Wannabees both?

1 2 3 4 5 6
   Share on Facebook  
milky  #410672  Tue, 28 Aug 07 07:00 PM
Lets' say a young person come to you and asks you to teach him the "slang" of the American youth culture norms of coolness. Another young person comes and asks you to teach him only the Standard British English norms used by upper class youths in Britain. Which young person, if any, would you label a wannabee and send packing?
  
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004
Senior Member (3,149)
Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".
Mister Micawber  #410835  Wed, 29 Aug 07 12:57 AM

I don't send anyone packing.  Teaching English is how I make a living.

  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004
Yokohama
Veteran Member (21,223)
SystemAdministratorTeachers
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'
CalifJim  #410913  Wed, 29 Aug 07 05:28 AM
wannabee?

Definition, please.

CJ

  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004
California
Veteran Member (16,966)
ModeratorProficient Speaker
"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche
milky  #410946  Wed, 29 Aug 07 08:24 AM

 CalifJim wrote:
wannabee?

Definition, please.

CJ

I'm surprised you don't know the term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannabee

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=88994&dict=CALD

  
milky  #410948  Wed, 29 Aug 07 08:26 AM
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source
wan·na·be also wan·na·bee       (wŏn'ə-bē', wôn'-)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. One who aspires to a role or position.
  2. One who imitates the behavior, customs, or dress of an admired person or group.
  3. A product designed to imitate the qualities or characteristics of something.

adj.   Wishing or aspiring to be; would-be.
  
milky  #411023  Wed, 29 Aug 07 11:11 AM

 Mister Micawber wrote:

I don't send anyone packing.  Teaching English is how I make a living.

So you'd still consider the teaching of the "slang" of American youth culture norms of coolness as teaching English, as it were, right?

  
Mister Micawber  #411038  Wed, 29 Aug 07 12:19 PM

Yes.

  
CalifJim  #411371  Wed, 29 Aug 07 11:15 PM
They both want to be something, I suppose.  Don't we all?  But isn't that irrelevant to sending them packing?  I think so.  I would try to put them in touch with people who were more expert at those ways of using language.  I'm just a bit too old to teach the most up-to-date, coolest slang, and being middle-class American, I wouldn't be very good at upper class Standard British English either.  It wouldn't be fair to the student for me to pretend I could fulfill those wishes.

CJ
  
MrPedantic  #411396  Thu, 30 Aug 07 12:48 AM

It would also be reasonable to point out that the slang would be outmoded, by the time the student had mastered it; and that command of that particular BrE variant would not necessarily be a social advantage.

I wouldn't send her packing either.

MrP

  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004
Veteran Member (12,052)
Proficient SpeakerSystemAdministrator
...opella forensis / adducit febris...
1 2 3 4 5 6
AddThis Feed Button RSS Feed: ESL Linguistics Discussion Forum
© 2008 MediaCET Ltd.
Terms and Conditions & Terms of Service