LEARN THE WAY YOU WANT
Putting you in control of your own study timetable, the flexible structure of ACJ courses allows you to tailor study around your lifestyle and career. Our affordable courses include flexible payment options and you can choose to study online or have course materials delivered to your door.
Call a course advisor now on
1300 309 225 to find out more...
Don’t "Misunderestimate" the President
8 December, 2009
No one can deny, whatever side of the political fence you are on, that the election of President Obama has worked wonders in at least one important way: by returning the English language to something resembling clarity when used by the leader of the free world.
Who can forget how his predecessor, George W. Bush, twisted, mangled and tortured the language during his reign? Much of it,of course, was quite comical, some of it bemusing, and some of it downright inexcusable.
It got to the point that whenever he made a speech in public, you were waiting with bated breath not only for what he would say but how he would say it.
There were some classics over the years. Among my favourites are:
“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
“I know the human being and fish can co-exist peacefully”
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we”
“They misunderestimated me”
Obama, thankfully, is a skilled orator who can talk articulately off the cuff when he needs to.
Talking of language, and its use and abuse, I was interested to see that ’Twitter’ was named ’top’ word of 2009 by the Global Language Monitor.’Obama’ was second and ’H1N1’ (swine flu) third. The word ’2.0’, related to technology of course, was sixth but the related word, ’Web 2.0’, earlier this year became the millionth word in the English language. Incredibly, there have been 2,116 additions to the word count since that milestone was reached.
It’s clear that language is always evolving, so maybe we can forgive good ol’ George for his long list of Bushisms.
Happy writing!
GARY