Essay : Learnig words outside of school and using it inside

 

Approximately 40 years ago.

During my time at school in the UK, an incident occurred that has lingered vividly in my memory. 

One day, as I sat reading a newspaper in the classroom, a senior student—a year above me—spotted me. Later that day, he approached me in the hallway and said, “Will you bring the newspaper of yours?”

Without much thought, I responded, “Roger, wilco,” before heading off to fetch the newspaper, which I had left behind in the classroom. No sooner had I uttered the phrase than a Canadian teacher nearby interjected, visibly startled: “What did you just say?”

I replied, slightly perplexed, “I said, ‘Roger, wilco.’”

“And what does that mean?” he demanded.

“It means the same as ‘Aye aye, sir,’” I explained, hoping to clarify.

To my surprise, this only seemed to deepen his confusion. “If ‘Aye aye, sir’ is a naval term,” he pressed, “then ‘Roger, wilco’ must surely be an Air Force expression. Why would a Japanese student like you know military jargon?”

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment I had encountered the phrase, but I recalled hearing it frequently. It was a term I had picked up in everyday contexts—perhaps from the workmen who occasionally came to our home for renovations, or in public spaces like markets, construction sites, and even at ticket counters in the underground. It had always struck me as a straightforward phrase, akin to saying, “Understood, I’ll do it.”

“Roger” signified acknowledgment—“understood”—while “wilco” was a shortened form of “will comply,” meaning “I will follow through.” Together, the phrase effectively conveyed, “I’ll carry out what has been requested.”

Although English was ostensibly the teacher’s native language, his reaction puzzled me. Why such curiosity over a phrase I’d heard so often? Nevertheless, I explained that I had come across it in various settings and that it seemed commonplace, at least in my experience.

At the time, I was attending an American-style international school, though my chosen classes rarely included American or Canadian students. Even when they did, there was little interaction.

Apparently, the Canadian teacher’s curiosity about “Roger, wilco” grew into a full-blown investigation. He reportedly asked every Japanese student at the school whether they had heard the phrase, seemingly determined to establish whether it was a widely recognised expression among Japanese people. What conclusions he reached remain unknown to me. However, his scepticism towards any English expression unfamiliar to him was clear. He seemed convinced that I might have been using some sort of peculiar slang.

Whether “Roger, wilco” is still in use in contemporary North America, or whether it persists in places like Australia or New Zealand, remains uncertain. What I do know is that it was a phrase I heard frequently in 1980s Britain.

It leaves me wondering: has the phrase fallen out of use, relegated to the past? Or does it remain in the linguistic repertoire of an older generation? The sociological implications of language as a marker of time and cultural exchange are fascinating to consider.