Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Quote of the Week ...

As I've blogged before about the silly things that are said in rail announcements, I enjoyed reading an article recently by David Marsh, on "why Railspeak should be terminated".

Having given some examples, he says,
The result of all this is not effective communication but the creation of a gulf between the language used by its speakers and those on the receiving end... Hyper-correct, hyper-polite language may be well intended but comes across as patronising and insincere.

I must admit to thinking on a number of occasions, when listening to an announcement, "Why doesn't he forget the script and just talk in normal language?" Of course, the answer probably is, if he did so, it would be a disciplinary offence and he'd receive a verbal warning - if he could understand it.

Read the full article at

www.guardian.co.uk/media/mind-your-language/2011/jun/26/railspeak-terminated-train-station-language?INTCMP=SRCH



No comments:

Post a Comment