Sorta-Speak

February 22, 2022 by Heroes 5-0 1 Comment

POTPOURRI      

“Sorta-Speak”

According to www Sources …

• English idioms, proverbs, and expressions are an important part of everyday English. They come up all the time in both written and spoken English.

• Because idioms don’t always make sense literally, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the meaning and usage of each idiom. That may seem like a lot of work, but learning idioms is fun, especially when you compare English idioms to the idioms in your own language.

Then There is “Bureaucratese” …

• An informal term for obscure speech or writing that is typically characterized by verbosity, euphemisms, jargon, and buzzwords. Or, the use of formal, stilted language that is unfamiliar to people who lack special training.  Also known as officialese, corporate-speak, and government-speak.  (Contrast with plain English).

And, Some Examples …

• Rodney K. Perazas (retired educator)

“Examples??  You kidding me??  We have become so engulfed with this kind of “NEWSPEAK’, yeah like right out of the pages of that precious literary piece – ‘1984’ by George Orwell, for gosh sake…  Between our Nation’s continuous involvement in wars around the world, and this world-wide COVID-19 Pandemic, we’ve become finely tuned to these ridiculous phrases and references.”

“Almost every day we hear and read— New Normal; Herd Immunity; Contact Tracing; Tele-Commuting…  And, please don’t get me started on the Military and the ‘Cop Shows’ on television.  How ‘bout these – ‘Got your 6’; ‘Copy that’; ‘Accidental deliverance of ordinance’; ‘Terminate with extreme prejudice’!!”

“I don’t get it…  Why don’t we just speak ‘plain English’???”

• Jennifer Kim O’Reily (realtor associate)

“This discussion is really interesting to me.  I used to teach English to 8^th Graders at Cathedral School in downtown Honolulu when I first came to Hawaii.  At that time, my husband was stationed at U.S. Army Headquarters-Fort Shafter (Transportation Officer) … Anyway, because my husband kept speaking this ‘Government-speak’, I did research, and then I decided to teach a class on ‘IDIOMS’.”

“Essentially, I tried to get my students to speak plainly; just say what you want to say, no disguises…  You know like—

1.  ‘Work better or leave’, instead of ‘Get your act together’.
2. ‘Trust what someone says’, instead of ‘Give someone the benefit of the doubt.’
3. ‘Start over’, instead of ‘Go back to the drawing board’.
4. ‘Don’t give up’, instead of ‘Hang in there’.

“And, as my 8^th Grade students responded in perfect ‘Hawaii-kine Pidgin English’ –

      ‘Eh, Teach-ah; this was good fun class!!’.”

Right!!  Maybe that’s the better solution…

 LET’S JUST ALL SPEAK PLAIN PIDGIN ENGLISH

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STORY SUBMITTED BY:

            E. Tiwanak

IMAGES PROVIDED BY:

            Puanani/Internet