A second topic, as promised. Why not participate in this one too?
We have talked about college rumours in class. Sometimes, you ask me questions that begin more or less like this: "There´s a rumour going round - you know what it´s like. Is it true that next class ...?" Let´s analyse this. Click here to find out more about the meaning of the word "gossip", and here for "rumour".
But rumours and gossip are a lot more widespread: they can be used for fun (like in gossip columns) or even to destroy reputations.
How do you feel about this? Do you gossip? (Come on, be honest, you´re using a nick after all!) Do you pay attention to rumours? Do you spread them? If your answer is no, how do you feel about people who do all, or some of these things?
Posts
13 comments:
Great Topic! Why doesn´t anybody answer? Yes, I agree, many students gossip and spread rumours at University, and they create great messes with that! As a consequence, everybody worries and is confused for nothing. I don´t gossip because I think it´s a shame to do it, but sometimes I have believed things that finally I discovered that someone had invented, or imagined, I don´t know. That´s why I hate to see students who gossip.
Sometimes they are gossips about changes in what a teacher said (and of course those changes mean that the exam will be more difficult, for example) or other imaginary complications and problems. Why do they always think that everything will be so difficult?
But there is another kind of rumour that I hate more: when a student doesn´t pass and says that he knew the answer but the teacher didn´t accept it, or doesn´t like them, or wanted to hear something else, or are unfair, or that they don´t understand the students!(what? Do people who don´t study have ideas that are so difficult to understand?). The funny thing is that we all know that those students don´t want to study, and they are giving excuses. But the most unbelievable thing is that when they say that a teacher is unfair, there is a group of other students who believe them! And they start being afraid, they worry and they even don´t pass because they are so nervous! How can they do this??? I never believe them, because my experience is very simple: I usually study, and I pass. When a teacher says that I´m wrong, I think about it or I ask, and I usually see that I´m wrong. I don´t think that I know more than the teachers because that´s ridiculous, of course somebody with a degree knows more!
I´m not an A student, but when I hear the things that some of my classmates say I can see that there are things that they don´t know, and I think it´s ridiculous to see them showing their ignorance. If they study, they will see that the teachers are not all against them.
You can imagine that I don´t use gossip in the rest of my life, and I don´t see those programs which have gossip about celebrities, I think this is the kind of thing people do when they don´t have talent.
Sorry, maybe I´m not “always polite” as the instructions say, but I want to say this because I´m tired of this behaviour.
I also think this is a very nice topic! But I must admit that I do gossip sometimes... when you are in a group, it is difficult not to. If you refuse to make a comment, it may seem as if you are not interested in what the other person says, or you may sound rude, pedantic, or moralistic. Also, gossiping is a way of sharing your point of view, expressing your ideas and getting to know what the other person believes. On the whole, I don't think gossiping is entirely negative. What is important for me is to be truthful in what you say and avoid making comments that can really affect someone else.
It is true that we students sometimes exaggerate when talking about teachers and tend to blame everything on them. Yet I do consider rumours, for instance, when it comes to choosing a class. In my opinion, they may be helpful, but we must not rely on them exclusively. Neither should we let rumours prejudice us against somebody or something. It is important to bear in mind that the other person may have exaggerated, may be confussed or simply may see things in a different way than we do. We can take their opinion into account, but it is always better to judge things for ourselves, too.
Hello everybody:
I have read the comments and I´d like to ask you, once again, to pay attention to the meanings of the words you are discussing. Gossiping or spreading rumours is not the same as expressing one´s opinion, there is a big difference between them as "gossip" and "rumour" have negative connotations. Please do read the definitions carefully and only draw conclusions after that.
I wanted to apologize to both of you for my mistake. I had not read the definitions carefully.I was thinking mainly about an analysis of gossip as a genre of conversation, with which we worked in diction. It's included in the book Conversation: from description to pedagogy, by Thornbury and Slade. There, the authors say that gossiping is a way of sharing our opinions and establish values as a group. We criticise somebody else, and by doing so we define what is desirable or right for us, distancing ourselves from that third person.
