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☆ 3 phrases the most successful employees never use at work, from CEOs and psychologists
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-01 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Sometimes, what separates successful people from everyone else isn't what they say — it's what they don't say. Other sayings, like "keep me in the loop" or "just checking in," can unintentionally come across as passive-aggressive, Slack executive Jaime DeLanghe told CNBC Make It in 2022. In particular, the best employees typically steer clear from these three phrases and sayings, according to CEOs, psychologists and linguistics experts:'It is what it is'There's one phrase bosses and colleagues don't want to hear when they're facing a problem at work: "It is what it is." Using it, however, can appear highly passive to other people and tarnish their trust in you, McWhorter said. That means there's one sentence that can frustrate such CEOs: This is how we've always done it.

Persons: Duolingo, Slack, Jaime DeLanghe, John McWhorter, Bill Gates, You've, McWhorter, Cortney S, Warren, it's, Jason Buechel, Buechel, Jamie Dimon, Andy Jassy Organizations: LinkedIn, CNBC, Columbia University, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase

☆ Opinion | What Trump Means When He Mispronounces ‘Kamala’
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-01 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Donald Trump has been invoking her name a lot. Harris pronounces it “KA-ma-la.” Trump, however, has often been pronouncing it “Ka-MA-la” or even “KUH-ma-la.” He did it again yesterday at the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. He insists he doesn’t care one way or another (though after audience members voiced their disapproval, he shifted his emphasis to the first syllable). But while so many of us have learned from our mistakes, Trump has defiantly not, and his acolytes have joined right in. The fact that the name is pronounced in different ways — though I’d challenge Trump to come up with seven — hardly means that none is correct.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Harris, “, ” Trump, ”, I’ve, Trump, “ Ka Organizations: Democratic, National Association of Black Journalists Locations: Guatemala, America, American

☆ We’re Asking the Wrong Question About Kamala Harris and Race - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-25 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the wake of Joe Biden’s endorsement of Kamala Harris, a great deal of attention has focused on whether America is ready for a Black female president. Unmentioned is a question of equal complexity: Why is Harris Black? So in terms of her ancestry, she is as much South Asian as she is Black. Barack Obama, with one Black and one white parent, is called Black. Harris often mentions the South Asian half of her heritage, but in traditional American discourse, it feels off to categorize her as simply South Asian — like Aziz Ansari or Mindy Kaling — and leave it there.

Persons: Joe Biden’s, Kamala Harris, Unmentioned, Harris, It’s, Barack Obama, Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling — Organizations: South Locations: America, India, Jamaica

☆ Answers to Questions From Morning Readers
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-21 | by ( The Staff Of The Morning | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Morning recently invited its readers to submit questions. Below, we’re publishing a selection of them, along with answers from Times staff members. (We also published some answers in today’s edition of The Morning.) The English languageDo you have any data about the evolution of the English language? In terms of the actual heart of language — sounds, structures and basic words — English changed much faster from 1300 to 1500.

Persons: — Divya Thomas John McWhorter, Shakespeare, Chaucer, ” Organizations: Morning

☆ Opinion | Why Are Democrats Speaking to America in Ancient Greek?
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-18 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the Democratic Party mulls how to respond to the rhetoric emerging from the Republican National Convention this week, I dearly hope it does not continue to describe Donald Trump as a threat to democracy. That’s not because I disagree with that assessment or even because Trump just survived a horrifying attempt on his life. It has a noble ring to it, but outside of a classroom or seminar, what does it mean, exactly? “Democracy” is built from Greek roots: The “demo” part means “people,” while the “cracy” part means “power.” That’s a vivid combination — if you know Ancient Greek. If Democrats want voters to understand how Trump threatens this ideal, instead of saying it in Greek, it would be more effective to speak English.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, “ Donald Trump, ”, “ Organizations: Democratic Party, Republican National Convention

☆ Opinion | What a Linguist Hears When Biden Speaks
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I don’t think anyone would be shocked to hear that linguists generally study languages, but there is a corner of the discipline that studies something slightly different: pidgins. These are not actual languages; they have small vocabularies and very little of what we could call grammar. One example is Chinese Pidgin English, which was spoken on the coast of China from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. It is alarming to see someone who is asking to be elected president of the United States — someone who already serves as president of the United States — communicate in such an ineffective manner. One way to understand what is happening is to think of it as unraveling.

