Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Princess Attire Optional
Time to actively observe. For Wednesday night's post, please notice and record (in writing) one instance of language that strikes you as inappropriate. I don't mean profane: identify someone's use of language that is phrased in a way that strikes you as out of context, as somehow surprising given the setting and audience. Make note of exactly why it strikes you as such, and share the reactions of those involved, whether it was deliberate or not (as best you can tell), and the implications of the language as used. Be as concrete and specific as you are able. As before, preserve the anonymity of those involved. One final note: you may not stage a language incident. The speaker must not be a member of our class or be influenced by you to perform. Please post your writing by 9:30 Wednesday evening and come to class having read one another's posts.
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This is an instance I observed in the setting of choir rehearsals. I sing in an Anglican church choir - not everyone involved is religious, but the pieces we sing are almost exclusively sacred. Given that it is a relatively structured environment, I noticed that this struck me initially as hilarious, but upon further examination proved to be slightly odd in context.
ReplyDeleteExample 1: Choir director who shall remain nameless: "Tenors, you're very good at keeping slightly behind the beat. Oh, sorry, did I say slightly?"
When he first said this after the tenors finished singing (an admittedly terrible rendition of a passage, it's fair to point out), I burst out laughing with the rest of the choir. However, after thinking about it for this assignment, I realized that it was a little strange. The ATB section of my choir is comprised largely of adults over the age of 45, each of whom I find to be relatively accomplished in their own right. My choir director, being in his late thirties, is fairly accomplished himself, but his blatantly rude remarks to adults older than him and no less respectable than him were noteworthy. He has quite a dry sense of humor which is why I'm sure he was joking, but I also noticed that the adults being spoken to seemed to take at least a little offense at the comment. In all honesty, I don't believe that their reactions were out of place - the comment was meant in good humor, but came across as slightly disrespectful. I would expect the director to say something like that to the soprano section (mainly teens/children under age 20), but as the comment was directed at his peers and not his subordinates, it seemed a little demeaning.
I observed this instance in the setting of the classroom: "I think we're doing OK today!" This was somewhat out of place because the class was extremely chaotic and everyone in it was frustrated. The reaction to this statement was a subdued sigh by many of the people in the room.
ReplyDeleteThe implications of this are that the teacher who said this is out of touch with the mood of their students, and the tone seemed somewhat condescending.
Observed while skyping a parent of mine: I heard them say "what's up girl!" to her boss. Although they're friends, it still shocked me because in a workplace setting it seemed out of place. They turned back to me and acted like they were so hip, but it still felt weird to me. It seems my parent is slightly out of touch with being properly social while traveling. On a similar note, when Oliva said hi to me in the car yesterday, a parent of mine used the phrase "yeah totes" while talking to her. I'm not sure if my parents have spent too much time with me or are trying to become "hip" but I would like it to stop.
ReplyDeleteWe were at an IEA show, and my old team was there as well. We had a good day, but at the end of the day their point rider beat ours by a lot, putting them into first place to points ahead of us. After the points had been tallied up and team ribbons given out, my old coach walked up to some of my teammates and said
ReplyDelete"Ha! We beat you!"
This struck me as astonishing that someone who I had previously thought to be a very nice person would be so rude to my teammates. Her gloating was extremely rude, inappropriate and unnecessary.
I observed an instance where a person in my house was being hypocritical. She told me, "You need to start picking up after yourself and putting your dishes in the dish washer." To add some context to this, I cleaned the entire house the weekend before and rarely forget to put my dishes away. Also, to be more clear, the girl who said this is an extremely messy person who always leaves her dirty dishes around the house. Now, I believe that this instance is very inappropriate considering that it is an example of hypocrisy. After the girl said this, my reaction is that I laughed. I found her hypocrisy funny and I knew I could not argue with her about who cleans up after herself better. Since it is clear who would win that battle...On another note, I believe that hypocrisy is a huge category of instances that are inappropriate in any situation. I definitely consider some language to be hypocritical because there are some instances, like the one I just mentioned, where people phrase their demands in a false and deceptive way. This is not the most effective use of language when asking someone to do something, nor is it appropriate.
ReplyDeleteOnce, while I was at work, there was an awards ceremony in the afternoon in the courtyard for the employees. The head of the establishment was announcing pay raises for different departments and levels, and in the middle of his speech, an employee who was not part of one of the groups getting a raise shouted, "What?! How come we don't get a raise?!" Everyone at the ceremony was taken aback and nervous laughter ensued to brush it off.
ReplyDeleteThis struck me as surprising and inappropriate because it is extremely rude to shout that out in the middle of your boss's speech. It is not the way that I would expect adults to act in the workplace. Instead of being polite and well composed, this employee blurted it out interrupting the head, which I found inappropriate.
