Saving the world’s dialects through technology
As I can’t seem to stop eliciting (really!) I’ll tell you what you will read on it and see if you can work out the dialect being saved and the technology doing it for yourselves:
“Reading your bladder of lard, please wait”
“First enter your Huckleberry Finn”
“Please enter amount of sausage and mash”
“Choose from Lady Godiva, Speckled Hen, Horn of Plenty or Pony”
“We are contacting your rattle and tank”
That’s right, it’s a cockney ATM!
Trying desperately to make a serious point in this silly season blog post, the only things vaguely connected that I can think of are:
- Notice how I used “ATM” instead of “cash point”? Part of the corruption by American English that British teachers in Asia just can’t avoid…
- I think one of the best self-study hints you can give students is to change all their electronic items (mobile phone, DVD, MP3 player etc) to work in English rather than their own language
- Lessons on Cockney rhyming slang must be one of the all time classic “seemed like a good idea at the time” classes. Don’t do it! Having said that, one or two slang phrases once in a while to liven up an otherwise boring language point can be worthwhile. A good way of introducing it is to introduce lots of slang for people to spot the unsuitability of when doing a lesson on polite language or Business English
August 25th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Too easy, me old china plate!