My grquse

I have a grouse: Force of circumstances obliges me to think and speak in French and the Senior Chat site gives me the opportunity to do that in English – my mother tongue. However, I find that the site is cluttered with net-talk.
Speech is a means of communicating and if what I have to say is not clearly expressed then, it is not worth saying, I am too lazy to express myself clearly or the intention is to deceive. My English teacher said that if it is not clear then it is not English. For example, expressions such as “surfing the web”, “posting on the wall” have to be explained to me before I understand: Why not “crawling the net” or “nailing on the fence”? And “Blog” a word that is not only puerile but ugly.
The English language is one of the richest and most developed in the world and we should be proud of it and not clutter it with esoteric argot.
Now that I have had my grouse my smile returns and I await a comforting word from my friend Starlight

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  1. Welcome rodger to blogging.There isn’t a prettier word for it. Hooray for you, you are here and you will pick up some lingo as you go. At least this site uses more standard and polite language than most web sites. Hang around and enjoy, Rodger, and you may get “cool” again.

  2. While I agree with you about the English language being one of the riches it has achieved that through adoption of words from other languages as much as anything. When English didn’t have a word for something it grafted on something from, say, German, Gaelic and several Indian languages, to mention but a few.

    The vocabulary of the internet may seem strange now, but good old English will absorb what it needs from it, change what it needs to change, evolve and come out just as varied as before and probably richer also.

  3. Rodger,
    Sorry to disappoint, as you await words of comfort from Starlight. I have but a few brief moments to agree with you, though. The English language has been butchered, followed by or along with, the decline of manners and class in America. The word ‘blog’ is likely one of the ugliest words I have yet to hear. The ‘wall’ you speak of? It is foreign to territory to me. I’ve been on this site for over 3 years, and now I think, emphasis on ‘think’ I am able to find it. I have spoken often of my ‘wall’, having strong objections to anyone being able to write on it without my permission. After all, it does happen to be my wall, like it or not!
    Welcome Rodger! Leave the lingo where it belongs.

  4. Let me try and help you rodger on some of the terminology of these words.. surfing the web or net.. just like surfing the waves,, it takes ten toes on the surf board,, more or less.. Surfing the web or net. Ten fingers more or less on the key board.. Posting on the wall.. A wall is where most hang a picture or leave note.. blog.. was web log.. where one would leave a log of his/her daily evens.. Someone drop the WE in web.. so it became blog.. that’s the way I remember it.. but I’m sure someone has their version..Lou

  5. Rodger, English is not my home language nor my mother tongue. I learned it relatively late in life and my first exposure to it was, don’t laugh, by way of “Classic Comics.” To me it is now more than a language and it does not have to be pure and sterile to be wonderful. It is a language which morphed from many sources into a universal communication medium. As it is so versatile that every nation in the world wants understand it and speak it. English is so melodious it is music in a spoken way. You are well-read, intelligent and you think creatively, but I ask you to allow English to evolve as it has always done. Do not restrict it. Set it free.

    1. Well said, BenDip. I agree. I also agree that the English language has it’s strange querks. However, I enjoy words! I suppose I could be called a word nerd.
      Look, I used the word “querk” and “nerd” in one short blog response! 🙂