The English and their English...

[JULES]

On a more serious note, part of me is tempted to believe the 'dumbing down' of British education is actually part of the elite agenda for the guaranteed maintenance of the status quo.

... In the best Orwellian sense. Consider Newspeak, and Orwell's explanation, in his book, of why it was brought about..

If you don't have a vocabulary, how do you engage with the concepts that words express, by their meanings? If you have an idea, how do you express it to someone else?

The answer is, you can't. The proletarian (again, borrowing from Orwell here) is docile, intellectually impotent, frustrated... and less of a threat.

Though, that said, I don't really go in for that vaguely militant leftist thinking anymore. I'm more inclined to ascribe it to a general wealth of incompetence, and some trends in modern popular culture. :)

may I suggest you blame labour goverments for this as its ALL their fault, barbara castle started it in the 60`s and this has been continued by all labour governments since

 

[element_mcfc]

I´m surprised how people who can only speak one language can be so terrible at it. I don´t even know if I should laugh or cry. (How do you know they can only speak one?)

I work in an Irish pub and this girl asked me: "You aren´t Irish now are you ?" (As if it wasn´t obvious enough from my accent). I replied with: "No, but my mate Matt here is dead Irish. He is completely incomprehensible and drinks like fish". Guess what she said;... "What does incomprehensible mean?". How on earth do you not know what incomprehensible means!?!?!?!

Another time a girl asked me what disillusioned meant and said that I should stop using such complicated words.

Then there is the spelling. Half of the people on this forum don´t even know the difference between there, they´re and their. Someone just spelled yesterday 'yesturday'. The 'U' and 'E' keys are nowhere near each other! My girlfriend works for a real estate company and the amount of spelling mistakes in the emails and faxes sent by Brits is not even funny. Some can´t even spell mortgage correctly, let alone words that are more complicated. How can you TYPE!!!! like that when you are trying to do business?


Anyway, this came off as a rant so i'll give this thread a focus.

What do you think is happening to the English language? Is it important that it´s written and spoken correctly or not? Has it always been this bad? Why is this happening and is there anything that can be done to improve the situation?

Oh, and I´m not English myself nor have I ever been to an English speaking country.

Sorry, had to. Anything in bold is what the poster should have put, but was to ignorant and foreign to consider doing so. There are eighteen mistakes if anyone wants to know. And if you are arguing it is the education system that is failing, I would like to point out that I do not have one qualification and can still find Eighteen mistakes in a simple paragraph which you typed. Shame on you.

OWNED! Hatin on the english are we

 

[element_mcfc]

Sorry, had to. Anything in bold is what the poster should have put, but was too ignorant and foreign to consider doing so. There are eighteen mistakes if anyone wants to know. And if you are arguing it is the education system that is failing, I would like to point out that I do not have one qualification and can still find Eighteen mistakes in a simple paragraph which you typed. Shame on you.

:P

And yeah you did get me with the punctuation errors as they are more or less the same in my own language. I guess I´ll pay more attention to that then. For the rest I have the excuse of not being a native speaker and never even living in a country where English is the language used.

Now what if you looked through any thread in the entire forum :D

Oh and it was write not type as some people actually sent horribly handwritten letters by fax :D:D

Care to explain why it was wrong to use the word "spelled" instead of "written"? It´s difficult for me to understand because in Estonian there is only one word for both of those meanings in that situation if that makes any sense.

By the way doesn´t it prove my point that all these people read my post without noticing those mistakes. :P

SPELT

 

[hertsblue]

The guild i am in on a mmorpg has members from France,Denmark,Holland,Poland,Italy,Sweden,Germany,Israel and more. All of them speak English (well type English) so well you wouldnt realise they arnt British.

 

[burning blue soul]

What you need to understand is, there are more than one English language in Great Britain, ancient dialects that have adapted over centuries to accomadate a common tongue have used English as a vehicle to enable trade and governance.

An example of this would be to have a scouser, Manc and someone from wigan tell you the same story, they would each tell it in a different way. That is just within 30 miles of Manchester (I've not included anyone from over the pennines either in this).

