The casual way of speaking and writing is now part of the environment. I am to the point of not fighting it any more. My younger daughter, who I love beyond any possible reason, and who gets straight A's, says "like" like, all the time. For years I have tried to irradicate the word. She is not resistant, she actually tries to not say it, but it is somehow part of her DNA at this point. As much as parents would like to think their children are entirely their own creation, they pick up at least as much and probably more from their environment. If the worst thing Emily ever does to me is say "I was, like, talking to Ellie, and she was like, did you see that with Joey, and I was like, eeuuww" -- if that's the worst, I will count myself a very lucky parent. Which I already do.


>That would be, like, you know, so hot.
>
>>I second the nomination of Valley Girl as the national language. Totally tubular.
>>
>>
>>>What version of the American form of English will be our standard? North East, South, South West, Midwest, West Coast? How about Valley Girl (San Fernando Valley – Los Angeles)? “Gag me with a spoon”! :)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/19/senate.english.ap/index.html
>>>>>
>>>>>Seems to me that the only results of making a national language is that more people know English, making it more efficient to run a government and easier for people in society to communicate and understand each other.
>>>>>
>>>>>Both being good things.
>>>>>
>>>>>I think we should also set metric as the national measuring system.
>>>>>
>>>>>But for some reason I doubt the Senators supporting a national language would see the value in a "common and unifying" system.
>>>>
>>>>I think we should have English as the national language, then deviate on certain days. Say, tomorrow is National Pig Latin Day,next month is Ebonics, then follow that with other "real" languages once a month, or not!<g>