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Winston Zhang
28 March
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Monday, January 12, 2009
23:06:00
Just wondering: why do so many people think it necessary to be 'special' in how they write in their blogs?
By 'special', I mean pretentious. People who speak Chinglish in real life suddenly start attempting to use 'big' words in their blog entries and, more often than not, end up totally misuing them. It's all really quite puzzling.
I wonder if these people realise that, when they try to do such things, they really only make themselves look like fools for trying to be something they clearly are not. It's like a beggar going around saying he's got a million dollars in the bank; no one's convinced, and everybody laughs at him.
Besides the incorrect usage of words, there're also a set of people who try to convey their thoughts and feelings in 'cheem' ways. This includes writing in some really roundabout, self-serving way, just to put across a simple point. Something as simple as 'I didn't have a great day today' can become a strenuous exercise in literature. What's the point?
I suppose that, if you're the kind of person who for some reason needs to update everyday, you'll need 50 ways to describe the most mundane of things. The problem here, though, is that there's no substance at all. You're just decorating the cake with all kinds of icing and wording and stuff, but the cake's tasteless. Is there a point to that? Well, from my personal viewpoint, the answer to that is a resounding 'NO'.
Then again, maybe this is just a little pet peeve of mine and not many more people are bothered/irritated by it. I always search for quality over quantity in whatever I do/experience/buy etc etc, and this is one of them. I realise that I probably come across as some elitist jerkoff in this post, but hey, don't tell me you don't have an irrational pet peeve or two of your own.
Of course, not all people do this, regardless of their standard of English or whether their day was interesting or not. Thankfully, there's a large number who just tell it like it is, to the best of their capabilities. That, my friends, is down-to-earth. That is real. And I'll be damned if I ever go for something that looked nice but wasn't real, rather than for something that may not look so nice but is what it is, no strings attached.
Oh, and if you think I write in a self-serving, trying-to-use-big-words way, I don't. I'm well and truly capable of using every single one of the words I use here in daily conversation. Whether or not I do is purely down to the situation at hand. I just try to make conversations as smooth as possible for all parties involved. There's no point using expressions that the opposite party doesn't understand, and vice versa. That's why I always hope people don't speak in Chinese to me :D
Once again, I'm very much aware that I'm probably putting myself across as an elitist douchbag in this post, but hey, to each his own eh? Everybody's entitled to their own opinions. I'm very open-minded but some little niggly things can tick me off too. Human irrationality again.