The Butchering of the English Language

[sandy]

The first impression you have of an individual is, of course, their looks. The next is what comes out of their mouths or their keyboard. The misuse of words, the bad grammar to me is inexcusable. If you spend nowadays usually 13 years in school shouldn't some of the correct use of words have sunk in at least a bit? I was on a game site and a person was messaging another that she couldn't find the except button on a site. Another site a person was not aloud to do something. Me and Mom. The list goes on. Is it really that hard to answer yes instead of yeah? I know Mark I sometimes say nah or some slangy thing but it's deliberate for the occasion. It's not something I normally do. Well, that's off my chest til the next time.

[Mark]

I totally agree Sandy. After all, this is America - maybe they should be speaking Spanish... ;D

[Maria]

hmmmm speaking Spanish? Reminds me of a funny story.

Now to English. Unfortunately, much of the new high school grads can barely write a sentence. Several of my college teaching friends are really complaining about the incoming students. They are not at all on a college writing level. This is a complaint from Ivy educationer as well as state university level.

Poor commentary on todays schools.

[Mark]

Oh, but we love funny stories. We have a joke section too, Maria. Maybe you can share it some time.


Not wanting to burst anyone's bubble who's really into sports, but I think if we paid more attention to the children's education than to sports we'd be at least a little ahead of the game. Play is nice, but when some dumb jock is named coach and given a million bucks or more a year while the highest paid professor with tenure might be 80 to a little over 100 thousand a year then I say our priorities are really misplaced.

[sandy]

Writing is another peeve of mine. When in high school the English teacher (I use that because I can't put the real thing here) taught the students to formula write. Their writing strted out first, then secondly then maybe third and in conclusion. I tried to get the girls to use their imagination and not follow the formula." No,Mom he will flunk us." When going onto college they all had to take an English course. Darn shame.

[sandy]

The strange thing about this lazy person.He writes a very good newspaper column every week. I read it once and refuse to read anymore. A man that can write and is too lazy to teach a student is not a favorite of mine.

[Maria]

Mark, even the most tenured profs don't get the six figured salary unless they are in the science field. Well now some of the businees prof are also getting higher figures. I agree that the sports 'coaches' get paid too much. However, if one looks at it from the development view (fundraising), so much money is donated because of sports. When you look at the grades of many of the athletes recuited they barely qualify to enter a junior college. Sad

[Mark]

Unfortunately, I've heard that argument from a lot of people. I don't think all the money 'donated' benefits much more than the athletic departments, and you're right the vast majority of the no-neck footballers seem to be barely functional off the football field. I've heard similar arguments about some of the high salaries earned by fund-raising organizations' upper management too - that they 'bring in so much money they're worth it'. Logic tells me, that if so much money wasn't going out in overhead, less would have to be raised.

[leatherneck]

if I may
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith, becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

[sandy]

Would you believe I sent that quote to Sen Jubelier? Wonder if he read it?

[leatherneck]

Im betting NO
but then again, Im new here, what do I know..

[Mark]

Well, not all knowledge is to be found here - at least not yet, Leatherneck... ;D but we're working on it. Seriously, I think most of those guys have 'staffers' who read their mail for them and make paper airplanes out of most of them, judging by most of the 'canned' responses I've gotten from congressmen over the years and I've written them a lot of letters.

[Juana Cookie]

And now, my 2-cents worth:

I think part of the problem with children not learning to speak proper English, begins in the home. Unlike a lot of my fellow boomers, I did not go to college. I did, however, have the advantage of having grown up in a three generation home. My maternal grandmother lived with us. She was almost as fanatical about grammar, as she was about spelling. If I had a penny for every time I was told to "look it up in the dictionary", I would be a very rich woman, today!

I moved to the south, in my early 30s. I was shocked to see signs posted, in this area, announcing that a "shoping center" was "comming soon". I don't know whether to blame that on the education system, or on another plague of 21st Century American...the lack of pride in workmanship.

I know exactly what you mean, Sandy, about the game sites. I used to go into a chat room quite often, and could not believe the number of adults that don't know the difference between there, their and they're; two, to and too; whether and weather. We all make typo's from time to time, none of us are perfect, but a lot of what I witnessed was just plain laziness.

[Maria]

Well I am not a 'boomer', just missed it by a few months. Nevertheless, I agree that learning to speak properly begins in the home. Just like values. Yet if tv, movies, music (that is what it is called today) and other media that bombbards our kids, it is hard from them to learn it. Then of course there are many of the newer teacher that can barely spell or pronounce words correctly. When I complained about spelling in incorrect sentence to my kids teachers, I was told not to worry about it because computers will take care of it all. Yea Right!

[Mark]

Well Maria, we did say "Boomers and Near Boomers, all are welcome as long as they seem mature and abide by our rules of keeping this 'family-friendly' and all. So, missing "Boomerism" or whatever, is no big deal at all. I just missed it myself, but who cares? Age is just a number.

[Fluffy]

I write on a review site and part of belonging to the site means you read other peoples' work, be
it product reviews or essays. The inability of some new members to write without lapsing into
text language, or to even be able to spell simple words or punctuate correctly, is staggering. I
did think it was the way that english is taught in schools here, but it seems to be a world wide
problem now.

[Mark]

Right - Perhaps Prof. Henry Higgins was right! It is sad, isn't it?

Hi Fluffy! I do like your avatar! (I miss the little bunnies)

[Fluffy]

lol Mark...just a touch of home then!

[Mark]

Did you bring the bunny avatar with you, or was it one of the ones already there. I didn't recall seeing it before.

[Fluffy]

No, you do have it here amongst your avatars...thank heavens as I am useless at uploading
from Photobucket and other similar sites.