Two problems
April 11, 2008, 11:08 am
Posted by Joseph A. Komonchak
In case you want some relief from earth-shaking considerations, I offer:
I just got off the phone with a man who, when I thanked him for his help, said, “No problem.” I find that many people in the younger generations use this phrase instead of “You’re welcome.” Can anyone tell me when and where this phrase originated, and maybe why, too?
And speaking of problems, I also find the word “issues” being used where I once would have expected “problems.” E.g., I would have said, “Susie Q has problems”; but now people, it seems, would say, “She has issues.” I’ve asked people who prefer the latter what the difference is between “issues” and “problems”, but I’ve received contradictory explanations.
Bless you! At last a topic I can understand!
My guess is that both may come from corporate-speak.
I worked for a company in the 90s, just before my son was born, where we were not allowed to talk about “problems” in staff meetings, but “challenges” or “issues.” If you talked about “problems,” you were a complainer. If you talked about “challenges” or “issues,” you were positive and solution-oriented.
Of course, we underlings still talked about problems, one of which was trying to tell upper management about a problem like budget overruns and staff shortages without making it sound like a problem, but a challenge we were eager to solve.
“No problem” may be a reflection of that can-do eager-beaver terminology. When someone helps you, it was a challenge they were happy to help you overcome. It was “no problem.”
For “no problem,” how about the common Spanish phrase, “no hay una proiblema?”
Do I sesne a trend here? How about down with contemporary euphamisms? My favorite is “used cars” have become “pre-owned vehocles.”
While we’re sorting all this out, let me add some other issues!
What do people mean these days when they say, “Sorry,” as they push past you in line, or continue to stick their size 13 sneakers in the aisle? Are they really sorry? Pushing past I suppose could do with an “excuse me.” Does that really mean “pardon my rude behavior”? Probably not.
Needless to say, having a discussion about what they may really mean is worse than useless; it can be the occasion for a truly rude remark.
My compassion-confusion meter was challenged this morning when I got on the #1 train and encountered a stroller (with child) parked slantwise in the door. “Mom” was squatting next to the stroller reading “Green Eggs with Ham.” Not only did I almost trip over stroller, mom, and child, so did everyone who got on the train for the next four stops. One large man did give a vigorous “Excuse me” as he tripped and sidled over mother and child which seemed to phase her not at all. So….. we should all be sympathetic to moms with small children, but… was this women a social idiot? A schizophrenic? What if the large man had actually fallen on top of the stroller?
“Excuse me,” but what is going on here?
Re: “issues” vs. “problems” – What about this? I would think that a person facing some problems is different from a person who “has issues”. The former would include things such as, “I can’t find my car keys” or “I can’t get a job” or “I can’t pay my bills”. The latter covers a broad spectrum of aspects of contemporary life (consequential or not) that induce anger (rational or not). E.g. the fire-breathing conservative who sees liberal bias everywhere – she’s “got issues”. Or the Yankee fan perplexed that they never seem to have enough pitching to surpass the Red Sox – he’s “got issues” with Steinbrenner or the ballclub.
As many Spanish speakers know, the common response to “Gracias.” is “De nada.”, which seems similar in intent to “No problem.” Perhaps the “no problem/nothing” nature of it comes from a sense that one is not forever in someone’s debt if someone does something good for someone else.
German speakers know that “bitte” means both “Please” and “You’re welcome.”
As for “issues”, I first noticed that people used “issues” rather than “problems” in the mid ’90s. Not as many people say “I take issue with (something).” as if to say that the person rejects it or objects to it.
“Pre-owned” vehicles. Yes, that is good.
I truly love how people do not die anymore. They pass on, they expire, they take leave of us, or they go to the great Field of Dreams in the Sky, but they do not die. I heard some commentary on this matter within the past few months as if this is a return to Vistorian-era euphemism.
Victorian-era, that is.
This is why we need a magisterium. That man who got off the phone and said “no problem” should have been told “not so fast” I will decide whether it is a problem or not. And if you have issues with that spiritual direction can be arranged. And for those who have issues we KNOW that you use that term because if you called it a problem it would be your problem while saying issues mean it is everybody else’s problem. Like that woman on the train who had issues with everybody messing with her family.
At any rate how about when you say thank you which is answered in every language by “its nothing, niente, di rien, de nada and so on? What do you mean it’s nothing and why are you minimizing it?
In conclusion. No problem, sorry, it’s nothing, have a nice day and such are always powerful to say. It does for most people indicate that they are thinking of others in some way, despite some imperfections. That is always important.
Got a problem with that?
In Chinese, meiyou wenti, or simply mei wenti, can mean No problem (as well as “no question about it), and is often used in that sense. But it’s most unlikely that the origin in English lies there, much as I wish it were true.
Of course I could claim that it is true, and add the Italian disclaimer, Se non è vero, è ben trovato.
On “issues”vs. “problems”: I’ve asked people, “Which is worse: to have “issues” or to have “problems”? and got back both answers. Ask your children (grandchildren?).
While we’re airing grievances, may I mention, “Are you comfortable with this?” The favorite question of facilitators, you know those tyrants who make us break down into small groups. At the end of a discussion, the question will be, not, “Do you all agree with this?” But “Are you all comfortable with this?”
I was once at a meeting at the Villa Cavaletti outside Rome, where a group of scholars were asked this repeatedly. I had to explain it to a German theologian who said it was inconceivable that the question would arise in Germany.
