Words as Symbols

Words change meaning over time. There is a statement about people who speak English in different countries which is: "Two people separated by a common language"

The best example I can think of was once when I was in Canada. Though to people in Europe Canadians sound almost exactly like Americans when we speak they use different adjectives and adverbs a lot when they speak. I was at a National Park likely Banff or Jasper and I was walking into the bathroom and a gentleman was walking out. HE said to me something that didn't make any sense at all because he was using adjectives to describe something that didn't have the same meaning in California that they did in that part of Canada. So, he had this sort of Scotch Irish accent with different descriptors. It took me about a minute to discover what he was trying to tell me: There was no toilet paper in the stall he vacated and I was going to use next. But, only because I saw there was no toilet paper did I actually finally get what he was talking about.

However, people that live closer to the U.S. and Canadian borders have a lot less trouble understanding each other because there is a lot of travel back and forth close to the border between both countries.

And, even when I travel sometimes I will tell people I'm from British Columbia and Victoria on Vancouver Island if I'm not sure about someone I'm talking to. There's less chance of being murdered or beat up if you are Canadian rather than being an American traveling Worldwide.

But, the most disturbing to me is trying to communicate with my 18 year old because she will constantly correct words I'm using. I will just talk right out of the 1960s or 1970s and she will say something like, "That's not what it means anymore!" And I will say, "Well. My generation invented that word." And she will say, "It doesn't mean that anymore." and go on to tell me what it now means.

And I feel very out of date and dinosaur like at that point. But, then again I'm in my mid 60s and she is only 18 and just graduated High School.