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Blogger fired from language school over ‘homophonia’
Salt Lake City Tribune ^ | 7/29/14 | PAUL ROLLY

Posted on 08/01/2014 8:46:25 PM PDT by Impala64ssa

Homophones, as any English grammarian can tell you, are words that sound the same but have different meanings and often different spellings — such as be and bee, through and threw, which and witch, their and there.

This concept is taught early on to foreign students learning English because it can be confusing to someone whose native language does not have that feature.

But when the social-media specialist for a private Provo-based English language learning center wrote a blog explaining homophones, he was let go for creating the perception that the school promoted a gay agenda.

Tim Torkildson says after he wrote the blog on the website of his employer, Nomen Global Language Center, his boss and Nomen owner Clarke Woodger, called him into his office and told him he was fired.

As Torkildson tells it, Woodger said he could not trust him and that the blog about homophones was the last straw.

"Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality," Woodger complained, according to Torkildson, who posted the exchange on his Facebook page.

Torkildson says he was careful to write a straightforward explanation of homophones. He knew the "homo" part of the word could be politically charged, but he thought the explanation of that quirky part of the English language would be educational.

Nomen has removed that blog from its website, but a similar explanation of homophones was posted there in 2011 with apparently no controversy.

Woodger says his reaction to Torkildson’s blog has nothing to do with homosexuality but that Torkildson had caused him concern because he would "go off on tangents" in his blogs that would be confusing and sometimes could be considered offensive.

-snip-

Interestingly, he was hired on April Fools’ Day.

(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: education; homosexualagenda; provo
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I swear on a stack of Bibles AND a stack of Torahs, I did NOT post this from the Onion. Un *BLEEPING* believable.
1 posted on 08/01/2014 8:46:25 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
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To: Impala64ssa

Well that’s what you get for engaging in public intercourse.


2 posted on 08/01/2014 8:50:58 PM PDT by jim999
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To: Impala64ssa
Un *BLEEPING* believable.

No, it isn't. Considering how dumbed down modern America has become, it is completely believable.

3 posted on 08/01/2014 8:51:18 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: Impala64ssa

Sounds like the guy who was raked over the coals for using the term niggardly to describe a budget increase by an ignorant black official who didn’t know the meaning or origin of the term.


4 posted on 08/01/2014 8:52:32 PM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Impala64ssa

The homo part of the word was politically charged????

What about homo sapiens, or homologous, or homogenized, or homonym?

What a bunch of ignorant wankers.


5 posted on 08/01/2014 8:57:49 PM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: RJS1950

“an ignorant black official”

It wasn’t just an ignorant black official; it was a black lawyers’ association...


6 posted on 08/01/2014 8:58:07 PM PDT by CondorFlight (I)
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To: Impala64ssa
Reminds me of the apocryphal politician who was said to have declared that his opponent's wife had been a thespian before their marriage...here
7 posted on 08/01/2014 9:00:18 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: CondorFlight

It was one of the group in particular who pressed the case, but the rest of the ignorant black lawyers blindly followed.


8 posted on 08/01/2014 9:00:35 PM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Impala64ssa

I would not be surprised if Tim Torkildson’s daughter were a thespian.


9 posted on 08/01/2014 9:01:03 PM PDT by Oliviaforever
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To: Impala64ssa
Tim Torkildson says after he wrote the blog on the website of his employer, Nomen Global Language Center

What did expect, working for a feminist lot.

10 posted on 08/01/2014 9:01:21 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Wikipedia is wrong. who knew?)
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To: Impala64ssa
Mr. Torkildson's employer obviously is suffering from LCD which is also known as LABA.

From the Freeper addendum to the ICD-10:

321.0 SPLAT Liberal Cerebral Defenestration (LCD) or Liberal Acquired Brain Absence (LABA), Complete loss of rationality, cognition, and cerebration due to indiscriminately keeping one's mind so far open that the brain falls out. First and subsequent encounters.

11 posted on 08/01/2014 9:03:19 PM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: Impala64ssa

Obamaphone, homophone. It’s easy to get confused.


12 posted on 08/01/2014 9:05:07 PM PDT by Henry Hnyellar
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To: Impala64ssa
***As Torkildson tells it, Woodger said he could not trust him and that the blog about homophones was the last straw.***

From this is seems like Torkildson was on thin ice to begin with. And he wasn't trusted to boot.

When they want to get rid of you, any excuse will do.

13 posted on 08/01/2014 9:08:45 PM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Jesus Christ is not a religion. He's the Truth.)
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To: Impala64ssa

The DC bureaucrat who was FIRED for describing a budget as being “niggardly”:

His defense was as depressing as the attack:

His ENTIRE defense was, “I am a homosexual”. Not, “niggardly is a REAL WORD”, and not, “The SOUND of words should be outweighed by their actual MEANINGS”. Just identity politics.

I mean that both the attack and also the defense resorted AT NO POINT to logic-based arguments.

My understanding is that some time later this brave, articulate homo was re-hired, so….there was a happy ending?

Sorta, I guess.


14 posted on 08/01/2014 9:10:21 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: gaijin

It depends. By “happy,” do you mean gay?


15 posted on 08/01/2014 9:13:13 PM PDT by BykrBayb (World Lung Cancer Day {WLCD} Aug 1 https://facebook.com/events/309580722464921 ~ Þ)
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To: Impala64ssa

BLACK HOLE CONTROVERSY -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc1zGRUPztc


16 posted on 08/01/2014 9:13:59 PM PDT by doug from upland (Obama and the leftists - destroying our country one day at a time)
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To: Impala64ssa

O know! Eye am becoming homophonophobic!


17 posted on 08/01/2014 9:20:03 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: jim999
Well that’s what you get for engaging in public intercourse.

Yeah, those pesky Homo Sapiens are always doing that.

18 posted on 08/01/2014 9:22:43 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Impala64ssa

Our EWE a homophone??


19 posted on 08/01/2014 9:23:06 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: RJS1950

This was a popular resort in the Catskills, aka the "Jewish Alps". Freddie Roman and Joey Bishop performed there quite often. And what do we do about the town of Homossassa, FLA?
20 posted on 08/01/2014 9:24:41 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (You call me an islamophobe like it's a bad thing.)
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