Week 6 - Useful Concept

A concept that I found to be useful in the reading was "Euphemisms." According to the textbook on page 77, Euphemisms are inoffensive words that are used instead of highly charged terms. This means that we can say things that do not sound as harsh and still get the message across. Trenholm uses the example that we can say "collatoral damage" instead of civilian deaths. When I read that, I knew exactly what was meant behind that. It allows us to be less offensive and talk about painful things and still address what needs to be addressed. When I learned that my friend has an issue when he gets too drunk by being too agressive and does unthinkable things I had to let him know immediately but I did not want to make him evasive by saying it the wrong way. So instead of me saying that I think he needs to stop drinking and told him that his actions are horrible, I told him that when we go out, we are not having a contest of who can drink the most. Immediately he understood what my intentions were and he actually apologized for his actions when he gets drunk. Now, he does his best to stay away from hard liquor and to just stick to beer and if possible, to take a taxi to the bar and back home instead of driving, even if he is not the driver because when we leave the bar there are taxi's lined up waiting for people to get in. That means we do not have to walk 2 or 3 blocks to get to the parking garage where the car is and risk him either getting into fights with strangers or something of that nature. Euphimisms can be applied to any situation just like this one and it could save anyone from a night in jail or worse.