Have you been offered a career change? An early retirement opportunity? Well, I’m sorry but I think you have been fired. But saying the first two sounds harsh or too straightforward, doesn’t it?

A euphemism, also called doublespeak, “makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unnatural seem natural, the unpleasant seem attractive, or at least tolerable”. So how are our L2 students going to understand such nuanced language? Continue reading →