<p>This is all so poignant! I live overseas and teach English as a Second Language. Pretty much all of my “bad English” has been pruned or curbed. But I have to “explain” it when my students encounter it in movies and TV shows made in the US. LOL.</p>
<p>Keep the examples coming! (Fodder for my lessons!)</p>
<p>I pretty much not only say all these things but write them, too, now that I am on-line.</p>
<p>“I know, right?” Hadn’t heard that before but am sure I will now be incorporating it into my day to day dialogue.
:)</p>
<p>So what about hand gestures while talking?</p>
<p>
Oooh, I hate that one.</p>
<p>As for the PhD student who nods his head, and says yes, yes, yes–is he Japanese? I just learned (from that Deborah Tannen recording) that this is how a Japanese person signals that he is listening to what you are saying, by nodding the head and going hai…hai…hai…There are all different styles of showing that you are paying attention, from silence to interrupting with “I know what you mean, and something similar happened to me…”</p>
<p>I always thought “yeah, no” was a very obscure regional thing. But, you got me to look it up in urban dictionary and it’s there. It works on my girls.</p>
<p>I’m a little fuzzy about, “I didn’t want to bother you” and “I know you’re busy, but…” From certain people, it’s an odd conversation starter. How do they know I’m too busy to speak with them? Or, is there something about me that…?</p>
<p>Wasn’t there an old SNL bit where an interviewer is constantly nodding her head?</p>
<p>My neighbor every sentence ends in ‘and whatnot’…drives me crazy. </p>
<p>For ex…‘I have been running errands and whatnot’</p>
<p>EPTR,</p>
<p>I entirely agree that starting a sentence with “so” makes little to no sense.</p>
<p>I believe it is a vestige of the ladies’ sewing circle days, where conversation naturally supplemented the handiwork. The leader would begin conversing with “Sew,…” (the signal for the women to commence with needle and thread)…hmmm.</p>
<p>A knew a guy who used to insert the rather meaningless phrase “…one thing and another…” into about every third sentence.</p>
<p>When I hear the sentence ending question inflection, that person has lost all credibility with me. It sounds so indecisive. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.</p>
<p>I had a voice and articulation class in college. One of the best classes ever. We were taped at the beginning of the class to determine how we spoke (I dropped the “g” on -ing much to my embarrassment). We were given tools to self police ourselves. I’ve been doing so ever since.</p>
<p>I have the unfortunate habit of using (in a business context) “from that standpoint” frequently. I picked it up from my business partner, and now it’s my sad trademark.</p>
<p>I say “so” all the time. Unfortunately, I usually say it as I’m sighing and don’t follow it with anything. I’ll try to stop.</p>
<p>“Let me be clear…”</p>
<p>Once in a meeting at work another person and I each raised a forefinger and said simultaneously, “The thing IS…”</p>
<p>That made me realize that I had started saying “the thing IS…” too much!</p>
<p><a href=“I%20dropped%20the%20%22g%22%20on%20-ing%20much%20to%20my%20embarrassment”>quote</a>.
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</p>
<p>Ooh, Katie Couric does that all the time! Drives me nuts!</p>
<p>“What are you do-een, where are you go-een?”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes! I’ve noticed that native speakers of Spanish do something like that. They say “este…este…” (or is it “es de…es de…”? – I never knew), drawing out the final vowel.</p>
<p>zoosermom,</p>
<p>So, let me be clear, the thing is if you’re sayin’ “so” too much (?) you might wanna rethink that, and whatnot – know what I’m sayin’?</p>
<p>^^Love it! Ya know what I mean?</p>
<p>I hate “it is what it is”, but I’ve been known to say it.</p>
<p>Sometimes I get into a jag of saying to many gerunds sometimes even with like as in “I was like going to the store…” I hate it, so it’s really aggravating to catch yourself doing it.</p>
<p>Then there are my unfortunate typing habits. I leave s’s off verbs all the time. I can’t figure out why. I also mistype it’s and its. I’ve been known to add apostrophes in other places they don’t belong. And I type homonyms all the time. Once I even had a recipe calling for “flower” instead of “flour”.</p>
<p>mathmom - Get your head out of those numbers!</p>
<p>Once I finally learned how to make them, I developed a deep love of emoticons and frequently fantasize about how very nice it would be to have them appear around me in bubbles (like in cartoons) while I’m speaking.</p>
<p>Notice how I typed “to many” not “too many” up there? I swear it wasn’t intentional! :rolleyes:</p>