Sorry English: A Shrine to Jun Urbano Reyes and His Works
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Does Merriam & Webster really send letters like this?
From Page 79:
My dear Mr. Velasco:
Hold it!
Don't file me in that handsome wastebasket beside your desk. Its crowded, and I don't like crowds.
Not under that file of mails on your desk.
Its crowded, and I don't like crowds.
Not under that file of mails on your desk either.
I couldn't breathe -- and I like to breathe and keep active.
What else, do I like?
I like checks and I like paper clips, and I like action. So just make out a check, fasten it to me with paper clip and mail us, now, to Merriam & Webster Bookstore.
Always cordially,
Alfred Reyes
Posted at 10:59 pm by english crusader
Myrene May 25, 2005 02:59 PM PDT I am in tears... i have no words... i swear my heart stopped... unbelievably *()&(&^*(O#!!!
And to think yesterday i felt bad when i read about Mr. Reyes being a grandfather... I happen to like the elderly!
BTW, I was in Shanghai last week and could not access your site, i though you got banned!
Why this Blog: As a Filipino engineer working for a Hong Kong accounting firm, there isn't much I can do about the declining English competence among my compatriots. Nor can I hope to single-handedly rescue the Philippine education system from the cesspool that it's in. So instead, I have decided to blog and poke fun at one of the perpetrators of bad English in the Philippines -- Mr Jun Urbano Reyes of Our Lady of Fatima University.
I picked up my wife's copy of "Business Correspondence" by Jun Urbano Reyes, and I laughed so loud it started me blogging. (My wife was given that book to use in the English class she teaches. Instead, she gave the book to me in disgust.)
In his acknowledgments, the good Mr Reyes gave "Special thanks to Mr Giovanni Sy that good looking guy and owner of Merriam Webster whose 'words of wisdom' gave me more confidence to come up with it."
Thank you, too, Mr Sy, for publishing this hilarious book.
What is "Any other else?"
I got the phrase from another great Engrish teacher, Ms C. She was my English teacher in 3rd year high school at Xavier. She'd use the phrase instead of "anything else?", and my friend D and I would keep a running total of the number of times she made this particularly irritating linguistic faux pas.
Click on "Any other else?" to leave a comment on my blog entry.
