Take “like” out of vocabulary, and have babbling idiots.

Talk about a viral trend. If the word “like” was removed from the vocabulary today, an awful lot of the people wouldn’t be able to put together a full sentence.

I just listened to a dozen or so people in the grocery store, and all of them were candidates for the bleach bottle and bubble gum aisle.

Combine the word “like” with the inability to enunciate, and I’d swear it’s a new language.

Talked to my daughter’s English teacher, and asked him if he spent his entire day correcting this blatant grammar problem. His answer was that it was useless. His perception was that people wo don’t speak that way are in the minority.

I even heard a professional pilot on approach control yesterday use “valspeak”. Was all I could do to keep from ripping her a new one. In some settings, this trend is even dangerous.

Thanks for letting me get it off my chest! It’s been just like, well like, kinda like, bothering me.

reply to post by rotorwing


I...like... totally understand what you are saying man.

Signals, thank-you! I had never seen any part of that movie. Now I can say I hate it too. Was that the origin of this vocabulary?

Coloquial vocabulary was said to start in the 80´s somewhere, or 70´s.

The shortening of words has increased severely throughout the years, now some teenagers in America enunciate completely incohesive blabbery.

They should ban these people.

[edit on 31/3/10 by Bildeberg]

reply to post by Bildeberg


Like that is totally harsh!

(thanks Alicia Silverstone :-p )

I admit I am guilty of it in speech but in type I am usually pretty good about it

-Kyo

reply to post by KyoZero

I meant extreme cases. Sometimes people may have a mistake or two.

l!ke, th33s3 t&pe 0f c@ses. ! dnT cair !F YOU kNOW how t0 type correctly. 3vryone makes mistakes.

I also meant if people shorten every single word they say.

Ever listen to a group of teens talk?
All the girls say is "LIKE" and all the guys say is the F-bomb.
What do you get when you put the two together?
MODERN SOCIETY.

Originally posted by AccessDenied
Ever listen to a group of teens talk?
All the girls say is "LIKE" and all the guys say is the F-bomb.
What do you get when you put the two together?
MODERN SOCIETY.

I SWEAR young boys think it makes them cool to drop the Fbomb....

Our family (large as it is) has a good method of taking care of issues like that. Our kids in my extended family are all well mannered. The men of the family...ALL of the men over 30 or so are the ones who teach our boys and girls how to behave. For example, when I was young and stupid I used to tak back to my mom (HUGE MISTAKE). After the butt whoopin from my father I would get yelled at by my uncle later. To this day I have grown up with the utmost respect for women...and like that...if a kid in our family is heard cursing up a storm...well that get's dealt with by a talk...it's just crass

-Kyo

Originally posted by KyoZero
Our kids in my extended family are all well mannered. The men of the family...ALL of the men over 30 or so are the ones who teach our boys and girls how to behave.
-Kyo

There might be something to be said for the above qoute, and it might sound sexist...though that's not intended.

With fewer men in our childeren's lives, are we fostering a lack of discipline that reaches even to the roots of our speech? Is the lack of male influence part of the degredation of society?

I notice my daughters do not have the same "attitude" around me that they exhibit around their mom. I swear I have never beat them, and yet the seem to respect me...probably more than I deserve... I have only ever insisted on decorum and respect and attention to detail from them.

My favorite admonition to them is, "not appropriate" and it seems to work. Sometimes it leads to a "discussion" but I guess that's ok too.

Fathers that are not involved in their children's lives are the big loosers.

Now, back to the topic. Is it because adult men wouldn't use "valspeak", and because men are often out of the children's lives, that we get to hear "like" so much?

[edit on 4/1/2010 by rotorwing]

Originally posted by Bildeberg
reply to post by KyoZero

 

I meant extreme cases. Sometimes people may have a mistake or two.

l!ke, th33s3 t&pe 0f c@ses. ! dnT cair !F YOU kNOW how t0 type correctly. 3vryone makes mistakes.

I also meant if people shorten every single word they say.

Like OMG I so totally know people who talk like this....

