usage of "normal"

[LeTyan]

"I recommend people watch English interviews to improve English rather than movies. Because movies are sometimes overly dramatized. But people in interviews converse like normal people would. Because it's normal. It's more worthy of learning"

Some people say the word "normal" is problematic in this setting. What do you guys think?


Thank you!

 

[emsr2d2]

"I recommend people watch English interviews to improve English rather than movies. Because movies are sometimes overly dramatized. But people in interviews converse like normal people would. Because it's normal. It's more worthy of learning"

Some people say the word "normal" is problematic in this setting. What do you guys think?


Thank you!

Where did you find this quote? It's poor English. Even the first sentence is ambiguous. It suggest that people should watch English interviews in order to improve the English language (not their ability to speak it) rather than to improve movies.

Why do you think the word "normal" is problematic? And what do you mean by "problematic"?

 

[LeTyan]

Where did you find this quote? It's poor English. Even the first sentence is ambiguous. It suggest that people should watch English interviews in order to improve the English language (not their ability to speak it) rather than to improve movies.

Why do you think the word "normal" is problematic? And what do you mean by "problematic"?

It's kind of like a debate from a forum about whether "normal" is properly used in here.

So If I rewrite the first sentence to "I recommend people watch English interviews rather than movies to improve their spoken English". Is it better?

"People in interview videos converse like normal people would". In this one, is the word "normal" not used properly here?

 

[bhaisahab]

It's kind of like a debate from a forum about whether "normal" is properly used in here.

So If I rewrite the first sentence to "I recommend people watch English interviews rather than movies to improve their spoken English". Is it better? Yes.

"People in interview videos converse like normal people would". In this one, is the word "normal" not used properly here?

It's fine. It's quite normal to use "normal" in that sentence.

 

[LeTyan]

It's fine. It's quite normal to use "normal" in that sentence.

Some people (They are American) claim that the phrase "normal people" specifically mean mentally unchallenged people. So according to them, it doesn't sound quite right to put it here.
Could that possibly be a difference between American English and British English?

 

[bhaisahab]

Some people (They are American) claim that the phrase "normal people" specifically mean mentally unchallenged people. So according to them, it doesn't sound quite right to put it here.
Could that possibly be a difference between American English and British English?

Perhaps, you'd have to ask an American. I find it OK.

 

[emsr2d2]

In these days of overwhelming political correctness, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if "normal people" is now frowned upon because it suggests that there must be "abnormal people" and presumably people are now taking to thinking that refers to physically or mentally disabled people.

However, if I read "that's how normal people speak", I would simply assume it meant "that's how [most] people speak in everyday speech".

 

[Barb_D]

:roll:In this context, it's so clear that you mean "normal people" not "fictional movie characthers who speak the lines people wrote for them to say" that for anyone to suggest it's somehow a reference to mentally challenged people is absurd.

Having said that, I would have written it as "natural" instead of "normal" because it's so hard to say what "normal" is. A quiet interview like "Inside the Actor's Studio" or an interview with a person who just witnessed a crime can both produce "natural" English but maybe the second situation is not "normal."

 

[MikeNewYork]

The problem with changing our use of language every time an overly sensitive individual has a problem with a harmless word is it never stops. If "normal" is bad because of "abnormal", then will "natural" be bad because of "unnatural", and will "usual" be bad because of "unusual"?

 

[LeTyan]

The problem with changing our use of language every time an overly sensitive individual has a problem with a harmless word is it never stops. If "normal" is bad because of "abnormal", then will "natural" be bad because of "unnatural", and will "usual" be bad because of "unusual"?

I totally agree!
Imagine in a setting, one says, "After all, we are no super heros with no super power, we are just "normal, ordinary, common, average" people.
Which one of these probably doesn't fit in here?

 

[MikeNewYork]

I totally agree!
Imagine in a setting, one says, "After all, we are no super heros with no super power, we are just "normal, ordinary, common, average" people.
Which one of these probably doesn't fit in here?

None.