Caller: Hi, lmclinfromunsteranwantoknowifyoudliketomakeanappointmntforyerairbaforethehaldays.
Me: You’re calling from where?
Caller: Calling from unsterandwantoknowifyoudliketomakeanappointmntforyerairbaforethehaldays.
Me: I am sorry. I cannot understand a single word you are saying. You’re calling from On-Star? (my General Motors navigational system?)
Caller: Yes.
Me: (Wondering what On-Star would want). What can I help you with?
Caller: I just wantoknowifyoudliketomakeanappointmntforyerairbaforethehaldays.
By now, I was ALMOST at the point that I thought MAYBE it was me and I was having a stroke or something and couldn’t understand what was happening.
Me: You’re going to have to slow down and speak more clearly. I can’t understand anything you’re saying.
Her: I'm-calling-from-All-Star. I-wanted-to-know-if-you-want-to-make-an-appointment-for-your-hair- before-the-holidays.
All-Star? Hair? Then it hit me. One day I walked into the new “Ulta” store in the neighborhood. The store had just opened and I was curious as to what it had to offer. When I walked in, I noticed that in the back of the store, they were cutting hair.
I am a spur-of-the-moment kinda gal when it comes to my hair. Although I do almost all the cut and coloring myself, on this particular day I decided to get a trim from the young girl waiting for her next victim client. Why not, I thought, and plunked down in the chair.
If you had asked me the name of the salon inside the store, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. I thought, perhaps, it was just called Ulta…like the store.
Anyway…now…a couple months later, I received the dreaded sales call.
What is happening to the English language and our young people? I am horrified! SLOW DOWN! Annunciate your words, PLEASE! I know MOST abbreviate in text messages, but must you speak in abbreviations, too?
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
Then today, when I picked up my local paper, a Mr. Frank Beaumont, hit the nail on the head, when he wrote:
Some can actually understand this overheard conversation:
“Jeat?”
“Nodehew?”“No, Twirlytweet”
Most of us would scratch our heads and wonder what was said.
Translation?
"Did you eat?"
"No…did you?""No, It’s too early to eat."
I wonder if the English teachers (or ANY teacher) ever tell their students the importance of clearly annunciating their words. I’ve seen some local access cable shows and by what I see on the “news” channels from our local high schools…….I highly doubt it.
