Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

People in distant lands use the same words differently. Time and generations create distant lands.

I was fascinated by this story about younger folks putting things on TikTok et al. Then older folks who admit people to college and hire them for jobs noticed those things.

The younger folks spoke in the language of their land. The older folks noticed the words in the language of their faraway land. The meaning the older folks took cast the younger folks in a rather bad light. The older folks rejected the younger folks.

The younger folks shouldn’t have said what they said. The older folks shouldn’t have read what they read (hey, that rhymes). Someone should have translated the two different languages. Someone should have at least informed the younger and older folks that they were using different languages.

The older folks, by virtue of their advanced years and experience, should have known. The younger folks, well, uh, they sort of have an excuse.

We all live in different lands. We all use different meanings for the same words. I suppose we could all do a little better. Let’s at least give it a try.