Persons: Donald Trump, George Stephanopoulos, Biden Organizations: United Locations: China, Papiamentu, Cape Verdean, Surinam, United States

☆ What Miracle Whip and Onboarding Can Teach Us About the English Language - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-04 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a Zoom call recently, someone mentioned the “onboarding” of a new workplace policy. She pronounced it with the accent on the first syllable — “ON-boarding” — even though we pronounce the original expression “on BOARD.” Believe it or not, this got me thinking about mayonnaise. More specifically, it reminded me of an old radio commercial that has always stuck in my mind for the way, in the last line, the announcer pronounces the name of the product with a subtle emphasis on the last word: “Miracle WHIP.” (He made it sound rather exquisite: “Miracle Whip has such a wonderful flavor — lively and teasing, peppy and yet not a bit too sharp. It’s a flavor that’s just exactly right!”) Today we put the weight on the first word, “MIRACLE Whip.”If you listen for it, you can hear a similar shift in many different places. It happens gradually, but the result can be unmistakable, leaving the original pronunciation to sound odd and dated.

☆ Opinion | The Tiniest Words Generate the Biggest Uproar
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-27 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

My own opinion on the matter makes no sense whatsoever — at least not the opinion that A.I. I checked the other day after seeing a social media post that described me as not approving of trans people. McWhorter also suggested other gender-neutral pronouns, including ‘que, ‘s/he, and ‘one.’”Hmm, not a word of that is true. I wouldn’t be caught dead endorsing the ungainly, unpronounceable “s/he” or the hopelessly wooden “one,” and God knows what “que” is. Plus, “they” had already been used in a singular, gender-neutral way (“Each student has an hour to complete their test”) for several centuries.

Persons: ” “, ”, McWhorter, Shakespeare, “

☆ Opinion | What Donald Trump Talks About When He Talks About ‘Donald Trump’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For linguists, however, it also offers a rare side-by-side comparison of the way the candidates speak. You don’t have to follow politics to know that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have extraordinarily different verbal styles. Still, it’s possible to draw connections between Trump’s verbal mannerisms and other speech patterns in the world at large. In Mandarin, one might use the term “little person” rather than “I,” as if humbling oneself both linguistically and physically. The Anglophone version of this is the colloquial way we can refer to ourselves in the third person: “Who just got a raise?

Persons: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, “ Trump, ”, Donald Trump ”, Trump, “ Organizations: ”

☆ Opinion | Audra McDonald Is Returning to Broadway! There’s Just One Catch.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The recent announcement that Audra McDonald will be starring as Mama Rose in “Gypsy” has thrilled Broadway fans. I’m as delighted as anyone, and eager to catch the show when it opens in December. McDonald is the queen of American musical theater, and “Gypsy” is often considered the best musical ever (and if there were no “Follies,” it would be!). In the roles of Mama Rose’s two daughters, June and Louise, the show’s producers intend to cast actresses who, like McDonald, are Black. In other words, Rose isn’t just being played by a Black actress.

Persons: Audra McDonald, Mama Rose, ”, I’m, McDonald, Mama Rose’s, Louise, Rose, Rose’s, Rose isn’t, Bert Williams, Ethel Waters, Shirley Temple Organizations: Broadway Locations: America, Shirley

☆ Trump and the N-Word - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Rumors have long circulated that Donald Trump used the N-word while taping “The Apprentice.” Last week one of the show’s producers, his nondisclosure agreement having expired, recounted one instance in extensive detail. We have concrete evidence of Franklin Roosevelt using the N-word in marginalia before his presidency; Harry Truman used the word freely in his letters to his wife. As for Mr. Trump, he has denied that the N-word was even in his vocabulary. For one thing, we have already heard Mr. Trump say a great many racially dismissive things — about Mexican rapists and immigrants from “shithole countries,” among others. “I’m hiring him to run the country.” Anyway, if a videotape did emerge, his supporters would almost inevitably dismiss it as having been generated by A.I.

Persons: Donald Trump, ”, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Trump, “, “ I’m Organizations: Mr, Indianapolis Star, Democratic Locations: “

☆ What Alicia Keys Taught Me About Democracy - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Decades ago, I had a roommate who didn’t like any of my music. I don’t mean just my musical theater albums, which I have always known are a niche taste. This guy didn’t want to hear even the Beatles (“corny”), Prince (“affected”) or Ella Fitzgerald (“old”). If you survey pop music today, his sensibility won. I thought of this while taking in “Hell’s Kitchen” on Broadway, a musical with songs by Alicia Keys.

