Thursday, June 05, 2008

New Meanings 4

Where did 'going forward' come from? I keep hearing people - especially financial 'experts' - on radio and TV saying 'going forward' for no discernible reason. Anyway, going forward, 'take care' seems to have become our 'have a nice day'. An otherwise silent, blank, expressionless and wholly incompetent shop assistant said 'take care' to me yesterday. I was alarmed; it sounded like a threat as in 'I know where you live'. One should, of course, take are when going forward, but this is a personal matter. Strangers should not intrude. The old ways are better, so Thought Experimenters, in the future mind how you go.

11 comments:

  1. I have to admire the grit of the shop assistant in opening her (?) mouth at all. For if you are eating all you say, 'going forward' you must project a certain look.

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  2. It's the transitional stage between coming from behind and rapid advancement, all beloved by human resource operatives or personnel officers as they once were, before they went up market and joined focus groups to have deep and meaningfull discussions, becoming power point slaves, the outcome of all of this is the classic question asked by the 12 civil servants interviewing one 17 year old for the temporary job as a gofor.."what do you think you, personally can bring to this position"

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  3. Like the cops pulling you over and then saying with menace: "safe journey, now." An excellent phrase that.

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  4. And while we're on the subject, have you noticed that whereas, in happier times, people said, "It's up to you, kiddo", and "I put it down to the weather", now the standard form, in both contexts, is "down to ...." Who decreed that this should be so? Personally, I much prefer the upstanding, responsible, human dignity vibrations of "It's up to you."

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  5. Oops I've been guilty of the phrase 'take care'. And yes I know what you mean. Maybe it is time to move (go) forward. Anyway....... Just you be careful.

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  6. Oh well, as they say, it may be a consequence of English reserve, and so the lack of different ways to say "Goodbye" in English. We have just the one word, unless you count "Farewell". Other cultures can have many different words with slightly different meanings depending on your status and how well you know the other party. I'd guess that "going forward" may be an extension of the term "carried forward" beloved of accountants. Anyway, let's be patronising in triplicate: Keep well, take it easy now and enjoy yourself.

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  7. ''mind how you go'' - isn't that a bit Dixon of Dock Green?

    be seeing you.

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  8. seeing mark's avatar there reminded me that when I was working in Sydney, the urban strine of the day would be ''spot'', presumably short for ''I will spot you later'' - I was too pohm to ask.

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  9. Bryan, you've just come off a vacation in America, the friendliest place on Earth. You can't expect an average British shop assistant to measure up to your now overly-developed appreciation of cheery banter. It's just not fair to her.

    Going forward is ok as long as one is not building a bridge to the future. But I'm always confused on whether we should be moving forward, onward or upward.

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  10. I used to work for Apple, where 'going forward' was one of literally hundreds of meaningless catch-phrases; my boss (sorry, 'team leader') used to say it all the time and it was a pet hate of mine.

    (Which is another thing: I could have said 'bĂȘte noire' there, but I don't want to be one of those people who uses French terms when there are perfectly sufficient English equivalents. Pretentious? Moi?)

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  11. As head of a primary school in West London, I welcomed a pupil from Beijing, who had joined his mother.
    The lad spoke no English and didn't do so so for several weeks, until one Friday afternoon as I saw him leaving for home with his mother.
    "Bye Wan," I said.
    He looked back with a grin. "See ya la'er," he said.

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