From Jamie Keddie
Jamie Keddie, Spain
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I am An American
Abbreviations talk
What a crazy time? I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t expect the downfall of democracy to be so much fun.
Brexit was a bit different – it took me approximately 10 days to find something to laugh about. I remember it very well: It was the moment when I heard that Michael Gove had announced that he would stand against Boris Johnson in the Conservative party leadership campaign. In a second, the suppressed anxiety and anger that I had been carrying inside spontaneously turned into hysterical, uncontrollable laughter.
Donald Trump has been different. After just one week in office, it seems like every one of the president’s TV appearances, press conferences, statements, interviews, and Tweets provides us all with a whole day’s worth of satire and humour to share on Facebook. It’s hard to keep up with it all. Personally, I can't wait for “Donald Trump, The Musical”. That’s going to be a hit.
But it’s not all fun and games, of course. I recently read about a teacher from the Midwestern United States who was at work on Friday, 20th January. Her students were excited about the news of the day – the inauguration of the 45th US president. They asked their teacher if they could watch the live broadcast and she felt that it would be wrong to deny them this. When her students started cheering and punching the air in response to Donald Trump's words, the teacher had to turn around so that her students wouldn't see her cry.
I hope that teacher was consoled the next day by the display of unity from the worldwide Women’s March. Out of that came an image by an artist called Shepard Fairey, who you may be familiar with.
The face of the young woman – Munira Ahmed – has quickly become an iconic symbol of resistance to the Trump administration. And I think that it is an excellent image to explore in the classroom. Here is an activity on Lessonstream which aims to do that very thing.
Click here to see the activity on Lessonstream
All this talk of abbreviations has got me thinking of a quiz that I used to do with my students of English. In teams, they would have to say what JFK / KFC / USA / etc. stands for.
I have just gone back to the list of abbreviations that I used for this and it's incredible how many of them have dated. For example, included in the list were:
- SWF (Single while female)
- CD (Compact disc)
- HMV (His master's voice)
These three examples have probably become less common as a result of technological change. People tend not to use print media to find love these days (the natural place to look for SWF's – an abbreviation that was also popularized by a 1992 film.). Do young people these days know what a CD is? And if they do, are they aware that stands for Compact Disc? And speaking of compact discs, I haven't bought one for years. I don't think that I have set foot in HMV or any other record store once in the last 10 years. (HMV stands for His Master's Voice.)
So I thought that I would update my list and put on Lessonstream. This means creating an A-Z of abbreviations. Here is what I have so far (note that I am missing C, E, M, Q, T and Z).
- ASAP (As soon as possible)
- BYOB (Bring your own booze)
- DIY (Do it yourself)
- FAQs (Frequently asked questions_
- GF (Girlfriend – also BF)
- HRH (Her/his Royal Highness)
- IMHO (In my humble opinion)
- JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)
- KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)
- LOL (Laugh out loud)
- NSFW (Not suitable for work)
- OJ (Orange Juice)
- PIN (Personal identification number)
- RIP (Rest in peace)
- SOS (Save our souls)
- UFO (Unidentified flying object)
- VIP (Very important person)
- WWW (World wide web)
- XL (Extra large)
- YMCA (Young men's Christian Association)
I suppose that what I am looking for is abbreviations that are either:
- Modern and possibly a bit trendy (NSFW = Not Suitable For Work. This is common on content-sharing communities like Reddit.)
- Common and useful to know (FAQs = Frequently Asked Questions.)
- Fun or interesting (BYOB = Bring Your Own Booze – sometimes seen in British restaurants that are not licensed to sell alcohol.)
What I am not looking for:
- Obscure and ambiguous abbreviations such as LGE
Anyway, if you can improve on the list or add to it.
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