I have been accused in the past of being a bit of a ...nerd... when it comes to grammar. The term "Up North", ubiquitous in Michigan, refers to any place north of Detroit. (which, technically, qualifies my parent's house as our cottage up north...ha.) For years, I railed against the use of the phrase because "Up" suggests an increase in elevation, not direction.
Recently, a phrase has caught my ear that bothers me even more than Up North. No, not "irregardless" or even "supposably", but something more sinister because it is quietly offensive. It annoys on a subconsious level, and actually took quite some time to get under my skin. But now that I'm aware of how it sounds, my ears hurt a little bit every time I hear it.
The phrase is "my degree". As in, "I'm going to graduate school to get my masters degree" or "I went to college and got my bachelors" or "I completed clown college and got my certification". ARG. My degree? Are there degrees laying about, and we just have to go pick ours up? Are we predestined to get a degree, and are simply fulfilling our destiny by slogging our way through college?
I'm going to the grocery store to get my oranges. I'm going to Dairy Queen to get my blizzard. I'm just going to run out real quick and get my earplugs so I don't have to listen to this crap anymore, ok?
Using the word "my" to describe a degree suggests ownership. My dry cleaning, my dog, my car, my ugly shoes. Do we own a degree? Or perhaps it is something different because it isn't a physical object.
I realize that there is still that pesky issue of world hunger and rampant illiteracy in the rural populations in India and I should probably stop wasting my time getting annoyed by silly turns of phrase. But, like Popeye always says, I yam what I yam.
And right now I'm easily annoyed.
2 comments:
This seems to be part of a broader sense of entitlement that I often noticed in some of my students when I was teaching at WMU. This notion that they deserved their diploma/degree simply by virtue of having paid their tution.
But perhaps it wasn't even a sensel of entitlement so much as they saw it as an economic transaction. They paid to get their degree. So give it! Now!
Few seemed to grasp the more nuanced idea that they were paying for the privileage to earn a degree that the institution would bestow upon them.
Earn my degree? They no doubt thought. No way, dude. That sounds too much like work. And I made a bet with my buddy that I could avoid entering the library for my entire four years here at Western.
I did not make that up. I actually had a studet who bet his buddy that he could avoid entering the library. I'm proud to say that I put an end to that. Zing!
Chris gave you a shot out on his blog, check it out...
http://junkdrawer67.wordpress.com/
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