ELT World » UK

United Kingdom: Mind your slanguage!

david — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:18:39 +0000

Cor blimey, guvnor:

“Young people are growing up with a new form of composite language. It’s a bit cockney, a bit West Indian, a bit West African, with some Bangladeshi and Kuwaiti – and it seems to be replacing traditional cockney.”

This is the flabbergasted view of Paul Kerswill, professor of sociolinguistics at Lancaster University, who has been studying street language in London. He claims an entirely new dialect is emerging.

Here are some examples of neo-cockney:

Nang/nanging – excellent
Hard, greezy - excellent
Allow it - let it go, stop
What’s good – hello
I’m ghost – goodbye
Chung, peng – attractive
Long – boring
Bare – lots of, very
Sik – cool
Moist or dry – awful, terrible

Read more about this debacle here, innit.

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Do you have a UK pension that you don't know about?

david — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:04:05 +0000

The issue of pensions in the country where you live compared with the state pension in the UK was raised recently on the Turkey forum. Without doubt, among the most important financial decisions you’re likely to make in your life are those concerning your retirement. In order to have a secure future with at least a comfortable standard of living after you’ve stopped working, you’ll need to plan your finances carefully. That’s right TEFL teachers, even you!

Pensions are becoming more and more of an imperative as people are now living longer and consequently spending more time in their retirement. Lifestyles have also changed; people often take out mortgages later in life than they used to, meaning they may still have mortgage repayments when they stop working. As more people are experiencing better health and longer retirements, they need to have a reasonable disposable income in order to enjoy more leisure activities in their later years.

With these questions in mind, I did a bit of research and found a resource on the internet that was really helpful, not just for British expats. If you’re an international worker that has worked at some time in the past in the UK, you may well have been a member of the company pension scheme or a UK personal pension.

Here’s some good news. Since April, 2006 it has been possible to move previously frozen money from a taxed environment into an offshore tax-free environment through a scheme known as QROPS, which stands for ‘Qualified Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme.’ Basically, what this means is you can now gain access to your lost UK Pension.

The Lost UK Pension website has been set up to help you understand the QROPS scheme and how you can gain access to your Frozen UK pension money. You can find information on QROPS as well as consult with experts on how you can unlock your lost UK pensions.

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Portsmouth makes players take English lessons

david — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:10:41 +0000

Overseas players at English Premier League club Portsmouth are taking extra English lessons to help them communicate on the field more clearly, the Canadian Press website notes. Like all the teams in England’s top flight, Portsmouth has a squad drawn from all over the world, with 16 of its 28-man squad coming from outside Britain. That means players from places including Senegal, Israel and Iceland need a common language to communicate during matches – and to understand (former) manager Harry Redknapp, who on occasion reportedly employed obscure London slang, surprisingly enough.

Read the full story…

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