Overheard

Although I have been an English teacher for forty-or-so years, I have never been a snob regarding the use of language. I taught my students: The best language is the language that gets the job done. That means that there is a time for formal language and a time for informal language. I believe in the equality of language although I also believe that some language, such as profanity and hurtful language, have no place anywhere. I believe the gift of language is God-given and therefore a treasure. I love the grammar of the English language and enjoyed showing students how our language has structure.

However, the beauty of language is also that it can’t be totally structured all the time. I caught this conversation among two elderly ladies when I was traveling on a bus to Bainbridge, Maryland. I wrote down several of their verbal repartees, enjoying the brokenness and the naturalness in that it was being spoken without the knowledge that anyone but the partner was listening:

Never pick up anybody -- even a woman -- might be a man in disguise.

Wire keeps crows out of a garden - no, a string - they fly down to get tomatoes and get tangled up in it - two strings.

I need a hearing aid, but those things cost $300.00.
Aw, you can get them for $250.00 - Anyway Mr. Brown says the only thing he can hear with his is the TV.
Well, you have to get ‘em tuned up. Those Zeniths are good.

Any car I am in I’m driving too.

I drink a Coke every day of the world. It gives me a lift.

Disjointed, fragmented, yet an example of our ability to communicate with one another and to be understood without resorting to a formal language which, in this instance, was totally unnecessary. I love the English language.