Somewhere along the line I started saying 'absolutely' when I meant an enthusiastic yes. I don't know if I am bored with this constant refrain or if I fear others may be, but it is proving difficult to eradicate. I must have been doing it for quite a while.
A friend of mine plays a game with cold callers. Such people like to ask you questions where the answer is yes. It gets you in the mood for a positive reply, allegedly. So this friend tries never to reply affirmatively twice in the same way in a conversation. He plays telephone Boggle, awarding himself a prize for original words. I do it too now. It's fun. You should try it.
Yes.
Indeed
Quite so.
I agree.
Absolut... I mean you're right.
That's it.
Good.
Excellent.
But I have a colleague who is addicted to another word. It is quite clever. When You are right he says, 'Correct'. Correct is a nice thing to hear. It feels like you have pleased the teacher. We all like pleasing teacher. So we, perhaps inadvertently, try to make statements in his company that are correct. We fear the response, 'Incorrect'.
I don't think he is deviously manipulative. I think he may have the same problem as me with a different word. We all get locked in to programmed responses with junk conversational DNA. Can we cure ourselves? Absolutely. But it may take time and we may need help.
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