Print Edition: October 9, 2013
Danger of the thesaurus
Learning to communicate ideas is an essential part of academia. However, that goal is often crippled by an overzealous need to prove how smart one is.
Don’t get me wrong – I believe a good thesaurus is an essential part of any student’s arsenal. But like any weapon, it should be used sparingly to avoid a barrage of words swamping your audience.
Often, words selected from the thesaurus don’t fit the context of what is being communicated, and make the task of reading or listening laborious. This defeats the purpose of communication. If you want someone to understand your message, clear and concise language is a must.
So why do we have thesauri? Used properly, the words contained within these handy books liven language and help us to express ourselves in more specific terms.
Your intelligence will show when you wield language skillfully, not superfluously. Love your thesaurus; don’t abuse it.
Turn it off!
Turn off the TV!
Why do restaurants use televisions as wallpaper? Cactus Club has screens in their bathroom stalls. You can’t even poop without getting covered in an explosion of reality TV one-liners.
At the new Fatburger in Highstreet mall you can stuff chicken and cow into your face while sitting at the oh-so-new-and-shiny HDTV counter. No more need for pesky friends to share a meal with. Instead you can eat under the calm, soothing glow of Modern Family.
Pubs and restaurants need to stop trying to be a sports bars. We go out to connect with people and to live life, not to watch TV. So the next time you’re in your favorite restaurant, ask them to turn off the TV. It’s dinner and a movie, not dinner with the Kardashians.
Is kindness extinct?
The other day, while waiting for the bus downtown, it started to rain. It wasn’t a monsoon, but it was still raining. Since I had forgotten my umbrella, I was not impressed with the sky turning against me.
Yet in the midst of my frustration, something more than welcome happened. A fellow UFV student ran up to me and shared her umbrella with me.
“Here, it’s raining,” she said, then resumed watching for the bus. I was blown away. Naturally, I started a conversation with this remarkable girl, and she told me she’s an ESL student from China. This explained everything. Of course she isn’t from Canada!
If you’ll pardon the stereotype, most of us are fairly inconsiderate. Instead of immigrants flocking to come here, we should be fleeing the continent to escape the discourteous manners of Canadians! It is beyond sad how flabbergasted we have become when we experience kindness.
Something needs to change before compassion itself becomes a myth.
Oh, Canada
A proposal to change the wording of our national anthem to include women has generated the usual negativity from patriotic traditionalists.
The change would revert the line “in all thy sons command” back to its original 1908 version, “thou dost in us command.”
Both versions of the national anthem were penned by a man in a time when the general consensus was that women were inferior. So I really don’t see anything wrong with inserting a little gender equality into a tradition of sexism.
If citizens are obligated to sing the anthem at sporting events and in schools, we should strive to make its wording as inclusive as possible.
If Canadians want to foster that “true patriot love,” they should seriously consider making the switch to gender neutrality.
