Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 14:26     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:

OP here - to this PP, do teachers ever try to correct this in their students, e.g., if a student answers a question in class and his/her response is full of "like" or "um y'knows" do teachers ever ask them to repeat their answer without the extra/unnecessary words? Seems like teachers could help parents address this!! Being able to speak properly is a skill kids will need when they're adults interviewing for jobs, or even students interviewing for college admissions. Life skills are as important as book skills, IMO.


If a teacher did this, here is the message this would send to the student: I'm more interested in how you say it than what you say.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 14:23     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It drives me nuts too. I ask DD to "Say that again, without all the likes" sometimes, or will interrupt her and say "You've now said 'like' four times and still haven't gotten out the gist of the sentence. Take a breath, think about what you want to say, THEN spit it out."

If she could codeswitch I would be okay with that. So far (7th grade) she doesn't seem capable of that. Jeans in 90 degree weather sounds awful!


Yes, she is. Explain the idea to her. You can even do some role-playing -- "Tell me [something] as though I were your friend. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your teacher. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your grandmother." Or you can show her how you do it, because you do it too. Everybody does.


I already did. She found it so difficult that she gave up on speaking. And this is a kid who never shuts up. I'll try again, but right now, she's not capable of it.


Does she understand the idea, but she just can't do it, or does she not understand the idea?
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 13:37     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It drives me nuts too. I ask DD to "Say that again, without all the likes" sometimes, or will interrupt her and say "You've now said 'like' four times and still haven't gotten out the gist of the sentence. Take a breath, think about what you want to say, THEN spit it out."

If she could codeswitch I would be okay with that. So far (7th grade) she doesn't seem capable of that. Jeans in 90 degree weather sounds awful!


Yes, she is. Explain the idea to her. You can even do some role-playing -- "Tell me [something] as though I were your friend. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your teacher. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your grandmother." Or you can show her how you do it, because you do it too. Everybody does.


I already did. She found it so difficult that she gave up on speaking. And this is a kid who never shuts up. I'll try again, but right now, she's not capable of it.
This is not a bad thing. So she will learn to pause before she speaks to make sure it's not there. Perhaps in the beginning that will be a very long pause but if she likes to talk, she'll figure it out. Right now, she's not capable of it, but I'm sure she's capable of starting the process.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 13:28     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The 1980's called and would like their complaint back.


LOL! Yes, I spoke this way as a teen in the 80's. I grew out of it by college.


Me too, then I became a high school teacher and it crept back in from hearing it so often. Argh.


OP here - to this PP, do teachers ever try to correct this in their students, e.g., if a student answers a question in class and his/her response is full of "like" or "um y'knows" do teachers ever ask them to repeat their answer without the extra/unnecessary words? Seems like teachers could help parents address this!! Being able to speak properly is a skill kids will need when they're adults interviewing for jobs, or even students interviewing for college admissions. Life skills are as important as book skills, IMO.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 12:57     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The 1980's called and would like their complaint back.


LOL! Yes, I spoke this way as a teen in the 80's. I grew out of it by college.


Me too, then I became a high school teacher and it crept back in from hearing it so often. Argh.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 12:56     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It drives me nuts too. I ask DD to "Say that again, without all the likes" sometimes, or will interrupt her and say "You've now said 'like' four times and still haven't gotten out the gist of the sentence. Take a breath, think about what you want to say, THEN spit it out."

If she could codeswitch I would be okay with that. So far (7th grade) she doesn't seem capable of that. Jeans in 90 degree weather sounds awful!


Yes, she is. Explain the idea to her. You can even do some role-playing -- "Tell me [something] as though I were your friend. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your teacher. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your grandmother." Or you can show her how you do it, because you do it too. Everybody does.


I already did. She found it so difficult that she gave up on speaking. And this is a kid who never shuts up. I'll try again, but right now, she's not capable of it.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 10:56     Subject: Overuse of "Like"
It's an unfortunate habit, and I think it's good that you are making them aware of it, but they will drop it with time. It's difficult to get rid of those kinds of verbal fillers and requires the person to make a concerted effort to stop it.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 09:53     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
I have a grown male coworker whose filler word is "youknowbutlike". I wish it were just "like" now because he can literally say "youknowbutlike" 3-4 times in a sentence. Gah.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 09:51     Subject: Overuse of "Like"
It's something that apparently was going on in the 60's. It came back around in the 80s as "Valley Girl" speak (Nick Cage movie) and never really went away.

At least it isn't "gag me with a spoon" and "grodie to the max!"
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 09:39     Subject: Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:It's something universal about spoiled, white American girls between the ages of 15 and 29. It's not just the overuse of the word "like" but a certain nasal, airy (Cali girl?) lisp. The combination of the two seemingly decreases the apparent IQ of said young women by a good 50%...and in the eyes of many men I know...makes them either seem immature and/or unsuitable for a LTR...or worse...easy to get in bed.

And it is a rich, white, privileged (middle class) American girl problem. I have never observed the phenomenon among other cultures and languages.


This is factually incorrect. Men use "like" (as in "in, like, the...") as often as women.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3226
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 09:33     Subject: Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:It's something universal about spoiled, white American girls between the ages of 15 and 29. It's not just the overuse of the word "like" but a certain nasal, airy (Cali girl?) lisp. The combination of the two seemingly decreases the apparent IQ of said young women by a good 50%...and in the eyes of many men I know...makes them either seem immature and/or unsuitable for a LTR...or worse...easy to get in bed.

And it is a rich, white, privileged (middle class) American girl problem. I have never observed the phenomenon among other cultures and languages.


Yes, it's incredible that other languages do not use the English word "like" in the way that the English language uses the English word "like".

Meanwhile I, for one, would not want to have a relationship with a man who thought that a young woman who uses "like" is unsuitable for a long-term relationship and "easy to get in bed", so if that really is what men think, then I, if I were a young woman, would use "like" as much as possible.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 09:22     Subject: Overuse of "Like"
It's something universal about spoiled, white American girls between the ages of 15 and 29. It's not just the overuse of the word "like" but a certain nasal, airy (Cali girl?) lisp. The combination of the two seemingly decreases the apparent IQ of said young women by a good 50%...and in the eyes of many men I know...makes them either seem immature and/or unsuitable for a LTR...or worse...easy to get in bed.

And it is a rich, white, privileged (middle class) American girl problem. I have never observed the phenomenon among other cultures and languages.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 06:16     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:It drives me nuts too. I ask DD to "Say that again, without all the likes" sometimes, or will interrupt her and say "You've now said 'like' four times and still haven't gotten out the gist of the sentence. Take a breath, think about what you want to say, THEN spit it out."

If she could codeswitch I would be okay with that. So far (7th grade) she doesn't seem capable of that. Jeans in 90 degree weather sounds awful!


Yes, she is. Explain the idea to her. You can even do some role-playing -- "Tell me [something] as though I were your friend. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your teacher. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your grandmother." Or you can show her how you do it, because you do it too. Everybody does.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 05:38     Subject: Re:Overuse of "Like"
Anonymous wrote:The 1980's called and would like their complaint back.


2006 called and would like their references to other years' calling to complain back.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2015 05:26     Subject: Overuse of "Like"
I used "like" a lot in high school. I don't know. This is age appropriate behavior, and it's teenage speak.