It’s like, you know, like…

How did it happen? The excessive, superfluous use of the word ‘like’? I didn’t realize until recently just how much this annoying trend has invaded the Australian vocab. The first time I really noticed how much this irritates me was when I watched an ‘interview’ with a female Hollywood celebrity who had a reputation of not quite being the sharpest tool in the shed. I don’t think a single sentence that came out of her mouth contained less than four mutterings of the word ‘like’. As she sat there, turning her head from side to side while she spoke, twirling her hair with her fingers, struggling to form comprehensible sentences I found myself not actually interested in anything she had to say. I was totally distracted by her inability to use other words from her native English to describe her thoughts and responses.

The unfortunate thing is that even I have unknowingly fallen victim and find myself slipping in the odd ‘like’ in the pause of a sentence. During my aerial circus classes I’ve put out the challenge to my students that we will not use the word ‘like’ inappropriately during training. I thought the group would laugh at me and think I was being a pompous old biddy, but they actually agreed with the whole mission and constantly remind each other of the challenge. Even the high school teacher of one of my students is on the same mission and has his students use the word ‘potatoes’ instead.

Another trend I’ve only just noticed is the ending of sentences with ‘you know what I mean’. I think I’ve managed to escape this one and when on the receiving end of that statement I find myself taking it literally. “No I don’t think I do…” I’ve found myself replying much to the shock of the offender who then is forced to realize what they’ve said and interrupt the flow of their conversation to explain themselves. I don’t mean to sound like the grammar police, I’m not perfect, but I think there’s value in maintaining some sense in our everyday language. I’m sure there’s something that, like, totally irks everyone, you know what I mean?