Author Topic: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them  (Read 12408 times)

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Offline xrunner

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #75 on: September 22, 2021, 07:20:09 pm »
Yeah, the issue is that modern “corporate” tries to avoid sounding formal, so instead it’s this contorted “casual” register. Google “microspeak” for some deal doozies: Microsoft is famous for coining just weeeeeird corporate speak.

But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats the insanity of Sephora’s corporate vocabulary. It is, frankly, freakish. The salesclerks, oops sorry, “cast members” are under strict orders to use their doubletalk lingo. The most memorable bit is that one cannot give a coworker (even a subordinate) “criticism” or “feedback”. No, you have to call it a “gift”.

“Hey tooki, I have a gift for you! You totally borked that last sale…” :o

Is it OK to combine phrases? Such as "I would like to reach out to you with a gift"?  :-DD
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 
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Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #76 on: September 22, 2021, 08:25:20 pm »
English, like all languages, is ultimately defined by usage not diktat.

^^^This.

The British may not like Americanisms creeping into what they consider their language, but Americans, by far make up the largest group of speakers of the language. As an American who frequently visits the UK, I hear far more Americanisms in everyday speech in the UK than I hear British idioms in America.

This reminds me of the debate surrounding Pascal standards back in the 1980s. At the time, Turbo Pascal didn't adhere to the standard, but since Turbo Pascal users made up >95% of the users of the language, they couldn't care less.
Complexity is the number-one enemy of high-quality code.
 
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Offline YurkshireLad

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #77 on: September 22, 2021, 11:06:44 pm »
"...going forward...."

How many other ways can you go? Can you travel back in time? I hate that phrase! Grrrr lol
 

Offline Sceptre

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #78 on: September 22, 2021, 11:52:42 pm »
'Reach out' has been used to refer to telephone calls in the US since the Bell System's "Reach Out and Touch Someone" ad campaign from the '70s:
https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/bellsystem_ads-1.html
https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-and-touch-someone-1979-1982

Its popularity as corporate-speak has similar motivations - it sounds more warm and fuzzy.  Wouldn't you rather hear "I'm reaching out to let you know that you've been selected to participate in a resource action" than "I'm calling to tell you that you're fired"?  :)
 
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Offline etiTopic starter

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #79 on: September 23, 2021, 12:25:58 am »
'Reach out' has been used to refer to telephone calls in the US since the Bell System's "Reach Out and Touch Someone" ad campaign from the '70s:
https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/bellsystem_ads-1.html
https://clickamericana.com/media/advertisements/reach-out-reach-out-and-touch-someone-1979-1982

Its popularity as corporate-speak has similar motivations - it sounds more warm and fuzzy.  Wouldn't you rather hear "I'm reaching out to let you know that you've been selected to participate in a resource action" than "I'm calling to tell you that you're fired"?  :)
Yes, but the context in which that is said is not clinical and corporate hogwash, and was aimed towards *domestic customers* and comes across as  a warm, fuzzy way to encourage phone usage for contacting loved ones during the heyday of landlines.

Not quite the same as parroting variations on "reached out" et cetera as a one-size-fits-all buzzword in a clumsy attempt to "sound corporate and professional". 
 

Offline etiTopic starter

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #80 on: September 23, 2021, 12:31:36 am »
Anyone wishing to imply that American "English" is still valid English, might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?

"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"

Yeah? NO.

 

Offline TimFox

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #81 on: September 23, 2021, 02:52:05 am »
Genetics, ethnicity, history, citizenship, subjecthood (or whatever you call it over there), food, and language are quite different concepts.
 
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Offline Zero999

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #82 on: September 23, 2021, 10:49:37 am »
Anyone wishing to imply that American "English" is still valid English, might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?

"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"

Yeah? NO.
In many respects, US English is more similar to what was spoken in Britain, back in the 1500s. British English has changed more since then, whist American English has remained truer to the original. Many words widely believed to be Americanisms are actually British, but have died out and been re-imported. Take the word gotten, the past tense of got, for example. It almost died out in Britain, during the Victorian era, becoming rare in the 20th centruary, has recently enjoyed a revival, thanks to US English.

Although I'm no fan of US English, to me it sounds less vulger and more educated, than some British working class dialects, although that might be because US media tends to use more upper class, standard American English.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2021, 10:56:49 am by Zero999 »
 
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Offline bsfeechannel

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #83 on: September 23, 2021, 01:56:24 pm »
But, my point is the "corporate-speak" ≠ "formal language". Speaking nonsense does not really help anyone, and probably just makes things more confusing for everyone.

I understand what you mean. And my point was exactly to show that the corporatespeak has its origins in an abuse of the formal language. Once you agree that you have to conform to certain rules, those very rules are then employed to include all sorts of ideologies.

So, to get rid of the nonsensical coroporatespeak you have to have in mind that you'll still have certain formal constraints.
 

Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #84 on: September 23, 2021, 04:37:43 pm »
Anyone wishing to imply that American "English" is still valid English, might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?

"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"

Yeah? NO.

