280. Worldly Language - 1
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| Taking English Class to Florence 1991 (Me? the old one in the black scarf) |
When I first started on Twitter and facebook I told people not to use the “f----“ word on my time line and page. Well, tell someone not to do something and you can be sure they will, and quite a few colourful eloquences came my way. So I put up another notice, that if they used the “f----“ I would delete them because, the English language being so rich in expression, it was just being lazy if one could not be bothered to use another word instead.
The “f----“ words stopped but out came the bikinis, boxers, naked torsos and so on which raised a few eyebrows among some of my regular followers wondering why I was giving leash to such individuals.
So out came another notice which simply said to put some clothes on because if we were made to go round naked we would have had a furry and not smooth skin to envelope our bodies. Not that it did much good, however.
End of story? By no means. I was learning something. I was learning that here I was, a nice, well-brought up (almost), semi-retired lady was swimming in a sea of new faces, new media, new symbols, and a new language, the vernacular of today. What’s more this nice, almost well-brought up lady was trying to moralize those around her who were not stepping in her own shoes but running around with the sandals of worldly modernity.
I wasn’t shocked by their “f----“ words and strip-tease attire, it was just that I felt they would look so much better dressed properly and speaking the Queen’s English. It’s like when we want our kids to be doctors or lawyers and they end up as rock band singers or pansies smoking weed, pot and a few other delicacies.
But for crying out loud, these individuals, and they weren’t just young ones either, were actually human beings, my fellow travellers on this earthly sojourn. How could I be true to my blog’s statement that I blogged the story of people on my time line... I couldn’t ignore them, I couldn’t delete them all...
That is why, perhaps not so much by using shit... piss... and so on like they do, but I have learnt to read, understand and interpret their language, the language of the world today. And if I want them to read, understand and interpret my language, I have to get as close to theirs as possible... without actually sinking too deeply in the mire.
