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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Is it acceptable for a Year 10 English teacher to say this?

60 replies

AreolaGrande · 17/04/2024 22:42

"Where was you up to?"

Said to a student in relation to a text.

YABU = yes, it is acceptable
YANBU = no, it is not acceptable.

OP posts:
JanglyBeads · 17/04/2024 23:33

OP has cut and run....

whoneedssixteen · 17/04/2024 23:40

It's perfectly ok colloquial speech in several regions. I have a friend - highly qualified, very intelligent, writes brilliantly - and she wd say this. (East London). Presumably she was asking for progress in a book or test or programme
How far have you got? Where did you get up to/ Where were you up to? where was you up to? (You was is common in some London regions.
Not posh, not RP - but fine.

ReadtheReviews · 18/04/2024 00:22

Pretty dire OP. Not uncommon unfortunately.

KillerTomato7 · 18/04/2024 00:58

They should be arrested.

YoureALizardHarry11 · 18/04/2024 01:03

Colloquial or not, the sentence doesn’t even make sense. What’s it supposed to mean? ‘’Where were you?’’ or, ‘’What were you up to?’’ The two are completely different questions 😂

WatermelonWaveclub · 18/04/2024 01:13

YoureALizardHarry11 · 18/04/2024 01:03

Colloquial or not, the sentence doesn’t even make sense. What’s it supposed to mean? ‘’Where were you?’’ or, ‘’What were you up to?’’ The two are completely different questions 😂

Where was you up to? = Where were you up to?

Dialect in London/Essex

YoureALizardHarry11 · 18/04/2024 01:20

WatermelonWaveclub · 18/04/2024 01:13

Where was you up to? = Where were you up to?

Dialect in London/Essex

Show quote history

Yes, the penny dropped eventually. Just very confusing to me initially. If I heard it said out loud I’d have probably understood, but for some reason struggled seeing it written! 🤣

SmallIslander · 18/04/2024 01:37

If it's a dialect thing, it probably just slipped out. I've never used this phrase but I have caught myself using dodgy grammar due to it being common where I am from.

It's a bit unfortunate for an English teacher to make that sort of mistake though!

pinklepea · 18/04/2024 02:16

SmallIslander · 18/04/2024 01:37

If it's a dialect thing, it probably just slipped out. I've never used this phrase but I have caught myself using dodgy grammar due to it being common where I am from.

It's a bit unfortunate for an English teacher to make that sort of mistake though!

No- everyone makes mistakes. It would be wrong for English teacher to pass it off as correct and not admit mistake- but teachers are human, and if they can show how to learn from mistakes then that's great.

2mummies1baby · 18/04/2024 06:53

All teachers should speak standard English in front of pupils. Trying to teach my Year 6s that 'we was' is incorrect is made much harder by the fact that several of my colleagues say it.

Jifmicroliquid · 18/04/2024 06:56

It’s not proper english so it’s not great. But people are human.
Another teacher bashing thread though, is it any wonder theres a staff retention crisis in schools? The daily threads on this forum slating teachers is shocking.

CormorantStrikesBack · 18/04/2024 06:57

I remember years ago looking round a school when choosing one for Dd and in the English dept a teacher came and excitedly showed us some work on the wall as a good example of students’ work. The first sentence had a “could of” in it. 🙈

DoreenonTill8 · 18/04/2024 06:59

Where's the trigger warning for this thread?!
NO-ONE advised to go to school and nuclear yet? To have the teacher's job?! I'd be FUMMING!!

OfTheNight · 18/04/2024 07:14

I’m northern. I went to private school and a prestigious university. I have a first class degree and an MA in English.

When I worked in mainstream education, I often used my ‘home’ accent. It’s the same accent as the young people I was working with. In this local dialect, was is almost always used instead of were.

I used it so that I would be more relatable, and also to show my learners that their accent and dialect is valid. We regularly discussed the difference between formal and informal language. The rules of subject-verb agreement weren’t disregarded.

At my school lots of my teachers and professors had diverse dialects and accents. I had an amazing History professor who was Scottish and a languages teacher from Argentina. It didn’t mean I didn’t learn the rules of my own language.

I find reading has far more impact on my learners’ writing than what they hear anyway.

ManchesterBeatrice · 18/04/2024 07:20

😂

SoozyWoozy5 · 18/04/2024 07:24

I think its awful.

VestibuleVirgin · 18/04/2024 07:25

Cue the 'you can mangle language to incomprehensibility because it's evolving, innit' coach party
Then will come the 'it's a local dialect' party.
Closely followed by the 'so what if they are an English teacher, as long as they are understood" coach party

Georgethecat1 · 18/04/2024 07:27

But are they a good English teacher otherwise? Do they engage with the kids? I can’t really be bothered to pick out everyone’s mistakes as I don’t care enough.

However if there was a bigger story that this English teacher wasn’t very good, teaching them wrong context for their exams that’s a different story

CelesteCunningham · 18/04/2024 07:28

Jifmicroliquid · 18/04/2024 06:56

It’s not proper english so it’s not great. But people are human.
Another teacher bashing thread though, is it any wonder theres a staff retention crisis in schools? The daily threads on this forum slating teachers is shocking.

I think the combination of teacher bashing and grammar pedantry might make this the most MN thread ever.

Great post @OfTheNight.

shoppingshamed · 18/04/2024 07:31

notyouagainbantu · 17/04/2024 22:59

It's Yorkshire dialect, not ideal in an English class but no worse that 'we was sat' which is used all the time.

Loads of people use was wrongly, its some weird Yorkshire badge of honour 😀
I'd expect an English teacher to speak standard English, if they don't know the grammar/parts of speech how can they teach it?

MavisPennies · 18/04/2024 07:32

Definitely hand write a three page letter about this and everything else you don't like & send it in with your kid.
These are great for a laugh in the staffroom.

itsgettingweird · 18/04/2024 07:33

I wouldn't give it a second thought!

CecilyP · 18/04/2024 07:43

Were you in the Y10 class or was it reported back to you by your DC as truly shocking. If the latter, you’ve definitely got a future Mumsnetter in the making!

hopscotcher · 18/04/2024 07:46

I'd wince a bit if I saw it in writing, but wouldn't think anything of it in everyday speech. I'm also an English teacher and am pretty sure I don't speak with perfect grammar all the time.

Plantlamptreehouse · 18/04/2024 07:52

OfTheNight · 18/04/2024 07:14

I’m northern. I went to private school and a prestigious university. I have a first class degree and an MA in English.

When I worked in mainstream education, I often used my ‘home’ accent. It’s the same accent as the young people I was working with. In this local dialect, was is almost always used instead of were.

I used it so that I would be more relatable, and also to show my learners that their accent and dialect is valid. We regularly discussed the difference between formal and informal language. The rules of subject-verb agreement weren’t disregarded.

At my school lots of my teachers and professors had diverse dialects and accents. I had an amazing History professor who was Scottish and a languages teacher from Argentina. It didn’t mean I didn’t learn the rules of my own language.

I find reading has far more impact on my learners’ writing than what they hear anyway.

100% this. I never made a fuss of speaking "properly" in the classroom. One of the things you teach in English is audience and purpose. If you've got a class of 14 year olds in front of you, you adapt to your audience. You're going to get more out of them if you speak in a familiar way. I'm a firm believer that children learn better when they're comfortable and rapport is one of the best tools in a teacher's armoury - if this means slang and the occasional "innit" then so be it.