# Woman, what are you even saying?! Transcription tribulations.



## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

I've started doing transcription for 'extra' money, which is crazy because everyone knows that there is no such thing as extra money, it's a myth. Still, I am doing this. So far it's led me on an adventure of accents, audio taken apparently in a busy cafeteria, people who talk with a mouthful of marbles, and now this.

They speak clearly enough, that's not the problem. Now it's what they're saying. Oh no, not just the part where the respondent is saying, "And it's so interesting!" and the moderator agrees, "My goodness, that's wonderful and so interesting!" and I'm perishing bit by bit as I'm typing and saying, "This is totally not interesting you lying sacks of mostly water!" 

(Don't worry, they don't care if insult them because they'll only ever be anonymous recorded voices). 

No, NOW I'm running into one of the strangest uses of a normal word that I've ever heard. This respondent has said it three times and I'm sure that's what she's saying. I won't type it verbatim but here's the gist:

"I think that was a really high-heeled part of this program."

"This part of the presentation we use all the time so it was credibly high-heeled."

There's another instance, too, and then she uses a term that I've only ever heard as the name of a TV show, 'Breaking Bad' but she uses it as though it's part of this program and the most normal thing in the world.

I had my husband listen to this and he says that's what he hears, too. Is this a colloquialism? Professional jargon? Anyone ever hear of 'high-heeled' and 'breaking bad' used like this?

Transcription is very strange sometimes.

Edit: oh and while I'm on the subject this woman is supposed to be overseeing people in her institution and yet she is the most passive person I've heard yet. She'd be a nightmare in her position because she has zero leadership ability. The best training program in the world isn't going to help someone who's afraid to tell people that they need to get their butts to a workshop on a Saturday or their job is at risk. Seriously.


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## moderan (Dec 19, 2012)

I have actually...they're new catchphrases for the lazy-minded and terminally trying-to-be-hip. If you reference those shows (Sex in the City and Breaking Bad, respectively) you are "establishing context".
Well-heeled is the (methinks optimal) original phrase for the first. The second means less to me than breaking wind...actually both have less content than a well-placed fart.


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## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

I wondered about 'well-heeled' being the original for the first one, too, but that doesn't even make any sense in the context.

The confusing thing is that these are two well-educated professional people talking about faculty testing in the healthcare field. It makes no sense at all that they'd suddenly break out in hipster speech. 

I guess there will be a note to my project supervisor to check this over starting at the right timestamp and see what she thinks.

Weirdness.


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## moderan (Dec 19, 2012)

Sure it does...the idea is that the thing is "top-shelf", therefore you have to be wearing heels to get to it.
The "Breaking Bad" thing has become so prevalent that it has spawned other equally repugnant subgenres, such as "Breaking Amish"...much like the tres intelligent "Pawn Stars" bit.
I understand the need to make things bite-size, but I'd prefer that they taste good going down. And for professionals to use such phraseology is execrable.


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## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

Mod, I know what the expression could mean, thing is it just can't be forced into the context that she's using it. Even if it can be fit into one sentence she turns it around so that it wouldn't make sense in the next. It's brain-bending and I am done with trying to figure it out. They want me to write what I hear? High-heeled and breaking bad it is.

Now I'm into some slang jargon for certain people in her field and I've been Googling all over and can't find it. It'll get a [ph] tag for phonetic spelling which basically means, "Hell, I have no idea, it sounds like this."


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## moderan (Dec 19, 2012)

Obviously it can be forced into that context, because she is doing so. It likely shouldn't be (can you tell that I'm editing today btw? sorry), but it is.
But then I know not what profession the people you're transcribing practice. If it's shoe sales or podiatry, they might be right on the money about the first expression.
If I can be of help in some fashion, let me know. At least you do know that I read what you write


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## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

LOL, I'm a little muddled regarding what it is that she does, it seems she's a faculty member in a teaching clinic or hospital so she should be evaluating residents and yet she doesn't. It's further muddled by the fact that she can't seem to get around her own job, on one hand she says she's doing it then goes on to show how she isn't and at no point are any of the comments about shoes or reaching anything. It's all about whether a certain teaching program worked or not. It's very, very weird. And annoying. Trust me.


