This evening I was at my parents’ house, watching a little TV after Sunday dinner. I don’t really watch much TV anymore, at least not in the conventional broadcast sense, apart from Sunday afternoons at home. Gaelic football matches are the usual background noise to Sunday-afternoon dinner, but we had it a bit later today, so I found myself watching an interesting nature programme.
It’s both – that’s the boring but correct answer. It depends on the context, of course.
Meh…
Is there a better word to sum up the malaise of modern youth, jaded and overexposed to such a variety of media, and unable to express their apathy towards the world with anything more articulate than a simple three-letter utterance!?
To be honest, I think that’s a little unfair on this generation. While it might seem like an obviously modern word, meh might have a fairly long history. It seems that the word might be Yiddish in origin, as there are records of an exclamation mnyeh meaning either “be it as it may” or “so so,” going back at least to the late 19th century. Continue reading
9am:
Teacher: Good morning class!
Class: Good morning!
*teacher writes Hello, my name is Niall. on the board*
*teacher points to self, says Hello, my name is Niall*
Teacher: Now Saud, you!
Pedro: Hello, my name is Saud.
Teacher: Very good! Now Anna, you.
Anna: Hello, my name is Anna.
Teacher:Yes Anna, very good! Now Chen, you.
Chen: Hello, my name is Anna.
*everyone laughs*
Teacher: Ha ha, no Chen, your name is Chen!
Chen: Ah sorry! Hello, my name is Chen!
Teacher: Excellent!
9.02am:
*bell rings*
Teacher: Ok everyone, before you go, I want you to write Hello , my name is… 50 times on a suitably blank surface. Class dismissed!
I think the above is pretty representative of most of the depictions of English-language classes I’ve seen in films and TV programmes. I know everyone gets annoyed when their profession is depicted on screen and it’s quite inaccurate. We can’t expect film and TV writers to be experts in a job that might appear briefly in only one scene. But what annoys me about the way English classes are shown is that it’s indicative of a lot of people’s misconceptions of English-language classes.
Let’s look at what’s wrong with the lesson above.
English-Language Thoughts 