[00:00.44]Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. My name is Callum Robertson.
[00:04.66]And I'm Yang Li.
[00:06.17]Come 'ere then! Oi! Come on then! Want a fight? Who are ya?
[00:10.99]Oh, Callum! Who are all those horrible men that I can hear on my headphones?
[00:15.40]Well, Li, they are yobs.
[00:17.56]Yobs?
[00:19.11]Yes, yobs. Yob is our phrase for today. It's an informal word that refers to a man who is loud and rude and possibly rather violent.
[00:30.26]Oh, that sounds like you!
[00:32.57]What are you talking about, sounds like me? What do you mean? Are you asking for a fight?
[00:36.90]No, no, no! But do you see what I mean? You sound like a yob.
[00:41.95]Hmm, yes, OK. Sorry about that.
[00:46.60]Hmm, anyway, I chose this word because as many people will know the UK recently experienced some violence on the streets of London and other cities.
[00:57.99]'Yob' is a word that the British press used to describe the rioters.
[01:04.43]Let's hear some real headlines from some British newspapers
[01:08.27]UK riots: 11 councils to evict 'riot yobs'.
[01:12.78]Ken Clarke blames 'feral' yobs.
[01:15.46]600 riot yobs left DNA on windows.
[01:19.20]Riot yobs filmed attacking cop cars.
[01:22.84]Riot yobs can't hide.
[01:25.17]UK riots: young yobs back on streets despite David Cameron's pledge.
[01:30.73]Ah, I'm not sure I remember seeing this word yob on the BBC news site.
[01:36.88]Well, no. It's a very negative and judgemental word. The BBC tends to avoid this kind of language in its news stories.
[01:45.41]But this is a piece of British slang that is very common in the UK.
[01:50.60]And we also sometimes use the word yobbo.
[01:53.24]Yobbo. Hmm, but where do all these words come from?
[01:58.29]Well, interestingly, what we have here is an example of backslang.
[02:02.52]If you read the word yob backwards, what do you get?
[02:07.73]Hmm, B.O.Y., boy.
[02:10.97]Exactly. And that's what the word used to mean, but now it refers to a rude and violent man, often a young man but not always.
[02:20.80] Listen Callum, I'm sorry about earlier. I don't really think you are a yob. You are a gentleman.
[02:26.78]Oh, thanks Li.
[02:28.26]But in any case you know if we were to get in a fight I would beat you. So don't you try that again!
[02:35.66]OK.