19 December 2011

Don't worry, we'll be doing more grammar in 2012 (but the same amount of Justin Bieber)

One of the students I volunteer teach tried to tell me tonight that "Justin Bieber" was a verb. Sorry, dear, you can only bring the Bieber into 85 percent of our in-class writing assignments, and this is not one of them.

That said, if "to Bieber" were a verb we all recognized... what would it mean?

To be discovered on YouTube? To be discovered by Usher?
To rise out of Canadian obscurity? (I feel like Dan Aykroyd or Joni Mitchell might have to say something about that. But neither "to Aykroyd" nor "to Joni" would mean that, for obvious reasons.)
To be accused of fathering a child before you turn 18?
To cause a preteen wave of marriage proposals from girls who are not actually allowed to date yet?
To popularize a very unflattering haircut?
To create a cult of personality around yourself inexplicable to most grownups?

I would have worked on that with the student, but we were in the middle of Mad Libs.

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