Poor use of English in the UK
06-January-2009
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Poor use of English in the UK

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Whenever I look at this forum, and others, I am shocked at the way people mangle the English language.  I find that many non-native English speakers in UK, particularly the Polish, speak and write English to a far higher standard than native speakers.

The problem is that bad English perpetuates itself as children copy parents and students copy teachers, it is therefore incumbent on everybody to make the effort to use the language correctly.

We all make mistakes, and the odd typo can slip thruogh (oops!), and some people find it hard to spell accurately, which is also excusable.   Dyslexia, to a varying degree, affects about 10% of people but most dyslexics are highly intelligent and motivated.  Two of the most successful people I know are dyslexic and one, at the age of the 35, realised how this was hampering his career, and undertook a special training to improve his ability to write well.  Since then, he has done incredibly well.

What really infuriates me is poor grammar and deliberate mis-spelling, for example:

"We was on the train ..."
"Me and me mate went down the shop ..."
"So wot if ..."

i also get really annoyed when i see people writing like this and wiv no punctuation or capitals or brakes between sentences it is pathetic i suppose they fink its clevur or sumfink

A crossword puzzle

Then there are those who think it's clever to write and talk like Jamaicans, in that awful Yardie slang, or to write as if they were texting on a cellphone.  I may well be accused of intellectual snobbery, and that doesn't worry me one iota because I am a snob and proud of it, but I have to say that people who don't take the trouble to speak or write properly demean themselves and debase any value that their opinions might otherwise have.

I have no doubt that I will come in for some considerable flack for this comment, but please don't bother unless you can express yourself coherently and accurately, and don't waste your time or mine with insults and abuse as I'm impervious to them.

By: MikeP


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Citoyen(ne) Sur le Pont thinks English is horrific. Why then is he/she looking at an English language website? Mind you don't fall of that bridge citoyen(ne)!
*Edgar  14-Dec-2008 22:16

 
"Je crois que les Anglais sont fous. C'est la langue terrible, horrifique. Fermez La Manche. Ne laissez pas les Anglais entrer dans la belle France."
Sur le pont

Translation : I think the English are mad. It is a terrible, horrific language. Close the English Channel. Don't let the English into beautiful France.

Get your garlic round your neck and sod off back to France on your bike you horrible little Froggy.

And your point is?
*MikeP  14-Dec-2008 14:52

 
"Has it ever crossed your mind that some people haven't got a good education through no fault of their own? "

Yes, it has, and I am aware of this. If you read my comments you will see that they are directed at people who deliberately write badly, not at those who are simply poorly educated.
*MikeP  14-Dec-2008 14:49

 
Je crois que les Anglais sont fous. C'est la langue terrible, horrifique. Fermez La Manche. Ne laissez pas les Anglais entrer dans la belle France.
*Sur le pont  14-Dec-2008 13:31

 
This is absulote rubbish! And I quote "I have no doubt that I will come in for some considerable flack for this comment, but please don't bother unless you can express yourself coherently and accurately, and don't waste your time or mine with insults and abuse as I'm impervious to them. "
Has it ever crossed your mind that some people haven't got a good education through no fault of their own? We are reaching a new era and people should accept this! If people like you did this in the past we would not be speaking in this language today as we know it!
*Teenager At Heart  14-Dec-2008 12:54

 
I think it's getting worse by the day. If all the comments that are only semi-literate (or worse) were weeded out before posting on this site there would hardly be any left!
Come on all of you, learn English!
*grumpyoldwoman  04-Nov-2008 13:47

 
You sure open the right can of worms. You were probably thinking of Eliza and Alfred P. Doolittle and their ilk who had no education when you alluded to poor grammar and misspelling. But there are as many who speak like them as those who do not. It depends on which side of the tracks you are from.

It is too bad that not everyone is as fortunate as 'some of us' who are equipped to express ourselves with some semblance of literacy, at least by our standards. Believe it or not, I often trip myself when I speak or write, and this is no exaggeration. Maybe I don't know as much as I think I do.
*Sam, the Tiger  02-Nov-2008 01:18

 
Hi MikeP, are you there? There are a couple of really good comments that have been posted lately. Unreadable gibberish!
*grumpyoldwoman  04-Oct-2008 09:52

 
I am a retired newspaper sub-editor and once had to pull up a trained reporter who continually wrote 'could of' and 'would of' instead of 'could have' and 'would have'. He told me he had a university degree in English and so did not require any homilies from me. Apparently he thought this misuse of English was perfectly acceptable because English is 'a growing language'. No one, it seemed, had ever corrected him before and he didn't like the fact that I'd had the temerity to approach him.
*anglo48  22-Sep-2008 19:48

 
I agree with everything MikeP has said here. People who can't be bothered to learn to communicate properly are lazy & self centred, as well as wilfully ignorant.
A reasonable education is available to all if they just take the trouble to turn up at school, and can always be continued after leaving if the will is there.
Poor use of English is a symptom of the state of the society we currently live in.

As an aside, something that really gets my goat at the moment is "bored of" instead of "bored with".
Instead of this being an argument about class, which it didn't start out as, how about some of you post your "favourite" common mistakes.
(Don't mean to hijack your gripe, Mike!)
In case any of you are wondering, I quite often shop at Matalan!
*grumpyoldwoman  17-Sep-2008 08:51


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