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## moderan (Dec 19, 2012)

Must be in administration.


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## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

Makes as much sense as anything I can come up with.


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## moderan (Dec 19, 2012)

I made sense? Must be something wrong with this picture.
Good luck!


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## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

heh, I didn't definitively say _that_.  Anyway, it's turned in and yay for it being somebody else's problem now.


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## Potty (Dec 19, 2012)

Foxee said:


> lying sacks of mostly water!



[video=youtube_share;paH97dYR6Lg]http://youtu.be/paH97dYR6Lg[/video]


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## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

LOL, that's exactly what I had in mind, too!


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## Freakconformist (Dec 19, 2012)

I've heard of "well-heeled", which I think means nicely dressed, and I've heard of "high on the instep", which means they're being more arrogant than they should be. But if I  had to hazard a guess, being "high-heeled" would mean they have tall shoes on, lol. 

I guess that would be a problem with transcription. If they use local or made-up terms or even if they're just confused, you're kind of lost. I can see myself mixing up terms and using them repeatedly in conversation. Sometimes I think talking to me is like talking to the absent-minded professor, full of useless facts and random gibberish.


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## benluby (Dec 19, 2012)

I grew up hearing well heeled, which was pretty much upper middle class.  They had money, but not snooty money.  Yeah, that's actually a phrase I grew up around.  High heeled is a new one.  Maybe they're talking about beyond the ability of us low borns?


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## Lewdog (Dec 19, 2012)

It sounds to me like you are doing transcriptions for the mob, where they are writing notes on pieces of paper and sliding it back in forth in a tet-e-tet of negotiating.  The transcription is simply an alibi, and your life is in grave danger.  I'm watching "Castle" so this might be a little off the rails, but trust me there is nothing to worry about unless unmarked packages start showing up at your door full of money, and you notice a plumber's truck parked across the street daily.  That is unless you live across the street from a plumbing business, of course.


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## Foxee (Dec 19, 2012)

Yep, I am familiar with 'well-heeled' but this usage of 'high-heeled' might have been revolutionary...except then she basically contradicted herself.

Maybe Lewdog is right. Oh no...a plumbing truck! *disappears*


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## moderan (Dec 19, 2012)

I repeat-"high-heeled" came from an episode of Sex and the City. I was unfortunate enough to see part of that episode and can attest to the usage. Please don't make that mistake yourself. I fell asleep with that channel on and WOKE UP TO IT.


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## Arcopitcairn (Dec 20, 2012)

Is there a possibility, in the context of the original conversation, that the woman could be saying 'high-yield'? As in something that is very productive?


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## Foxee (Dec 20, 2012)

moderan said:


> I repeat-"high-heeled" came from an episode of Sex and the City. I was unfortunate enough to see part of that episode and can attest to the usage. Please don't make that mistake yourself. I fell asleep with that channel on and WOKE UP TO IT.


That sounds like a pretty horrible awakening.

And I'll repeat that even from Sex and the City as a slang term it didn't make sense. She used it like it meant something frivolous in the first sentence and then in the next it was used to describe a good or necessary thing. So no matter where the reference comes from it's useless if it can't be used to differentiate the two different ideas that she's talking about. Of course, as you point out, it's a fairly useless term in any case.

Then again, after listening to this I wasn't sure why she had her job anyway.

Edit: Sorry, Arco, missed your comment before. Nope, it was very clear with three repetitions. "High-heeled".


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## Kevin (Dec 20, 2012)

No idea. Since I was a little kid I've been really good at this kind of stuff. Like songs that no one can understand the words, I just apply logic to the situation. For instance: "_She god of lectra boobs, her mother too. Yuh know a raid inside a mag of peeee-nn oh-oh ohh,  B-Buh-Buh-Benny and the Chads.." _Pretty good, huh?  I picked right up on it.