A memorable instance occurred when Clara and I were waiting for the bell to ring to signal the start of our first period class.We were singing "All About That Bass" to pass the time, and the teacher piped up to say that she loved the song because it had popularized the term "Bass," which was used in her subject area. Clara said, "I don't think that term means what you think it means" and the teacher remarked, "Oh I know, that's booty to you." I laughed hysterically and was taken aback because I did not expect someone so prim and proper to utter those words. Seeing as this teacher is strictly professional, a conservative dresser, and delicately approaches controversial or awkward material, I found it out of place for her to be addressing us with such familiar language. The larger implications of this incident are that we expect people to use language that matches their role in society or personality, and if they do not, we see it as inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteOn my first day interning in an office this past summer, I have done a job of organizing data with a male co-worker. On the second day, when I was walking in the corridor of the office, he saw me, walked behind me and said with a funny and low voice: “Walk faster…”. It struck me when I heard it, because what he said jokingly implied the audiences as his familiar friends in a relaxing place. However, since I do not know him well and we were in the office at that time, the audience and place were not appropriate. I do not think he deliberated to strike me since he probably thought that we were familiar co-workers and it was okay to say that when I was walking in the office instead of actually working.
ReplyDeleteI was taken a back when someone in a position of authority used profane language. It was not the words themselves that surprised me but who it was coming from. This person is vehemently against using inappropriate language and seeing them curse was both shocking and a little bit funny. I did not understand the intensity of that moment or their emotions until they swore. Fortunately, it was a very loud place and only people looking at this person would have noticed
ReplyDeleteTwo summers ago I was working at Mo's on a Friday night with one of my coworkers who I had become good friends with. There were no customers in the store at the time and he was complaining to me about how there was not enough room in a certain basket for some hershey kisses so he had an odd number of hershy kisses left over. A lady came in and started to look around the store and my coworker blurted out " Would you like a free kiss Ma'am?!" I knew my coworker to be a jokester but considering he was addressing a customer and she did not know the original context of our conversation earlier it seemed very inappropriate. My coworker typically did not address customers like that so I was taken aback as well. I reacted by holding my breath and the customer awkwardly paused then said, 'um, no thank you.'
ReplyDeleteQuickly after this comment was made, my coworker explained to the lady what he actually meant and apologized for making her feel uncomfortable. I think the reason as to why both the lady and I were so shocked is because there is an expectation of politeness and formality between employees and customers. My coworker however addressed this specific customer in a manner that was slightly rude out of context of our earlier conversation and extremely casual. His word choice also did not aid him, for his statement took on a different meaning than he originally intended.
One instance of language that I found inappropriate occurred when I was in the 7th grade. I had just moved into a new school district, and for the first time was in a school that was not only very large (one section of my grade made up the entirety of my previous school) but had a very large group of African American students(as opposed to me and three other students). When I first arrived at the school, the African American students welcomed me with open arms and were very nice to me. After a while though, they realized I was different. One day, during lunch, (the last time I ever sat with them), I was telling them a story of something that happened to me. One of the girls sitting at the table cut me off mid sentence and just said "Yo, why you so white. You're like a- You like a inside out Oreo." Why am I so white? This comment was so inappropriate because of the timing, and because of the meaning behind it. Am I supposed to act a certain way because of a skin color I didn't choose to be? If race is really a personality type, why do I have to fit in with my own race? Why am I not allowed to just be myself? The reactions of the girls at the table was laughter, and they agreed that I acted very white. The fact that she asked me in a way that proved that I was not on their level, the way she purposely changed her speech pattern to show how white I was (she normally talked how I talked) was very inappropriate. She corrected herself from saying "You're like an" to "You like a". Her use of language was deliberate and hurtful, and was definitively inappropriate on many levels.
ReplyDelete[Insert flustered screaming as I realize this is an hour late oh no]
ReplyDeleteI was on the phone with a parent this evening, and we were talking about how to use iTunes. This particular parent kept using incorrect terminology to refer to related parts of their computer, probably in an attempt to make it seem like they knew what they were talking about. In reality, they really did not, and it struck me as quite amusing.
One type instance of language that always strikes me as inappropriate is when kids swear. It strikes me when small kids swear because that makes me think about where do they learn those world. Since a lot of small kids who swear just because they hear other people say it, so they learn without even knowing what do these words mean. Once my houseparents' 4-year-old kid said a bad word to another co-houseparent repeatedly and smiling, I was struck. The only reason she said it was because she heard one guy said it, and thought it sounds funny. Therefore, when older people is about to say something, we need to consider about the other audience. If this language will influence other people negatively, save it in mind and don't say it.
ReplyDelete