Hurrah!

In yesterday’s blog I briefly mentioned the predominance of yahs in Edinburgh, which led one Mr. Sheepy to ask ‘So what IS a yah?’ For someone in the third-level education system in Scotland, this might seem like a rather silly question. Let’s give the Sassenachs a chance, though, shall we?

Also known as “rahs”, yahs comprise a good 70% of the student base at some of the more priveliged universities in the UK –  Cambridge, Bristol, Exeter, Edinburgh, Oxford, and York to name but a few. It’s easy enough to spot a yah, but in case you need help I have created a table.

Print it out and take it everywhere! Now, when you’re out shopping/wandering/eating from trash cans, take the time to inspect everyone you see and tick the table accordingly. If you see someone on the street who answers “yes” (or “yah”) to any of the criteria above, you probably have a yah on your hands. There’s also a chance that they’re emo, rich or just have really bad fashion sense, but hey – my table isn’t foolproof.

Hopefully this should help you identify and avoid yahs in future (yes, avoid; have you ever had a conversation with these people?? My advice: don’t, unless you want to lose some brain cells).

In truth, yahs can be a good laugh. Once you get past the Ugg boots, dyed-blonde flippy hair and atrocious accent, you can start to see the real person beneath the stereotype. And if you are lucky enough to share a tutorial group with one of them (both Spanish and English in my case) then you’ll come to realise that they truly have some deep and meaningful insights to offer. During Spanish Literature, for example, I was informed that ‘El Matadero is a really, like, awful book, you know? It’s really harrowing and bloody, it’s like so horrible.’

…Sometimes I wonder if perhaps yahs aren’t just stoners, only with more money and worse fashion sense.

Just in case you didn’t get a clear enough idea of what a yah looks like, I’ve also used my MAD PHOTOSHOP SKILLZ to create this lifelike representation of a female yah:

She looks a lot like Kate Moss, yah?

Anyway. In other news, while I was trawling Echoing The Sound today, I had the pleasure of discovering that Bipolar Mike has finally finished his Echoplex Drum Simulator (you know, the one what looks like the thingumabobby that Josh Freese is using in this video). I suggest you download it from his website if you haven’t already.

Out.

-Rowan

~ by Rowan on 30 August, 2008.