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I love America...

I never really get comments like this. Bill Maher loves America too - you can criticize something and still love it.

The word professional seems to me to be used in an incorrect way in the U.S. Professional belong to unions and/or have a professional body that grants and removes credentials.

Professional Athletes like in the NHL or MLB belong to a union and the union could in theory take action against one of their players.

I don't really care - I just think this is a rare instance where there are not "enough" words to separate the terms.

In Canadian and British English we use the word Cheque and Check.

I will check that we mailed your cheque to you. In the US this would be I will check that we mailed your check to you. In the US they take out and simplify words but it requires a reading for context.

The word professional is pretty solid and in the US they seem to now just take it to mean that anyone who gets paid for something no matter how pedestrian it is a "professional" which implies that the job they do is a "profession" - it's not.

One should say - I make a living reviewing audio gear or I am a paid reviewer or I am an audio equipment reviewer. Since no reviewer belongs to a reviewing profession or can be kicked out of the field of reviewing by a professional body of their peers then they do not belong to a profession and as such are not professionals.

Some might view this as nitpicky as the split infinitive but if it's good enough for Gene Roddenberry it's good enough for me "To Boldy Go Where No Man Has Gone Before" is incorrect but it sounds right.

If professional reviewer sounds right fine but my problem with it is that implies that reviewers are "better" in some way at discerning differences in audio gear or have better hearing or more experience than those who do not review.

It's the same with professional dieticians - snake oil science that people get paid a living to do to imply that they are in some way related to the medical field - they're absolutely not. It's the dumbing down of professions and turning science into schlock. No doubt there may be an agenda behind doing just that.

You don't need a teaching degree to teach in Asia. I have met some very good non credentialed teachers who should go into the field get the degree and get paid double. Others I have met should absolutely in no way be put within 50 feet of kids.

I am Canadian and while I was teaching in South Korea - I liked the Americans far better than most of the Canadians (stick up their bottoms). And because I wasn't a jerk - I was invited to the military base in Seoul to have dinners with the soldiers.

And there was this woman - a Navy Seal Sniper doing her masters in psychology - she could kill me with two fingers - I was in love. Ahem but that's a whole other topic.

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