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So, linguistic trends and buzz words...

17K views 117 replies 32 participants last post by  TheGrimJeeper 
#1 ·
Has anyone else noticed a current (and annoying) trend to start every sentence with the word 'so'?
I first spotted it in an interview on Radio 4 with a financial expert, now I'm noticing it more and more and think I might be catching it too!:lol:

So (aghh!) what do you think?

Other previous and still current examples of words overused to no practical purpose I've noticed are 'basically' 'obviously' these two particularly by tele-sales folk, along with referring to me as 'yourself' instead of you!:rant:
 
#4 ·
Don't talk to me about buzzwords - I work in education. Every now and again they throw another latest word or phrase "out there" for us to get used to before they change it again :rolleyes:

Acronyms are my personal beef. I remember sitting in the first day of my post-graduate course and the tutor was prattling on about higios :confused: It took me all of his lecture to work out that he was referring to the How Good is Our School document, I'd never heard it referred to as higios :tut: I felt belittled :(
 
#8 ·
We had a electricity sales guy come to the door the other week.
I started playing Buzzword bingo as he prattled on before I interrupted him.
When I said to him he was flogging a dead horse when I got to 10 buzzwords before he'd even found out if I had a dual-fuel account his response was
"I just say it as I'm told to in the sales manual"
 
#11 ·
"Blue sky thinking"
"Customer Centric"
"Low hanging fruit" use this in my presence and I'll kick your low hanging fruit just see if I don't.
"Turnkey Solution"

And "Workshop" to quote Alexei Sayle if any one uses the word 'workshop' and is not referring to elements of light engineering then **** **
 
#12 ·
"Low hanging fruit" use this in my presence and I'll kick your low hanging fruit just see if I don't.
"Guilty your honour" :lol:

I suspect I'd be picking my "low hanging fruit" out of my chest with a pair of tweezers given how much I've used it recently ;)

I'll attempt to amend my language, even though I'm swimming against a relentless tide of TLAs.
 
G
#18 ·
The opposite of "blue skies thinking": the kind of thinking at grasps at the obvious and lacks imagination, usually producing the simplest and most effective solution.

And yes, this expression is my very own and brand new contribution to the mangling of the (now US-driven but once beautifully rich) English language.
 
#24 ·
I had an oven fries solution for tea tonight. Not nearly as ridiculous as you'd think..

'Quick wins' is another odourous term that's analogous to low hanging fruit. And worse, it can be used in conjunction..

"This seems like a low hanging fruit, so we can get in there early doors and score some quick wins"

[Shudder]
 
G
#22 ·
Whenever I hear a politician (or anyone else for that matter) utter the word 'deliver' not in relation to a letter or parcel, eg we will deliver the Olympics, I just want to punch them in the teeth. Am I alone in this?

Anyone misusing the word deliver in such a way is, I find, full of bullsh*t.
 
G
#23 ·
I just thought of another one - focus. We need to focus on this, as in a focus group. They're normally the same people full of as much sh*t as the delivery people, and if they had any teeth left after saying delivery, I'd like to try to take out the remaining pearlies in one final strike.

So, we need to focus on delivering.............AARGHHHH!!!!!
 
#25 ·
Thankfully my line of work doesn't often bring me up against too much jargonese or marketingspeak, which most of the above seem to be examples of.

I once read a kind of 'mission statement' from a brand expert consultancy type company (no names, no pack-drill) which was hilarious. Can't remember anything specific except several abstract references to 'deliverables' . (And they weren't talking Ocado!) :rant::lol::cheese:

What's worse is when these things cross over into main stream language, and how small habits or affectations can spread like wildfire.

Winston Churchill's old trick of repeating phrases 3 times (we shall fight them etc) for dramatic effect in speeches is now used by every politician and his aunt on every occasion, the telesales crowd will be at it soon - if they're not already.
 
#27 ·
My brother in law's firm was taken over by an American firm who insisted on numerous unecessary meetings. So he and a couple of friends devised a game called w@nk bingo. Basically you make a load of bingo type cards before the meeting with different phrases on, the first to get a line has to stand up and shout w@nk! to win...

Apparently Americans don't have a sense of humour.......who'd guess ?
 
#28 ·
So we're about to order a new family car for the missus, I was hoping 159SW but there's a high chance she'll go with the Ford Kuga 2.0D, and I'm not that averse to be honest - I'll still have my Brera :).

We have a 1 year old boy, a small but well behaved labrador and 2 jobs, so we (read "I") don't have much time for cleaning cars (my Brera lives in a carpeted garage and gets cleaned about once every 2 months. Luckily I don't have to take her out if the roads aren't dry and I do less than 4000 miles a year :))

So the question is, black or white? I've read that white is relatively easy to keep clean but shows mud in winter, and doesn't show swirling, scratches or paint chips (because it's the same colour as undercoat :rolleyes:) I know white is in fashion right now, but how long until it goes out of fashion? We're planning on keeping the car 5+ years.

However, the Kuga (and the 159SW) look so awesome in black when clean :inlove: and black never goes out of fashion :cool:

So what do we buy? Black or white? We had a Black Spider LE that looked great some of the time, although it was only washed about once every 2 months :mad:
So, see what I mean:rant::tut::mad::cheese::lol::thumbs:
 
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