Twisted English

[Boots]

This is a very well named thread, Paddy's Mum!

It's only ok if an English person refers to the Twisted English though, I guess.

It would be rude if I'd said that.


Today's kids are learning in global classrooms and they are learning with children in lots of different countries... sharing resources and their work. It is no longer a case of performing to impress your class teacher or class mates. Kids can now work shoulder to shoulder (or pc to pc) alongside other learners all over the world - and they are negotiatiing it!

Language is about understanding... communicating. Personally, I think the melding of the languages is necessary. Actually preparing any sort of decent research report using any sort of current findings in relation to anything is a proof reading nightmare as it exists right now. I don't hear anyone complaining that English has become the primary spoken word. The fact that Microsoft has had such a huge impact on the written word really only reflects the fact that they enabled the language transfer in the first place. Of course it will have an American flavour. If you invented it, it would have your nations flavour. Bloody ell, if I invented it, you'd have a lot more to complain about!!

[Busby]

I don't want to break the chain of thought here, but can somebody tell me why the use of the 'spell check' always brings up the top of self.suff.?

And to continue; I've been away from England for 40 years now but on my visits and when writing I still can't say 'Hi' (hello) nor can I say 'Movie' (film), I can't abide 'aging' (ageing) and have to say that everywhere I go I can see that the misuse of the apostrophe is widespread.

If you look carefully at background writings, for instance in 'Eastenders' and other television programmes you'll see the silliest mistakes. Then there are Smoker's lounges, Seasons Greetings, its time to go, photos, - and so on. Terrible.

How is it that people of my generation who went to school during and after the war in a land where we had only a few trained teachers per school and where the classes in general had more than 40 children, are still able to write more or less correctly, whereas present-day university leavers can't even differentiate between a plural and the possesive form?

Languages do change, new words, new meanings, if you want to say 'trainers' instead of 'plimsolls/plimsoles' it's alright with me but when it depends upon a clear definition we all have to know the difference between 'boy's room' and 'boys' room'.

[Martin]

-it's because the "spell check" is an "extra", which can be problematical, so it hasn't been added - at the moment, it defaults to the front page - sorry!
Like you, I remember a 50's education, where "the three "rs" were paramount - often it was a blessed pain, learning stuff "parrot fashion", and being forced to do mental arithmetic - but it did mean that our generation were undoubtedly the best educated, and most literate this country had ever seen, or have seen since!

[Muddypause]

II can see that the misuse of the apostrophe is widespread.

The feral apostrophe is a fine British tradition, which many of us go to great length's to perpetuate.

[Paddy's mum]

Misuse of the apostrophe - mostly by shop staff, in my experience. Lost count of the number of times I've seen such signs as:-

Pickling Beats (what, I ask myself) Brussel's sprout Seedless grapes' Three loafs' for a £ and even, on one occasion, a comma used instead to describe (sic) Asprogras,spears.

Perhaps that's why it's sometimes referred to as 'greengrocer's apostrophe'!

[the.fee.fairy]

I

How is it that people of my generation who went to school during and after the war in a land where we had only a few trained teachers per school and where the classes in general had more than 40 children, are still able to write more or less correctly, whereas present-day university leavers can't even differentiate between a plural and the possesive form?

aherm...i'm an University leaver, and i know where apostrophes go.

TBH i get a bit fed up with this 'all university leavers and students are now stupid' crap. Or, even worse 'the exams are getting easier'. This is a little bugbear of mine. Exams are not easy, they weren't for the pupils of 40 years ago, and they're nt for the pupils now. They work differently.

Gee thanks for running down all the hard work that every student has put in this year because you did different types of exams, and so theirs look easy. Work is now spread throughout the year, instead of in 2 weeks at the end of school. You had grants 40 years ago, so you could spend a lot of time studying, now we have to work to keep ourselves fed. I went through uni sometimes having 2p to last me 2 weeks. i had to keep myself fed, housed and clothed. i had to work, unlike those of 40 years ago, they always tell me how great it was with the drinking and the socialising. Well, weren't they lucky! I had one night a week, if i was lucky, that i wasn't working and could go out. I could only afford that because i worked in the pub i drank and so i drank what regulars bought me when i had been working.

So, yes there may be some students who can't use grammar correctly, and you may believe exams are easier, but for the most part, they work hard both at their studies, and at paying work.

I have to say, this is not just directed at you, its a rant that has been building up for a while... It gets worse around results time.

Hmm...feel better now...so...yes...twisted English.

I'm an ex-English student, i've seen them all!!

www.engrish.com

[digiveg]

I used to work in printing - as a typesetter, originally - and have created some fine typos along the way. My first was for the bed & breakfast listings in a tourist mag up in the Lake District. I was goofing around, late as usual, so I ran a spell check rather than having my boss proofread my efforts. We printed about 200,000 copies, and one of the entries, instead of reading 'dinner, bed and breakfast' read 'sinner, bed and breakfast'.

I was in serious trouble for a while until the owner rang to say that she'd never been booked up so fast in her life, and to please run the same wording in future issues. My first lesson in marketing!

The star of my collection is a back cover of Newsweek mag featuring a full page ad for United Airlines which became a very, very expensive mistake. Their tagline should read 'Fly United', but someone transposed the 't' and the 'i' in united, thus creating 'Fly Untied'! Ooops...

[Paddy's mum]

Hi digiveg. Love it!!!!!!!

Isn't Fly United what happens when your grandma's china ducks, on their pins on the wall, tip somewhat after being dusted or the door slams in the wind, and look as though they're up to airborne nookie? No? .... oh,oh ... my mistake then!!!!

Absolutely lurvvvv the sinners typo! A 'madames' dream!!!

[Busby]

the.fee.fairy is right. I should not have been so quick to tar all university leavers with the same brush. Sorry about that.

Actually I was only repeating what I keep reading in the British press so presumed it was a general problem in the UK.

Nevertheless it would have been nice to have had a grant in my time! In the 40s and 50s we had no money at all, neither in the school nor at home. After the Secondary Modern there were a few places in a Grammar school for the brightest. I wasn't one of them.

I think it was the tomato plants my father cherished on the kitchen window sill that planted the seed in me to be a bit self-sufficient.

In the meantime they are my passion.

[red]

Like you, I remember a 50's education, where "the three "rs" were paramount - often it was a blessed pain, learning stuff "parrot fashion", and being forced to do mental arithmetic - but it did mean that our generation were undoubtedly the best educated, and most literate this country had ever seen, or have seen since!

urgh... isn't the 'three 'r's ' the most ridiculous thing going?.... so.. that's reading.. yes starts with an R... and the other two? why not the three 'i's ? there is an I in each of those words... is it a joke some Dickensian teacher made and no one has got it yet?

[digiveg]

A crofter, while crofting his croft,
found a rather large bear in his loft.
He said 'I can't sow it,
or lift it and throw it,
I'm keeping it 'cos it's so soft.

[cat]

The farmer was in the field sowing the corn, his wife was in the kitchen sewing a hem, they were both ?

a sentence you can say but not write!

[red]

the other day I saw two men stealing a gate. I didn't say anything in case they took offence


(another one that works better spoken than written)