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"??

Not all English teachers are teaching the GCSE syllabus though, and I'd be surprised if it was the only choice of play. Do we each have a list of "ooh you can't be an English teacher if you haven't read..." books?
If it were me I would want to be (discreetly) told however rather than mocked on mumsnet

Do you feel a English teachers should have studied every single text in the English language, before they are allowed to become teachers? I have to say, that's going to make recruitment even trickier than it already is.

My GCSE English teacher similarly mispronounced Glamis, and I still managed to get in to Oxford to read English. This really will have no impact on your child's chances of doing well, you know.

Macbeth isn't on the GCSE syllabus randoms, you just have to study a Shakespeare.

I've only been teaching for 2 years but I've never actually taught Macbeth. We do Romeo and Juliet. (I do know how to pronounce "Glamis" though, by the way! I just can understand why someone might mispronounce it.) There are probably loads of things that I'm not pronouncing correctly, but I'm sure I'll learn as I go.

I do understand that somebody can be a good and inspiring teacher without knowing how to pronounce every word in English.

But.... I would expect English teachers to pronounce very well-known characters correctly. Just as I would expect French teachers to pronounce French words (even lesser known ones) correctly.
It is just a matter of showing mastery and familiarity with a subject - authority and demonstrating knowledge, which gives us confidence when we learn. Just as I would expect someone knowledgable about wine to pronounce the name correctly. To not know something like that suggests a degree of unfamiliarity which is not reassuring to a learner.

Yanbu.

A coo at Glamis.

YANBU.

I'm about the pronunciation of Belvoir, though. Never knew that!

YANBU

English people pronounce it Glamz. In the local accent it sounds more like Glammis. Perhaps the English teacher is from Angus or has holidayed there and adopted some of the local ways?

Sorry but how do you become an English teacher and not know this?

Do the secondary school English teacher on this thread have an English degree? I am in Scotland and you have to have a degree in the subject you teach at secondary school. I cannot see how you can get an English degree and never have come across Macbeth & the Thane of Glamis.

I grew up nearby and never heard anyone pronounce it anything other than glams

Yanbu OP

Jolly, I beg to differ!

The English pronunciation tends toward "Glaams' - the local (Forfar and Glens) pronounciation is 'Glamz'. I lived there

YY oldcrow

Old crow are you the queen?

Do we each have a list of "ooh you can't be an English teacher if you haven't read..." books?

In one of Lodge's books, a group of English academics stage a game called "Humiliation". You name a book you haven't read, and get a point for everyone in the room who has. Famously competitive, one academic desperate to win claims not to have read or see Hamlet and torches his career.

I think you can expect a broad familiarity with Shakespeare from those that have studied English in the English system without drawing up a list of obscure books to use to trip people up.

Not everyone studies the Scottish play as part of their English degree.

Alice... te he he!

When you do an English degree Shakespeare is one optional module, and you study a play per week minimum - you read the plays privately, not in tutorials or lecture time obviously as that would be an utter waste of time at that level, and don't go and see every play. Lectures don't always focus on just one play, but often on a bigger theme, such as The Carnivalesque...

In this context it would be very easy to graduate in the top 2% of your year from a university considered to be in the top 10 in the country for English, with a 1st class honours degree, without speaking aloud the word Glamis or watching the play...

I've read and seen it several times, but never through formal learning.

YY what ILiked said

Alice Yes. Damn at being outed.

How completely ridiculous.

There are few things more tedious than people who think knowing some obscure, non-phonetic pronunciation in a Shakespeare play means they are really clever and knowledgeable.

Maybe you should go into her classroom and show her how it's done, the ignorant bitch?

On a more frivolous note, I live quite near Glamz. They are having a Christmas Market there which I am very excited about.

YABU. I'd struggle to care about it.