Recently I have become excessively aware of the way I speak. Finally, being an English major is starting to sink in.
What really triggered this new awareness was an incident last week. My boss and I had a "meeting" (lunch) with several women from the South Barrington community (= rich), and one of them was older, probably around 65 or so. We ended up talking to her for about 4 hours (I also have a theory that older women are lonely and take every opportunity they can to talk to anyone they can...another post, perhaps), and in the span of that 4 hours, she never once used the word "like" except in its appropriate sense--of comparison.
The word like is meant to be used in simile form (comparing two things using like or as). Bet you haven't thought about similes in a while. Consider this a brief summer school session.
Like has become the most overused word in the English language. And all of a sudden my awareness has been heightened, and it's driving me crazy. I accidentally yelled at Lucas last weekend for using it too much. I try to catch myself in conversation--not only is it a matter of sounding more intelligent, it is a matter of the state of the English language.
We have an excessive number of words constituting our verbal capacities, and we only use a tiny fraction of those words. I am afraid that we are becoming less eloquent as the years go by and technology makes it easier for us to slum our vocabulary. I get upset when I think about the fact that we are raising an entire generation on text message and IM lingo. These methods of communication are based on brevity, lack of punctuation is the norm, and spelling? Forget about it. If you can convey a word with fewer letters than it actually has, congratulations.
I get frustrated because I think of the papers I'm going to have to grade in future years (if I ever finish my degree).
I get frustrated because Americans already have a reputation as being one of the least expressive or eloquent nations of the world--a nation with mandatory education policies.
I get frustrated because I do it too.
So remember, "like" is a word to be used in comparison. Not as a stall tactic. Not as a filler when you don't know what to say. Not because everyone else is doing it.
And please, for the sake of your brain, watch your language.
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5 comments:
I blame the Valley girls.
Like, I know what you mean, but it's like...I dunno....just like hard to talk gooder.
I think I remember reading something from Madeleine L'Engle about how the vitality of its language in some sense serves as a measure of a society, citing examples where the deliberate suppression of language leads to the curbing of ideas, leads to oppression. Not that anyone is deliberately trying to keep us stupid to control us (I don't think..nor did she), but if you tone it down from deliberate suppression from above to internal suppression from laziness, new forms of communication, etc..the results are essentially the same.
Our civilization is not headed any place good. Keep preserving the language.
You would not believe how hard it is to have a conversation and try not to use "like" or say "um" every break.
The whole "like" phenomenom did start with the "Valley Girl Speak" in the late 70's/early 80's. Thanks a lot, Moon-Unit! It's amazing how long it's lasted. I remember a time when it wasn't used as it is today, cuz, like, you know, I'm older and stuff? Let's just be thankful that the Beavis & Butt-head phenomenon didn't last. How about "not so much", "hello!" (unless used in conjunction with McFly), "I feel ya, Dog" (unless you're one of my best homey's), business-speak such as "rightsizing" (reminds me of McDonald's), "paradigm-shift" (didn't that occur on a Star Trek episode?, and "stakeholder" (what, did we have another Louisiana Purchase?). I do however enjoy how the word "dude" has become so all-purpose these days. Dude! Dude? Dude. Duuu huuuude...
Peace, Rod
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