NearThere
Member
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2008
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- Taiwan
- Current Location
- United States
As in fashion, is there fad in English language?
When I first came to the United States, "surreal" was big. Every which way I turned people were saying "surreal", at a party, in the mall, on the news and on the radio as if "surreal" was a new found emotion of awe using it like a fan in a hot day, even the dog was surreal. It lasted for a while, maybe I was new to the language thus the repetitive use of the word stood out to me.
A while ago, "awol" was in vogue even though it's short-lived, so much so that even a friend of mine used it to inquire my whereabout. So where did that come from? How did it become fashionable that everyone seemed to have known the word without looking it up in the dictionary?
There are few others phrases too that are still on going: "in any way, shape or form", "what have you" and/or "what not".......I don't remember hearing them much when I first came to the United States. So who set the trend? How did they come to be trendy? Or have these expressions or words been around ever since and I am just starting to catch on?
NT
When I first came to the United States, "surreal" was big. Every which way I turned people were saying "surreal", at a party, in the mall, on the news and on the radio as if "surreal" was a new found emotion of awe using it like a fan in a hot day, even the dog was surreal. It lasted for a while, maybe I was new to the language thus the repetitive use of the word stood out to me.
A while ago, "awol" was in vogue even though it's short-lived, so much so that even a friend of mine used it to inquire my whereabout. So where did that come from? How did it become fashionable that everyone seemed to have known the word without looking it up in the dictionary?
There are few others phrases too that are still on going: "in any way, shape or form", "what have you" and/or "what not".......I don't remember hearing them much when I first came to the United States. So who set the trend? How did they come to be trendy? Or have these expressions or words been around ever since and I am just starting to catch on?
NT
