As a continuing unrepentant language cop, I really had thought of laying off criticizing those electronic message boards that greet visitors.<\/p>\n
Yes, since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer, when most of the schools are in recess, there hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been much to report. But if there is a bit of criticism, I aim it at the fact that a number of the signs appear to have gone on summer break, along with teachers and students.<\/p>\n
Several months back, I faulted Sierra Vista Elementary School staff for carrying stale information. I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really say the info was old, but Moses reportedly was seen on Legion Drive, carrying a couple of tablets with 10 instructions, some misspelled. The day after I brought the dated information to the attention of Optic readers, the sign went off. And it hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been on since.<\/p>\n
The sign in front of Tony Serna Elementary is off, as is the one on Mills near Robertson High School.<\/p>\n
One that remains illuminated \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see if any modifications follow this announcement \u00e2\u20ac\u201d calls for a mandatory parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meeting (the meeting, not the parents, is mandatory). Apparently, if students wanted to join a certain program, months ago, having one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents there was required. After those letters faded, the screen that replaced them mentioned some kind of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153collarboration.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Now waaiitt a minute. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Collarboration\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Methinks that word choice might have been deliberate. At least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the tack Sister Mary Yankelvich, our homeroom teacher, used at Immaculate Conception School when I was in junior high. S.M. Yankelvich (with emphasis on the Yank), would announce a mandatory meeting, or parent-teacher-student conference, and if we balked, our collar would become a noose.<\/p>\n
A few years back, local high school seniors took home notes from the secular school announcing baccalaureate services that, the note said, were mandatory. A number of students correctly reasoned that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a religious service and some of us belong to different faiths, or to none at all.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Like magic, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mandatory\u00e2\u20ac\u009d became \u00e2\u20ac\u0153optional.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It would have been better had the distinction been made before concerns arose of mixing church and state matters.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there was no \u00e2\u20ac\u0153collarboration\u00e2\u20ac\u009d needed. But if our homeroom nun had become angry over our unwillingness to attend mandatory meetings, the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cholerboration\u00e2\u20ac\u009d might also have applied.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
As I get older, I find it necessary to ask people to repeat things I failed to understand. What? Me losing my hearing? But even more disturbing is my having to repeat things, sometimes twice.<\/p>\n
How often has this happened to you? You speak to a clerk, and well into the discourse, he or she interrupts with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Well, the above-mentioned I.C. teacher would never approve of that. No, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d need to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pardon me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Excuse Me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but never \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153huh?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I wonder whether some young people are simply programmed not to hear the first few words of a customer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement. No matter what! When that happens, and it happens more frequently than I wish to admit, I either blame myself for failing to articulate or merely assume the other person wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t listening.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
When people mangle a common expression, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to assume they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only heard that expression but not seen it in print. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I cringed when on local radio I heard all about, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The mare and city council\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Taxpairs (or taxpears or taxpares).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0The most amusing expression was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bite into the conversation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
For more than a year, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been trying to acquire a reading knowledge of French. Like most languages, French has a number of cognates, words similar to their English equivalent. And sometimes, French simply plucks out whole words, and we get terms like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153le weekend.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d English does the same thing.<\/p>\n
Something quite new to me deals with the plethora of social network groups like Twitter and Facebook and their influence on the language. It was amusing to hear a man and woman conversing at the rec center, with the male reminding the girlfriend to have her computer on that night \u00e2\u20ac\u0153para Facebuquiar.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
The Spanish word for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153namesake\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tocayo.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Attorney Art Vargas often approaches me with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yo se que eres mi tocayo, pero no me acuerdo tu nombre.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
All right, Tocayo, Art Vargas. If you know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m your namesake, then you remember my name. And yours.<\/p>\n
Getting effluent water at the plant south of town Monday, I met a city employee who cheerfully did his job of jumping on to the back of my son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pickup, attaching the hose and filling up our 250-gallon container.<\/p>\n
As the man chatted with my wife, Bonnie, I heard him tell her he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my tocayo. His name is Art Rivera. The next time I see my namesake at the plant, I plan to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re my tocayo, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember your name.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I wonder if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get away with it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d or is that just for lawyers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a continuing unrepentant language cop, I really had thought of laying off criticizing those electronic message boards that greet visitors. Yes, since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer, when most of the schools are in recess, there hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been much to report. But if there is a bit of criticism, I aim it at the fact that a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}