Then I must say that if gossiping is about spreading "unproven" information, I do not like gossiping! It is important, as I wrote before, to judge things for ourselves. We may be wrong in our evaluation and it will always be subjective, but at least we will have some basis for our comments. At any rate, if I do gossip it is always with a sense of guilt. There is evidently an unethical side to it, since we are hiding our negative comments from the person in question. And, in addition to that, it seems to me that we don't have the right or the authority to say what is correct or incorrect, or to intrude upon somebody else's life. Yet I think that when you are in a group, it is difficult to avoid making comments if someone starts gossiping. Sometimes what we say is mild, and the person about whom we gossip is so distant from us that what we say cannot really affect him or her. We can also be indirectly asserting the way we think and see things through our evaluation. I do not want to justify myself, but I think there are different shades and degrees of gossiping. The problem is where to draw the line.
I hope my comments make more sense now. Please tell me if I'm missing something. My apologies again!
Of course I gossip! Who doesn't do it? But I don't like destroying people's reputation, or spreading others ' private affairs everywhere.
I believe there should be a limit. It is right when gossip is used for fun, for example when I chat with my friends about ex classmates, or with my family about some of our neighbours. I think it is normal to feel curiosity about the lives of the others, but that's all. When it comes to hurting feelings, I step aside. I hate it when people criticize, underestimate, or speak negatively about others. In my opinion, that kind of behaviour has to do with mediocrity or inferiority. . This kind of people is envious and feel inferior than others, so they do not feel at ease with themselves and feel better ruining others' integrity. This is very common in different environments and social classes; at school, at university, at work, in politics, in sports, even in families.
At University, rumours are mainly connected to teachers and the way they correct. I used to pay attention to them, and I usually panicked, but then I learned to control the situation, and tried to live my experience. I sometimes prefer not to listen, and when I do it, I know it is exaggeration, or that different students go through different experiences under different circumstances.
All in all, I hold that gossip is right to relax and have some fun. However, when wickedness or creating panic come into play, it is not funny anymore.
Hello Sybil:
I have read your second comment. There is nothing to apologise about, this is simply an opportunity to clarify ideas and learn to gather information to analyse ideas, which is what you do when you are discussing a topic in an academic context. That means that it was a very good idea to use what you studied in linguistics. Those notions complement the definitions that you can find in the links, there is no need at all to choose between one or the other, as the word means both what the dictionary definition says and what linguists use it for. And, if you go on looking, you will find other texts that tell you more about the meaning of these words. To give your opinion you are expected to draw your own conclusion about all the elements you have found in all the different sources.
When you say "if gossiping is about spreading "unproven" information", it sounds a little as if you thought that you have to respect that definition and only that one because it is "what the teacher said", or wants. Just in case, I want to say that of course that is not what teachers mean when they give you bibliography to read.
The reason why I sent my first comment was that the use you make of the word "gossip" in your first comment does not make it altogehter clear that you are talking about criticising people, since you say things such as "gossiping is a way of sharing your point of view, expressing your ideas and getting to know what the other person believes". Expressing your ideas is not gossiping, in order for that to be gossip it also has to have the other characteristics that the definitions mention.
In other words, I, as a reader, didn´t understand exactly what you, the writer, meant, and that was the reason for my reaction. In this negotiation of meaning you learn to express your ideas more accurately.
So thank you for writing both times, I´m happy that we are having this exchange because it´s really constructive.
I am also glad that we have this space to exchange ideas and opinions.
Actually, one of my main mistakes during my first TP was taking too much for granted; some ideas had been in my mind but were not down on the paper. I just replied to your comment because I found it very useful and wanted to take advantage of it to improve my first answer. I realised I had resorted to other sources without mentioning them! It is also a way of trying to be more open-minded and really discuss ideas, instead of sticking to our first personal opinion only.
Hi!!