It annoys the crap out of me too. I hate getting messages I have to decypher! If a friend sends me a text like what you posted above I ignore them. I am not going to lie I use "like" at times but usually just around my friends and even then it's minimal. I dont understand the way people talk in today's society. IMO it makes someone sound stupid. I actually heard a girl say "omg" and "lol" out loud while she was talking. I couldnt believe it but then again I can.

Does the way someone talks really upset you that much? Who cares? If you have a hard time understanding what someone is saying because of their use of the word "like" then that is your problem.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


don't be fooled! MB talks like this to me on Skype CONSTANTLY!!!

man I am in for a beating....

like...totally...

-Kyo

Can I pitch in with a protest about 'do you get me?' or 'know what I mean?'

Yes I do. I heard it the first time and had no difficulty understanding it.

I suspect that people think I'm stupid when they insist on asking me if I understand the perfectly simple things they say. I just want to curl up and die when they elaborate on a concept that I 'got' five minutes ago.

reply to post by berenike

I agree wholeheartedly .


I can't even imagine being an English teacher....

How new is this phenomena? I notice that colloquial diction almost never appears in formal written form, even when giving 'verbatum quotes' in newspaper articles. There's an automatic editing-out of 'like's and 'you know's and 'um's.

Is this something new that has appeared in the last few decades? I'll bet if you were to hear informal spoken conversation from the 1800s, it would have similar 'useless' syntatic constructs. It's just that the written records that we have from the perior omit them.

Twain's Huckleberry Finn was revolutionary, in part because it was the first work that dared to even put colloquial dialect in written form. Likely, even that was 'cleaned-up' dialect, with hestancy words removed, where unnecessary for literary impact.

Hesitancy and repetition go largely unnoticed, until you notice them and focus. Then they're quite pronounced, fnord. I'm sure that were we to listen to our grade-school conversations we would all be amazed.

Fortunately most people shed this habit once they leave their teens. The people that bother me are grown adults sometimes in their 30s who haven't dropped the trend.

Another things I've noticed is that if you took the word "baby" out of our language, Led Zeppelin would have very little to sing about.

Originally posted by Ian McLean
Is this something new that has appeared in the last few decades? I'll bet if you were to hear informal spoken conversation from the 1800s, it would have similar 'useless' syntatic constructs. It's just that the written records that we have from the perior omit them.

Hesitancy and repetition go largely unnoticed, until you notice them and focus. Then they're quite pronounced, fnord. I'm sure that were we to listen to our grade-school conversations we would all be amazed.

Ian...good points. We overused the word "cool" i'm sure...but that never went away with the generation. I still hear it regularly from adolescents. Usually preceeded or followed by "like".

You are correct that the written works omit the vernacular of the times, and perhaps that is a loss to future researchers. In this day and age though there will be plenty of recorded archival media to help future generations understand us.

berenike...I'm with you! I would really not enjoy being an English teacher today... 'course or friends from across the pond will say we haven't spoken English in years. None of us. Well maybe Orson Wells. I find the proper King's English fascinating, and almost poetic. Quite pleasing actually!

Thanks for the reply y'all! (I'm a Texan, what can I say.)

[edit on 4/4/2010 by rotorwing]

Originally posted by traditionaldrummer
Fortunately most people shed this habit once they leave their teens. The people that bother me are grown adults sometimes in their 30s who haven't dropped the trend.

Another things I've noticed is that if you took the word "baby" out of our language, Led Zeppelin would have very little to sing about.

traditionaldrummer...you are correct also! That pilot I refered to in the OP was a commecial pilot flying for a regional airline...probably close to 30 if not over. It was a really busy day, and I was only one of 3 inbound lifeguard flights. Short professional radio communications were the order of the day, and all of the pilots except her recognized that need.

Was really bothersome if not dangerous.

[edit on 4/4/2010 by rotorwing] Whose fingers typed this anyway?

[edit on 4/4/2010 by rotorwing]

Originally posted by traditionaldrummer
t if you took the word "baby" out of our language, Led Zeppelin would have very little to sing about.

I'd be so glad to be rid of that racket.