WCW: Pet Peeve Expressions
Posted by Dr. RusJun 18
This post is taking part in Randy’s Watercooler Wednesday!
So many to choose from, so little space. Over on the the Cultural Watercooler Randy Elrod asked us to discuss our pet peeve expressions today. I spent one year teaching English to college kids, and lets just say I came across a number of pet peeve expressions in those days. But, as for the peeves which rise to the top, I can think of two making that list.
1) I Know
Ugh! Give me a break! The phrase I know probably ranks as the number one phrase with teens these days. Especially if you’re trying to talk with them about something they need to know. The entire time an adult is speaking, the teen seems to insert the phrase I know wherever there my be an opening. When I find myself face to face with a teen who insists on saying this, especially if we’ve talked about an issue before, I usually say – “No you don’t know. If you knew, we wouldn’t be having this conversation again.”
2) What Not
I’m not sure where this phrase came from, but it’s one my wife likes to use. Of course since she uses it, now my kids have picked up on it too. The expression usually shows up in the middle of a description of some event or object. Suddenly in the middle of the description, the phrase what not appears. It sounds something like this — “So we were walking through the mall looking for the store where we could find exactly what we needed – and what not – Along the way we bumped into a friend. So we stood and chatted some – and what not – before we decided to grab some lunch before coming home.”
Ugh! I usually stop my wife, or now my kids, and ask – What’s a what not?
The English language, of all the languages in the world, is the most difficult to learn. Many times what we call our pet peeve expressions do nothing more than confuse the issue at hand. While in Seminary a writing professor insisted that we never use the word stuff when writing or speaking. He would always ask – What stuff? Let’s be clear what we’re describing and find the proper word for the description. This journey we call life is complicated enough. The least we can do is not muddy the waters or confuse the journey with extra language baggage.
A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus
One comment
Comment by Atta on October 8, 2008 at 4:53 am
I really looked up upon reading that English is the most difficult to learn language. Because, well, it isn’t. Not even close actually. English is easy to learn. Of course, to master it is another matter, but in that it isn’t different from any other language. I myself have learnt English, French, German, Greek, and my motherlanguage Dutch, and of those languages English is by far the easiest foreign language.
So though it may look cool to put English on the number one spot in the list of hardest languages to learn, be true to yourself and notice that it isn’t. Especially since you haven’t studied all the languages in the world, it’s impossible to say that it is the hardest language in the world.
Untill I visited the moon, I can impossibly say that the earth looks better than the moon. Upon visiting the moon I still can’t say that earth is the most beautiful planet in the entire universe.
Thank you very much for reading my rambling though.
Atta