To think an English teacher should know the correct pronunciation of Glamis?

[susannahmoodie]

As in Thane of......?

Or is it now ok to say "glam-mis"??

[OldCrowMedicineShow]

It is pronounced 'Glamz'.

[Lweji]

Did it keep you awake all night?

[ShadowLine]

I've never heard of this. I'm guessing that Glamis is the name of someone or somewhere. Is it from a poem or story?

[ShadowLine]

And having never heard of Glamis, the teacher's pronunciation looks like a reasonable guess phonetically speaking.

[AlbusPercival]

Yes Shadow, MacBeth, so English teachers really ought to know

[Fatfreefaff]

It's from Macbeth. Also name of Queen Mum's childhood home - hence the snob value.

[OldCrowMedicineShow]

Glamis is a small village a few miles from Forfar in the county of Angus. Famous for its castle. Birthplace of the Queen Mother.

[damselinthisdress]

I suppose if you've only ever read it and not seen it performed/heard it read by someone else, you wouldn't know how it's pronounced.

[IguanaTail]

Many teachers feel that parents should know how to use the word 'No' occasionally.

[Fatfreefaff]

If the teacher had never seen the play or studied it herself, I think it's a reasonable mistake to make.

[Squeegle]

Yes she should. Is she a secondary school teacher?

[ShadowLine]

As damsel says, the English teacher may never have seen a performance of Macbeth or been to the place in Scotland.

[Cooroo]

Surely English teacher should know about metre and wonder... 'Thane of Glamis, and Cawdor too' (IIRC) wouldn't go dum-di-dum-di-dum-di-dum with 2 syllables in Glamis. You have no idea how little my phone liked that!

[ShadowLine]

But I guess if I was an English teacher who taught Macbeth every year, i'd probably make an effort to see a TV adaptation or a performance at some point.

[BikeRunSki]

What Shadow just said.

[Cooroo]

I didn't recall correctly! No idea where that came from. But still.

[Lweji]

I don't think it's a reasonable guess because there's only one m in it.

[AuntieStella]

Macbeth is one of the really well known plays. Yes, I'd expect a teacher to know how to pronounce the character names in such a well-known play.

(And I think that there being a thread about one who can't, shows how unusual it is to come across a teacher making public bloopers of this sort).

[randomsabreuse]

An English teacher not having seen the Scottish Play would be a big issue. It's been on the GCSE syllabus pretty well forever!

Belvoir or Cholmondley being pronounced wrong wouldn't bother me but Glamis is like a maths teacher mispronouncing Descartes or Pythagoras!

[TheDowagerCuntess]

To be honest, yes, I would've thought so.

Macbeth is a standard English-lesson Shakespeare play.

[HaydeeofMonteCristo]

I thought it was more glarms than glamz.

[Squeegle]

Too right random, it's showing an ignorance that would concern me if he/she was teaching English to my children.

[thequickbrownfox]

YANBU - the teacher should know how it's pronounced.

[mynameisnotmichaelcaine]

Yanbu

[Waffles80]

I'm a senior member of staff in a challenging school, and very experienced English teacher, with great results every year (if I do say so myself). I didn't know the pronunciation. Unlike the OP, however, I believe in growth mindsets. We should all still be learning in both subject knowledge and pedagogy. So obviously, now I know.

I've only seen Macbeth twice, and never taught it. Yeah, if I was teaching it I might work the pronunciation out from the metre, I might watch some parts of an adaptation and hear it. But this pales into total insignificance with what I do know about how to teach children about Shakespeare, or any other aspect of English. Which is far, far more important for the children I serve than knowing the pronunciation of one word.