Okay, are people younger than me just basically illiterate??

TrancedelicBlues · May 14, 2004

I'm watching the "Blind Date" TV show...

You know the one, where they post funny "captions" over the daters' escapades...

There was a woman doing... something... to a man...

And caption balloon over his head read:

"I could get use to this"

GET "USE" TO THIS???

Presumably the young person who captured that "caption writing" job was among the "best and the brightest"

Salyphus · May 14, 2004

It was on TV, what did you expect

Brakka · May 14, 2004

I don't know what your talking about.

jeffbayson · May 14, 2004

Well, what did you expect from a reality dating show on a third-rate TV network? Dostoevsky?

If you truly believe that all young people are illiterate, I suggest that you check out some up-and-coming authors. You will find a new generation of hungry, brilliant writers carrying the torch: Jonathan Safran Foer, David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers, and my personal favorite, Frank Thompson, the author of "The Blind Date Guide to Dating."

http://www.frankthompson.tv/images/bd.jpg

jeffbayson · May 14, 2004

Originally posted by Brakka:
I don't know what your talking about.

Well, you are not exactly helping! I mean, the man complains about bad grammar, and what do you do? You end you're sentence with a preposition!

doug osborne · May 14, 2004

Originally posted by eljefe:
You end you're sentence with a preposition!

Yes, that is something up with which we should not put.

digibird · May 14, 2004

Originally posted by eljefe:

Originally posted by Brakka:
I don't know what your talking about.

Well, you are not exactly helping! I mean, the man complains about bad grammar, and what do you do? You end you're sentence with a preposition!

If you are seeking errors to correct, "I don't know what your talking about" should be "I don't know what you're talking about" and "You end you're sentence..." should be "You end your sentence...".

Salyphus · May 14, 2004

That was the point, digibird

digibird · May 14, 2004

Originally posted by Saul Asner:
That was the point, digibird

Sorry. I missed your subtlety. That, or I'm slow.

Salyphus · May 14, 2004

You aren't slow, you just have to be attuned to dry wit

Rog · May 14, 2004

I get wound up by people using the word 'basically' all the bloody time.

Sounds patronising to these ears, 'oh please, don't simplify the issue just for me'

Bunny Knutson · May 14, 2004

Originally posted by TrancedelicBlues:
I'm watching the "Blind Date" TV show...

You know the one, where they post funny "captions" over the daters' escapades...

There was a woman doing... something... to a man...

And caption balloon over his head read:

"I could get use to this"

GET "USE" TO THIS???

Presumably the young person who captured that "caption writing" job was among the "best and the brightest"

I can't stand it when someone uses an ellipsis to end a sentence. It also annoys me when that same person ends a regular sentence without a period.

By the way, was the age of the caption writer announced on the show? Or were you just assuming?

Brakka, your a funny guy.

Mats Olsson. · May 14, 2004

I hope you don't mind if I hi-jack this thread for a while?

English is my second language. I have no (well, a few) problems to understand what I hear/read or to say what I want, but I feel limited in that I don't know many synonyms. Often when I try to say something, I tend to use only a limited selection of words.

The Music Player Forums is a great resource for excercising second language skills.

PS

If the film is bad, there's often a bad translation to amuse you.

Can you imagine how lame some (English & American) movie & tv-show translations are where I live? Some are really good but some are so bad it's silly.

Wewus432 · May 14, 2004

Originally posted by Rog:
I get wound up by people using the word 'basically' all the bloody time.

Sounds patronising to these ears, 'oh please, don't simplify the issue just for me'

Well basically, I'm strung out on crack, and I never did pay much attention in English class, but your illiteration of the prepositional constition, of the language is right on the mark, and I applaud you're regurgitation of the informtion.

phaeton · May 14, 2004

here hear heir

there their they're

your you're j00r

woman/women

blah blah... i also hate people that seem as if they are literate but never use capitalisation in a sentence, rarely use correct punctuation, or use superfluous punctuation, write run-on sentences and are inconsistent between `british' and `us' spellings of words.

P.S. Mats- I'm always meaning to commend you on your English skills, i've just never found a way to do it without sounding as though i'm patronising or otherwise being a Lame American Tourist. I don't want to name names, but you seem to be able to put together a sentence and mind your spelling better than some ppl here who have English as a primary (or sole) language

ani · May 14, 2004

English is my second language. I have no (well, a few) problems to understand what I hear/read or to say what I want, but I feel limited in that I don't know many synonyms. Often when I try to say something, I tend to use only a limited selection of words.

Mats,

One of the greatest writing tools for locating synonyms in the English language exists is the Thesaurus. http://www.m-w.com/home.htm Merriam Webster has both a dictionary and thesaurus online and I access it often; especially when lyric writing for songs. Be sure you select Thesaurus when entering the word you are seeking to locate synonyms to.

It helps to write more fluent rhythms and rhymes without changing the context of the song. Also, it allows more variety in expression of thoughts.

Hendmik · May 14, 2004

Mats! English is your second language? My God I would have never known. You have an excellent command over it. I'm actually shamed that, like most white Americans, I know one language. You should be proud of yourself.

And, while we're all being pedantic, if I see/hear one more person use "prolly" instead of "probably," I am going to SCREAM! Don't people realize how idiotic it makes them look?

phaeton · May 14, 2004

Mats! English is your second language? My God I would have never known. You have an excellent command over it. I'm actually shamed that, like most white Americans, I know one language. You should be proud of yourself.

Said better than i could!

