Vocabulary related to Bullying

After watching 13 Reasons Why, which is a Netflix original series, I decided to cover some of the words and expressions related to bullying. That happened because the series approaches bullying, sexual abuse, suicide and many other things. So why not?

Since we seem to have adopted the word bullying in our own language, it clearly explains itself. What you may not know though is that we have the word bully as a noun and a verb. If you bully someone, for example, you may threaten to hurt them, force them to do something, beat them up, attack, harass, intimidate them, make fun of them, scare them, spread rumors about them, tease them, etc. Therefore, you're a bully.

You can easily tell who's a bully in a classroom by their behavior. Behavior is what we call a particular way of acting. If you have a behavior that may be described as abusive, disrespectful, bossy or threatening to others, especially to the weaker, you're likely to be a bully. And spotting a bully in a classroom is just as easy as finding a target. A target is usually someone of few words that don't seem to fit in quite easily, may have their possessions taken, personal belongings damaged and faces social exclusion. Many teachers and authority figures sometimes choose to turn a blind way to those behaviors and only stand by. Both expressions to turn a blind eye and to stand by mean to ignore something and pretend not to see it.

Tolerating an unpleasant and difficult fact like bullying is managing to accept it even though you do not like it. That's not the way to go. Alright, guys. See you next time!