Teacher Reacts to Memes About English | Why Is English Pronunciation So Weird?

- Hello, guys, and welcome to my YouTube channel.

Today, I have a very interesting video for you.

I've never done anything like this on my YouTube channel.

And I really hope you like this format

because, in this video, I'll be reacting

to some of the most hilarious English memes.

There are gonna be memes about the English language,

about the American accent, about grammar,

so it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Guys, if you like this kind of format

and you want me to make more videos reacting

to English memes or just reacting to things in general

about English, let me know in the comments.

(mellow hip-hop music)

So let's look at this first meme together.

"Cough, rough, though, through.

Why don't these words rhyme,

but for some godforsaken reason, pony and bologna do?"

So yeah, that's a pretty interesting problem in English

that a lot of the words, they're spelled almost the same,

like rough and though.

The ending is the same,

but the pronunciation is completely different.

But actually, the words pony and bologna don't really rhyme

because the correct pronunciation of bologna is bologna

because it's an Italian word.

And a lot of people pronounce it as bologna,

which is totally fine, but not really correct.

But the point of this meme here

is to just tell you guys that, yeah,

unfortunately, the first word is pronounced as cough,

the second one as rough, the third as though,

and the fourth one as through.

Yup, English pronunciation is really weird.

And the craziest part is that there is no rule, right?

We just have to memorize it.

The only thing we can do about it is to memorize.

Memorize all these weird words, and yeah,

and just shrug and say, yeah, English is weird.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

So let's look at the second one.

"Before was was was, was was is.

People learning English. Confused screaming."

I mean, it's funny, but I hope you guys understood the joke.

It's just a lot of was, and then there is is

because was is past simple from the verb to be, right?

And the verb to be, we have is, am, or are.

First of all, in present simple,

obviously, we use is, like he is a doctor.

But in past simple, we would say he was a doctor.

So before was became was, was was actually is, (laughs)

or am, right?

Because we use was with I, too, like I was a doctor.

It's just a good meme

for you to practice your understanding of English.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

"Every C in Pacific ocean is pronounced differently.

Everyone trying to learn English."

What?

Maybe in the word Pacific, every C has its rule, right?

Because before an I, we pronounce letter C as s,

and if C is at the end of the word,

it will always be pronounced as k.

But for example, in the word ocean,

there are no rules that say that before an E,

we have to say sh, right?

No, there are no rules like that.

We just have to memorize that this word

is not pronounced ocean. (chuckles)

It's pronounced as ocean.

And before we laugh at our next meme,

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And now let's go back to the video

and start laughing at accents in English,

all of the different, wonderful accents that we have.

And of course, we're gonna laugh

at the American accent, too.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

"'Hermione, I heard something today.'

'What was it, Harry?'

'An American accent in this movie.'"

(gasps) Why is this meme funny?

It's funny because all the Harry Potter movies

are all in British English.

It's an amazing resource if you wanna have a British accent,

if you just wanna train your ear

to understand the British accent better,

or if you just love Harry Potter, right,

if you really, really want to watch it,

improve your English, and it's an amazing resource.

All the actors there, they have an amazing British accent.

And I highly, highly recommend

all these movies for you guys.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

♪ Whoo ♪

- Now let's look at these meme together.

It's not even that funny.

It's just a goofy presentation

of how some words in American English mean different things

in British English.

So as you can see, chips in American English

are like Pringles.

These are called chips.

This is something we call French fries in America,

or just fries,

but in British English, they're called chips.

So here you go.

"I live on the first floor."

So in America, it literally means the first floor,

but in Britain, it's kinda like the second floor

because the first floor is called the ground floor.

"I play football."

Again, which you can see,

in America, football is American football,

but in Britain, football is just this international sport

that we have.

In America, we call it soccer.

Obviously, in America, we also have this word.

It's just called soccer, not football

because football is an American football.

And the last thing here is, "I went to public school."

So this is actually pretty interesting

because I've only recently learned about that

when I was reading a book written by a British author.

I was reading it, and she was saying how so many kids went

to a public school in Britain.

And I was like, but public school

is just like your regular school, right?

Because as you can see, in America,

it's not like this, obviously,

but it's just like a normal school, a free school.

If you wanna get a better education,

kids usually go to a private school in America.

And private schools are very, very expensive.

But in Britain, they're called public schools,

which is very weird to me

because I'm used to public schools being free

and all over America.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

Okay, now we're moving on to our grammar memes.

And I feel like they're gonna be very funny.

And also, I love grammar, so we'll laugh at it together.

"'This is going to be painful.'

Your Now Entering Grammer Hell.

We got fire pits! There this way!"

For a lot of people in America, their biggest pet peeve

is when people use incorrect grammar.

Pet peeve is something that a person finds really annoying,

really irritating.

So for example, a lot of people

like cracking their knuckles like this.

And you can say that this is your pet peeve,

like you hate when people do that.

You hate the sound, so this is your pet peeve.

And for a lot of people, it might be incorrect grammar.

And actually, guys, in my channel,

I have a video about mistakes

that native speakers often make in English.

So if you're interested, you can check it out right here

because it's a very interesting and fun video to watch.

So it says, "Your Now Entering Grammer Hell."

So your, we can't use your here, right?

The correct word will be you are,

but just the pronunciation of you are and your is the same.

You're, your. "Your Now Entering Grammer Hell."

And the same thing with there.

It's not there, like over there.

It's they are fire pits. Yeah, they are over there.

But the thing is, again,

they're pronounced exactly the same.

When texting, people will just use your and there

instead of you are and they are

because it's easier that way.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

♪ And go ♪

- Okay, now let's move on to our two final memes.

And the first one here is gonna be about the word legit.

So look at this picture. It says, "Seems legit."

And we have a Hollywood sign here, so seems legit.

Legitimate means official, valid, or real.

For example, you need a legitimate reason to call 911.

You can't just dial 911, right?

You'd need a legitimate, a real,

a valid reason to call them.

So nowadays, the slang word, legit, is very, very popular

and very common,

and you should definitely, guys, use it, too.

So instead of saying legitimate,

in slang, in informal English, we say legit.

That's legit. It means that that's real.

I mean, usually, we use it sarcastically

when we're laughing at something,

just like in this picture, right?

Obviously, they're not in Hollywood,

but here, still seems legit.

It's very, very similar,

but we know that they're not in Hollywood in reality.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

The last meme that I wanted to react to

is condescending Wonka.

"Oh, you read one book about English grammar?

You must know everything."

Condescending Wonka is a meme that uses a picture

from the movie, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,"

and has condescending text written on it.

When someone is condescending,

they act like they know more than you.

So they look down on you, right,

like they're better than you, they're smarter than you.

They're looking down on you.

So for example, if you tell somebody

that you just read your first book in English,

a person might say,

hmm, now you must know everything about English, right?

They're being condescending.

Obviously, they're joking,

but it's just a great meme to understand and to know.

Also, the word condescending is very, very useful.

So you guys, I think it's gonna be it for today's video.

We just looked at so many great memes in English.

And I really hope that I managed to make this video

as educational as possible

because I feel like all of these memes are extremely funny,

but they can also be really educational.

And understanding English

or American humor is very important,

especially when you find American or British friends.

You are gonna joke with them a lot.

And memes can really help you understand jokes in English.

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So thank you, guys, for watching this video.

See you next time. Bye.

(mellow hip-hop music continues)

♪ And go ♪