Tim Torkildson was a social media specialist at the Nomen Global Language Center. When he wrote a blog post about homophones — you know, words that sound the same but have different meanings, and many times different spellings — his boss told him he was fired.
How come?
“Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality,” he told Torkildson.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
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.
(Noman chief Clark) 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.
“People at this level of English,” Woodger says, ” … may see the ‘homo’ side and think it has something to do with gay sex.”
h/t to Discriminations.
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