by | July 22nd, 2007
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- Immigrants who are nurses in their home countries take classes to improve their English in the US.
- The English divide in Korea, put into terms of how much fluent English improves job prospectives.
- An English language plan for immigrants in Ireland unveiled.
- The debate over English as the medium of instruction in the Philippines continues.
- Students from different countries and religions work together in a two-week NGO-arranged English language program in the UK.
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New English language training mobile game launched…no Cockney here!
{ 2 comments }
And the person who was writing that article was no Cockney either, if you ask me. Love a duck! simply means Good heavens! rather than being, as the writer seems to think, rhyming slang for the F word. And I’m not sure it is Cockney either – I’d put it further north – but don’t quote me on that. He’s at least got the region right with apples and pears. But it means stairs – hard to understand in the context. OK with trouble and strife (wife) though.As for Cor blimey – it’s more usually written Gawd blimey (= God blind me)
Which all just goes to show that it’s not only non-native speakers who don’t understand regional slang in English.
Sadly though, despite his snooty comments about “Cockney ridiculousness” and learners needing the “proper” English that this wonderful game (pull the other one, mate) will give them, it’s exactly in the situation he quotes – when they’re coping with an angry Londoner shouting at them – that comprehension of a bit of colloquial English might come in very useful. I wonder if the game includes “What the f*** do you think you’re playing at?” …
Yikes…I didn’t read that very closely before I linked to it. It is kind of condescending, isn’t it? And in fact they are probably counting on people like me who will just skim it over and think it’s funny, initially anyway.
I have to say, Cockney (slang?) is pretty interesting, at least what I’ve heard about the formation of these pairs (“apples and pears” = stairs, “trouble and strife” = wife) where the word it means rhymes with the second word of the pair.
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