I don't know if anyone's ever scientifically established which single English word non-native speakers have the most trouble with. But I'm going to propose a contender: STAPLER. Innocent enough, fairly common even, one would think. And yet, the number of students per day who both know and can pronounce correctly the word for the implement they are asking to borrow, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Come to think of it, native English speakers have trouble with it too. 'Can I borrow the... thingy [makes frantic clamping gestures] ...wotsit thing'?

Is this just laziness because they all know that I'll know what they mean? (Although quite often the gestures backfire and I hand them a hole punch.) Is there just not room in people's heads for words like 'stapler' when important concepts like 'coffee', 'beer', 'fish and chips' and 'google' are all jostling for space?

Tags: language

15:54

. . .

I already liked Sarah Silverman for her startling contribution to The Aristocrats, but after hearing this joke via ILE I think I'm in love:

A man goes into a sex shop and reads the back of a porn video. The owner says to him "Hey! This isn't a library!" and the man says "Oh yeah? Well if this isn't a library, then why is there cum on the floor?"

I think more librarians need to have that one in their inevitable repertoire of self-deprecating jokes...

Tags: libraries Sarah Silverman

14:30

. . .

Past the tricky 14000 word mark, finally.

Tags: dissertation

11:11

. . .