in life, there are decisions we have to make. they may be as important as deciding whether you choose to go for a life-threatening surgery or not, or they can be as mundane as deciding whether you should eat that last piece of chocolate now or save it for later.
my university life revolves around making decisions. right or wrong. not-so-life-threatening, mostly mundane.
'should i go to class later?' 'should i say something?' 'should i wear this or that?' 'do i want to risk it and work with someone i'm not comfortable with?' 'should i eat now?' 'should i go to the library?' 'should i use the lift or walk up the stairs?' 'should i say hi?' 'should i pretend not to see him/her?'
yes, a lot of should(s).
i've yet to decide the path i should take for my final semester. should i do something i thought i enjoyed doing or should i just do something that i've no expectations whatsoever about?
why so indecisive?
whatever i end up doing world, please don't make me hate myself later on.
a long, long, long time ago Daniel Jones' (the phonetician) view on standard speech was based on "16th and 17th centuries' recommendations that the model should be that provided by the educated pronunciation of the Court and the capital, which was characterised in the 18th century as the speech received by polite circles of society".
but that was many, many, many years ago. and that was in England, which was where it was specifically meant for, I think. now, people from all over the world can speak English and new varieties of English are emerging.
so what's standard and non-standard speech now? because English originates from England, does that make the British English pronunciation the standard? but even within England, a variety of spoken English(es?) can be found.
or do we see American English as the standard because since America is politically and economically dominant now, it seems fair to say that American English should exert a more powerful influence on our English usage.
but then again, maybe we don't have to compare our speech with L1 English speakers because we have our own variety of English so however we speak it should be the standard.
i mean, maybe. i don't know.
Daniel Jones (1881-1967)
*assuming google image got him right. otherwise this could be just some random guy in a blackandwhite photograph associated with 'Daniel Jones'