Red herring. Citizenship has nothing to do with what language you speak. Besides, why would an American want British citizenship?  :-//

If these descendants flew back to England would people in England be able to understand them? Sure they would. In fact, American idioms are much more common in the UK than British idioms are in the States.
Complexity is the number-one enemy of high-quality code.
 
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #85 on: September 23, 2021, 05:00:57 pm »
Anyone wishing to imply that American "English" is still valid English, might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?

"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"

Yeah? NO.

Red herring. Citizenship has nothing to do with what language you speak. Besides, why would an American want British citizenship?  :-//

If these descendants flew back to England would people in England be able to understand them? Sure they would. In fact, American idioms are much more common in the UK than British idioms are in the States.

No, no they would not. If the Americans arranged to meet them and said "Just look for a sedan with luggage sticking out of the trunk" the English would be looking for this:

Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline Bassman59

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #86 on: September 23, 2021, 05:06:09 pm »
No, you should surrender to the dream police.

What is funny about this rendition is that the vocalist announces that the song starts with the keyboards. When he realizes the song actually starts with the drums, he briefly looks at the drummer with a damn-I-always-forget-that-drummers-are-musicians-too attitude, then proceeds to greet the keyboardist.

Clearly this is why there is a rift between drummer Bun E. Carlos and the rest of the band.
 

Offline JohnG

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #87 on: September 23, 2021, 05:24:37 pm »
In NY, we had a governor who liked to reach out to people...

And for those who have the occasion to visit the NY capitol city now and then, a little fun!
"Reality is that which, when you quit believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick (RIP).
 

Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #88 on: September 23, 2021, 08:23:08 pm »
No, no they would not. If the Americans arranged to meet them and said "Just look for a sedan with luggage sticking out of the trunk" the English would be looking for this:

And if a Brit over here said "Just look for a saloon with luggage sticking out of the boot" we'd direct them to either the nearest bar or podiatrist.  :-DD
Complexity is the number-one enemy of high-quality code.
 
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Offline etiTopic starter

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #89 on: September 23, 2021, 10:32:14 pm »
The excruciating pedants are out in force eh. 🤣
« Last Edit: October 21, 2021, 02:55:05 am by eti »
 

Offline KaneTW

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #90 on: September 24, 2021, 03:06:46 am »
Takes one to know one.
 

Offline etiTopic starter

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #91 on: September 24, 2021, 03:32:26 am »
 

Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #92 on: September 24, 2021, 04:22:27 pm »
Complexity is the number-one enemy of high-quality code.
 

Offline etiTopic starter

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #93 on: September 25, 2021, 12:23:29 am »
Weird to the non-English, but many languages appear odd to non-natives. So what.
 

Online SiliconWizard

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #94 on: September 25, 2021, 01:08:15 am »
There are homonyms in many languages. Actually, if there is one that doesn't have any, I'd be curious to know. Maybe chinese? Although I admit I know nothing about it.
 

Offline magic

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #95 on: September 25, 2021, 06:23:06 am »
That's not even close to the top reasons.

The first thing is that written English is not really phonetic. Same letters, same pairs of letters, even same sub-words are pronounced/written differently depending on context.
Then is the bizarre pronunciation of all 'i's and 'y's in obvious loanwords which sound similar in continental languages.
16 tenses, gotta be kidding me.
Lack of singular pronouns besides "I", apparently :P
 

Offline tooki

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #96 on: September 25, 2021, 01:59:31 pm »
Anyone wishing to imply that American "English" is still valid English, might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?

"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"

Yeah? NO.
Ah, the classic rant of an uninformed British snob.

The fact that we can understand each other without difficulty already shows that we are using the same language. We speak different dialects, but the fact that we have mutual intelligibility shows that they’re not different languages.

There once was a language called “English”, which was then carried to multiple faraway lands. In each of those and in the mother country, this English continued to evolve, such that a) the dialects grew farther apart from each other, and b) the dialects, including in the mother country, evolved away from the mutual ancestral form. (And indeed, historical linguists have shown that British English changed more than American English. Both changed, but American English changed less.)

In other words, your British English is at minimum as far removed from the “original” English as my American English is. But the fact we are having this discussion in English means they’re both the same language, and its name is “English”.


What I find curious is how fragile the British psyche must be, given how so many Brits take every opportunity they can to bash on American English (and American things in general).
 
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Offline Monkeh

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #97 on: September 25, 2021, 02:01:26 pm »
What I find curious is how fragile the British psyche must be, given how so many Brits take every opportunity they can to bash on American English (and American things in general).

Perhaps Americans just don't understand the concept of a good ribbing.

Not that eti's any less of a ranty snob.
 

Offline TimFox

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #98 on: September 25, 2021, 02:04:57 pm »
A thought-experiment on the use of "English" as the name of a language:
1.  What language was spoken in Massachusetts in 1765 (shortly before the War of Independence)?
2.  What language was spoken in Massachusetts in 1799 (shortly after the US Constitution)?
3.  What is the difference between these two languages?
 
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Offline tooki

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Re: No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
« Reply #99 on: September 25, 2021, 02:08:15 pm »
 
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