Back in my early twenties, I spent a couple of stints teaching English in Istanbul, the city I still roam in my dreams. It was a fun albeit challenging experience — suffice to say, I had no previous experience, and I was saved mostly by my curiosity and long hours of prep. A huge part of my social circle were people in a similar predicament, most of whom were more qualified to teach English as a foreign language than me. So I tried to fill gaps in my knowledge any way possible. One of the ways was watching Mind Your Language, a British sitcom set in an EFL class. And, dear reader, I found it HILARIOUS!
Today, I find it, well… slightly problematic, but still redeemable. While many of the jokes revolved around stereotypes (more on that later), there were a lot of absolutely banger puns. For example, there’s a scene where a substitute teacher asks the roudy class to come up with a sentence containing the word CATALYST (weird vocabulary selection but who am I to judge?). One of the answers is, of course, “In my country Espain, most people are Roman Catalysts”. To which the Italian character protests “Italy is much bigger Catalyst country!!” and one of the many fights ensues.
The same Italian character, when asked about his profession, reveals being a “cookada”. When asked to elaborate, he talks about being able to “cooka da pasta, cooka da pizza, cooka da everything”… I do realise how lame it is, but my sense of humour needs lame jokes to survive dark periods in life.
I liked the fact that in comparison to the caricature characters in the series, my students were pretty fine, good even. Mine were well-behaved, they didn’t start fights in class, didn’t call each other donkeys or idiots, and didn’t try to start a riot… unlike the characters in the series.
In the series, you’ll see:
A Sikh and a Pakistani Muslim calling each other an infidel and a bloody fool
A Chinese embassy worker who is constantly quoting from Mao’s Little Red Book
A German au pair and a Japanese businessman arguing about which country is the most efficient (the Japanese businessman bowing in an exaggerated way after each sentence)
A sexy French au pair (the laugh track goes ouuuuuu every time she walks in)
All of the recent transplants struggling to adapt to life in Britain
Apparently, the series was seen as problematic even back then, and was eventually cancelled (only to return in the 80s but with less success). However, it did inspire a number of copycats, including:
India: Zabaan Sambhalke and Zaban Sambhal Ke (in Hindi)
Indonesia: Kelas Internasional (in Indonesian)
Japan: 日本人の知らない日本語 (Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo; in Japanese)
Kenya: Classmates
Malaysia: Cakap Melayu Lah (In Malay) and Oh My English! (in English)
Malta: Klassi Għalina (in Maltese)
Nigeria: Second Chance! (in English), and Jami'ar Albarkawa (in Hausa)
South Korea: So Not Worth It (in Korean)
Sri Lanka: Raja Kaduwa! (in Sinhala)
United States: What a Country! (in English)
I have no idea how any of these compare to Mind Your Language, but there’s something endearing about the format itself. Mostly because it reminds me of how fun an international study group can be. Having done two months of intensive Turkish studies with a Saudi-Polish-German-Lithuanian-Croatian-Palestinian-Syrian-Indian group with everyone from Medical Doctors to a pastor’s wife was one of the most fun experiences in my language-learning journey. And in one way or another, we were the walking stereotypes trying our best to progress through a new language while getting to know each other. I’ll definitely write about it one day!
I watched the first episode out of curiosity. Honestly, the stereotypes are so grotesque it's easy not to take it too seriously. Thank you for sharing!