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ELL Guide

A guide for ELL (English Language Learners) at the University of Maine at Augusta

The Twilight Zone -- Meaning & Pop Culture Origin

A person could say, "I feel like I am in The Twilight Zone" right now.  The Twilight Zone was a popular television show from 1959 - 1964 that was rebooted for two more seasons more recently in 2019 and 2020.  The show features a lot of mystical, supernatural, science fiction, and metaphysical elements that make the episodes "otherworldly."  As such, when someone has a very strange or unique experience, they may say, "I feel like I am in The Twilight Zone right now," meaning something like "I feel like I am in another world right now" or "I feel strange right now."  

Our instructional web series, The ELL Zone, is a play on the The Twilight Zone because often language barriers can make someone feel like they are in "another world" in a sense.  

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