Archive: Arts & Entertainment

SMART TALK SMART TALK

by Dr. U. R. Fulamalarchi

GUESTS: As a visiting therapist the the Center for English as a First Language, I notice oddities in English that I never learned from formal study in my native Italy.

When I arrived here in Underbelly, Texas, I stayed at the Hotel Inn, where they called me a guest. I thought Wonderful, either the hotel or the Center wants me to feel at home while I find a long-term residence. Where I come from, a host would never treat a guest so badly as to expect money at the end of a visit, so I was shocked. A customer, yes, but I would never expect my guests to reimburse me. They’re my guests.

The Center did pay my hotel bill, which made me feel better.

But I keep seeing this sinister use of “guest.” Burger King advertises a promotion saying, “When we first offered our guests this value back in October, they went crazy for it.” So when I eat at Burger King, I’m their guest? Then why do they charge me anything? Even if I pay a special price, I’m their customer. Their customer, not their guest.

And when I went to a Target store, I learned that the staff were team members, and customers were guests. This was starting to sound like 1984. In that novel, the government, called Big Brother, gave happy names to programs that brought yet more suffering. Rather like your President G.W. Bush’s Clear Skies Act, which allowed industries to pollute even more.

I wonder if that’s when the meaning of guest turned upside down.

 

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