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I'm the one who made the "King's English" crack, and I believe strongly that how a person speaks says a lot about him.
I'm with you. I accept most people, but there are limits as to who I will bring into certain situations.
On the flip side, I grew up in the ghetto. And when I tell people where I'm from, they're shocked for the most part. I don't sound like an Hispanic woman from the area I grew up in. Someone HAD to have taken me under their wing and refined me. Otay panky.
This is why, while I respect those who pursue their degrees, I'm not impressed by them unless they actually have the common sense and the class to accompany it.
I'm with you. I accept most people, but there are limits as to who I will bring into certain situations.
On the flip side, I grew up in the ghetto. And when I tell people where I'm from, they're shocked for the most part. I don't sound like an Hispanic woman from the area I grew up in. Someone HAD to have taken me under their wing and refined me. Otay panky.
This is why, while I respect those who pursue their degrees, I'm not impressed by them unless they actually have the common sense and the class to accompany it.
Bingo. I don't care if someone is white, black, brown, yellow, red, or green with eyestalks. To me, the acid test is when someone opens his mouth and begins to speak.
if i'm at work speaking with my boss or a senior person in my department, i would use standard English or "the Queen's English". a lot of people i know say i am articulate in real life.
if with a friend i'd just use slang and colloquialisms.
there is a time and place for everything, after all. With my boss, i wouldn't say "hey, you gotta extend the deadline, dude". It would be totally inappropriate.
if i'm at work speaking with my boss or a senior person in my department, i would use standard English or "the Queen's English". a lot of people i know say i am articulate in real life.
if with a friend i'd just use slang and colloquialisms.
there is a time and place for everything, after all. With my boss, i wouldn't say "hey, you gotta extend the deadline, dude". It would be totally inappropriate.
I'm college educated and consider myself to be moderately intelligent, that being said I speak like a sailor half the time.
I have a technical job and it involves working with various contractors and some of them aren't the most polished guys you'd ever want to meet. No disrespect because they are competent at what they do. So half the time I end up speaking quite crassly.
It isn't usually too much of a problem except for the family gatherings.
Just put it this way most of the time my feet are black and blue from Mrs. Chow stomping them under that table.
That doesn't mean that we all have to sit around speaking as if we were all characters in a Henry James novel. Hey, I recognize the value of idiom and slang in everyday language. At the same time, when a person can't tell the difference between an adjective and an adverb, then one has to naturally wonder about their intellect. Show me somebody who says, "I don't got it," and I'll wonder if she should be trusted with a box of kitchen matches, let alone a salaried position. For how one speaks reveals a lot about how one thinks. If you're sloppy in the use of your mother tongue, then where else will you let things slide?
In fact, years ago, I was a supervisor for one employee who just was boffo in everything she did. Yet, in every presentation or meeting, the client inevitably began ignoring her and deferred to me. This drove her up the wall. Finally, she came to me and asked what the heck was the matter. I didn't want to level with her, but I did. She was aghast when I noted how badly she mangled the language when speaking--subject verb agreements, mispronunciations, you name it. Mind you, her work was flawless. But once she opened her mouth, she sounded as if she had stepped out of the cast of Deliverance. I suggested a Dale Carnegie course, along with some other public speaking practice. Over time, it was interesting how she was able to address this problem, as well as the change in attitudes of those around her. Today, we still exchange e-mails and have lunch together 2-3 times a year. But she's now a Marketing VP at a large company, and one of the best speakers I've ever known.
I've never heard it phrase quite this way. I've always heard it was the "Queen's English"
I suppose that's beside the point.
I guess the phrase depends who is on the throne at the time. Probably, since the 1950s it has been called the "Queen's English" but prior to that, when the King was in power, it was then probably called "The King's English". maybe the OP is an old guy. LOL.
My mom is all about speaking the Queen's English. She was born in mainland China and learner her English at the age or 12 in Australia. She tones down her Aussie accent to make it sound more British. She likes to speak in a formal style. My stepdad speaks beautiful educated American English. He went to prep school and Harvard. I think that my parents didn't want their children to speak like commoners with lots of slang thrown in.
I generally speak proper English, especially when I am selling antiques or working at the university faculty club. However, around my boyfriend's friends and customers, I consciously dumb down my speech patterns to as to fit in better and sound less like a mom. If I have to, I can curse like a sailor, but I prefer not to. Language is a powerful communication tool.
There are standards of conduct, attitude, and speech that are superior to others, by their intrinsic constructiveness and destructiveness to the social and intellectual life of the surrounding community.
If someone can't speak or write a clearly articulated and precise sentence, they're lazy and uncaring. A person who is not proficient in spoken language, therefore, is a challenge to it. Language is the cement that holds everything together in a society
no, it is not
language does not make or break a society
that sounds like the attitude of a puffed-up pretentious pedantic poseur that places more importance on how something is said, than on the person who is saying it, and what the person is expressing
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