Persons: Ella Fitzgerald, “ Porgy, Bess ”, Melissa Etheridge, Billie Holiday, Fitzgerald, Prince, Alicia Keys Organizations: ” Jazz

☆ Opinion | Lets Chill Out About Apostrophes
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The North Yorkshire Council in England has been in the hot seat recently for its changes to street signs — not because of anything on them, but rather because of something left off. One street in the town of Harrogate was rendered as St. Marys Walk. St. Marys Walk was just the beginning. It turns out the county plans to phase out apostrophes on all street signs, in part “to prevent complications while searching on databases,” an official told my Times colleague Jenny Gross. How many people would really miss the connection between St. Marys Walk and St. Mary’s Church?

Persons: Mary’s, Jenny Gross, don’t Organizations: North Yorkshire Council, Marys Locations: England, Harrogate, St, Marys, Mary’s

☆ Opinion | Why Was This Treasure of Musical Theater All but Lost to the Ages?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Purlie” and “The Wiz” — along with “Dreamgirls,” which landed just past the decade divider in 1981 — have been well attended since the 1970s. “The Wiz” was made into a film that many Black people regard as iconic, and a revival is playing on Broadway now. It ran for over two years, won the Tony for best musical and best actress (Virginia Capers) and Theatre World awards for three other leads. Musical theater historians tend to blow by it with a couple of respectful sentences. It’s had a regional revival or three, but compared with “Purlie,” “The Wiz” and “Dreamgirls,” it is a dead property.

Persons: Lorraine Hansberry’s, Blacker, Purlie, ”, —, “ Purlie ”, “, Hansberry’s, Robert Nemiroff, Charlotte Zaltzberg, Judd Woldin, Robert Brittan, Tony, Virginia Capers, It’s, “ Purlie Organizations: Sun, Broadway, Theatre

☆ Opinion | The Prevalence of Standing Ovations
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

),” by John McWhorter (Opinion, April 16):The currency of the standing ovation is indeed seriously debased. The impulse to stand up during the ovation following a performance may in some cases represent a kind of unconscious one-upmanship. I confess that although I invariably applaud performances, I usually “sit out” the competitive appreciation derby, and haul myself to my feet only if I feel particularly inspired. To the Editor:I admit that I’m often among the first to give a standing ovation. I always wondered why the holdouts would deny something so simple to these hardworking actors.

Persons: Wahoo, John McWhorter, “, I’ve, David English Acton Locations: Mass

☆ Opinion | I’m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

His most famous piece is “4’33”,” which directs us to listen in silence to surrounding noise for exactly that period of time. I thought about what would have happened if protesters were instead chanting anti-Black slogans, or even something like “D.E.I. They would have lasted roughly five minutes before masses of students shouted them down and drove them off the campus. I’d wager that most of the student protesters against the Gaza War would view them that way, in fact. Why do so many people think that weekslong campus protests against not just the war in Gaza but Israel’s very existence are nevertheless permissible?

Persons: John Cage, ”, Israel’s, Jewish Organizations: Columbia University Locations: Gaza

☆ Opinion | What if O.J.’s Trial Happened Now?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Those contrasting perspectives have gone down as demonstrating a gulf of understanding between the races. That gulf persists, but it narrows apace, and if the verdict came down today, it would be a lot less perplexing to many white people than it was back then. We might even see some of them applauding along with Black people. It isn’t that these people would celebrate Simpson himself, any more than the jurors did back in 1995. The evidence of Simpson’s deed was overwhelming despite the ineptitude of the prosecution team.

Persons: Simpson, “ I’m, ” I’m

☆ Opinion | Bravo! Hurray! Wahoo! (Meh.)
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In the old days of American theater, the 1950s and before, even megastars like Ethel Merman did not regularly get standing ovations. Standing ovations meant a performance was truly extraordinary. Some have attributed the trend to the tourists who fill many of the seats at Broadway shows; they may be less familiar with theater and therefore especially enthusiastic. But standing ovations are the default even at shows and plays that attract few tourists, and besides, tourists have been flocking to New York since long before the 1990s. I think that made theater, by contrast, feel more special — “live performance,” as we now refer to it.

Persons: you’ve, Clinton, I’ll, Ethel Merman, Ethan Mordden, ovations Organizations: Broadway Locations: New York

☆ Opinion | ‘Little Women’ and the Art of Breaking Grammatical Rules
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A few weeks ago I wrote on the grand old rule about not ending sentences with prepositions, which is, quite simply, a long-lived hoax we’d best relegate to history. In that light, I’d like to dismantle the powerful but hopeless idea that language is something to be judged rather than observed. It can be hard to process, within the bounds of our lifetimes, the randomness of our take on what “proper” language is. I’m thinking of this now as I finally read “Little Women,” which everybody but me seems to have read and which seems to generate another movie version every 10 minutes. Meg to Laurie at a ball says, “Take care my skirt don’t trip you up.”

