Acronyms and other gobbledygook
Worse still, what is this latest affectation whereby people start every sentence with the word "sew" (as in needlework instructions)? Or it might be "sow" (as in seeds). Could be "so". In any case, complete waste of time and adds nothing to the conversation. On top of that, there's the latest fashion of making every statement sound like a question? - "So, we got here in like a minibus?" "Sow, I heard about it on the TV?" "Sew, sow the seeds 5cm apart?"
And Town Hall and Windscreen Tour. Utter keech (as they say north of the border).
And Town Hall and Windscreen Tour. Utter keech (as they say north of the border).
People are expected to start answering a question without a pause, without time to consider an answer. 'So' just a placeholder for 'hang on, I'm thinking of a way to not answer the question I was asked, and if I waffle long enough everybody might have forgotten what it was'. It has replaced 'um' which was interpreted as meaning 'That wasn't covered in my brief, so I'm going to make up something plausible'.
People are expected to start answering a question without a pause, without time to consider an answer. 'So' just a placeholder for 'hang on, I'm thinking of a way to not answer the question I was asked, and if I waffle long enough everybody might have forgotten what it was'. It has replaced 'um' which was interpreted as meaning 'That wasn't covered in my brief, so I'm going to make up something plausible'.
Je n‘ai pas encore tous décidé mais probablement…….and it’s German equivalent could really be dragged out with an appropriate amount of Gallic or Germanic accent.
“So” by comparison just doesn’t cut it. Try things like “I haven’t actually had a chance to study the article/paper/ programme to which you refer but …..”. buy time and often give you a chance to drag in an irrelevance or whataboutism and then you can throw in the message of the day and thereby fail to answer the question at all while filling in airtime. Watch BoJo and Gove, they are really good at it. In all seriousness, it is a technique taught on media skills courses.
