week 9's entry
George Orwell’s essay on the abuse of English is extremely relevant in today’s English speaking world… though I would like to look at in a different way. Though there is sometimes beauty in simplicity as a literature student and as a result of my education over the past 20 years, I can’t help but be defensive of the flowery use of English, especially when trying to make up 2000 words for an essay. I often find my larger essays contain only a little more content than my 1000 word essays, and all I do is say the same way in a more illustrious way.
There is a part of me that is now, trying to impress the person that is reading this by using hehe, big words, it’s like an athlete, they can do a double back flip… wow, impressive, a triple back flip, even more impressive, I guess it’s another part of western society that leads us to think bigger is better, and as someone that does impress through sport, I’m sure I’m not the only one in our class, reading this that agrees and uses their wonderful skill in English in an attempt to rise higher in society, as a way to make money, to look “better” to the rest of the world, to stand out as a philosopher, call me crazy but I like this in a person, I like the mixing of likeminded people and seeing their insights into the human condition.
The second part of what I’d like to say here is my mixed feelings on the evolution of English. I sometimes think I am one of the people who get angry and are quick to correct when English is not spoken well, on the other hand, I feel we have now reached another transition on the evolution of English, and we should just allow people to spell things how they want, re-write the dictionary and just get over it. Brings up the rhetorical question is my desire for the evolution of English stemming from extreme laziness????? If the Elizabethans were to continually criticize the spelling, form and pronunciation of English, we would still be speaking Shakespearian… must say that I can’t handle the Americanization of Australian English, if anyone who was born here says or spells mum as MOM beware that I have a vial of arsenic and I’m not afraid to use it…