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What's Up! (a Disease) - Page 2

Well, I am apparently in the minority. I see nothing wrong with slang. I don't view it as a corruption of our language. At least not the english language. Language evolves. If it does not it dies. Latin is no longer a spoken language, it doesn't evolve any longer. It is essentially a dead language. Many terms we use everyday and consider "proper" were at one time slang. It is truly a matter of perspective - "which side of the fence you are on" when determining if it is just slang or normal conversation.

Now as far as what's up (not whazzz uppp). I think this is a great expression. It asks more than one thing and allows the speaker to choose what "area" to address. What's up, asks - "how are you doing, today? How have things been going for you lately? What are you doing right now? What do you plan to do in the future?" This then allows the person being queried to choose which topic they most would like to address and the person asking isn't asking too personal a question and then putting the other peron on the spot in deciding if they want to answer it or not. A perfect time to use this is when I haven't seen someone in a long while. "What's up?" Put's it all out there at once.

I like to shorten what's up so that it often sounds like "sup?"

Disease a Up Whats

I agree with tenaheff. I personally do not find "what's up" annoying at all. I have learned to use it during my college days in the US, and still use it every now and then. Normally would just get a "Not much. How 'bout you?" as the reply.

But there was a time when I first arrived at the US when I find some of the 'greetings' as so superficial that it was incredible that the other person even bothered to say it. My first few encounters were from fellow college mates whom I did not know at all being a new student in the US. They would greet me in what sounded like a very friendly "how are you doing?" as we passed each other on the way to our respective classes.

And coming from a society that emphasizes a lot on courtesy and politeness, I immediately stopped in my tracks to see who it was who had spoken to me, and to offer a polite response to them. But when I turned around, that other person would have walked on, or would have turned around the corner. Only after a few of those, did I realized that it is just a greeting very much similar to a "hello" or "hi". No reply necessary. Or even a grunt in reponse would suffice. They didn't really want to know HOW I was doing.

When I was in high school here, we were taught the very British "How do you do" as The proper or formal way of greeting. I can safely assure you that 99.9% of the English speaking Malaysians do not speak like that at all. A "what's up" or a "how are you" are more common in everyday use.

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I don't care for the comment Whazzzzup?, it's a rude statement. My son's father would use it, and getting him to stop saying that was a hassle. Luckily we don't speak anymore since he's in another state.

Page 2 Disease a Up Whats

Perhaps I'm just being nit-picky, but the simple fact is that "What's up?" is gramatically improper. So are "look out", "over there", "put it down", and a myriad of other phrases and speech fragments. A preposition should not be placed at the end of a statement. (Yes, I have been guilty of this infraction many times.)

Quick refresher: think of a preposition as anywhere a rabbit could go.

Disease a Up Whats

People don't talk like that in Manchester on the whole either, although you always get the occasional person who does.

When the Budweiser advert was out, everyone was using the wazz up, comment, and you would find that no matter who you phoned, somebody was bound to be at the other end wazz upping at you .

Fortunately the advert is no longer running, and most people tend to greet each other with a 'Hi, how are you?' or a 'Hi, are you alright?' both are ok to me.