Skip to main content

It is all just words, or is it?

 My granddaughter sent a message round the family WhatsApp  challenging us to tell a story from the pictures, Emojis.  Needless to say I didn't even know what they represented but the others rose to the challenge and came up with a story that I didn't understand either.  Am I losing the plot?  Or are we losing the English language?  The word 'nuance' is now heard every other sentence when watching the news, politicians or anyone who thinks they know what they are talking about.  Rarely is it used in the right context.  Shops are now shuttered, whether they have shutters or not, because the word 'shutter' has replaced the verb 'to close' and don't get me started on 'uptick' rather than an increase.  It is not just the English language either which is being destroyed, the French tennis WhatsApp group contains so much slang, emojis etc that most of the time I haven't the faintest idea what they are talking about.  I am trying to write messages in perfect French and they are replying with gobbledygook.

There I was in the early hours of this morning watching the Presidential debate.  It was more of a debate than the first one in  that Trump didn't cause chaos by never shutting  up but it wasn't much better for the simple reason that Trump simply cannot tell the truth, lie after lie spilling out of his mouth so frequently that even the fact checkers couldn't keep up.  11 days still to go until the election.  Will it never end?  What's more,  even if he loses he remains in power until 20th January.  They call themselves the greatest democracy in the world but the Americans don't even get to choose, that being left to the electoral college, judges are appointed by Presidents and politicians, and the power of the President is so great that one person can cause chaos all over the world.  Give me the furniture van rolling into Downing Street any day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mondays

 Last Monday my son and daughter in law were due to catch the 8.15am ferry from Portsmouth to Caen.  It was 6.45am when I stepped out of the shower and heard my phone  going.  I snatched it up.  It was a video  call.  'Mum, we have big problems here,'  and before I could speak he thrust the phone into the hands of a Brittany ferries' staff member and said, 'Talk  to my mum.'  Barely conscious of my wet, tangled hair and trying to cover myself up with a  towel which thought gravity was fun, I asked what the problem was.  Apparently they had the wrong vaccination certificates and were being refused passage.  I asked what I could do and she said they could go and get a test and take a later ferry.  'Where is the nearest test centre in Portsmouth?'  I asked.  'There isn't one,' she replied, 'there  is one in Southampton, or Havant.'  What!  No test centre in Portsmouth?  They both have learni...
1 comment
Read more

Equality

 I don't want to hear another person  say that women should be equal to men.  There is no 'should' about it, women ARE equal to men but they are not treated equally.  It has never occurred to me that I am  not equal to any man.  Am I treated equally?  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  It requires a step change in the way women think of themselves as being equal before we can hope for attitudes, legislation, economics to  follow and that is my rant for the day. Ever since I have lived in France I have noticed a stark difference between the French and the British sense of humour.  The dry, irreverent humour of the British is completely wasted on the French, and the Dutch and the Americans sometimes for that matter.  Clearly the British humour is unique.  Yesterday I gave an article to a French friend to read.  It was a humorous piece, self deprecating about a woman suffering an attack by an insect on her face with hideous result...
Post a Comment
Read more