Job Discussion Forums

[easyasabc]

I'm starting a new thread with this because the thread I saw it on had too many bad vibes going on to just pose this question.

Somebody wrote earlier:

[guest of Japan]

1. I've often heard "anyways" used on the US. The difference between right and wrong would have to be decided by your personal views on grammar.

2. "Catch-22" is a book by Joseph Heller. The expression comes from that book. Great book.

3. Use "play" for games, use "go" for activities. An exception would be bowling. It is technically a game, but due to its -ing ending we use go.

That's my take on those three.

[denise]

I too have heard "anyways" in the States. That doesn't mean that it is "right" according to any prescriptive rules--it just means that it is in fact a part of the language. More recently, like in the past couple of years, I have started to hear "anyhoo" as well. (I'm assuming that's how it is spelled.)

d

[PAULH]

[quote="easyasabc"]
I personally would never say it is in 'common usage' in Australia. I'm Australia and I have never heard 'anyways' used in Australia or by an Australian. I'm only speaking for myself there but I've lived in both a city and in the far North in Oz (where there is a kind of different way of speaking) and never heard it in either. I have only heard it used by my American friends.
/quote]

Ditto from a Kiwi

[shmooj]

In the book Catch 22 as best I can remember the pilots want to stop flying missions cos they are so chicken. So, Major Major agrees that when they have flown x number of missions they can stop. Trouble is x keeps increasing so the more they fly, the more they need to fly and the more they need to fly the more dangerous it gets. This is referred to in the book technically as Catch 22.

Is that it? It's been a long time since I read it.

[guest of Japan]

That's it.

Another example from the book. Yossarian doesn't want to fly anymore so he tries to pursuade the doctor to say he's insane. The doctor says that he can't because only sane people wouldn't want to fly. So Yossarian asks if he says he wants to fly more and more missions whether or not he'd be insane. The Doctor says that he may very well be insane, but that the army would never turn away an eager airman.

[Laura C]

Re Denise's post about 'anyhoo' -- I use this as well, it's a great Homeresque word (and no, that's not a word either!)

I wouldn't see the harm in letting students know about words like this and 'anyways', as long as the teacher makes clear the words are not 'official, ie dictionary, English. Language evolves so quickly, and words like this are contemporary and cultural. In my experience most people who are learning a lagnuage like to know the slang and popular cultural references in it. My boyfriend's second language is English, and he is always asking me about slang (and swearing, but that's another matter). I like to learn French slang as well, people can always sound so stilted if they use grammatically correct phrases all the time.

It's using words like this which makes a learner of another language sound more fluent.

Laura

[J-Pop]

[shmooj]

Hey, I just had a thought.

Waits for applause to die down.

If something is in a Dictionary of Slang, can I teach it to my students and use it in daily life?

[Dr.J]

'play' is for games, with the nuance of fun, though nowadays professional sports are also 'played'.

'do' is for contact or other 'dangerous' sports like karate, boxing, hang gliding.

'go' is when you have to go somewhere to do something. like a swimming pool or bowling alley. is that just really obvious or what?

for bowling its both a fun game and you go out so sometimes you hear 'play bowling' and sometimes 'go bowling' depending on the context.

[denise]

[hagakuri]

Anyways is in the dictionary.

an�y�ways ( P ) Pronunciation Key (n-wz)
adv. Nonstandard

Definition. In any case.

Source: The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

[markosonlines]

In the context of sports I've always taught play for BALL sports, Go for DISTANCE sports, and do for LOCATION sports, such as karate. Once again bowling is the exception. Seems to work, though it is good to hear the alternatives.

Markos

[Sam Adams]

For those of you who haven't read Catch-22 , the book is filled with with catch-22's, but the main one that gets it started is that in order not to fly anymore bombing missions, all you have to do is go to a doctor/pych and tell him that you are insane. It's as simple as that. The 'catch' is that an insane person wouldn't know that they are insane, therefore anyone saying that they are insane is lying, and is actually sane. So in actuality, it is impossible to get grounded.
I forget who Yossarian is talking to, but when he hears it he say something like 'that's some catch', and they guy who he is talking to says 'best there is'.
Another good one is major major major will only let people into his office to see him when he is not there. So anyone trying to see him is told to come back when he has left. So it is impossible to see the major.

[ryuro]

The "22" from the "Catch 22" actually refers to one of the sections in the military's medical codes that refers to being insane. It's one of a long list of numbers often thrown around in military 'comedies' when one is trying to get out of the service for some type of mental deficiency- just think of Klinger from the American TV show M.A.S.H. He's always looking to get out of the army on a "section this or that" (the actual number seems to vary).

ANYWAY, it's a fantastic book and movie!

cheers,
ryuro