Hello and welcome to another edition of confessions of an English teacher I'm
your host Gideon from LetThemTalkTV and as English teachers a lot of what we do
is pretty ordinary same grammar, same vocabulary, same idioms day in day out and of course we like
sometimes to spice things up to make things seem more exciting than they really are. Maybe
we tease the students about their English, just in a harmless way, just for fun
but here's the thing: something happened to make me realize that it's not always harmless. Have a
look at this comment I got from thebaseonthebase in Italy and he put this on the video I made
called [why you shouldn’t] speak English like a native, check out the video up here if you haven't
seen it yet. It's a long comment, very interesting and I'll read just a part of it to you.
He talks about the nightmare of minimal pairs. Now minimal pairs are two words that sound very
close but there is a small phonetic difference. He says “there are many many words that are
quite difficult to pronounce that schwa nightmare that dead/dad course/cursed fiasco or bitch/beach
sheet/shit not to mention can't” and a word I won't say and if we talk about rude words
let me also add ‘fork’ and something similar peace/piss etc etc and he finishes by saying
“I have to accept that I will never sound like a native” and it's not the first
time I've seen such comments and also I've had students personally tell me that they
avoid saying certain words because they are afraid that if they mispronounce them
they will upset people, they will offend people by accidentally swearing and they'll
make fools of themselves. so I wanted to be completely clear about this on this video that
you are not accidentally swearing. You never have and you never will when an English teacher tells
you that if you mispronounce certain words you will shock or offend the listener it's a lie
maybe we didn't mean any harm by it but it's a lie just the same and we say it because we think
it's funny okay but but it's not true, it's never been true, let me quash this nonsense
you will never be misunderstood nobody will be offended don't worry you will not upset
anyone it's all about context. Let me explain. Take the word CAN
Where I come from, London, I say ‘can’ in the affirmative and ‘can't’ for the negative
but there are lots of accents in the English speaking world and lots of ways to pronounce
the C-A-N-’-t okay can be pronounced in many different ways...can't can't can't
and in some English dialects it's pronounced the same or very close to the naughty word
okay and if you're in London and you say to someone “you know I c**t find my
oyster card” the oyster card is the card you use to get around on public transport. nobody
is going to be offended, nobody's going to be insulted, nobody's going to think that you swore,
nobody is even going to notice that you said a bad word they will probably reply by saying “oh
have you looked in your top pocket.” The ordinary man or woman on the street is not looking out for
minuscule vowel changes. We interpret the sentence as a whole it's only English teachers who are
so deep inside the sounds rather than the communication, it's only English teachers
who are listening and interpreting every phoneme every phoneme that comes
out of your mouth because that's what we're doing day in day out so we kind of get obsessed by it
but other people won't notice it but I do realize now that this can do some harm and
let's look at some more examples: If I say “I spent the weekend at the b***h”
We know that you didn't spend a weekend with a female dog or a nasty woman. I say beach but in
Australian English it sounds closer to ‘bitch’ anyway to us Londoners maybe maybe that's not
quite right don't have any Australians here to uh to prove it but we don't think Australians have
picnics on bitches all the time and if I say “your girlfriend is a beach” you know that I don't mean
that she's a stretch of coastal sand somewhere south of Benidorm. Context is everything
if I say “you are a stupid can't” “I can't believe what a can't you are.”
The native speaker will know exactly what you mean they will know that they are being
insulted everything is context. If I say “I drank s*x cups of coffee
today” people will say “hey ma'am you're drinking too much coffee you know, you should cut down.”
Nobody thinks you're talking about sex no don't worry about it six, sex who cares say whatever
you want. Maybe an English teacher will care but ask any person on the 82 bus to North Finchley
and they won't notice it, they won't think so. Just to prove my point there are many
English words that contain rude words within them but we don't get embarrassed and start
giggling childishly every time we hear them. For example: COUNTRY, “I live in the country, I love
the countryside.” normal word you agree, don't you? There's nothing there's nothing
rude about that word. COUNTRYSIDE means COUNTRYSIDE we use it all the time it's normal
no one is ever going to get offended or think it's rude if you say countryside.
Having said that, it is true that William Shakespeare toyed with the word in Hamlet he said
“do you think I meant country matters?” Act 3 scene 2. Just google it if you want more
information about what he said but you know he had a very fecund imagination that Shakespeare fellow.
Interestingly there is a difference between American English and British English
with some words. American English tends to be more conservative and more prudish than British English
maybe because some of the first settlers were Puritans. yes those refugees on the
mayflower didn't like naughty words so in American English some words that contained
rude syllables were changed for example cockerel in British English here's a picture.
In American English they didn't like saying ‘cock’ so they changed it to “rooster”. That's why
it's different in British English and American English. “Cockerel”, British English,
“rooster” American English same with “cockroach” in British English “roach” in American English
“titbit” in British English a titbit is an interesting piece of gossip so for example
“I overheard their conversation and heard a juicy tidbit about the princess.” In American English
the word is “tidbit” the Puritans didn't want to start a word with “tit” So they changed it
and, you know what, sometimes we swear we don't even know it. Do you know the expression “for
crying out loud”? “oh for crying out loud” you say that when you're angry about something
and I'm sure many of you know that expression “for crying out loud why do you have to be so
rude.” “For crying out loud they've revoked my freedom pass”. However, what you might not
know is that for crying out loud is just a way of unswearing is that word to unswear let's google it
oh it is... anyway originally you would use the F word and then regret it so you would
pretend you were saying something else by finishing the sentence with crying out loud
so for example “you got me a strawberry doughnut when I asked for a chocolate one F*** crying out
loud” okay you see what I mean and if I say “hey! are you f*** coffee? Are you f*** coffee.” You
know I'm just offering you coffee no one will notice that uh there's a rude word in there
try if you don't believe me . However if I say are you f*** off-e” people will notice.
It's how you say it okay it's a context and how you say something and yeah whatever ASK contains
the word arse in it so what? so does ARSEnal and ARSon and ARSEnic. SHIITake is a mushroom,
PIStachio ePISode and lots of names lots of names we never think they're rude Sexton Blake,
Emmanuel Kant, Camille Pisarro, Pussy Galore, Arsene Wenger, Terry pratchett
I'm sure you can name more. Okay and what about the word “prick” okay
for most people it's just a sharp point making a small hole ah “I pricked my finger on
a rosebush.” It's a normal everyday word. The second meaning refers to the male member but
you can use it without worry with the first meaning without the fear of being misunderstood
and it's used every day just like that. Doming back to names we have Dick Van Dyke, Dick Tracy,
Dick Turpin or Johnson “he believes in nothing levels in nothing and tomorrow we come back and we
cut off your johnson - excuse me?” A blue tit is a type of bird. Uranus is the eighth planet in the
solar system. A bang is an explosion most of the time. So this is all crazy. Are we kids or what?
Well, yes, I guess deep inside we are myself included a pestilent and hoary sinner. inside this
unkempt, middle-aged man with a vacant expression and a dodgy haircut is a a spotty teenager
loitering in the playground behind the bike sheds and giggling with his classmates at the sounds of
naughty words. That's fine, I hold up my hands I'm guilty and but by the way yes,
it is of course important to improve your pronunciation and speak clearly I'm not saying
that in this video yeah yeah definitely work on your pronunciation of course you should do that.
However, what I'm saying is that if you are learning English you should be free to say
whatever you want without the fear of ridicule and so carry on speaking without fear and you'll be
okay. And what about you were you ever worried that you'd said a bad word by mistake let
us know in the comments section and have you noticed I got through this whole video without
swearing once tune in next time for more confessions of an English teacher have a good day.