Bard Bits: Talk Like Shakespeare Day
It’s here. The day you have been waiting for. Yes! It’s Talk Like Shakespeare Day, which happens to coincide with the day historians figure to be both William’s day of birth and day of death: April 23.
As an English teacher I had zero background in Shakespeare as somehow his works were never taught, presented, or discussed in my school days. And this took place in a modern school district!
This meant I came to the classroom on the same playing field as my students: zero knowledge and lacking comprehension. I dove right in and learned as much as I could in order to sound like I knew what I was talking about.
Something clicked because I am a professed Bardinator today and even attended Folger Library’s Hamlet Academy back in 2015. I am also adapting Shakespeare plays into reader’s theatre scripts and they are regular sellers on my Teachers Pays Teachers website.
All in all I’m quite pleased to have traveled the journey, transforming from Shakespeare zilch to Shakespeare rich over the years.
However, to talk like Shakespeare is a talent I am not quite conversant in yet. I did find this nifty website which takes randomly generated sentences and turns them into Shakespearean speech. I am having fun playing with it. Here are some examples:
Crouch before you jump or miss the mark. Our plans right now are hazy.
Becomes—
Crouch bef’re thee jumpeth ‘r misseth the marketh. Our plans even but now art hazy.
Or—
It was done before the boy could see it. Hop over the fence and plunge in.
Becomes—
T wast done bef’re the knave couldst seeth t. Hopeth ov’r the fenceth and plunge in.
Pam Webb 
I first became interested in Shakespeare after first becoming interested in the films of Orson Welles. Much fuss had been made of his film Chimes at Midnight but I struggled getting through it, so I took a course in Shakespeare at SF State and it opened my eyes. Perhaps, because it was the first version of Hamlet I ever watched, but Derek Jacobi’s portrayal remains my favorite. *** And my apologies if this is the exact same story i told on the last Shakespeare Day. I tend to do that a lot.
Shakespeare wouldn’t mind, George.
“I mind not” Shakespeare would say. (per the reverse translator)
Love this idea of Shakespeare talk:)
It’s almost as fun as Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Right!