My knee-jerk reaction was: "'To young'? Who or what is 'young'?
I almost quoted the post to say just that, but then stopped -- not only would the person posting use that infernal "roll eyes" smiley, but I would get jumped on by multiple members of the forum with various reprimands:
"Whatever. [insert roll-eyes smiley here]"
"Leave him alone, stop being such a grammar Nazi!"
"If you can understand him, who cares if he uses proper grammar?"
"It's just the internet, relax."
This got me thinking about grammar and spelling in this day and age. It goes beyond using chat speak in place of proper words (which, admittedly, is a pet peeve of mine as well, though understandable in some cases). Time and time again, I'll come across a post with non-chat speak spelling and grammar that are so atrocious I have difficulty deciphering the intended content. Much to my chagrin, it occurs so often that I have started seeing such instances on so-called "reputable" websites, such as CNN.com.
I can understand when the person writing does not speak English as a first language. It's usually pretty obvious when that is the reason behind poor spelling and grammar; English is a rather difficult language to grasp.
My gripe is with the people who are taught to read, write, and speak English as a first language. Technically, English is not my native tongue. When I moved to the States and started attending school, many of my classmates teased me over my accent, misuse of words, and lapses back into Tagalog. I made it a point, even at that young age, to make certain my grasp of English was on par with native speakers. I believe I've accomplished this task, as many people stare at me in wonder and disbelief upon discovering this. "I'd never be able to tell!" is the exclamation I hear most often.
Granted, I've been in the US for a majority of my life, so I am generally not surprised to hear that. What does floor me, however, is when that comment is followed by some variation of: "I'm a native speaker, and you speak, read, and write better than I can!"
My question for the masses: why?
I don't buy the "Oh, it's because of the poor public school education system" excuse. With the exception of two and a half years in private school (half of sixth grade, and all of seventh and eighth), I attended public school. I read the same English books, received the same lessons, and did the same homework.
Neither do I accept the argument of today's youth being inundated with chat speak. Last I heard, chat speak was still unacceptable in school- and homework.
Nor do I accept that it is only the youth of today that has difficulty grasping proper English skills; many times over, I have seen adults my age or older suffer from the same lack of mastery of the language, despite being born, raised, and schooled in this country.
Many also blame "the internet."
The internet? Really? Is the internet responsible for the education of today's kids? Was the internet responsible for the education of people my parents' age and older? I fail to see how the big, bad "internet" is responsible for the lack of care regarding proper spelling and grammar.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this decline is the complete apathy that many have toward the issue. I will constantly hear, "It's no big deal," or "It's the internet, relax," or even "Who cares?" from teens and adults alike.
With mentalities like that, why is there so much hand-wringing over how terribly uneducated people are today? Granted, in the greater scheme of things forum/blog posts, social networking statuses, and instant messenger conversations are inconsequential. The problem is that this issue is spreading over into things that will matter - résumés, formal complaints, personal portfolios, and even into publishing.
The differences between to, two, and too are not rocket science. Knowing when to use they're as opposed to their or there is not brain surgery. Why is it such a difficult concept to grasp that tacking on an apostrophe and "s" to the end of a word generally denotes ownership? Is it really that difficult to avoid ending sentences with a preposition? Do people even know what I mean when I say "prepositional phrase"?
Another irritant: inserting the word "like" into a written sentence. There are some cases, such as when comparisons are being made, where using the word "like" is perfectly acceptable. However, I'm seeing a disturbing amount of people start using "like" in the once-mocked manner: "So, like, I was going into the woods, and like, there was like, this bear..." It's bad enough that this habit runs rampant in day-to-day speech; the fact that it is crossing over into the written word is alarming. There's no excuse for it, really -- you have the time to sit down and write your thoughts. There is no need to use "like" whilst searching for the proper phrase.
Yet another common thing I see when browsing the internet is the lack of proper punctuation. There are two extremes that seem to be most common: a disturbing lack of punctuation (usually resulting in a wall of text), or an equally disturbing excess of punctuation (usually in the 'roleplay forum' circuit, where punctuation is used as a stylisation method). I'm not entirely sure which bothers me more: seeing "So I went into the bar and there was this guy and we started talking and apparently we have a lot in common so we went back to his place and we talked some more and had a few more beers and then..." or seeing "&& . my { n a m e } // is // B A R B A R A ? !"
I can't be the only one that "hears" what I read. For the first example, I hear the speaker running out of breath. In the second example, I end up reading it literally: ampersand, ampersand, full stop, my, bracket n-a-a-a-a-a-m-e bracket, slash, slash, is, slash, slash, B-A-A-A-R-B-A-A-A-R-A-A-A ?! (upward inflection and tone of disbelief included).
People seem to get so angry when their improper grammar and/or spelling is pointed out to them! When I check profiles for roleplaying characters and ask the writer to fix their spelling and grammar, I'm always met with hostility. "Roleplaying games are supposed to be fun, not school work!"
I am baffled as to how properly written English is supposed to remain solely in school... and why, when I was TA for my AP English teacher's "regular" English class, it was still so absent.
How has this become acceptable? Why has properly written English become such an unimportant aspect in peoples' lives? Do native English speakers not feel even a remote twinge of embarrassment when someone who speaks, reads, and writes in English as a secondary (or more) language has a better grasp of it than they?
