Schwartzwaldekirschtorte*

Sometimes, the way people write or speak really annoys me. [Yes, I know this is ironic given my propensity for inappropriate use of parentheses]. I don't mean their accents or grammar (although bad grammar does annoy me, even though I'm sure I don't use it properly myself), I mean examples such as the sentence in [] above. Why do people insist on using long or unusual words, when they could have said the same thing in a much clearer and more concise way? I know, I know, we shouldn't dumb down, and I agree, but I think sometimes people just use long words to make themselves look clever. I do.

People in certain sectors of society are particularly guilty of such crimes, in my opinion. Major culprits include writers for The Guardian newspaper, especially the ones who write about nothing much in the g2 supplement. I quite enjoy reading g2 in the staff room at break time, it just about fills the time-gap nicely, but I am often irritated by the style of writing. They may not always use long words, but, to me, it feels like they're trying to tell me how intelligent they are - 'Look, I am so clever and I have opinions and because you're not as clever as me you have to accept them'. I find the tone very condescending sometimes.

I think the root of my annoyance is probably jealousy, with a bit of insecurity thrown in. They're probably getting paid lots of money to write their own opinions, and they probably really are more intelligent than I am [did you know the majority of people working in the media went to Oxford or Cambridge?], so that's two reasons for me to envy them. Also, I suspect I feel slightly intimidated by their long words and Guardianesque writing style and worry that I don't understand.

Some students and academics are also guilty of using long words on purpose. I know one student who use the most complex word he could think of because he thought he would get better marks - I think it worked! This kind of word usage isn't so bad because the person reading the essay should be able to understand what's written, and it's not going to make them feel stupid.

A classic example of mis-use of language in speech was in a church meeting on Monday night, where the vicar spoke at length about his pet topic and used lots of acronyms and jargon and I hadn't got a clue what he was talking about! Management-speak is a classic example of mis-use of words that I'm sure many people in employment can identify with!

I like words, and I think people should make full use of the language available, but sometimes it is better to be clear than clever.

*The title of this post is Schwartzwaldekirschtorte because this is one of the longest words we learnt in German lessons at school and we always tried to fit it in to our work somewhere. I suppose 'trying to make people think you're clever by using long words and annoying writing styles' could be known as Schwartzwaldekirschtorte Syndrome. I suspect I am not immune to this syndrome.