...about working in the English Language Teaching (ELT) industry is that you have an excuse to research and write about almost every subject under the sun (apart from those that fall under the PARSNIP exceptions, of which perhaps another post at another time).
Things I have had to think about this week:
-Spontaneous Human Combustion: it can kill your pets by consuming all the oxygen in the room.
-Ways to describe an electric toothbrush shaped like a banana.
-Knowledge management - will companies invest in it less during times of economic crisis?
-How to explain to Chinese students why English people use the term 'skin and blister' to refer to a female sibling.
-Will students be able to label a diagram of decubitus ulcers?
-The subjunctive.
I love my job.
NYT: Last Ones Left in a Toxic Town
35 minutes ago
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8 comments:
Hah! Rhyming slang is difficult enough to explain to non-British English speakers...
Do I even want to know what a decubitus ulcer is? It sounds like a hole in a Picasso painting. I suppose I could ask Google, but I'm scared.
I want an electric toothbrush shaped like a banana!
Women enthusing about banana-shaped electric toothbrushes is in clear violation PARSNIP codes. Shame on you both for exposing children to such filth.
If I were you, I'd go for the both accurate and concise "banana shaped". What more can you say?
Nobody uses rhyming slang any more. Except Guy Ritchie. And Dick van Dyke. But at least Dick van Dyke's a real Cockney.
You sort of have your choice of filth level, Johnny:
http://shop.thehungersite.com/store/item.do?itemId=35190&siteId=220
or
http://www.halovey.com/cp/Banana_Vibrator.htm
Everything is pornography. You've just got to hold it right.
King of Scurf - you've nailed my entire train of thought on that subject.
Valerie and Tim - I think Cockney rhyming slang is only really used by non-Cockneys (and perhaps Guy Ritchie). I always refer to flared trousers as 'Lionels' for example. But my favorite Cockney rhyming slang adaptation is 'Seppo', used by Aussies to describe Americans. I guess the sequence goes: American > Yank > Septic Tank > Seppo, parsed through three continents. I reckon that must be one of the most complex terms to have to explain to a non-native speaker.
Johnny: I have some good news for you.
Bureaista, you know me too well.
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