I live with an 84 year old mother
who is going deaf so oftentimes I don’t take her seriously when she complains
about not hearing someone on the television.
But lately I have been noticing how very poorly people on television
speak. Not only do they speak very
quickly, frequently slurring or swallowing their words but they also have so
many word whiskers and other bad habits that I actually get distracted from the
message because I am too busy either correcting or getting annoyed with the
person.
An example would be the stylist
Alexis on the Marilyn Denis show. She
always says “also, too” or “as well, too” which she says several times during
her presentation. My question here is “why
doesn’t Marilyn or the producers say something to her so that she doesn’t do it
anymore”. I’ve been watching the show
for about 6 months and this Alexis is on at least once a week. Am I the only one who has noticed this poor
grammar? Lest I forget Marilyn also has the bad habit
of saying “yeah, yeah, yeah” more than once in the show. She should take a lesson from the Norwegians
whose non-committal hmm-hmm of the throat speaks volumes of nothingness which “yeah,
yeah, yeah” is the rude equivalent.
Then we have the Gatling gun
talkers. There are too many to name or
count but again I ask why the producers or directors of these shows don’t
correct them. Is it because they are so
ill educated themselves that they can’t hear their people? Since when has speed talking been acceptable
in journalism? Isn’t the point of
journalism to have people hear the news, not guess at what has been said?
We also have versions of the
Valley Girl Speak and the ones who roll up their voices, extend out their words
for no particular reason that I can tell.
The ones who slur words, make up words, swallow them, pitch them or
nudge them along. It’s almost too
distressing to listen to, in fact, I can’t!
Now I would like to praise some
excellent journalists, Dawna Friesen and Linda Olsen on Global News
Calgary. One can understand every word
they say, their voices are pleasant and measured and in today’s frenzied world I
find them a delight to listen to. I also
enjoy Paul Dunphy the weatherman unlike his morning counterpart Jordan who
walks around his map in such a weird way that I almost get a nervous breakdown
looking at him much less listening to him.
That’s my little rant of the
day. Now I will go feed the chickens
whose clucking noises I actually understand.
J
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