New Pandemic Vocabulary with Teacher Robin

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Hi, everyone. I’m Robin. Welcome to my first class of 2021. So I hope you had a wonderful holiday, if you celebrated. And today I’m going to be talking about some vocabulary that has emerged, that has been invented, let’s say, because of last year’s situation and also this year, because of the pandemic. So I’m going to teach you some new pandemic vocabulary. Now, every year, words are added to the dictionary because words emerge, they come up because of different situations. It could be because of a popular movie, it could be because of something happening in the news. So English is ever evolving and there are constantly new words being invented and new words being used. So when these words are used on a regular basis, enough, then they become part of our actual vocabulary, day-to-day vocabulary, and eventually they are added to the dictionary. So I want to teach you some of these words that we have been using in the past year as a result of COVID-19 as a result of the pandemic. Now, there is so much vocabulary related to the subject, some terms are more medical related to having COVID or the steps that we are taking to be safe, etc. You probably already know terms like “social distancing”, where we have to keep our distance from people or “the new normal”, what life will be like after the pandemic or how we are living our lives now. But I want to show you to teach you some funny, a little bit more humorous words that we have started using because of the pandemic. So maybe you’ve heard of some of these or maybe they are new to you.

Okay, the first one is “blursday”. Okay, when something is blurry, it means that you can’t see it very well. So blursday means basically that you don’t know what day it is because you’re at home, maybe you’re not working and the days start to kind of run together. Is it Monday? Is it Tuesday? I don’t really know. So you call it blursday. Okay, this is a new pandemic word, blursday.

Another one is “doomscrolling”. Okay, doom. This is something negative, something very serious. And when you scroll is when you go through different articles or news online. So doomscrolling is when you consume endless negative media online. So if you just read news story after news story that’s negative, like related to COVID, related to the way it’s affecting people. This is called doomscrolling. So this is something that we don’t want to do too much of. Now, we want to know what’s happening in the news and we want to be up to date. But it’s sometimes good to take a break after a while because if we read too many of these negative or sad articles, then we start to feel sad and depressed ourselves. So this is something to be careful about, the doomscrolling.

Okay, another word is “zoombombing”. Okay, so many of us who used to work in offices and are now working from home, we use Zoom, which is a virtual tool for having meetings with your colleagues or even your friends. So zoombombing, this comes from photobombing. So a photo bomb is when you are taking a photo and someone comes into the photo when you don’t want them to or by accident. So zoombombing is when someone comes into your Zoom call and everyone can see this person and they’re not supposed to be there. So when you zoom bomb, and this can be someone’s animal as well. My dog has Zoom bombed me before when I’ve been in meetings, so this is a common thing that happens to everyone who is working from home.

Okay, and speaking of working from home, this new abbreviation, “WFH”, WFH is working from home. So this is a new abbreviation that people use a lot because of the situation.

All right, here’s a funny one. “Maskne”. Now this happens to me and it might happen to you as well because when we go outside, we have to wear our masks and what happens especially in the summer, it gets hot. And so you might actually get acne in this region of your face where the mask is covering. So this term maskne has emerged because of this situation. So if you wear your mask a lot, your face becomes irritated and you might get like a pimple or a zit on your face, this maskne It’s kind of a funny one. And it happens to all of us. So we’re all in the same situation.

All right. A “quarenteam”. Okay, so we have the original word quarantine, when you have to stay at home. So your quarenteam, this team is the group of people who you are quarantined with so maybe if you live with some, some roommates, some flatmates. Those people would be your quaranteam. Maybe you live with your parents or with your siblings. So whoever you are sharing this experience with of being quarantined. This is your quarenteam.

Okay, and another quarantine related word is a “quarantini”. Okay, so this is, imagine you’re stuck at home, you can’t go to a bar for a drink. So you make yourself a quarantini. So this comes from like a martini, but you make it at home when you’re quarantined. So it’s a cocktail that you make at home because you can’t go to a bar. So this is kind of a funny one as well. If you have any special quarantini recipes, then feel free to share them in the comments.

And finally, my last one is a “Coronacation”. All right. This is a vacation that is different from the vacation that you would normally take. Maybe you stay home or maybe you travel somewhere closeby. Okay, so a Coronacation is a cheap, cheap travel or staying at home so this is also known as a “staycation”. I’ve mentioned this word before in another video. A staycation means you have vacation but you stay at home, you stay in your area so the Coronacation is similar. It means that you can’t travel very far because of Coronavirus.

And finally, I’d like to mention a few expressions that have become so popular in the past year because of the situation, Coronavirus, WFH, working from home. You’ve probably said some of these. So let me know in the comments. If you did. “You’re on mute.” “Can you see me?” “Can you see my screen?” Okay, so as people get used to using tools like Zoom, Skype, Google Chat, etc. Google meet, excuse me. This, these are common questions and common things that people say to each other because you might not realize that you’re on mute, or you’re not actually sharing your screen in a presentation. So these are some funny expressions that people have used a lot in the past year.

Okay, so now I want to ask you to tell me in the comments, which of these terms is more relevant or most relevant for you? Which of these have you maybe used or you have experienced lately? Can you think of any other ones because there are so many, there’s so much vocabulary related to the pandemic, related to this situation. So tell me in the comments and I look forward to hearing what you have to say. So again, I hope that you’re having a great start to the new year. Hopefully, some of this vocabulary will not be used for much longer, but at least now you know what it is. So thanks again for joining and I will see you next week. Take care. Bye!