Let's Conversate For a Minute

So does that word bother you as much as it does me???? And if you haven't figured out the word that bothers me is "conversate" then you might not need to read the rest of this blog. You might need to break out Webster's and try looking up that word.

Now granted, I don't watch much television, mainly because I don't have time and that makes it hard to accidently come across a show that I'll want to follow. Hard to find a show if you're not watching at all. And maybe everyone else has gotten used to this new God-awful way that people are speaking, but I can't handle it. It all started by watching one of those reality dating shows years ago and I kept hearing the datees say things like "I like to go out to dinner, you know conversate for a while." Huh?

Last night on American Idol (my vice - I admit), a girl auditioning actually said "My style works well with my confidentiality." I'm assuming that she thinks her clothes represent her confidence - but that's NOT what she said. What she instead implied is that her clothes were helping to hide something and if you saw the way she was dressed you would have decided - HELL, NO! Her top plunged so deeply that the judged keep pulling on their own shirts to try and get her to monitor the situation and not pop out during her tryout, during which she had to bounce around in said plunging blouse.

So what the f??????? Are these people trying to sound intelligent, because if so, their words are having just the opposite effect. They sound like morons. And I can't fail but to notice that they never tend to butcher or misuse a one syllable word. They're always batting for the fence by twisting around some word that is at least three syllables or more.

Maybe they just need a bit of advice like Using big words does not make you sound important or smart. Especially if you're not going to use them properly. I mean, why say something stupid like "I like to have dinner and conversate" when it's far easier (and more correct) to simply say "I like to have dinner and talk."

I read somewhere that most mass market fiction is written on a fifth to eighth grade level, and that makes perfectly good sense to me. People don't want to run for the dictionary when they're escaping with a book. Save the complicated words for non-fiction or literary works. So if mass market fiction sees the benefit of producing books written simply and for the well, masses, then why don't people think everyday talking should be that way also?

I speak incorrectly all the time but I don't completely butcher the English language. And according to all those standardized tests you take through school, I have a much higher than average vocabulary - I just don't see the need to use it in a regular day. The incorrect speaking I take part in is using southern words and expressions based on my upbringing and roots. Heck, I was in college before I found out "tump" wasn't a word. As in "If you keep leaning back in that chair, you're going to tump over." (A favorite of my grandmas) And I say "y'all" and "ain't" and a whole slew of other southern things. But I'm still not using them incorrectly when I say them.

Now, I'm certainly not advocating this manner of speak in business - especially in correspondance. No sense looking like a redneck in your email, after all, it could be around forever. And we definitely don't want attorneys to dumb things down. Heck, they're paid lots of money to confuse people with words.

Essentially, the bottom line is - speak based on your background, but don't try using big words to make you sound smarter or more important. If you lack the education to do so, you will only sound foolish. If you have the education to do so, you tend to sound pompous.