Amglish In, Like, Ten Easy Lessons_ A Celebration of the New World Lingo - Arthur E. Rowse [76]
Ten Easy Lessons
Communicating with other people should be easy, painless, and shameless.
Yet many Americans have been routinely intimidated—even terrorized at times—by parents, teachers, and others for even the slightest departures from rules and standards formulated centuries ago. It is time for everybody to relax and let language evolve naturally within every person without threats or intimidations
Silent resentment against ancient strictures has simmered long enough in English-speaking countries, especially the United States. For Americans, the rebellion against formal English started with the overall resistance by the colonies against nearly everything British.
The resistance has reflected the restless, free-swinging character of Americans embodied in the revolutionaries of colonial times through successive waves of ambitious immigrants imbued with a natural pioneer spirit.
As this book shows, there have been many individual attempts to break out of the mold that is still sometimes labeled the Queen’s English. Among the leading language rebels have been authors, musicians, lexicographers, teachers, humorists, and advertisers, as well as ordinary people, especially young ones.
Almost all have been seeking ways to simplify a language too complex and formal for the time and make it easier and more enjoyable to use.
The result is today’s Amglish, an informal mixture of American English and other languages. It is the largely undirected product of free spirits altering the structure and style of the language. The new lingo is shaking off outmoded precepts and idiosyncrasies as it silently invites all to hop aboard, have fun, and be subtly altered in the process.
Unlike the rules of formal English, the rules of Amglish are unwritten and as fluid as society itself. While its basic structure remains relatively stable, new words as well as grammar and syntax are steadily reshaping it. The resulting mishmash is being embraced enthusiastically almost everywhere.
Along the way, Amglish is developing its own modus operandi (MO) in order to be more broadly understood. The following lessons are designed to acquaint anyone who hasn’t kept current with what has been happening. Amglish’s emerging standards appear to be intelligently designed by nature, like all living creatures.
Unlike the rules of formal English, the rules of Amglish are flexible and made to be broken as conditions change. All but the last of the ten lessons should be taken with at least one grain of salt followed by a suitable chaser. The tenth should be taken to heart, especially by young people.
It’s time to play the language game for all it’s worth.
LESSON ONE: GO WITH THE FLOW
The main point of this lesson is to relax when trying to communicate with others.
Let the words tumble out without worrying about where or how they will land, and don’t fret about whether you are forming a complete sentence or something quite different. If you are in the writing mode, don’t sweat over your words before sending them. You will break the casual image that goes with Amglish.
Life is too short to worry about making errors in language. It is also too short to pass judgment on possible grammatical lapses or questionable wording by other people. To learn Amglish is to tolerate all verbal sounds and shapes and to accept them without question.
The key is to reach understanding through communication. If that means writing without capital letters or proper grammar, so be it. Lowercase letters on a keyboard can build rapport with people as well as save the time it takes to use the shift key, unless of course you are writing to a college admissions office or a prospective employer. Just think of the hours—possibly even years—that poet e. e. cummings gained for other things by avoiding the shift key on his typewriter.
Amglish