Opposite Day is on January 24th each year. It is a strange but fun day. Whatever you say on this day must be the opposite of what you mean. If you say ‘yes’, you mean ‘no’ and vice versa. If someone tells you‘You don’t look so good today,’ you say ‘thank you’. Or perhaps that should be ‘No thank you’. If you have ever tried this for yourself, it can be quite confusing, although it is fun. Children love playingthis as a game and usually end up in non-stop laughter. Some psychologists have said that playing using opposite meanings is a good “philosophy course” for kids – it gets them thinking. It could also be the day when ‘opposites attract,’ which means two people who have totally different characters start a relationship.

Opposite Day can be a very useful day for students. This is a good time to get out vocabulary notebooks and find the antonyms, or opposites, to different words. Students could focus on prefixes that are used to give a word an opposite meaning. For example ‘un’ in ‘unhelpful’ and ‘unnecessary’, or ‘il’ in illegal’ and ‘illogical’. There are many more. Actually, Opposite Day reminds me of a little verse I learntas a child. Here it is: “One bright morning in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back, they faced each other. Drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise, and came to arrest the two dead boys. If you don't believe this story’s true, ask the blind man - he saw it too!” Confusing? Why not make your own opposite story?

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