Or tomorrow even?
It’s a reasonable enough question, or so one might think. But in Hungary, I have a problem with it.
Why?
Because I never get asked it, well, not in the way I would like to be asked.
It has nothing to do with the fact that nobody really cares about what I am doing (although I am sure there is some truth in that) or that I am so unpopular nobody wants to invite me anywhere (ditto above comment)…
It’s just that…well…I don’t like being asked it. Not in Hunglish anyway.
Please, let me explain.
There is a well-known quote about the English language as follows:
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a crib house whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James D. Nicoll
I agree entirely of course, but other languages also have ‘loan words’ and Hungarian is no exception.
There is a loan word which the Hungarians have ‘borrowed’ from the English language and run like crazy with….unfortunately in completely the opposite direction. Worse still, they have adopted it not only to their own language, but to their British English too…and in the process modified its meaning…the swines!
J’accuse!
The word in question is the use of the noun ‘program/programme’. In British English a programme is something you watch on the telly or something that computer programmers work with…or very occasionally one has a programme at the village fête, or a concert, or the theatre.
We do not however, have a program (which is American English by the way) about what we will be doing during the morning, afternoon, or the next day, or next week, month or even next year.
I am often innocently asked what my program for the day is, and it always makes my heart sink a little. I don’t have a program, at best I have a vague schedule of things I will probably do, but I don’t have a fixed program (or a programme) set in stone. I am afraid to say I am just not programmable!
However, I would like to find the Hungarian who first used the word programme in this way, and explain that you simply cannot take an English word and change the meaning of it…sure…you can change the meaning of it in your own language…but not jolly well ours thank you very much.
In the meantime I shall be waiting patiently down that dark alley to take back what is rightfully mine.
Or on reflection maybe I should just give in and ‘get with the program!’
~
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