Once again, a conversation I have off-blog has made its way into a post just so that I have something to post about.
Somebody said this to me on one of my more recent failed dates:
“The way you talk is so funny; you’re all proper-like.”
WTF.
Let’s just set aside for a second that I just got told I talk funny, which is kind of incredulous. But whatever.
I don’t know how people who don’t know me manage to keep reading this, but in case you don’t, I basically write like I talk. I have had people in previous jobs take me to HR because I “lorded my intelligence” over people by using big words. The word in question, by the way, was “nomenclature.”
I have literally been asked if I am from the United Kingdom before; if you’re British and you’ve had a conversation with me, this may be insulting to you, and I will gladly give you the name and number of the guy that asked me that off the record. I don’t get it; I don’t talk like a redneck and it bothers me that some people think that’s a big deal.
The corollary to this is, of course, acting like it’s a huge deal that I’m smart. I don’t give a shit, and I don’t need someone to walk around aggrandizing me like they’re a chickenhawk and I’m Foghorn effing Leghorn.
I use big words a lot. Not because I’m an asshole, but because I know a lot of words. You know that scene in The Long Kiss Goodnight when Geena Davis just starts going crazy with the chef’s knife? My diction is a lot like that; it’s automaticity. I know words. I went to school to study words and string them together in the proper order. Some of it stuck. If you think that’s hilarious, I am probably not your guy. But I do own a car.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
You mean there are people in the world who don’t find intelligence to be an attractive quality? I can’t even begin to comprehend that.
Ooh, Jeff, you rampant, throbbing grammarian! I’ll let you conjugate my verbs *any* day! Come, let us diagram sentences whilst we masticate.
;)
On a more serious note… yeah. I’m starting to think that there are more than a few jobs I’ve either lost or failed to get because I am intelligent and comfortable with that intelligence, and some (many?) people find that threatening.
Next time I revise my resume, I’m going to remove my college degree and see what happens. I don’t know if I can adequately “play dumb”, but at the least I can blather about reality TV…
You aren’t British?
Eh, generally it seems having vocabulary makes folks look oddly at you.
I think it stems from the fact that in language once we learn of a word for a concept we assume everyone else knows it since we’re speaking the same language.
“Somebody said this to me on one of my more recent failed dates:
“The way you talk is so funny; you’re all proper-like.”
WTF.”
oh! So you got yourself a date with Britney Spears! Congratulations!
On the relationship front, I believe on the whole women are more intelligent than men, so finding a woman who you won’t have to give a dictionary to because it will “bring you closer” shouldn’t be a problem.
More troubling is being taken to HR because you were lording your intelligence. In these cases, did you actually have to go to HR and speak to a HR representative? (I apologize if this was something you already told me. Fatherhood kills more memory bearing brain cells than alcohol.). Because that really shows how f’d up the American corporate system really is.
Because the appropriate response for anyone who comes in and complains about a coworker being too intelligent would be to tell that person that maybe they should consider reading more. And maybe not relying on either Bill O’Reilly or Jon Stewart as your only source of news is not such a great idea either.
Because , seriously, if the person feels intimidated by your intelligence, it’s really on them. But corporate HR is too afraid of lawsuits that they throw common sense out the window and treat morons complaining about their own stupidity too seriously.
So, while I would love to see how you would try to dumb down yourself to redneck levels (“You all going to the bar bee queue? I reckon that I will be going, you all. I love me some of them tasty vittles, you all”) , I say be yourself. The world should aspire to be more like you than you it.
this reminds me of that bill hicks bit where the waffle house waitress asks him, ‘what you readin’ for?’
Well, I guess I read for a lot of reasons, but chief among them is that I don’t want to wind up a fucking waffle waitress.