If you don't want folks to think you're old, stop using words like "Folks" (best, travel)
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Not meaning to hijack, but I was stunned to hear some people say that using the words "ma'am" and "sir" was insulting. I use these terms, as well as "folks" because it's much more polite than "Hey you" or "you guys".
I love how people who think that when others do something different or use a word that they don't understand makes the other person somehow wrong, or old, or rude, or whatever. I said "pardon?" the other day when I needed something repeated, and the person I said it to said "What?" I then said "I beg your pardon?" and they said "Why?" I said "could you repeat what you said before?" They said "What?" I just said "nevermind".
Sounds like you had an encounter with a truly clueless individual. Or someone who was just plain vocabulary "challenged".
I find someone addressing everyone as "dude", rather irritating, but not enough not to just ignore it when it happens. I even think it's kind of funny, depending on the context.
But I do think it's funny when someone gets annoyed enough at the use of a word enough to try and intimidate those who use it. That, IMO is just plain silly.
I really think that the vocabulary of the average Joe is becoming very limited. My husband and I still get a laugh about a restaurant encounter with a less than brilliant server (disclaimer: this is not a knock on servers, my mom was a waitress for 35 years).
Hubby: I'll have the eggs and bacon.
Server: Would you like hash browns or home fries with that?
Hubby: I'll have the latter.
Server, looking confused: What?
Hubby, speaking slower and enunciating: I'll have the latter.
I really think that the vocabulary of the average Joe is becoming very limited. My husband and I still get a laugh about a restaurant encounter with a less than brilliant server (disclaimer: this is not a knock on servers, my mom was a waitress for 35 years).
Hubby: I'll have the eggs and bacon.
Server: Would you like hash browns or home fries with that?
Hubby: I'll have the latter.
Server, looking confused: What?
Hubby, speaking slower and enunciating: I'll have the latter.
Server: What's a ladder got to do with it?
Hubby: Never mind. Home fries, please.
We really had to stifle our giggles.
Reminds me of this:
Husband: What should I buy with my Home Depot gift card, a ladder or a saw?
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shortel
You live in Florida what do you expect?
You realized Florida is really three separate states, right?
The further north in Florida you go, the more southern it gets. Those who know Florida will understand what I mean. Miami and surrounds is has no resemblance to the northern part of the state.
And then there is the rest of Florida, which is pretty much like any other state, except for theme parks and alligators.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,937,486 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheShadow
Not meaning to hijack, but I was stunned to hear some people say that using the words "ma'am" and "sir" was insulting. I use these terms, as well as "folks" because it's much more polite than "Hey you" or "you guys".
I love how people who think that when others do something different or use a word that they don't understand makes the other person somehow wrong, or old, or rude, or whatever. I said "pardon?" the other day when I needed something repeated, and the person I said it to said "What?" I then said "I beg your pardon?" and they said "Why?" I said "could you repeat what you said before?" They said "What?" I just said "nevermind".
Funny comment.
I snowbird in Florida every year. I know I'm back in the south when the waitress in a restaurant calls me, "Honey" and it's not a term of endearment or that she is flirting with me, she is just being kind.
Sounds like you had an encounter with a truly clueless individual. Or someone who was just plain vocabulary "challenged".
I find someone addressing everyone as "dude", rather irritating, but not enough not to just ignore it when it happens. I even think it's kind of funny, depending on the context.
But I do think it's funny when someone gets annoyed enough at the use of a word enough to try and intimidate those who use it. That, IMO is just plain silly.
I was in a meeting at work and was previewing a Power Point slide deck I'd finished to other members of my team, before using it at a department meeting. In one slide I'd used the phrase "engender a environment of ..." to describe promoting a particular mindset and behaviors. One of my team objected to the slide and asked why I was using that word. I said because I felt it most accurately represented what we were trying to do. He got really irritated and insisted I change the word. I asked why and he said "Gender has nothing to do with our program!" I hid my amusement as best as I could and said "Fine, we can just change it to 'foster'". He didn't like that either because he said "foster" meant "substitute", like foster parents. I had to explain to him that it was also a verb with an entirely different meaning. He was really trying to get me to change the words and dumb down something that I was to present to our management.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,937,486 times
Reputation: 4561
Quote:
Originally Posted by staywarm2
Word soda meaning soft drink. Seem odd to me. I think it's a northern term.
Up here in the great white north (Canada), we call that fizzy stuff, "pop". Oh, and a bathroom in a public place? We call it a washroom. Confuses the hell out of the worker in Florida in Walmart when I come in and ask where the washrooms are.
And then we have idiosyncratic words no one but a Canadian would understand. Everyone here knows what a "two-four" or a "double-double" is. Or that a "flat" could be the same as a "two-four".
I was in a meeting at work and was previewing a Power Point slide deck I'd finished to other members of my team, before using it at a department meeting. In one slide I'd used the phrase "engender a environment of ..." to describe promoting a particular mindset and behaviors. One of my team objected to the slide and asked why I was using that word. I said because I felt it most accurately represented what we were trying to do. He got really irritated and insisted I change the word. I asked why and he said "Gender has nothing to do with our program!" I hid my amusement as best as I could and said "Fine, we can just change it to 'foster'". He didn't like that either because he said "foster" meant "substitute", like foster parents. I had to explain to him that it was also a verb with an entirely different meaning. He was really trying to get me to change the words and dumb down something that I was to present to our management.
Thank goodness you didn't use "foment." Who knows what ire that would brew.
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