Mind Your Language

Do not be deterred from proceeding just right after you've read ye olde conventional, pap-talk title :) I really am just blogging about an old British comedy-and possibly one of its best

The title of the series is that of this particular post's-Mind Your Language. To just give you a rough indication of how well I rate this series, let's just say, I wouldn't mind paying for the TV licence over at the UK just for shows of this quality. Unfortunately, I doubt any production in this modern epoch would even match the magnificence of this one's.

If my memory does not fail me, I believe this series was aired between 1977 and 1979 over at the UK and sometime in the 80s over at Malaysia. Starring one character from each of the following countries; France, Germany, China, Hungary, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Greece, Japan, India and Pakistan, this show demonstrated the English stereotype towards these foreign immigrants. These common perceptions (and perhaps eventually discovered to be misconceptions) were brilliantly translated into one of England's best comedies in history.

I mean, you have the German interchanging her 'v' and 'w' pronunciations, the French focusing entirely on matters related to love and intimacy, the Chinese with impeccable grammar but just horrendous pronunciation for example,

English Teacher (Mr. Brown): "Su Lee, what do you call a female lion?"
Su Lee (Chinese National): "Rioness"
Brown: "You mean, LIONESS."
Su Lee: *tries enunciating again* "LRRIONESS"
Brown: "Su Lee, say..RIONESS"
Su Lee: "LIONESS"

The Spanish could only say "Por Favore" almost the entire season, and the Greek suffering from over-emphasis on his aspirates. You had acerbic names thrown all the time such as..hmmm..

(i) You INDIAN chapatti
(ii) You ITALIAN spaghetti
(iii) You SPANISH omelette

*sighs* This show kept me ALIVE during my final International Baccalaureate examinations. It's a pity Barry Evans died so tragically..for a comedian, he sure died in a very ironic manner. I'm sure some of us out there still mourn the loss of this established comedian.