Tuesday, October 31, 2006
crappy sounding English
A billboard ad for a major Melbourne private school reads …"I love the subject choice" next to a photo of a student. Apart from being not very believable, it's crappy sounding English. Surely the idea that is to be conveyed is that the student will love the (large) choice of subjects they have to choose from rather than the particular subjects some administrator has chosen to include in the curriculum. And it sounds pompous.
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4 comments:
My local real estate agent used the slogan 'HOME SWEAT HOME' in conjunction with some local newspaper ads about sweating it out cleaning up your house for sale. I didn't see the ads and was appalled at what I thought was an unintentional spelling error (I am kind of literal). I was walking by and told them about the spelling error. They told me, very patiently, it was not an error and I was not the only one who had told them about it. Thanks very much, not. The billboard only lasted a week.
But Andrew, I'm not sure why you think the private school ad is pompus? Average, perhaps but I don't see the stretch.
I have a saying - it used to be on my granny's shelf in her kitchen made from wooden blocks.
"Ten two letter words to live by: If it is to be it is up to me"
Cheerio, delwyne
Andrew,
Perhaps the tone of that phrase "subject choice" mirrors the language of industries for which the students are being prepared...You know the ones that do most harm to language. Law, medicine, business, politics. Some people shopping for private education want that entree in to the corporate world. Such langauge simply mirrors the desired outcome, surely.
Hi Dewynne, I thought the language was pompous because it took something simple and tried to make it sound more important and less simple than it was. It was a smoke and mirrors exercise
Hi Mke, Yes I think that's right. Especially politics. But I like to hope that education is about learning to think clearly and a pursuit of understanding.
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