Nothing drives me bananas more than bad English. Not the kind spoken by foreign visitors to America, but by those who live, work, and are (supposedly) educated here in the U.S. What is up with our society lately? We’ve gotten so lax in our English that I’m sure the "Mother Country" is ready to go to war to force us to change our official language from "English" to "Cheesy American".
When someone mispronounces a word it drives me absolutely batty. No matter how easy, or complex. I figure, if you don’t know how to pronounce it, you ought not be using it. For example, I’ve been listening to Erwin’s podcast of a couple of weeks ago. He constantly uses the word "optimalize." I’ve noticed people do this a lot: add "-ize" or "-ed" or to shift a word from noun or adjective to verb. For example,the past tense of to orient is changed to "orientated", which is not a word. —Are you listening people, it’s not a word! :::ahem:: :::cough::: :::straightening out my shirt::: — The word you are looking for is oriented. Hence, the sentence would be "He oriented himself to his surroundings." NOT "He orientated himself…"
Grrrrr!!!
Okay, back to Erwin. The word he was trying to convey was optimize. I knew that. I understand that English is not his first language, having been born in El Salvador and not arriving in the US until he was… 10, I think….?? I was willing to overlook it. Once. Maybe even twice. But he continued using the word throughout his 44 minute podcast. AAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! Drove me nuts!
I love Erwin. I love hearing him speak. I miss sitting through his talks two or three times a Sunday (once or twice while running sound, a third just for the heck of it). But, come on. He’s got a Master’s, for goodness sake. His wife has a Master’s. And she’s a teacher. If nothing else, she should have been able to correct his bad English. But, alas, it persists.
Don’t get me wrong. I still managed to get a great deal out of his message. But not without a lot of gnashing of teeth and constantly correcting him — as if he could hear me all the way out here in Nashville…. sheesh.
One of my best friends often calls me a walking Thesaurus. She always calls or emails me when she needs a big word to more powerfully convey the meaning behind her thoughts. I can always give her at least one or two off the top of my head, more if I’ve got a computer nearby. God knows (!!) how much I love my Thesaurus. I admit it, I’m a word-snob. I love words. I love how they sound (when they are pronounced correctly — one of my friends once pronounced the word cacophony as "kakuh phoney"…. "because that’s the way it’s spelled" — aeeyah! — but I digress).
But its not just that I love words. I respect them. They have power to convey deep meaning, to conjure images only the mind can see or create. They have the power to heal wounds and mend hearts, and the power to destroy kingdoms and kill the soul.
I don’t think people have the proper respect for words; for our language. If they did I think their pronunciation and usage of words would be far superior to what it is now.
Now, grammar and spelling… well, that’s a different story. One we will not get into. I’ll I will say is, I looooove me my spell-checker!
Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids.
But… “optimalize” sounds so IMPORTANT! Optimize is simple and bare, in comparison. You can’t impress the missions conference, nor the appropriations committee, with simple words. Excessive complexity is au courant, don’t you see. You know it’s half a pound of baloney, and they know it’s half a pound of baloney, but if you dress it up everyone can be comfortable in the idea that it’s ten pounds of porterhouse.
I’d rather have four ounces of the real thing. Who are you going to believe? A Pharisee, all gussied up in phylactery and clean robes, or Jesus, whose robes are, um, a bit worn?
Oh, Lu. My Walking Thesarus. I miss thee. I also have taken up your book and started bashing people with it when they do wrong. š
As you know, I love words too. I can’t blame that on you, though I have been tempted a time or two. LOL What I love most is that the correct words can distill the most complex thought into simple terms or take a simple thought and make it sound so much more important. Just think of the gavel. Wasn’t that the best use of your words? *eg*
What bugs me the most about the lack of proper English usage is in forums and message boards on the Internet. People – mostly “kids”, but not always – just don’t see to care what words they use, how they use them or if they even used little things like capital letters, punctuation or a semblance of grammar. No amount of asking people to at least try does any good. All it gets me is snide comments of “this isn’t a formal forum” or “u r dum 4 wnting mor we speak ok 4 us.” ::rolling eyes and gagging::
So, don’t give up your thesarus, unless you’re getting a bigger one. š
Oh, the gavel!! That made me fall off my chair just thinking about it! Sometimes I really wish I’d bonked him on the head with it! Nothing like a power-hungry idiot to bring out the the bonk-er in me. š
And never fear. I will never give up my thesaurus. And these days, the internet brings the “book” to me. Oh, you gotta love The Internets!!!! God bless Al Gore for inventing them and George W. for naming them!