Valentine's Day: Playing With Language

Valentine’s Day is this Saturday, February 14. This holiday is celebrated romantically, and it's also a time for kids to celebrate their friendships. But I like it for the way Valentine cards play with the language, using puns and idioms to make jokes.

Even romantic-seeming phrases are acceptable for kids to give each other in friendship when using these kinds of jokes, such as a card with the phrase “Here is a flower for my Valentine: two-lips,” and a picture of a tulip. It is a joke about kissing, but only a joke. Depending on your child’s age and your own family’s culture, you may choose not to have your child give this sort of card, but there is no need to feel uncomfortable if they receive them.

Puns
Puns are jokes using homophones (words which sound alike but have different meanings) or near-homophones. (Knock-knock jokes use puns, too.) Puns are also a great test of English listening skills – the words look wrong when written, but make sense when spoken.

• Bee my Valentine!
• I love you bear-y much!
• You’re purr-fect!
• Tanks for being my Valentine!

Idioms
Idioms are phrases which use words to mean something other than their literal meaning. I use two books frequently when discussing idioms with ESL students: the Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms, which gives examples, definitions, and history in a kid-friendly format; and the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, which is much more comprehensive, but also gives less explanation.

• Wear your heart on your sleeve.
• You’re the cat’s pajamas (or cat’s meow).
• I only have eyes for you.
• I’m head over heels for you.

Many American nicknames for people you love use food – honey, sweetie, sugar. Idioms are the same:

• You’re the apple of my eye.
• You’re the cream of the crop.
• I’m bananas (or nuts) for you.

“You can’t be beet” is both an idiom and a pun – a play on the homophones beat/beet, and a phrase which means something is the best. The illustration on a card will sometimes help explain the joke. This way of playing with language really helps with both English and cultural fluency. If you make a joke like this, you have really mastered the language!