"And please, please, do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation. I'm talking about the relentless, wearisome use of the words, "like," and "you know," and "awesome," and "actually."
Listen to yourselves as you speak."
--David McCullough (1933 - )
American author, lecturer,
two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
McCullough said that toward the end of his address to the graduates of Boston College this year.
I think the problem here (as with so many things) is that we're not holding each other accountable to improvement. We're avoiding the difficult conversations with each other that might help us become better (a much bigger topic to come).
I'm confident teachers and parents care.
I'm confident children and adults prefer to sound intelligent (especially those coming out of school and being interviewed for jobs).
Are we just too tired to give each other the continual support and coaching needed to improve? Do we feel like it's not our place?
We need to get this communication thing right. We need to hold one another accountable... to help each of us become aware (the first step) of our occassional (and not so occassional) use of these pathetic verbal pauses in our speech.
Please... call me on my inappropriate use of these words... every time. If you hear my children using these words inappropriately, please be comfortable reminding them to choose other words.
While our teenagers might (will) find it aggravating, our young (and old) adults will ultimately thank us for it.
(I found McCollough's address wonderfully inspiring as midlifer. I hope those BC students embrace the points earlier than I did/ will. Read it here.)