It’s becoming, like, an epidemic.
In my economics class last week, we had many discussions about various economic issues. The topics and discussions were interesting, yet I was having a hard time concentrating on them. The trouble was, instead of focusing on what my classmates were saying, I was focusing on how they said it.
One of my other classes, Studies in Literature, has only 14 people in it – the only students in my grade who were nerdy enough to take a course about literature, I guess! That being so, and our teacher having been an English teacher for over 20 years, we often get into tangents about how the English language is going down the drain – how technology is killing our spelling, how laziness is affecting our speech... etc. We often talk about the “like” phenomenon, how “to” is pronounced “tuh”, how “the” should be pronounced “thee” but is pronounced “thuh"... it goes on. What scared me first was realizing that yes, the English language is damaged on a daily basis. What scared me more is that I do all of these things that we were discussing.
While I'm having a hard time stopping myself from saying "like" and "thuh" and "tuh", I am picking up on it around me everywhere! The more I hear it, the more I want to stop myself from saying these things, but it is much harder than I thought! I often realize I've said one of these blunders after saying it, but by that time it is too late - I have done my part in killing the English language. My English teacher described it perfectly the other day: she said she visualizes a speech bubble, as in a cartoon, floating above her head with the blunder just floating there, as if to expose you.
I'm beginning to think a vow of silence might be the only solution.
Don't worry about it too much. It's not damaging the English language. It is the natural progression of language over time.
ReplyDeleteA language goes from its pure form toward the creation of accents and different pronunciations. Soon regional dialects are created and other language elements are incorporated. As time progresses the language transforms so much it is no longer recognizable and such is how a new language is created. To call it damage to the English language would be assuming it was unscathed originally, but really present English is the old English, after centuries of "damage".
The "like" thing does get annoying though.
I find it better not to think about language--my own or my students'--lest I also become preoccupied and borderline obsessive about it.
ReplyDeleteIn the past I had a student who took FOREVER to just spit out her comment because she literally, like, said, like, 'like', after, like, every, like, word. I'm not kidding. I was afraid that she would see my facial expression and notice my annoyance but she never looked up. I think she was painting her nails--all semester.