My (first) Covid words

I had a conversation with a school last week. I never thought that the chat would result in me learning a new term. But, as we keep hearing, we’re in ‘unprecedented times’.

The term was ‘bubble teacher’. In my day job, I work in a university team that supports school students and teachers. I’ve been having quite a few conversations with schools recently about how we can best support them in this most challenging of times.

This conversation, though, was the first one I’d had with a teacher since small groups of secondary school students (in some year groups) were allowed to return to class. The government’s concept of creating bubbles between households has also clearly been a ‘hit’ with schools. For my satirical imaginings of this strange new world, see my ‘New Normal’ post!

As someone who regularly corrupts the English language with fake words, phrases and misspellings (if you know what I’m on about then you really know me!), I am just in awe of the new terminology that the pandemic has created. I mean, if someone had started talking to ‘past Emily’ – say, 4 months ago – about a ‘bubble teacher’, I’d think they were off their rocker. And yet, when confronted with this new term just a few days ago, I knew exactly what it meant. I didn’t even have to ask for clarification.

This is by no means the only new term to emerge from Covid. In this sense, the disease has been extremely generous. Indeed, I’d never heard of ‘furlough’ before all this (could it inspire a future cookie dough brand I wonder?), I didn’t realise it was humanly possible to ‘socially distance’ and I didn’t know that ‘R’ had a rate… For my utterly bizarre take on that one, you need to consult Captain Polly Parrot in this blog post!

The teacher I spoke to also divulged another gem – she talked about things being ‘Covid-friendly’. That single term inspired this storyboard. As the teacher beautifully demonstrated, in addition to the new words, phrases and concepts noted above, there’s a lot of ‘Covid dash’ terminology emerging. My question is: what do these actually mean? And, given that this is really a rhetorical question, I’ve decided to interpreted these new words myself. 

Now, you might be wondering why there’s quite a bit of blank space in this storyboard. The reason is in the title – these are just my first Covid words. Like a small child learning their first words, I’ve only just been immersed into this new language. I fully expect there to be more new words over the coming months – and, dare I say it, years – so I’m planning to add in at least 2 more when they emerge. Another contender was ‘Covid-toe’ but I think we all already have a picture of what that looks like…!

Ok, so let’s start with Covid-friendly. I first had to work out how on earth to draw a cartoon version of Covid. I’ve been told my lil character looks quite a bit like a Pokemon of some kind… Personally, I think that’s quite a success! As for the term, this one is interesting. The teacher I spoke to used this in relation to combatting Covid in schools, workplaces, etc. So, in a sense, it should probably be termed ‘Covid-unfriendly’ instead – I’ve got a feeling that’s got one too many syllables for it to catch on though. So my portrayal does what it says on the tin. It shows big Covid with it’s small Covid friends. Looks like they’re having a whale of a time. 

Let’s move over to Covid-safe. The first thought that came into my head to represent ‘safe’ was a vault. My second thought was a sign saying ‘safe space’. I threw both together and there you go. Trying to give Covid a suitable expression in this part was difficult. I’m not even sure what I was trying to show here!!!

Covid-secure. The term the government, in particular, uses to excess. Covid doesn’t look too happy in this one and I suppose that’s in-keeping with the image those who use the phrase are trying to conjure. Covid. In chains. Contained. Secure.

And, finally (for now), Covid-ready. This could only be represented by Covid getting ready to start a race. Feels quite appropriate. And looking at my drawing again, I’ve stuffed up the ‘r’ in the word ‘marks’ in the speech bubble. It looks more like the word ‘masks’. I suppose that’s quite poetic. Not bad for an amateur, right?

Looking at these terms together on the page, and ignoring their representations for a second, let’s be real. All these new terms are saying the same thing. For, is there really any difference between somewhere or someone being ‘Covid-friendly’, ‘Covid-safe’, ‘Covid-secure’, or ‘Covid-ready’? And, for that matter, do any of these terms mean much at all? I’ll let you be the judge…!