Tweet Round-up: 25th August 2021
This Wednesday — a welcome tweet about the crisis in Afghanistan, fear of chickens, and an “ill wind”…
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you will have heard about the dire political situation in Afghanistan.
Whatever you may think of the politics of the situation, the wider economic rammifications of companies like Airbnb and how they operate, this tweet was a welcome site in the English Classes for the Masses feed:
20,000 is what the UK, who have been directly involved in the war that has inflamed Afghanistan for so many years, have committed to the same figure…over five years.
Does this tell us a lot about the respective power of corperations in the modern world? Or about the relative weakness or states?
I would say neither of these questions get to the truth of the matter.
Looking at the language of this tweet, it is interesting that Chesky says “house” rather than “rehouse.” Many of these people would have had a home to live in at some point (we can assume). It is a very clear cut and simple tweet that does not add any provisos or stipulations. How will this “housing” be achieved? People could still require passage.
Regardless of our position on the Afghan War or our commitment to radical politics, it is nice to see companies stepping up.
The rather long name for a fear of chickens is alektorophobia.
What other fears do you know in English?
Ok, so we have the classics:
- Claustrophobia — a fear of confined spaces
- Agrophobia — a fear of crowded places (although the reality of agrophobia is more complex)
- Arachnophobia — a fear of spiders.
- Pogonophobia — a fear of beards or bearded individuals
Perhaps the last one was my rather personal entry…
These are some useful words for your students to learn.
I have one question however — we use the word xenophobia to connote someone’s fear of foreigners, or strangers. But is this really a fear of “strangers?” A lot of the people who partake in xenophobia assume they know their subjects very well. It’s not a simple irrational fear, like the fear of spiders for example.
Sometimes language is not exact, and we need new words — words perhaps that don’t hide bigotry and racism:
On other parts of Twitter, things are blowing up.
The barking spider has let out a stenchful burp from between the buttocks, or to say in other words — a funky flatus has escaped from the fundament, or as it were — a parp has been imparted from the posterior back passage.
Any other words for fart? Or it that quite enough?
