By Anna Sobell
With the year 2019 (how sci-fi does that sound?!) just around the corner, we thought it prescient to look back at 2018 in the way we know best…linguistically!
Following a quick survey of the office, I’m delighted to present to you our top English words and phrases of 2018! Why not try slipping them into your next meeting or language lesson?
You could say that this is the 2018 version of James Joyce’s wise utterings: “a man’s mistakes are his portals of discovery”. Yes, ‘flearning’ is to fail at a task, but to learn a valuable lesson along the way. I hope you’ve all flearned at least once this year!
The dreaded ‘b’ word, well half of it! This punchy little portmanteau refers to the numbers of UK residents and companies sadly leaving the country following the referendum result in 2016.
There’s no denying there’s a lot of talent in our office; we have poets, artists and musicians to name but a few, and some of them may just be agile enough to handle a Zumba class or two. But this is not what we’re talking about here. ‘Agile talent’ refers to employees who are flexible, remote and unbound by physical barriers. And it’s just this kind of workforce that people are predicting will boost all kinds of business for the foreseeable future.
I am not referring here to the ancient art of ninjutsu, nor am I referring to those pizza loving turtles; I’m talking about the ‘excel ninjas’ of this world, the ‘code ninjas’, the ‘SEO ninjas’! Yes, all those people who can really help you out when you’ve hit a spot of bother in the office.
I sincerely hope you won’t be responding with the above to this article. TL;DR – what does it mean? I hear you ask. Well, it stands for ‘too long; didn’t read’. And clearly ‘too long; didn’t read’ is also too long to write!
Have you had enough of hearing the words ‘backstop’, ‘Canada model’, ‘customs union’, ‘hard border’, ‘max-fac’, ‘Norway model’, ‘tariff-free trade’…I could go on. If you’re feeling fatigued after just reading these words, it’s highly likely you have a case of ‘brexhaustion’.
Here at Language Services Direct, our expert trainers ensure they’re providing our clients with the most up-to-date and relevant content. Lessons are designed with our specific learners in mind and are tailored to fit into any schedule and suit any industry.
This article was orginally posted on our sister company, Simon & Simon’s, website.
Anna is an Account Manager in the corporate team, looking after a portfolio of corporate clients, including two of her team’s largest language training programmes. Anna was an English language teacher for over 10 years before joining Language Services Direct. She has two language-teaching qualifications: the CELTA and the Licentiate Diploma in TESOL. She taught both in the UK and abroad: in Istanbul, Sydney and Prague. Anna then went on to work as Senior Teacher and then Assistant Director of Studies at a school in Brighton.
Anna applies her academic knowledge and wealth of teaching experience to her duties as an Account Manager and is able to provide meaningful support to our clients, trainers and learners.
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