COLUMN: MIND YOUR LANGUAGE. Women encouraged to ‘archive’ higher heights in profession
THE African Real Estate Society (AFRES) held its 23rd Annual Conference between 10 and 13 September, 2024 at the Radisson Blu, Livingstone Zambia. The theme of the Conference was ‘Smart Cities for the 21st Century’.
The Conference discussed papers with a broad spectrum of real estate related issues including: Housing development; Real estate investment trusts; Research priorities for smart cities; Smart cities planning and sustainability; Sustainable financing and investments; Industry Professionals; Land administration and management; Real estate market research; Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles; and Technology in smart cities development.
The Conference was a huge success. Tanzania was well-represented; and going through some of the reporting for the Conference, there were a number of language issues which are of interest for this column. Like this one for example: “The theme for the Women’s ‘Galla’ for the Conference was: ‘Celebrating and encouraging women to ‘archive’ higher heights in profession’. Is it ‘Galla’ or ‘Gala’?
It is the latter. ‘Gala’ is single ‘l’ and word means a social occasion with special entertainments or performances. How about encouraging women to ‘archive’ higher heights?
The word ‘archive’ can be a noun or a verb. As a noun, it means a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people. As a verb, it means to place or store (something) in an archive.
None of the two meanings has relevance to encouraging women to do well. It is safe to say that the writer did not have “archive” in mind. Instead, she had “achieve” in mind. ‘To achieve’ means to successfully bring about or reach (a desired objective or result) by effort, skill, or courage.
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The writer about this women entertainment session at the African Real Estate Society should have said the following: The theme for the Women’s ‘Gala’ for the Conference was ‘Celebrating and encouraging women to ‘achieve’ higher heights in the real estate profession’. Yes, dear women.
You can! Let us leave Livingstone, the city of the mighty Victoria Falls and hop into the US. We know that a Presidential contest is going on and the traditional debate between the two main candidates has already taken place. A scribe made an interesting observation about this: “Debates can be interesting, I tell you.
No wonder the man has ‘chicken out’ of another round (of debate)”. The writer meant that one of the candidates has bowed out of another round of debates. However, to say the guy ‘chicken out’ is not correct, since you need to put the verb “to chicken out” in the relevant form. The phrasal verb: “chicken out” means: “to decide not to do something because one is afraid”. An example is: “He was going to ask her on a date, but he chickened out at the last minute”.
Therefore, with regard to the US elections, the writer should have gone for the following: “Debates can be interesting, I tell you. No wonder the man has chickened out of another round (of debates)”. Back to 1998, Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was lined up for execution on the orders of the then Nigerian President, Sani Abacha.
From the archives, the following was unearthed on the story: “He was on ‘a’ death row and even ‘Papa’ John Paul II’s plea to Abacha to spare him didn’t bear any ‘fruits’. Lucky him that Abacha died ‘immediately’ before effecting his execution”. The quotation needs correction. The use of the phrase: “immediately before” is questionable. It should be: “shortly before”.
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The following is recommended: “He was on ‘the’ death row and even ‘Pope’ John Paul II’s plea to Abacha to spare him didn’t bear any ‘fruit’. It was lucky for him that Abacha died ‘shortly’ before effecting his execution”. Still in Nigeria, Tomato Farmers have something to brag about: “From our 5th harvest we had 30 ‘creates’. What are “creates”, in these circumstances? For sure, the writer had “crates” and not, “creates” in mind.
“From our 5th harvest we had 30 ‘crates’”. Congratulations Nigerian Tomato Farmers.
Have a nice end of September weekend!
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