English Actually: 40 Years in the Wilderness
40 years of teaching English as a foreign language, mainly in Valencia, has been the challenge faced by Bachelor of Education Bob Yareham (Hackney North 1954), as he explains for what seems like the millionth time that “yes, ‘bare’ is pronounced like ‘bear’, ‘time’ like ‘thyme’ and ‘queue’ is no different from ‘q’.
Too, two and to are the same too my friend, and ‘if I were’ is not really the simple past, it’s the subjunctive, which inconveniently doesn’t actually exist in English.
A double negative is positive for the 30,000th time, and I don’t care if Sir Mick Jagger can’t get no satisfaction.
English Actually explains the inexplicable with humour and sympathy for the thousands who have passed through Bob’s classes without harm or injury. It is his last gasp before retiring as an etymologist and pedagogue.
It is not often that a book comes along that not only changes your life but which also makes you laugh. This isn’t such a book, but it’s also worth buying. The author, Bob Yareham has taught English in Britain, Italy and Yugoslavia, and since 1981, (the year of the coup d’état, for which he denies all responsibility) in Valencia, Spain.
The book is a series of essays about the etymology, grammar and teaching of English, mixed up with his futile attempts to make sense of wine, wives and students.
The author was the creator and presenter of an English language radio programme called “Help” on Onda Cero, Valencia, back in the late 1980s, and has participated in teacher training sessions throughout Spain and also Germany, where he has published various methodological books with a German publisher.
He has also published books about English language films Made in Spain and dragons in Valencian architecture, neither of which have assured him a decent pension.
The new book, English Actually, is a follow up to the equally unsucessful English Beauty, and is a series of essays on, among other whims, the origins of words, phrases and idioms.
For those who enjoy the English language, or for the vast majority who grudgingly accept its importance; this is the book for you. English need no longer be a mystery; it can become a conundrum instead.
English Actually is available in paperback or as an e-book, and is published by the Valencian publisher Obrapropia:
http://www.obrapropia.com/Obras/1796/ENGLISH-ACTUALLY
The author is available for talks, and has a presentation originally entitled Back to the Future.
He can be contacted at bobyareham@gmail.com
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