swot

[Guest guest]

> > Excuse my interrupting, but swot is slang and generally used in English

> > schools to make fun of those who study hard. I wouldn't use the word in

> > serious writing.

>

> Thankyou Maharaja for the input. Actually Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

> Thakura would sometimes amidst a flow of highblown words suddenly by way

> of contrast insert a colloquialism or slang word, thus giving zing to his

> pointing out a grossness or absurdity. So in a book about him it may not

> be inappropriate to occasionally use a similar approach.

>

> Here's what I'm working on (these sentences are not yet finalized):

>

> "The highly accomplished scholarship of many Gaudiya Matha preachers was

> cited by numerous prakrta-sahajiyas as evidence of them being jnanis and

> not devotees at all. Yet ironically, certain mundane academics slyly tried

> to bypass engaging with Gaudiya Matha panditas by dismissing their

> predilection for hari-bhakti as so overwhelmingly foolish as to nullify

> all their apparent learning and render their scholarly constructions unfit

> for perusal by any self-respecting swot."

>

> Do you think intellectual Americans will understand the anglicism 'swot'?

 

It seems by default everything has to take on the American spelling or

grammar, usually with this explanation that the Americans won't understand

it. Can we expect at some time that America will rise to the same

grammatical level of the rest of the world through continued exposure to

English, or shall we all just give up now and universally lower our

standards?

 

Seriously though, it seems that we're embracing an increasingly boring form

of speech and expression. At the risk of this sounding *merely* like a

"vent", my question is: why must a book, written in English by a British

educated author, conform to American standards, or at least, remove words

that Americans won't understand? Is this a practice that ISKCON editorial

departments will adopt, or are already adopting?