Persons: Jo, Amy, prim, “, Meg, Laurie, ” Locations: England

☆ Opinion | On Broadway, ‘Centering’ Antiracism Is Delightful
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

My 12-year-old daughter practically had to drag me into the musical “Six,” currently raging on Broadway, in which Henry VIII’s six wives all have their say about what happened to them. In this, the whole show is a kind of lesson in antiracism, regardless of whether a viewer is consciously aware of it. In that way, it is a quintessentially modern work of musical theater. Beyond the lessons “Six” teaches, the performers manage some of the deftest work on Broadway I’ve ever seen. So, “Six” can change your lens in an antiracist (and antisexist) way — while also turning you on to art, wonder, curiosity and excitement.

Persons: ”, Henry VIII’s, Kimberly Akimbo, ” I’m, Anne of Cleves Organizations: Broadway

☆ Why the SAT Isn’t Racist - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That’s three down: Last week, Brown University reinstated standardized testing as a part of its admissions requirements, following Yale and Dartmouth, which did the same earlier this year. For all that we have heard about how standardized tests propagate injustice, the decisions at these Ivy League schools are antiracism in action, and should serve as models for similar decisions across academia. Of course, for years, the leading idea has been precisely the opposite: that the proper antiracist approach is to stop using standardized tests in admissions. Many schools first suspended using them a few years back because their administration was too difficult during the peak of the Covid pandemic. All the way back in 2001, the University of California president Richard Atkinson was warmly and widely celebrated for eliminating the SAT from the schools’ admissions process.

Persons: Richard Atkinson, Sian Beilock Organizations: Brown University, Yale, Dartmouth, Ivy League, University of California

☆ 2 phrases to use to be a more successful employee or manager—and 2 to avoid, according to leadership coaches, psychologists
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Aditi Shrikant | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Here's what to say, and what not to say, to be a more successful employee or manager, according to speech experts, leadership coaches, and psychologists. To be a better manager or employee, there are some phrases you should use more at work, and some you shouldn't say at all. Workplace relationships can be tricky to build — you want to look competent, form connections, and also not overstep boundaries. Say: "Thank you." "And I parsed it and I thought, 'What a gorgeously chilly way of saying: Your problems don't matter to me.'"

Persons: Jim Edwards, Edwards, John McWhorter, Bill Gates, McWhorter, Cortney Warren, it's, Warren Organizations: Columbia University, CNBC

☆ Opinion | Black English Doesn’t Have to Be Just for Black People
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He’s 28, he’s white and he can be hard to listen to. And that’s because he’s always dipping into Black English. In a routine about friction with his stepfather, for instance: “You gon’ keep me in dis room wit’ dis movie? All summer, baby — ah’m good!”Then, following a few sentences in mainstream English: “I finally had leverage for wuhnce. I was like, ‘You kin either beat me, or — you ain’t gon do both, OK?’,” adding an expletive.

Persons: Matt, “, Dave Chappelle Organizations: wuhnce Locations: North Lewisburg , Ohio, North Lewisburg

☆ Opinion | Where Did Our Strange Use of ‘Like’ Come From?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They are ordinary, seemingly educated, white Northeasterners ranging from their late 20s to late middle age speaking casually. And what stands out today, 60 years later, is how often they pause briefly when they talk. Their speech sounds almost herky-jerky to the modern ear. Casual speech, always and everywhere in any language, is all about short sentences, often unfinished, often with occasional hesitations. For one thing, a single song doesn’t change the way people talk every day.

Persons: ” It’s, Frank Zappa’s

☆ Opinion | No, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ Is Not ‘the Worst’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Gershwin intended the rhapsody to fuse the respective powers of classical music and jazz. In the article I cited above, “The Worst Masterpiece: ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ at 100,” Iverson offers an intriguing take: that “Rhapsody in Blue,” while having its charms, is just too square to merit being played as often as it is. He believes the rhapsody isn’t truly jazzy enough, and specifically that it only lightly dwells in African-based rhythm. But to Gershwin, the rhapsody was precisely what it needed to be. I resolved, if possible, to kill that misconception with one sturdy blow.” So while the rhapsody certainly has its foot-tapping sections, it also sails, rests, jolts and soars.

Persons: George Gershwin’s, tony, Paul Whiteman, Gershwin, Ethan Iverson, ” Iverson Organizations: Times, Aeolian Locations: Manhattan

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