of its native territories affects other languages and speaker communities such as the French, the Finns, and the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland.

French? - Finnish? - Swedish? - Arabic? - Hungarian? - Croatian? - I thought we were here to learn English? We are indeed! And today\'s guest, David Erent from Helsinki, is going to explain to Peter and to you how English comes into play to resolve the truly Babylonian confusion in his life.