27 November 2009

They're What?

Greetings,

Exams have recently finished for our Year 12 students out here ... That's their final year of secondary schooling, and students range in age from nearly 17 to nearly 19, depending on what state they live in.

I don't know what rites of passage accompany finishing school in your little corner of the world, but I suspect you may suffer a similar problem with your young adults (and I use the term loosely, for reasons that will soon become obvious).

Way back when I was a girl, we finished school on a Friday, and on Saturday morning, I started my Christmas holiday job, which I kept right through into the New Year until a week or so before our results were published. And then it was time to knuckle down to study.

And it was the same when my own kids finished their final year. They had a couple of days to sort through all their schooling paraphernalia, and then it was time to start the next phase of their lives.

But now ...

The current, insidious custom is for school-leavers to spend a week (or more) revelling in a riotous and expensive holiday. This began innocuously enough back in the 1970s, in a very low-key fashion with a few mates getting together at the beach to surf, but in the last decade it's been hi-jacked by commercial interests and is now a multi-million dollar gravy-train for anyone who can supply what teens want. The kids book out luxury hotels and apartments in popular tourist spots (usually on the Gold Coast), and then they arrive, all cashed-up and ready to let loose, in vehicles loaded to the gunnels with alcohol supplied by insane/well-meaning(?) parents. (What are these people thinking?)

Local councils eventually tired of all the damage and poor behaviour, and a few years ago, started organising "events" for the little darlings. This means horrendous costs associated with hiring entertainment, cordonning off special areas and then policing these areas to keep out the older people who are attracted to the hordes of uninhibited teens like a pack of killer whales to a colony of penguins frolicking in the icy waters off Antarctica.

Thousands of volunteers give up their time to nurse these silly kids as they fight and vomit in the streets, and then they all go home and study to become doctors and town planners and lawyers.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, I read on the weekend, that the latest trend is for the Schoolies (for so are they known) to head overseas now. There are too many restrictions at home, and many are now booking flights to Bali and Thailand and other Ports Foreign. (I pale at the very thought ...)

Aren't you glad you don't have teenagers finishing school?

I am.

Each year around 100,000 kids from the different states "celebrate" the 5 days of Schoolies Week ... by my calculations, that's around 1,000,000 sleepless-parents' nights!

I wish I could say that it's only the minority who give the rest a bad name, but as you'll discover on this website ("by Schoolies, for Schoolies" as it proclaims) that's just wishful thinking. Have a look at the "history of Schoolies:" http://www.schoolies.org.au/history-of-schoolies-week.htm Wait till you get to the "Schoolies Research" at the end! Although, to be fair, these stats were compiled in 1995. In 2008, things, it seems, were better (although 198 teenagers arrested for drunken behaviour seems to give an entirely new meaning to the word "better" ...)

“The statistics indicate that Schoolies is getting better every year,” Gold Coast District Superintendent Jim Keogh said.

Crowd numbers were around 102,000 people in Surfers Paradise for the 10 days down from 133,000 last year.

A total of 198 schoolies were arrested and charged, down from 268 in 2007.

Non-schoolies also saw a decline in arrest figures as 470 non-schoolies were arrested this year in comparison to 521 in 2007.

“Of the schoolies arrested, 183 were males and 15 were females,” Superintendent Keogh said. ...

“Many schoolies did not heed the numerous warnings about drinking in public places such as the beach and parks, with 600 liquor warnings issued to schoolies throughout the past 10 days. ...

“The success of schoolies can be attributed to pro-active intervention strategies utilised to target disorderly behaviour, the benefits of educational programs by police and other agencies implemented prior to the event and to the many dedicated volunteer groups that worked in conjunction with government departments to ensure the safety of young people attending Gold Coast Schoolies 2008."

Hmmm ... it all sounds fine until you get to that last part and discover that the reason there were fewer arrests is mainly because of the increased number of volunteers out on the streets, ready to step in and rescue the kids poised to become statistics.

And reports from this year: Police say 7,000 school leavers partied inside the entertainment precinct on the first night, and 36 schoolies were arrested.

Superintendent Jim Keogh says incidents like jumping onto car bonnets and climbing structures will not be tolerated.

"Thirty-one of the 36 arrests being alcohol-related is far too high," he said.

However ... Schoolies Advisory Group chairman Mark Reaburn says he thinks the teenagers are generally well behaved. "If the public acted the way the schoolies have acted I think we'd be a safer place in Surfers Paradise," he said. "I acknowledge schoolies are being arrested and the police are doing their job and we encourage them to do their job. ...

Drug Arm says dozens of young people have sought refuge at its recharge zone since the Gold Coast Schoolies Festival began. Drug Arm spokeswoman Caroline Salom says about 40 teenagers who came to the recharge zone were overcome by alcohol."

You really would think that in this day in age, with all the publicity about the perils of ...

Sorry?

Oh yes, of course!

The expression is actually "in this day and age," but you'll often hear people mistakenly say "day in age." We should try to nip this in the butt before it ...

Yes ... done it again!