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## Foxee (Dec 20, 2012)

Kevin said:


> No idea. Since I was a little kid I've been really good at this kind of stuff. Like songs that no one can understand the words. I just apply logic to the situation. For instance: "_She god of lectra boobs, her mother too. Yuh know a raid inside a mag of peeee-nn oh-oh ohh,  B-Buh-Buh-Benny and the Chads.." _Pretty good, huh?  I picked right up on it.


LOL! Wow, you are awesome at this. I'd love to sit you down to do some transcription with that kind of talent. It reminds me of another favorite lyric:
_"The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind, the ants are blowin' in the wind..."_


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## Arcopitcairn (Dec 20, 2012)

I did a little snooping around. 'High-heeled' seems to mean exciting or superior. In the context you gave, superior might fit. Maybe it's just the lady's way of saying something is really very good. If I had to guess, that would be my guess.


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## Foxee (Dec 20, 2012)

I don't think that this little bit will be identifiable so I'll just post what she said.


> "I mean I wasn’t sitting there watching those things thinking I’m wasting my time but if you have to cut something I would cut that part. I think it was high-heeled part of it. And I think that the counseling and history-taking are credibly high-heeled, the breaking bad is definitely high-heeled but because it doesn’t happen as often I would put that slightly lower on the list,..."


Yeah, that look on your face? That's how I looked, too.


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## moderan (Dec 20, 2012)

Quite clearly in administration. Or HR.


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## Foxee (Dec 20, 2012)

Poor HR people, we just toss them under the bus, too. LOL


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## moderan (Dec 20, 2012)

Could be worse. Could be marketing. Douglas Adams had that one right.
*ducks*


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## Foxee (Dec 20, 2012)

*just misses you with thrown rock* 

dang it...you're too fast with the ducking.

*throws duck*


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## moderan (Dec 20, 2012)

Excellent. I already had the turkey and the chicken. That completes the set.
I quack me up


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## Foxee (Dec 20, 2012)

*perishes from pun proliferation*


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## moderan (Dec 20, 2012)

Egg-cellent. And alliterative. Or was that meant to be elliptical?


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## Foxee (Dec 20, 2012)

LOL...I'm out of answers. You win. *waves white flag*


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## nerot (Dec 20, 2012)

> "I mean I wasn’t sitting there watching those things thinking I’m  wasting my time but if you have to cut something I would cut that part. I  think it was high-heeled part of it. And I think that the counseling  and history-taking are credibly high-heeled, the breaking bad is  definitely high-heeled but because it doesn’t happen as often I would  put that slightly lower on the list,..."



Yikes!

I thought with my medical record background I could make sense of what she was saying.  God help us.  I am glad she isn't responsible for dictating doctor orders.  It could be bad, very bad.  

It used to be that I had to be an expert in deciphering a doctor's hand writing.  Now there are a lot more doctors from other countries with interesting accents to decipher.  My GI doctor is from Lebanon. He has an Arabic-French accent.  I had to laugh when I got a copy of his report of my tests.  There were many missing words.

Thanks for all of the laughs.  I truly enjoyed this post.


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## Foxee (Dec 21, 2012)

Thanks for replying! I'm glad you enjoyed it, too.   Also really love your sig line.


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## wron (Jan 4, 2013)

Only clue I have is from a 1971 release by Traffic, "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys".  Wouldn't surprise me - the use of "like" as a comparative adverb (in truncated format) came out of Kerouac's _On the Road_ and endured for half a century or so.


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## Foxee (Jan 4, 2013)

I didn't know that's where the overuse of 'like' came from. Shoot, it's pretty much just accepted speech now (unfortunately).


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## wron (Jan 4, 2013)

Kerouac was apparently mimicking the speech of a real-world person, Neal Cassady, who actually talked like that long ago.  He's one of those virtually anonymous contributors to modern society.
Kerouac's book changed my life when I was still a pre-teen, the irreverent bastard!  I still have to deal with him!


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## Foxee (Jan 4, 2013)

I guess I should read it, then.


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