The other day I used the word ‘totes’.
I know. That was hard to admit.
As an English teacher, I am the grammar police. I am constantly reminding my students when to use ‘whom’ instead of ‘who’, and that ‘use’ is not a synonym for ‘you all’.
Conan finger wave [Gif]. Reetrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/183310647307693814/
I have always prided myself on not using lazy language, even when I myself was in high school. But I think I slipped up.
It was the last day of term, and I was sick. Not that it’s any excuse, but that’s the one I’m using. As soon as I said it, which was in front of my year twelve English class, I knew what I had done. The class laughed as I turned a nice crimson red.
“I think you’re ok, Miss. I heard that it’s in the dictionary now.”
“Not any dictionary I respect,” I thought.
But back at my desk, I decided to double check that no idiot had, in fact, added ‘totes’ to the dictionary. Thankfully, I could not find any reputable dictionary that had. Oxford Dictionaries Online had added the term, but they don’t count. For me, if it’s not in the traditional Oxford English Dictionary, it’s not a real word. You could call me ‘wordist’. Except that ‘wordist’ isn’t a word either (Hear that, Urban Dictionary?).
Have I Gone Mad [Gif]. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.bitcandy.com/music/best-chillwave-songs-week-27-2014-part-2
As I sit at my desk reading some of the new words added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online this year, I start to wonder just who Drake thought he was when he coined the word YOLO. After all, only real writers like Shakespeare get to make up words.
When I hear Someone Say YOLO [Gif]. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/post/21552359733
You can read about how a word gets into an Oxford Dictionary here. They advise that they monitor word usage through many means, including song lyrics, popular fiction, television scripts and internet message boards (Oxford University Press, 2014). So I guess I need to accept that words sprung from popular culture can actually become legitimate.
Sure, language is constantly changing and evolving, but one thing’s for sure. I may have accidentally dropped ‘totes’, but you’ll never EVER catch me calling anything ‘quiche’. Sorry Ja’mie.
Quiche [Gif]. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/why-we-all-need-to-start-using-the-word-quiche#2z64q2b
Reference
Oxford University Press. (2014). How do you decide whether a new word should be included in an Oxford dictionary? Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/how-do-you-decide-whether-a-new-word-should-be-included-in-an-oxford-dictionary
Image Attributions
Conan finger wave [Gif]. Reetrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/183310647307693814/
Have I Gone Mad [Gif]. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.bitcandy.com/music/best-chillwave-songs-week-27-2014-part-2
Quiche [Gif]. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/why-we-all-need-to-start-using-the-word-quiche#2z64q2b
When I hear Someone Say YOLO [Gif]. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/post/21552359733
Youths, popular culture and texts 
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” Socrates is old but may have some wisdom to share here! Language is constantly evolving and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Your blogging style is coming along so well, I don’t know about you Raschelle but I’ve certainly learnt a heap about these New Media – nice use of Gifs
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I’m impressed that you know when to use ‘whom’ and ‘who’. To be honest, i always found people who used the word ‘whom’ to be a little pretentious, but that’s because i’m quite the yobo. But i must agree with you that i too have been impassioned by correcting the misspelling of the words ‘we’re’ ‘where’ and ‘were’, how do kids still get these words wrong? The emerging use of texting acronyms in popular culture language has been a squalid affair. Students using words like ‘yolo’ ‘lol’ and ‘lmao’ in general conversations has often left me aghast. Being a Chinese language teacher, i have investigated the use of such acronyms in the Chinese language. There’s one problem, there are no acronyms in Chinese, and if there are, they use English letters. In the Chinese language there is an art among the youth of popular culture to create new swear words…………….which i won’t go into here. But the principle is similar to the construction of an acronym in English. The difference is found in the practice of using certain Chinese character’s meanings and applying them to new situations. So rather than create an acronym, Chinese youth simply take an already existing word meaning and apply it to a new context. This practice often results in the worst insults a Chinese person can say, but bear in mind, often in Chinese it is not swear words that are the most offensive comments you can say to a person. For many years now, the most diabolical thing you can say to a Chinese person is to accuse them of not having a mother or family, a comment which insinuates that they have no social status. If only that was the worst thing you could say to a person in Australia.
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