Pin It
SMART TALKSMART TALK SMART TALK

By Dr. Will S. Sert

HEAD HONCHO:  Back in World War II, we picked up Japanese words such as kimono, hibachi, tycoon, karaoke, geisha, futon, and dozens more. Hancho means squad leader or boss, and gives us honcho.

At the Center for English as a First Language, we often treat patients who don't listen to themselves and say head honcho. Yes, they often say hibachi grill, business tycoon, and geisha girl as well. Sometimes, we want to tell them sayonara goodbye, but this is what we signed up for, and we persevere.

That people often don't listen to themselves is our most charitable explanation for their use of redundancies. We know them, and we know they're not stupid at all. And usually, they're not packing in verbiage to impress themselves and/or take up more of our time. The exceptions to this usually work in TV local news or as officials of some sort.

We know we need to take one step at a time with these people, so we usually start with honcho and work on the other Japanese-connected redundancies later. Once they notice that head honcho is like saying leader boss, they realize how silly redundancies are and they start listening to themselves.

v10i3
Pin It