Yo Ho Ho: Talk Like a Pirate Day!

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Ahoy! Welcome to today’s class. I’m Robin, and today we’re going to be talking about pirate vocabulary. Yes, pirate vocabulary. Why, you may be wondering, are we talking about pirate vocabulary in an English class? Because September 19 is actually International Talk Like a Pirate Day. This is a very popular holiday in English speaking countries. And you may not know that many words and expressions related to pirates are actually used in everyday speaking, and movies, books, TV shows related to pirates are very popular and you may want to read or watch some of these in English. So I’m going to give you all of the vocabulary that you need to understand pirate culture. Ready? You may have noticed that at the beginning of the class, I said “Ahoy”. Ahoy is pirate for “Hello”. and “Ahoy, matey” is another way to say “Hello, friend”. Okay, so mate in English is another way to say friends so “Ahoy matey” means “Hello, friend”. “Yo ho ho!”. If a pirate says “Yo ho ho” they are trying to get someone’s attention. It’s like “Hey, listen to me”. “Yo ho ho”. All right. “Aye aye”. You may have heard this before if someone says “Aye aye” or “Aye aye, captain”, it means that they have been given an order, instructions, and they are responding with “aye aye” which means “Yes, I will do that right away”. So sometimes people say this in English, “aye aye”, which means “Yes, I will do it”. I will follow these directions immediately. Another pirate expression is “Shiver me timbers”. Okay, so we say this when we are surprised about something so a pirate would say “shiver me timbers” it’s because they are surprised, they can’t believe something so this is the expression that they use. Okay, another one. The “loot” or the “booty” is another word for the treasure that pirates are looking for. So that may be gold, it may be money, someone’s belongings. Another way to say this is loot or booty. Okay, you may see in some pirate films or you have read that they “maroon” someone. So if someone is marooned, it means that they are left, they are stranded normally on an island, a place where there is no one else and they have no belongings. So all of their things, food, water, etc. They have none of that, they are marooned. So if you are marooned, you are left somewhere with nothing, probably so that you will die, but we’ll see. Okay, another popular pirate expression that you’ve probably seen in movies is “to walk the plank”. Okay, so if pirates have someone as a prisoner, or a hostage if they are keeping someone, or even one of their own, another pirate, and as punishment, if they have done something wrong, they have to walk the plank. So on many pirate ships, you have this board that you walk across, and when you fall off the board, you fall into the ocean. So when you walk the plank, it’s another expression for to die because when you fall into the water, you’re probably not going to survive. So this is another expression “to walk the plank”. And finally we have “Davy Jones’ Locker”. Okay, Davy Jones was a very famous pirate, a fictional pirate, and his locker. This is another word for the bottom of the sea. So if someone goes to Davy Jones’ Locker, it means that they die or they drown in the sea at the bottom of the ocean. Okay, so this is just an overview of some pirate expressions that you may hear in other situations. Some people may say things like “Ahoy” or “Shiver me timbers”. This actually comes from pirate culture. So now I’m going to give you some recommendations of books, films and TV shows that you can watch if you enjoy this pirate culture. So one of the most famous books about pirates is this one, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is one of the most famous books. It’s quite old. And it’s been translated into many languages. So maybe you’ve read it in your native language. But this is one of the classics about pirates, looking for buried treasure, following a treasure map, etc. Some famous pirate characters come from this book. So it’s a great one. But again, you need to understand, there’s a lot of pirate vocabulary in this book. Another book that is popular about pirates is “Peter Pan”. Now many of you know the movie Peter Pan, but the movie is actually based on the book. Okay, so you know, Peter Pan, Captain Hook. This is the popular, the famous pirate from the story of Peter Pan, Captain Hook. Okay, so this is another good pirate story. If you want to read in English. Now, how about movies? The most popular ones, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, all of them, starring Johnny Depp as the famous Jack Sparrow. So these are very, very popular movies about pirates. And he uses a lot of these expressions like “Yo ho ho”. He likes to say “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum”, because rum is the preferred drink of pirates. So if you hear that in the movie, you will know. All right, another movie that’s based on the Peter Pan story is called “Hook” with Robin Williams. This is a very popular movie from many years ago, and it’s a great one to watch if you like this pirate culture. A couple other movies that are not pirate specific, but they involve looking for treasure, looking for buried treasure, is “The Goonies” and also “The Princess Bride”. So these are some really good kind of pirate-themed movies that you might want to watch to practice your English and look for some of this vocabulary. And finally, I want to give you a recommendation of a TV show that’s actually one of my favorites. It’s a great, really interesting action-packed TV show and it’s called “Black Sails”. Black Sails is the prequel to The Treasure Island story. So a “prequel” is the story that happened before. Okay, so this is a story that leads up to “Treasure Island” with famous characters like Captain Flint, and also Long John Silver. So he’s a very famous character. He was in “Treasure Island”, but this TV show “Black Sails” focuses on the development of his character, of Long John Silver, who is very well-known. So I think you’ll enjoy this TV show. Look for it. It’s from just a few years ago. So it’s very recent, called “Black Sails”. So now that I’ve given you some pirate vocabulary, and some book, TV, and movie recommendations, I want to hear from you. Do you enjoy this kind of culture? Do you enjoy pirate movies, reading books about pirates? Do you have any recommendations? Which one is your favorite? And do you recognize any of these expressions? Have you heard any of them before? I know they’re pirate related, but as I said, sometimes their use in general daily life, culture and conversation. So I hope that this class has been useful for you. I encourage you to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day, use some of this vocabulary on this day, and enjoy as well by watching some of these films and TV shows. So I look forward to seeing you here, same time next week. Take care. Bye!