Bad English
By SBS
Let’s face it, learning English is a nightmare. Time to take revenge. Bad English is like an audio support group for anyone who’s ever had to learn English, chaired by comedian Ivan Aristeguieta. Ivan and guests poke fun at the infuriating absurdity of learning the world’s most-studied language – unpacking rules and nuances that make learning English a misery for millions around the world, and leave even Anglophones scratching their heads.
Latest episode
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English the vampire language, sucking life from other tongues
We investigate “word aversion” and our host Ivan ends up with a bad case of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, a 35-letter word meaning fear of long words. Our guest Deng Adut was a child soldier in Sudan. After arriving in Australia as a teenage r… -
When verbs gang up on you
English is an ode to uncertainty, as host Ivan explains with his ALDI theory (A Ludicrous Display of Inconsistency). Ethiopian-born comedian Joe White (real name Tilahun) loves his mum and is constantly bailing her out of awkward situations resulting… -
How many nouns does it take?!
The birth rate for new words in English is extraordinary. There are over 170,000 words in the English dictionary but some estimates put the vocab tally at over one million words... Ivan asks if we really need more? Tamil refugee Niro Vithyasekar lear… -
The language of poetry and love… NOT
Ivan is gutted when he finds out that one of the greatest ever Latino poets Jorge Luis Borges preferred English to Spanish, their shared mother tongue. Award-winning Afro-Brazilian Latinx writer and poet Guido Melo weighs in, trash-talking the Englis… -
Stressing out about emphasis with He Huang
Shortcuts cause Ivan a special level of dread… contractions, acronyms and abbreviations drive him mad. Fellow comedian He Huang is from Chongqing, an area of China known for its spicy food, and has a sense of humour to match. She trained as a linguis… -
"I’m no speek English": Artist Olana Janfa doesn't let bad English hold him back
Ivan Aristeguieta is obsessed with dialects, comparing them to the myriad different ways people have of making Bolognese. Guest Olana Janfa (who designed our podcast art) throws the menu out the window. He’s a self-taught artist and clothing designer… -
How would you like your adjectives stacked?
Of the many sins of English, its prepositions are preposterous. Ivan Aristeguieta is worried about landing 'in' Melbourne 'on' a plane. Wouldn’t he die in a horrific accident? Comedian Takashi 'Waka' Wakasugi explains the beauty and superiority of Ja… -
Introducing Bad English: A podcast that stands up to the English language
Bad English is a new comedy podcast from SBS Audio about the lows of learning the world's most widely spoken and studied language. Ivan Aristeguieta hits back at the illogical rules and infuriating exceptions that govern the English language; the nua…