I can’t resist a story about this same German theologian at the concluding dinner of the week’s symposium, which had been somewhat tense, and where the abundantly flowing wine was a welcome way of relaxing–getting really comfortable! My German friend was preparing to come to the States to teach, and had been taking a Berlitz course to improve his English. An American woman at our table asked him if there were many female theologians in Germany. There weren’t many, he replied, and the few there were had difficulties, and he cited the case of one who had just been fired. “That must have made her really bitchy,” the woman observed. My friend turned to me and said, “Bitchy? Was is ‘bitchy’?” I tried to think how to explain the meaning, and I began, “Well, in English a ‘bitch’ is a certain kind of woman…” He interrupted me right away and said, “Oh yes. I know what you mean! In New England they used to combust the bitches!” The table exploded into laughter.
Fr. Shawn, in the obits where I live, people don’t die they “go to be with their Lord,” which, of course, I hope they have done, even though I assume that their Lord and mine are the same and it should be “our” Lord.
I wrote my own obituary because you never know when you might kick the bucket and it’s best not to leave important things like this to the hacks. It says that “Jean’s family hopes she has gone to be with God on [insert date of death], but since there’s a good chance she’s been waylaid in Purgatory, your continued prayers are appreciated.” But I bet Raber will take that part out.
“Issues” seems to refer to a problem of a long-standing. As in, “He has issues with his family” or “She has issues with food.” “Issues” is often whispered in such cases, the way my grandmother used to whisper about “female trouble” or people who were “slow.”
“Sorry” is a British-ism, or so I gather from watching British movies. It’s what they say when they run into people on the tube. I wouldn’t say “sorry” to a woman with a toddler blocking aisles, even if she was reading “Green Eggs and Ham.” I would say, “I cannot get through with on a goat, I cannot get through on a boat, I cannot get through here or there, I cannot get through anywhere. So move it, lady.”
Another British idiom I loathe is “gone missing,” which I’m hearing more and more on the news from American correspondents. We don’t “go missing” in America. We “get lost.”
And what about “back in the day”? What day? “Back in MY day” made sense, because usually it was your parent saying so, thus signaling that whatever followed would be utterly irrelevant and you could continue daydreaming about your current boyfriend. But THE day? When was that? Every time I hear the phrase, I get so involved trying to figure out what historical period the person is alluding to that I lose the rest of the message.
Of course, you know you’re out of it when you become resistant to the ever-evolving nature of language (or use archaisms like “out of it”), and this seems to be an increasingly common “issue” between me and my students.
I prefer the hipper (and wetter and more pungent) version of “no problem”…”No sweat.”
And could “are we all comfortable with this?” be the result of our desire to have a consensus of opinion rather than division on a particular problem, er, issue?
So there I was in my first parish full-time parish assignment, the oil hardly dry on my hands. It’s the end of the announcements, when “back in the day” (Vatican II was still meeting, but the liturgical reforms hadn’t begun), we used to pray for people in the parish who had died that week, and “for all the faithful departed”. I was reading the pastor’s script, and got to that point, when I choked over his way of avoiding mentioning the dread word: “and all those who have passed to the Great Beyond.” And this was in a Christian Church. That was the first and last time I read the phrase. I kept thinking of a “Great Behind”!
Re “gone missing” and “got lost,” my Uncle Dick used to say that somebody, “turned up missing” (Uncle Dick used to bar hop with his buddies a lot so someone was invariably falling out of the ranks).
If you’re missing, how could you turn up?
“Are you comfortable with that” always makes me want to ask for a pillow and a gin rickey. What happened to “can you live with that”? Or “is that an acceptable compromise”?
Regarding “No problem”, my six year old niece has devised her own solution. Also frustrated by “no problem” or “you’re welcome”, she respectfully requested one day that we say in reply, “Thank you for saying thank you.” She also refers to her three year old sister as sometimes having “toddler issues”.
I’m surprized no one has mentioned the ubiquitous phrase, Excuse me?, usually spoken by someone who feels insulted or rudely questioned. Where did that come from?
I prefer the British “no worries” to the (more pragmatic?) American “no problem.” I’m not sure why the former is more pleasing to the ear than the latter — but, for me, it is.
What completely stumps me is the use of “what happened?” when the speaker intends “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what you said, would you please repeat it?” I first came upon it from hispanic teenagers about ten years ago, but it seems to have spread wide and far since then.
I was once “chatting” (text, no voice) on the Internet with a guy in Spain who wanted to practice his English. He asked the correct response to “thank you,” and when I told him it was “you’re welcome,” he said he wanted to use the British version. He wasn’t quite sure of it, but his attempt at rendering it was “notta tall.” It took me awhile to realize he wanted to say “not at all.”
Bob, excuuuuuse me. . . . came from Steve Martin, back in his Saturday Night Live days, I believe.
Dear Mr. Nunz (back up at 1:01 p.m.)
I’m in Northern New Mexico too. Don’t say “no hay una problema” Say “no hay un problema.” It’s a Greek neuter which became masculine in Spanish.
“Una problema” makes you sound like A.L.F.
I’ve had the impression that issues are problems that are thought to require therapeutic intervention.
I really think this is an item for William Saffire to explore.
“My guess is that both may come from corporate-speak.”
This is probably true. However, these terms are not current.
In big corporations, we don’t have “problems” or “issues” any more. We have “opportunities”.
I suppose the two could be combined — i.e., one could say, “No issue,” when thanked.
Am I supposed to say, “My bad.” ?