| Callum: | Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. My name is Callum Robertson. |
| Li: | And I'm Yang Li. |
|
| Men: | Come 'ere then! Oi! Come on then! Want a fight? Who are ya?! |
|
| Li: | Oh Callum! Who are all those horrible men that I can hear on my headphones? |
| Callum: | Well, Li, they are yobs. |
| Li: | Yobs? |
| Callum: | Yes, yobs. Yob is our phrase for today. It's an informal word that refers to a man who is loud and rude and possibly rather violent. |
| Li: | Oh, that sounds like you! |
| Callum: | What are you talking about, sounds like me?! What do you mean? Are you asking for a fight?! |
| Li: | No, no, no! But do you see what I mean? You sound like a yob. |
| Callum: | Erm ... yes, OK. Sorry about that. Hmm. Anyway, I chose this word because as many people will know the UK recently experienced some violence on the streets of London and other cities. 'Yob' is a word that the British press used to describe the rioters. Let's hear some real headlines from some British newspapers: |
| Li: | Ah, I'm not sure I remember seeing this word yob on the BBC news site. |
| Callum: | Well no. It's a very negative and judgemental word. The BBC tends to avoid this kind of language in its news stories. But this is a piece of British slang that is very common in the UK. And we also sometimes use the word yobbo. |
| Li: | Yobbo. Hmm. But where do all these words come from? |
| Callum: | Well, interestingly, what we have here is an example of backslang. If you read the word yob backwards, what do you get? |
| Li: | Erm ... B.O.Y., boy. |
| Callum: | Exactly. And that's what the word used to mean, but now it refers to a rude and violent man, often a young man but not always. |
| Li: | Listen Callum, I'm sorry about earlier. I don't really think you are a yob. You are a gentleman. |
| Callum: | Oh, thanks Li. |
| Li: | But in any case you know if we were to get in a fight I would beat you. So don't you try that again! |
| Callum: | OK. |
