Everyone knows by now that President Barack Obama visited Penn State today, urging for a new and more efficient energy plan. Though I would have jumped at the opportunity to see the President speak, his visit coincided with Chinese New Year; a day I have always spent in New York, visiting family.
And so as I spent the day here in Manhattan, I also spent the day experiencing Obama's visit vicariously through Facebook, as friends posted statuses and uploaded pictures. Some expressed dismay and outright indignation at the inconvenience of getting to class, while others e-screamed their excitement at such an event. In the multitude of Obama-related social networking information, one status in particular made me do a double-take.
“Did he really just say “Nittaly Lions” again?”
Apparently back in 2008, Obama referred to us Nittany Lions as the “Nittaly Lions.” At a state school renowned for its school spirit, this undoubtedly caused annoyance if not anger-probably now even more so if Obama really did say it again today. It’s interesting to note that after three years and out of Obama’s whole speech today, this is the one thing the student remembered chose to comment on. This made me realize how much the effect of your message depends so much on how you present it to your audience.
We’ve learned how important it is to be able to connect with your audience--after all, you may have the best speech with the most convincing arguments, but if you can’t adequately convey this to someone what good will it do? This one incident, this one tiny slip of tongue made me realize how, in presenting and using rhetoric, everything counts. It doesn’t do to simply look presentable and speak fluidly alone if your audience is invested in what you are saying (though they still are essential in establishing ethos). On one hand, in the grand scheme of things, the one letter difference really doesn’t matter at all. On the other hand, to some people, this simple matter of knowing where you are speaking and knowing what is important to you audience can make or break a speaker’s ethos. It obviously broke it for this student found, who found it most important to comment on this one slip of tongue, especially since it happened twice, rather than anything Obama had on his agenda. For me though, I’d say we’re all human and we’re all going to make mistakes. As long as Obama knows more about his energy efficiency plan than he does about the Nittany Lions, I’d say we can brush off his little mistake.
Hahaha that is really funny. I think you have a good point though...anything of importance Obama may have said after the slip was probably automaticly being disregarded because people were so confused about having our mascot referred to as the "Nittaly Lion".
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you point this out. I, personally, don't believe that most people listen to all of what someone has to say. I don't say this because I personally do it (though there is a right time for everything), but it's pretty much proven fact. Besides, once you're a politician if you mess up once you are pretty much eternally unforgivable.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's interesting I haven't heard anyone I know complain of this, maybe it depends on who was listening and who was there for the speech. sure, he could've brushed up on his history a bit, but I wouldn't be annoyed. Man has an entire to country to run, and is fairly human.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point about audience here, Rayna. Some audiences aren't very forgiving, it would seem. While we can't please everyone, it is a good reminder, I suppose, to put in a good faith effort to speak to an audience knowledgeably. (But I also think that a mispronunciation is pretty much splitting hairs.... not hugely important in the larger context.) Too bad it clouded people from viewing that "larger context."
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