Stop blaming the internet; stop blaming the poor educational system. If more people cared whether or not their written thoughts came across as gibberish, perhaps the general population would stop seeming so stupid to the rest of the world.
Just a thought.
"Leave him alone, stop being such a grammar Nazi!"
"If you can understand him, who cares if he uses proper grammar?"
"It's just the internet, relax."
This got me thinking about grammar and spelling in this day and age. It goes beyond using chat speak in place of proper words (which, admittedly, is a pet peeve of mine as well, though understandable in some cases). Time and time again, I'll come across a post with non-chat speak spelling and grammar that are so atrocious I have difficulty deciphering the intended content. Much to my chagrin, it occurs so often that I have started seeing such instances on so-called "reputable" websites, such as CNN.com.
I can understand when the person writing does not speak English as a first language. It's usually pretty obvious when that is the reason behind poor spelling and grammar; English is a rather difficult language to grasp.
My gripe is with the people who are taught to read, write, and speak English as a first language. Technically, English is not my native tongue. When I moved to the States and started attending school, many of my classmates teased me over my accent, misuse of words, and lapses back into Tagalog. I made it a point, even at that young age, to make certain my grasp of English was on par with native speakers. I believe I've accomplished this task, as many people stare at me in wonder and disbelief upon discovering this. "I'd never be able to tell!" is the exclamation I hear most often.
Granted, I've been in the US for a majority of my life, so I am generally not surprised to hear that. What does floor me, however, is when that comment is followed by some variation of: "I'm a native speaker, and you speak, read, and write better than I can!"
My question for the masses: why?
I don't buy the "Oh, it's because of the poor public school education system" excuse. With the exception of two and a half years in private school (half of sixth grade, and all of seventh and eighth), I attended public school. I read the same English books, received the same lessons, and did the same homework.
Neither do I accept the argument of today's youth being inundated with chat speak. Last I heard, chat speak was still unacceptable in school- and homework.
Nor do I accept that it is only the youth of today that has difficulty grasping proper English skills; many times over, I have seen adults my age or older suffer from the same lack of mastery of the language, despite being born, raised, and schooled in this country.
Many also blame "the internet."
The internet? Really? Is the internet responsible for the education of today's kids? Was the internet responsible for the education of people my parents' age and older? I fail to see how the big, bad "internet" is responsible for the lack of care regarding proper spelling and grammar.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this decline is the complete apathy that many have toward the issue. I will constantly hear, "It's no big deal," or "It's the internet, relax," or even "Who cares?" from teens and adults alike.
With mentalities like that, why is there so much hand-wringing over how terribly uneducated people are today? Granted, in the greater scheme of things forum/blog posts, social networking statuses, and instant messenger conversations are inconsequential. The problem is that this issue is spreading over into things that will matter - résumés, formal complaints, personal portfolios, and even into publishing.
The differences between to, two, and too are not rocket science. Knowing when to use they're as opposed to their or there is not brain surgery. Why is it such a difficult concept to grasp that tacking on an apostrophe and "s" to the end of a word generally denotes ownership? Is it really that difficult to avoid ending sentences with a preposition? Do people even know what I mean when I say "prepositional phrase"?
Another irritant: inserting the word "like" into a written sentence. There are some cases, such as when comparisons are being made, where using the word "like" is perfectly acceptable. However, I'm seeing a disturbing amount of people start using "like" in the once-mocked manner: "So, like, I was going into the woods, and like, there was like, this bear..." It's bad enough that this habit runs rampant in day-to-day speech; the fact that it is crossing over into the written word is alarming. There's no excuse for it, really -- you have the time to sit down and write your thoughts. There is no need to use "like" whilst searching for the proper phrase.
Yet another common thing I see when browsing the internet is the lack of proper punctuation. There are two extremes that seem to be most common: a disturbing lack of punctuation (usually resulting in a wall of text), or an equally disturbing excess of punctuation (usually in the 'roleplay forum' circuit, where punctuation is used as a stylisation method). I'm not entirely sure which bothers me more: seeing "So I went into the bar and there was this guy and we started talking and apparently we have a lot in common so we went back to his place and we talked some more and had a few more beers and then..." or seeing "&& . my { n a m e } // is // B A R B A R A ? !"
I can't be the only one that "hears" what I read. For the first example, I hear the speaker running out of breath. In the second example, I end up reading it literally: ampersand, ampersand, full stop, my, bracket n-a-a-a-a-a-m-e bracket, slash, slash, is, slash, slash, B-A-A-A-R-B-A-A-A-R-A-A-A ?! (upward inflection and tone of disbelief included).
People seem to get so angry when their improper grammar and/or spelling is pointed out to them! When I check profiles for roleplaying characters and ask the writer to fix their spelling and grammar, I'm always met with hostility. "Roleplaying games are supposed to be fun, not school work!"
I am baffled as to how properly written English is supposed to remain solely in school... and why, when I was TA for my AP English teacher's "regular" English class, it was still so absent.
How has this become acceptable? Why has properly written English become such an unimportant aspect in peoples' lives? Do native English speakers not feel even a remote twinge of embarrassment when someone who speaks, reads, and writes in English as a secondary (or more) language has a better grasp of it than they?
Stop blaming the internet; stop blaming the poor educational system. If more people cared whether or not their written thoughts came across as gibberish, perhaps the general population would stop seeming so stupid to the rest of the world.
Just a thought.