Btw Mats- how well can you *speak* English? I have a number of friends online around the world that can read and write English like a native speaker, but they all claim that they can barely utter a sentence or two of it in real life. I myself can somewhat get by reading and writing German (though not nearly as well as you can English) but i can't speak it very well at all. (all about a lack of practice).

I realise that in Europe a lot of residents speak two or more languages (due to everyone being so close together and travelling lots), but how often is English learned as a non-native language?

(and i gotta say):

quote:

http://www.ambrosiaproductions.net/images/sss/shadowrama.gif

MST is teh moh scheezi!!

Hendmik · May 14, 2004

jeffbayson · May 14, 2004

Originally posted by Ani:

One of the greatest writing tools for locating synonyms in the English language exists is the Thesaurus.
I concur exhaustively. If you assimilate to exploit a thesaurus justly, your vocabulary will propagate posthaste, and you will jaw as famously as a native prolocutor. I'm animated substantiation: English is my runnerup tongue!

ani · May 14, 2004

Speaking of poor grammar...

One of the greatest writing tools for locating synonyms in the English language exists is the Thesaurus.

Actually, that's a TYPO error; it should have read "exists "in" the Thesaurus."

Dasher · May 14, 2004

A symptom of the times.

Partially, of course, we are a world-wide forum, and some poor grammar, spelling etc. is to be expected from non-native English speakers. They all speak English a LOT better than I speak their native language, my hat's off to them and their educational system.

Possibility #2: Typos - I make a lot of them now, as my hands have been rendered numb from a neck surgerical operation which was supposed to allieviate the symptom...

But i suspect the true reason is that our educational system has been delibeately dumbed-down:

In the fifties, everbody (WASPs) was/were on the same page. Betty Crocker moms in the kitchen, Ozzie nelson hard at work at the office, working class America home from a hard day at the [plant having a beer or six and knocking mom around, but you didn't talk about it...

In the sixties, suddenly, our youth began to question these values. We were taught in school that society ran in a certain, nicely productive and politely competitive way, that any young boy could grow up to be President, and if you worked really hard, you would become liked, respected, and reasonably well-off, with a wife, 2.4 kids and a two-year old station wagom in the driveway of your suburban tract house. Then our kids in college, paid for with the money we so painstakingly earned, began to learn that this was not really the way the world was, and began questioning authority, asking embarrassing questions about where all the resources were coming from and going to, and at what cost. And how politicians could continue to lie to us and nt be held accountable. And why marijuana was considered a dangerous drug when alcohol could be proved to be much more dangerous to ourselves and others.

And political protest became a fact of life, and authority just choked on it.

So the funding for our schools was slowly reduced, arbitrary 'standards' put in place which guaranteed that the underpaid teachers (let's not attract really great people to these crucial jobs) had no time to teach their pupils how to think for themselves, or to care about science, or philosophy, or abstract reasoning, or learning just for the love of it.

And now, you can't find enough qualified people to become proofreaders, and don't want to pay them if youj can find one. And TV's negative attitude toward everyone, with role models like Al Bundy and Homer Simpson graduating to South Park and the Man Show teaching us that it's fun to be an asshole, and a misogynist, and generally glorifying stupidity, completes the circle.

I can't prove it was deliberate, but instead of a generation of peacenik hippies spreading love and drugs, we've got a generation of gangsta rappers telling us to kill and maim, and doing so in an unintelligible, ungrammatical and ignorant manner.

You get what you ask for. The few voices that can be heard crying for social change are shouted down by the ignorant. Mad Magazine used to spoof ignorance, and in the process, hold us up to the mirror to laugh at ourselves. Now we are the victims, and the persecutors, and the losers. All in one. All of us. When society undergoes a Darwinian upheaval of this magnitude, there are no winners, except...

Entropy wins - again...

Dasher

Jeff Klopmeyer · May 15, 2004

Originally posted by Ani:
Speaking of poor grammar...

One of the greatest writing tools for locating synonyms in the English language exists is the Thesaurus.
Actually, that's a TYPO error; it should have read "exists "in" the Thesaurus."

Nope. They just omitted a word. Try this:

One of the greatest writing tools for locating synonyms in the English language that exists is the Thesaurus.

Still a crappy sentence. These people need to be flogged.

- Jeff

jcskid · May 15, 2004

Basically i think many or most youngsters are brain dead,

they Prolly didnt pay attn in scool or just dint care.

Basically i was a straight A student, but didnt give hoot bout gramer or speeling.

while my comand of vocabular aint bad i dont care about speeling or proper gramer.

ya wounldnt know thou eh?

Scott

KenElevenShadows · May 15, 2004

Yes, even though there are more people than ever graduating from college, the literacy rate just keeps plummeting! Remember, young people get worse with each generation! Yes, it's incredible, but with each passing generation, their music grows progressively worse, they dress worse and worse, and they become more illiterate!!!

not coaster MODERATOR · May 15, 2004

Originally posted by Doug Osborne:

Originally posted by eljefe:
You end you're sentence with a preposition!
Yes, that is something up with which we should not put.

in the typical context i believe "up" would be more of an adverb modifying where something is put.

jcskid · May 15, 2004

And now, you can't find enough qualified people to become proofreaders, and don't want to pay them if youj can find one. And TV's negative attitude toward everyone, with role models like Al Bundy and Homer Simpson graduating to South Park and the Man Show teaching us that it's fun to be an asshole, and a misogynist, and generally glorifying stupidity, completes the circle.

Nice post BTW. i think your on to something.

i especially like the homer simpson south park thing. 2 shows my kids were never allowed to watch as long as they lived in my house.