I have been reading the comments several times, and I have found it really catching. It is amazing what an analysis you can make by simply paying attention to the misunderstandings which arise every time a new topic is posted.
According to the latest topic, I agree with what Lara Croft said, but I felt that she took it in a more personal way, as her feelings towards gossiping and rumouring are very strong.
My personal view of the subject is from other perspective. After reading the definitions for the fist time, I started to redraw in my mind what I thought about “gossip” and “rumour” before, and what I think now. Even though my own definitions were not far from the links’, certain points refreshed my mind and make the concepts even clearer.
I am not going to repeat what “gossip” and “rumour” are, but I want to express that the terms usually have negative connotations, as Mrs Enriquez said. But, why? It is just what we are accustomed to, I mean, for us, gossiping and rumouring are usually used for the benefit of a few and the prejudice of others. This can be easily noticed on those TV show as “Intrusos” or “Profesionales” (I only know those name just because I have heard them, mind you jaja!) but I find those shows not constructive at all, they are just people looking at, or highlighting, what others do or do not do.
Far from the real concept, I find gossiping and rumouring as positive. Sometimes, (and it has happened to me) that I have benefited from gossiping. In this way, I heard some people talking about me and saying certain things. This has helped me to understand who those persons really were, and I am pretty sure that it has happened to you at certain times of your lives too.
Regards!
Joey T.
Hello!
Joey, I agree with you that misunderstandings make you think a lot and clarify ideas, so thank you Mrs. Enriquez and Sybil for what you say. And I also like reading other students´ideas because they say things I hadn´t thought about. For example, what Joey said about benefiting from finding out what other people gossip about you is true, and i knew it, but I hadn´t rememebered it!
You are also right, Joey, when you say that maybe I take this a little too personal. Maybe I get angry easily. The thing is that I have been a victim of unfair gossip and I know it´s not nice. And as for the students who spread rumours, I have also been treated once or twice as silly by some of them because I study, while they are so "clever" that they know how to cheat on a teacher. That bothers me, but I suppose you are right and I shouldn´t pay so much attention to what they say. I hope they change because if not they will see the consequencies of not studying when it´s too late.
thank you Sybil, Lara and Joey for your comments about the usefulness of this blog. It is important to know whether you are making progess with it. I´m glad that you are.
As you all said, I agree that gossipping always has negative connotations. That's why I was courious about something that Jor said. He or she assumed that it's ok to gossip if you trace a limit. I mean, he or she said that it's alright to gossip as long as you don't hurt anybody's feelings. But I wonder: how can this be possible? How can you have fun talking about somebody else's life without causing any offense? I think that's absurd. In believe that everytime we gossip, we know that we are doing something ethically wrong. It's just that we don't care, or that we prefer having fun instead of thinking how much damage we are causing. That's why I think that we can't play at two sides as if we didn´t. If we gossip, let's assume that it always has negative connotations.
Hello, Maria. First of all, I'm a girl. When I say that it is not wrong to gossip unless we hurt somebody else's feelings, I mean when we talk about "trivial" things about others in our very intimate circle; when we know that our comments won't go any further, or won't bring any seriuos consequences, without destroying anybody's reputation. I respect your opinion, but I think you are exaggerating a bit. Nothing is black or white.
Hi!I want to share with you my personal experience related to rumours.During my first years at university I used to pay attention to rumours spread about certain teachers or subjects,specially to the ones about how difficult or "horrible" a suject was or how "evil" teachers were.As a consequence, I got "terrified" by them. But most of the times, to my surprise,when I started attending THAT subjects or met THAT teachers,I found out that I really liked them! So, then I realised that in fact, there had been no real reasons to be so scared! What I learned from this experience and as time passed,is that you have to live your OWN experience to come to conclusions. Of course you can't avoid hearing rumours but I think you shouldn't be influenced by them, specially if they are bad comments. It's very important to learn from YOUR OWN experience and to try no to gossip to avoid "terrifying" other students.
Post a Comment