The Oxford Dictionaries has announced the English word of the year for 2013. It is ‘selfie’.

So, what is a ‘selfie’?  Well this “new” word is a shortened form of the word ‘self-portrait.’  Selfie is a word specific to our time in history when social media, cameras, phones (and camera phones), and sharing everything with the world is so popular and accessible.  A selfie is a picture of one’s self, taken by holding a phone at arm’s length away. Now, that you know what a selfie is, I bet you are thinking I have taken a lot of selfies over the years.  People these days take selfies all the time, then upload them onto Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, or other social media sights, to share them with their friends, family, and the world.

If this word is “new,” where did it come from?  The word selfie was first used on an Australian online forum in 2002. Now, a decade later, the word is used all the time in conversation and is being officially recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary as a new member to the English language.

Here are two articles for you to learn more about this new English word. The first is an article to read, the second is an article to listen to.  So today you can practice both your reading comprehension and listening skills, while also learning more about this new word: selfie.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/11/oxfords-word-of-the-year-is-selfie.html
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/19/246110532/word-of-the-year-selfie

I’ve also included a selfie of myself, so you can see who has been blogging to you all this time!

Sorry you can’t upload your own selfie to this blog too, but you can tell us if you know what the word of the year is in you language. Just translate it into English for us and tell us all what it means as a comment below.