This time the expression should be "nip it in the bud," meaning to stop something before it blooms into full flower.

I shutter to think what could happen if I ...

All right then, I shudder to think -- the expression has nothing to do with cameras or window coverings, but everything to do with shaking and trembling at the very thought of something ... such as your teenager heading off to Schoolies!

This week's Little Something Extra has some more of these mistaken expressions ... see how many you mishear/misuse. And check out the "eggcorns" -- they'll have you curled in the feeble position before you know it!

Here are a couple of my favourites from the Guardian ... just to wet your appetite (OK, just to whet it then):

"'Last year Britain's economy was very strong, but this year will be when the chickens come home to roast,' said Bootle." (Telegraph, January 2005)

"The true matter is: it's a doggy dog world out there, and they're all in it for the money." (a blog)

"This coverage provides for protection from claims for libel, slander and deformation of character." (Catering Magazine, January 2005)(Source)

All these gaffes illustrate, yet again, the need many companies have for experienced writers. If you're thinking about branching out as a freelancer, you'll appreciate all the gems in the latest edition of Peter Bowerman's excellent Well-Fed Writer series of books.

This edition has updated content from the first two books, as well as new material. I found the first Well-Fed Writer a huge help in overcoming one aspect of freelancing that I used to just hate ... cold-calling. I'd tried psyching myself in every way possible, but until I read Peter's book with his insights on why we seem to dread cold-calling, how to view rejection in a positive way and how to respond to typical answers, I'd never been comfortable with it, even though I knew it was an important aspect of freelancing.

The most useful tool in Peter's arsenal (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor) is his cold-calling script. It's a little ripper and gives you so much confidence, people won't be able to drag you away from the phone!

The current edition of The Well-Fed Writer has an expanded cold-calling script and tips on everything from how to talk on the phone ("slowly, clearly, evenly") to how to get the right mind-set and what not to say.

I'd suggest you do what I did and type out the script in a larger-than-normal font and print off a few copies. I wrote out little cards with the name of the company I was calling and stuck them in the blank spot with a bit of BlueTak, so I wouldn't get tongue-tied at the last moment or say the name of the previous company. (Very embarrassing and not really the sort of impression that's likely to win you a client!)

Make sure you read through the script a few times before making your first calls of the day; this helps give you confidence and warms your vocal cords so your voice doesn't come out as a squeak.

A couple of very useful chapters discuss how you can combine part-time freelancing with full-time work until your freelance career takes off, and another looks at why smaller markets and rural areas are an untapped source of work for freelancers. Then there's the chapter on how to utilise your networks, and one on how much to charge and ... But it's best if you see for yourself how this book will benefit your writing career.  

This week's quiz:

Match the words with their definitions below: magnate, sylvan, terrarium, insulate, inter, aqueduct, aquifer, debonair, deviate, defamation,

1. an underground layer of rock or sand containing water

2. set apart, detach from the rest

3. to turn aside (from); diverge; digress

4. a conduit for bringing water from afar

5. of or characteristic of the woods

6. injury to the reputation of another by means of false, malicious statements

7. to bury

8. a glass container enclosing a garden of small plants

9. a very important person, especially in business

10. having an easy and elegant manner

Last week's quiz:

Here are some terms used to describe English and its spelling ... read 'em and weep!

etymology, affricate, grapheme, morphology, phonology, phoneme, diphthong, phone, gemination, fricative

1. an un-segmentable, gliding speech sound varying continuously in phonetic quality but held to be a single sound or phoneme and identified by its apparent beginning and ending sound, as the oi-sound of toy or boil - DIPHTHONG

2. a unit of a writing system consisting of all the written symbols or sequences of written symbols that are used to represent a single phoneme - GRAPHEME

3. the study of the distribution and patterning of speech sounds in a language and of the tacit rules governing pronunciation - PHONOLOGY

4. a doubled consonant sound - GEMINATION

5. an account of the history of a particular word or element of a word; the study of historical linguistic change, especially as shown in individual words - ETYMOLOGY

6. (of a speech sound) characterised by audible friction produced by forcing the breath through a constricted or partially obstructed passage in the vocal tract - FRICATIVE

7. a speech sound - PHONE

8. the patterns of word formation in a particular language, including inflection, derivation and composition - MORPHOLOGY

9. a speech sound comprising occlusion, plosion and frication, as either of the ch-sounds in church and the j-sound in joy - AFFRICATE

10. smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English - PHONEME

A young college co-ed came running in tears to her father. "Dad, you gave me some terrible financial advice!"

"I did? What did I tell you?" said her father.

"You told me to put my money in that big bank, and now that big bank is in trouble."

"What are you talking about? That's one of the largest banks in the state," he said, "there must be some mistake."

"I don't think so," she sniffed. "They just returned one of my cheques with a note saying, 'Insufficient Funds'."

A Little Something Extra

The top 10 misquoted phrases in Britain here

An entire site devoted to collecting "eggcorns" -- those mistaken expressions we all love to hate here

Some misheard lyrics or Mondegreens 

And some Malapropisms 

Oxymoron of the week: responsible Schoolies

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