Stephen Fry: These People Get Almost No Respect 😡

makes you so angry at the division in the world where people like that are paid nothing and get almost no respect when I was first went to school seven a proper school as you might say it rapidly became apparent to me that I was bad at everything that all the other children were good at um I I couldn't catch a ball or run in a straight line and collide with a tree or trip over my own feet I couldn't swim uh I couldn't sing or play an instrument I couldn't draw or paint and I really felt inadequate um but there was an occasion which sort of sparked off a bit of confidence was was this music teacher was writing on the board she wrote the word Orchestra in big capital letters so she was going to give us a lesson about the elements of the orchestra and I shouted out cart horse um and she said what I know you exactly and I and and she said how did you know that I said well I could just see it and uh she s of gave me a frowning look that I thought was disappointing disappointment but in fact she asked me to stay behind and she sort of talked to me about things and then around that time it started Latin at school and I loved it I because unlike other boys who who saw it as a terrible chore to understand I thought it was like a game like a code game right so that you could substitute words one word for another and and it just became interesting so um they they then said would I like to learn ancient Greek and I said oh yes and it's even more of a code because they got different letters so I learned to write my name in in with Greek characters and I learned the Greek alphabet of course and then started to learn the language and loved it uh and I like Susie dent on countdown I just love the atmology the origin of words and and uh so this was perfect in Greek because the Greek book that I was given because I was the only one doing Greek was it would have a new noun or verb like let's say gramine to write and it would say you can easily remember the meaning of gramming because of words like grammar and tellr which is a a piece of writing from a distance which is what tell is a remote um and graphane and you know and and all these different so gramine to read rather than graphane to write and phonos sound as in telephone and I remember turning a page and it had a verb thadz and and it said you can easily remember this by thinking of the English word thge and I remember looking down and thinking I quite like words and things but thge and it turns out thur is an English word it just means a worker of Wonders a worker of Miracles th the urge is Urus is the work you know and um so but and of course I haven't forgotten it but that set me on the path to believing there was something I could do and and this was a boarding school and and at night I would read stories um you know I had a torch under the bed and I was the the reader the dormet reader and and I would sometimes make up stories you need make up ghost stories is love and so despite being appalling at games dis practic really I just really couldn't do anything climb a rope I mean God the sight of well we're all diss something yes exactly that's the point isn't it so you find you don't know what you're good at find out what you diss at and what's left after all the disses is that exactly and I this is what I say if I do sometimes go to schools and things and uh um and they'll say well you know all these things I said um uh what do what do you like then and he told said football and I said well who's which which team and he told me his team and I said so you can name all the team and of course he could I said but you couldn't name any other teams could you cuz you like your team and he went through the whole Premier team naming every single team and their manager and where they've been before and I said you see your brain is that's I couldn't catch up with you there you've got an amazing brain and you have to remind people that taxi drivers in London is a really good example because you know that the knowledge which is what London black cab drivers have to it's their exam they pass where they have to have a meeting and the and their examiner says take me from you know the South Kensington tube entrance to uh upper Street in Islington and they they have to recite to The Examiner turn left at there right at the lights comply with lights center lane pass and then name the buildings they're passing in because if they're important buildings like hotels and clubs and things they should know them anyway it's it's an astounding piece of uh huge amount of knowledge that these people and a lot of them and I I talk to them um um a lot of them left school very early because they were told they didn't have an academic brain yeah and the discovery that their brain could master all this information famously more than a lawyer has to learn to pass a law degree um all that information in their brain they suddenly realized that they weren't the dances that they were told they were and I I I'm next week going to um uh Paris for a night on taking the train but uh I'm hosting the global teacher awards at uh at the UNESCO building in Paris which is the thing I've done before and and it is astounding these they're from all over the world Bangladesh Peru London and all these teachers that are nominated I mean the ones in the long list are amazing enough but then when you get to the short list the work they do the inspiration they are they you know and you just makes you so angry at the division in the world where people like that are paid nothing and get almost no respect as this you know there are these Awards but they won make the front pages in the newspapers let's be honest but these people are more charismatic and dedicated and useful exactly than almost anybody you're likely to meet in your life and they pass that message to their children they make their children feel capable and and it's so important should we just give Stephen a round of applause control room Round of Applause the greatest honor this show can bestow upon a guest oh

Channel: Virgin Radio UK

Views: 920,329

Keywords: virgin radio, virgin radio uk, virginradiouk, chris evans, chris evans virgin radio, chris evans breakfast show, graham norton, the graham norton show, graham norton virgin radio, Ricky Wilson Virgin Radio, Ricky Wilson, Stephen Fry, Greek, Ancient Greek, Ancient Greece, Latin, Teachers, Teaching, Taxi, Taxi Cab, Black Cab

Id: xlaUfLUDbRw

Length: 6min 3sec (363 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2023