Vernacular

I read an article about how the general British population despises Americans because of our crass, unsophisticated language and culture. Although I took a bit of offense at first, after reconsidering the image of America that's portrayed through film, TV, and other media, and I could see their point. The news article went on to give advice about various tactics to appear more cultured when visiting that country, but the one thing that really stood out for me was the tendency of Americans to use the words "Okay" and "Alright" to an excess.

So I spent the majority of today trying to go without saying those words, and after several hours (which was spent mainly talking to patients today), I quit. It wasn't difficult, just a hard habit to break without a significant amount of brainpower.

This reminded me of the forbidden word from Monty Python's The Holy Grail. When the Knights of Ni are questioned by Arthur if the word was "is", they reply: "Not 'Is'... You can't get far in life without saying the word 'Is.'"

I felt the same way with the word "Okay" today.