Until the 'Queens English or BBC English' was formulated, it was hard for a trader from Cumbria to understand a buyer from Manchester.

In effect what is spoken by the scots, Irish, Geordies, mancs, brummies and cockney's, in fact, accross the whole British Isles, is their real English. What is learnt by foriegners is the artificial BBC English language that has been forced onto the British population over the last 100 years.

So, in effect, we speak true English, all the rest speak another language entirely.

 

[ibbo_mcfc]

goat boy. I think you speak sense. You have the intellect to see that. But with your dumbing down theory, over decades or generations, who knows where us hoi polloi will be.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

On a more serious note, part of me is tempted to believe the 'dumbing down' of British education is actually part of the elite agenda for the guaranteed maintenance of the status quo.

... In the best Orwellian sense. Consider Newspeak, and Orwell's explanation, in his book, of why it was brought about..

If you don't have a vocabulary, how do you engage with the concepts that words express, by their meanings? If you have an idea, how do you express it to someone else?

The answer is, you can't. The proletarian (again, borrowing from Orwell here) is docile, intellectually impotent, frustrated... and less of a threat.

Though, that said, I don't really go in for that vaguely militant leftist thinking anymore. I'm more inclined to ascribe it to a general wealth of incompetence, and some trends in modern popular culture. :)

may I suggest you blame labour goverments for this as its ALL their fault, barbara castle started it in the 60`s and this has been continued by all labour governments since

Shite.
Thatcher shut more Grammar schools than any other PM.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

The guild i am in on a mmorpg has members from France,Denmark,Holland,Poland,Italy,Sweden,Germany,Israel and more. All of them speak English (well type English) so well you wouldnt realise they arnt British.

Well I spotted 10 grammatical errors that showed me you have a very poor grasp of the language.

 

[crizack]

Sorry, had to. Anything in bold is what the poster should have put, but was too ignorant and foreign to consider doing so. There are eighteen mistakes if anyone wants to know. And if you are arguing it is the education system that is failing, I would like to point out that I do not have one qualification and can still find Eighteen mistakes in a simple paragraph which you typed. Shame on you.

:P

And yeah you did get me with the punctuation errors as they are more or less the same in my own language. I guess I´ll pay more attention to that then. For the rest I have the excuse of not being a native speaker and never even living in a country where English is the language used.

Now what if you looked through any thread in the entire forum :D

Oh and it was write not type as some people actually sent horribly handwritten letters by fax :D:D

Care to explain why it was wrong to use the word "spelled" instead of "written"? It´s difficult for me to understand because in Estonian there is only one word for both of those meanings in that situation if that makes any sense.

By the way doesn´t it prove my point that all these people read my post without noticing those mistakes. :P

BUT IM NOT THE ONE WHO STARTED A THREAD COMPLAINING HOW PEOPLE TYPE. Im not saying i don't type incorrectly, just saying your a hypocrite.

 

[Obvious Mancunian]

I´m surprised how people who can only speak one language can be so terrible at it. I don´t even know if I should laugh or cry.

I work in an Irish pub and this girl asked me: "You aren´t Irish now are you." (as if it wasn´t obvious enough from my accent). I replied with: "No but my mate Matt here is dead Irish. He is completely incomprehensible and drinks like fish". Guess what she said... "What does incomprehensible mean?" How on earth do you not know what incomprehensible means!?!?!?!

Another time a girl asked me what disillusioned meant and that I should stop using such complicated words...

Then there is the spelling. Half the people on this forum don´t even know the difference between there, they´re and their. Someone just spelled yesterday yesturday. The U and E keys are nowhere near each other! My girlfriend works for a real estate company and the amount of spelling mistakes in the emails and faxes sent by Brits is not even funny. Some can´t even spell mortage correctly let alone words that are more complicated. How can you write like that when you are trying to do business?


Anyway this came off as a rant so ill give this thread a focus.

What do you think is happening to the English language? Is it important that it´s spelled and spoken correctly or not? Has it always been this bad? Why is this happening and is there anything that can be done to improve the situation?

Oh and I´m not English myself nor have I ever been to a English speaking country.

to start with i just got an A lang and A*lit. but what a shit thread