Can we talk? . . . (page 8)

Scully

"Prostrate" instead of "Prostate". People! "Prostrate" is the act of bowing down in an act of worship to a god, king, etc. "Prostate" is the male organ in which you often hear about men having cancer. You don't get Prostrate cancer, you get Prostate cancer!!!

Back about 12 years ago, when I was first introduced to some online exJWs, one of them told a story about a JW accusing her of being "A Postate". She said that it was impossible for her to be "A Postate" because girls don't have "postates".

gwyneth

I am a total and complete grammar/spelling/punctuation snob. It has offended my best friend. She constantly says, "I have wrote that down." I told her it's either "I have written that down" or "I wrote that down." She rolls her eyes, but she now feels self conscious. I feel terrible about that. She also sees strangers (mostly men) IM me out of the blue online, and I refuse to talk to them if they've started out with a grammatical or spelling error. She indignantly said that there are many nice people out there I am missing out on (oops, ended the phrase with a prep!) because I am too snooty to get past their spelling mistakes. She is absolutely correct. My "boyfriend" (yes, the quotes are on purpose--not sure if he really would fall under the "boyfriend" category) is literally a rocket scientist, and cannot string a coherent sentence or spell correctly to save his life. He is a generous, loving and thoughtful person. It's a good thing I didn't meet him through the internet, or I wouldn't have given him a chance!

Despite the fact I am well aware of my unintentional condescending attitude toward mistakes, I cannot help but list a few that bother me (in addition to the ones that have already been mentioned!)

I used it above: Oops. It's not OPPS.

I cannot stand it when someone says, "I got a new bedroom suit." It's SUITE (sounds like "sweet.")

A "conscience" is the moral awareness of right and wrong. To be "conscious" is to be aware of your surroundings.

The arbitrary use of apostrophes and the lack of commas really get my goat.

There are some posters on this board who have impeccable writing skills. Sexy!!!

frankiespeakin

How do you all feel about the words poztate, kingdumb, debil, jehover, and prolly(probably)? or your instead of your'e, you're,,or our instead of are, there instead of thier?

Narkissos

Scully,

You'd make a good proofreader...

I should add, btw, that the rate of misspelling here is rather low when compared to what you can get on a French forum...

Kaethra

'k...now that we're on the topic of the French language - Narkissos (sorry if I spelled it incorrectly) wrote about being 'mostly used to read printed English.' I have a wonderful French Canadian friend who has cracked me up on more than one occasion based on her use of English expressions the way she has heard, or at least, interpreted them. I laugh with her, not at her, because I know without a doubt that if I were transported to a French-only speaking community I would most certainly bungle every colloquial French expression there is. That said - here are a few of my favourites from my friend M: "Give it a world" (instead of 'give it a whirl' aka give it a try). Spoken of former friends going through a divorce where the wife got way more than she deserved - "She totally took him to the dryer" (she meant 'took him to the cleaners'). When she was surprised by something and didn't know what to say: "I was like a chicken in the headlights" (it's DEER in the headlights. har!). And the latest: "I just need to get over this lump" (she meant 'get over this hump'). hooo! I can't tell you how many belly laughs she's given me. She's a great sport though and laughs just as much over her foibles as I do once she understands what the correct word/expression is.

frankiespeakin

When I see someone in the debate mode make an attack on someone's spelling error(not grammar), to gain ground in the debate, to me it seems as fruitless and petty unless the person is mis spelling a word repeatedly that they should know how to spell(because they are trying to impress everyone that they really know the subject at hand or they are an expert on the subject). Other than that, maybe a kindly PM might be helpful.

Scully

You'd make a good proofreader...

And you, my friend, are a marvelous wealth of knowledge regarding the ancient languages in your own right. I have learned far more from you (and Leolaia) than I ever did at the Kingdom Hall about ancient Greek and Hebrew.

BTW, here's a question for everyone: Why do you suppose that the education system (at least in North America) has become less strict with regard to spelling and grammar?

It's commonplace here for teachers to ignore spelling and grammatical errors that their students make, claiming that correcting their mistakes (and requiring the students to learn the correct way to spell and express themselves) is detrimental to the students' self-esteem and hinders creativity. Do you think that rationale is a cop-out so that the teachers do not actually have to teach? I was appalled when one of my children came home with a story she had written for English class that was full of spelling errors and a grade of A-. The teacher actually believes that drawing attention to the spelling and grammatical errors would hurt my daughter's self-esteem. Now she thinks she doesn't need to pay attention to spelling and grammar because the teacher is going to give her a satisfactory mark anyway, and she doesn't care to do better. What is wrong with this picture??

frankiespeakin

Scully,

It all depends what aspect of the subject the teacher was teaching, even though it was english class. Now with PCs spell & grammar check to do all our corrections for us, maybe of practicle concern was the content, originality, and creativity over these other things.

BrentR

I did not take any offense, I was just hoping that we all could see the bigger picture of why we are all here. My posting quality is directly related to my frame of mind and some days I do not have the mental energy to make sure it is all tidied up. If I am having a less then stellar day some of my postings may be a bit rough around the edges. I hope that no one would be judging my education level on those days at least.

I have only been here for less then a month so I am still getting a feel for everyone. Most certainly I have not seen any arrogance but a whole bunch of great people instead. I am a college educated partially house broken redneck so I don't offend easily.

CoCo, Thanks for the PM, no worries!

Scully

It all depends what aspect of the subject the teacher was teaching, even though it was english class. Now with PCs spell & grammar check to do all our corrections for us, maybe of practicle concern was the content, originality, and creativity over these other things.

Well, according to the report card, spelling and grammar clearly are an issue, because all that was figured in to the marks for the term. I feel that this is patently unfair to the students: to disregard spelling and grammatical errors on hand-written assignments, and yet use the School Board's standards regarding spelling and grammar for a report card mark. To me, it says that the teacher is not doing his or her job, because (a) they do not have control of the classroom environment, (b) they want to be "friends" with the students, rather than an authority figure that expects a certain level of performance, (c) they do not want to put the effort into actually teaching children to write and speak correctly. It is very confusing for my daughter who got a B- on her report card, when all her written work was marked with A's, A-'s and B+'s, along with comments to the effect that spelling and grammar need attention. I'm sure I'm not the only parent with this beef, because I have heard similar reports from other parents, with kids at different schools.

Are these teachers (who are being paid very well for their services) really so fearful of offending children that they cannot be honest with them about how the grading system works??

Can we talk? . . .

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