Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Snobby Language Maven

I don’t live in my native country and, as such, I use a somewhat different form of English than the residents of my current home do. Nevertheless, we understand each other, without (too many) problems.

So I don’t appreciate it when people snobbily correct me and point out, “Here, we don’t say ‘X’, we say ‘Y.’” I mean, I like learning these things, but some people are just plain rude about it. One such person is a doctor I’ve seen a couple of times. I’ve seen him under bad circumstances, i.e. I’ve been sick and/or suffering. But each time I’ve met him, he has felt the need to make some comment about my English and how it is the wrong form of the language and how only his kind of English is correct.

Um, what? Has he never heard of different dialects? And, more importantly, does he think that a doctor’s office is really an appropriate place to criticize my grammar or word choices? What a snob!

--Curly

2 comments:

Peeves and Rants said...

I am so annoyed with that doctor!

--Prunella

Peeves and Rants said...

Me, too, obviously. I'd much rather he treat my illnesses. I try to avoid seeing him, though sometimes that isn't possible. Snob!

--Curly