Are you a little frightened when you see how much trouble Americans have with simple English these days?

Question

Just read some of the Yahoo! Answers thingies - it's shocking how bad it is.

Answer 1

Surely this answerer was having a little fun with us:
" . . . if this was an English class I would agree. But, it is not, it is a light hearted, IMHO, forum to express yourself. Maybe you are being to anal."

1. "was" should be "were" (2nd conditional - unreal)
2. " . . . it is not, it.." (comma splice - a semi-colon is needed)
3. "light hearted" should be "light-hearted"
4. " . . . being to anal." should be "being too anal"

Not being a pedant, I won't mention that "yourself" should be "oneself."
Or am I being too anal?

Answer 2

I agree.

However I prefer to put it in the context of the present rather than the standard of yesterday.

As technology eases deeper into our communication system the need for learning how to let's say ... spell, is fading. We have tools for that.

What we see right here in this Yahoo! Answers thingie is a transition period in real time.

It's easy to say "kids these days" yet we all know that every generation has said that. The kids will grow up to be just as talented and thoughtful as the generation before.

However, the tools they communicate with will be far more sophisticated than a pen, some paper and a dictionary at our elbow.

They will be a more prolific generation, a louder global voice (by way of blogs at current standard) and faster and more skillful at getting ANY message out.

They will look back at typing with a nostalgia that we once reserved for our more archaic tools of communication.

I am encouraged that those less skilled are not hampered or intimidated by their lack but are indeed participating on a grand scale.

Holla back!

Answer 3

Frightened? No.

Irritated, yes. Disturbed, maybe.

Surprised, given that English is a required subject in all four years of high school? Well, not really, given the heavy load most English teachers are assigned and the poor pay teachers generally receive.

But frightened? No.

I'll tell you what's frightening about the use of language. It's political doublespeak. It's name-calling without understanding of the meaning behind the names; for example, "Islamic Fascists," "Nazi," "liberal" as if "liberal" were a curse word. It's people taken in by 30-second sound bites and spinmeisters and "swift-boating." Now, that's what's frightening! Really frightening, for our democratic republic is being undermined by people who start illegal, "preemptive," unilateral, imperialistic wars, claiming their purpose is to spread "democracy," while in the US they are chipping away at such long-standing civic principles as civil rights, checks and balances, separation of church and state, open and free elections, habeas corpus, respect for allies and international law, and government of, by, and for the people. That's what's frightening about the trouble Americans have with language these days.

Everything else is just a little irritating. Like people who refer to questions on Yahoo! Answers -- serious, intellectual questions as well as silly little frilly questions, all of them grouped together -- as "thingies." Thingies?

Like people who run two sentences together with a hyphen (not even a dash, a hyphen!) between them. "Just read some of the Yahoo! Answers thingies - it's shocking how bad it is."

It's not shocking or frightening. But it is irritating.

What is distressing is that someone who uses English so ineffectively would attack others' English. What is frightening is that there are people out there shocked about such linguistic trivia who are not at least equally as troubled that language is being used by Machiavellian politicians to attack and ultimately destroy peace on earth, freedom in the US, and the democratic principles of good government.

Before Rome fell, it was taken over by tyrannical Caesars -- who may have written very good Latin. "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres . . . ."

Hmmm.

Answer 4

Given that many Americans come from having other languages as their primary language, it isn't that shocking that the English here is so bad. Or that people who type questions and answers here don't care how badly they type or misspell words. Most just don't care or don't bother with the check spelling feature.

On the other hand, it does seem that the school system is getting more and more lax in what is being taught, fundamentals are not being stressed and doesn't seem anyone cares to achieve in getting a great education.

Answer 5

"The Yahoo Answers thingies"? While I agree with your sentiment about the poor grammar, bad punctuation, and all the rest (yes, Americans are now practically illiterate), "The Yahoo Answers thingies."? All rhetorical.

Answer 6

I'm not sure Americans are alone in having trouble with English.

However, Yahoo! Answers does seem to attract illiterati by the score.

Answer 7

as an international baccalaureate student [in Europe] I have a chance to compare a bit of american english and british english, as we must show proficiency in our exams, and take sat if we want to study in usa universities. american english scares me as they want it to be.. simple, and oversimplification, in my opinion, is bad in every subject, especially language.

Now the usage of the language isnt so shocking, as i think you've never seen any lithuanian forum or chatting room - im really frightened of how young people arent respecting our language, which is very old and probably the most beautiful in the world, doesnt matter that only 3 million people use it. Now there are plenty of you english people, and couple little teens [compared to all the masses of those who use english correctly] cant harm your language a lot.

I know i often do mistakes when talking/writing/thinking in english, i often mispell words, i dont like using apostrophes, i dont know when there are one and when two words, my punctuation is horrible [Steve, my english teacher who understands lithuanian once said that we put commas after every word] etc, but english is only my foreign language and im not really so scared of all the mistakes i do. The thing that scares me is that after a year of studying all the subjects in english, i sometimes found myself unable to express myself in lithuanian, my native language any more.

All you americans need to do is to build another secondary education system, as the scan tron test based system is for educating the masses whose average iq is not higher than 100, and show these young people the beauty of the CORRECT language, show them examples of languages dying out because of stupidness like theirs and let them grow up.

Its not so bad since you have someone to care about the mistakes they do..

Answer 8

AGREED.
They see no difference between: their and there and they're
They see no difference between: too and to (or even two)

They think that at least is one word "atleast"
They think that a lot is one word "alot"

Actually many can't even spell any of the above anyway, so it doesn't really matter (or can we tell) if they are using the correct word or not.

Sad sad sad. (and yes, frightening too)
But is it just Americans? Probably not.

Answer 9

I agree. I know several college students who can't even write simple paragraphs. Reading also seems to be an issue for many college students. I just don't understand how someone who is college age would not know how to spell commonly used words. It is really disconcerting. Especially with the spell check button, lol

Answer 10

Every one makes a good point. Yes, this is an informal place but a lot of people try to make their answers sound so intellectual and if they are going to do that then they should use proper grammar and spelling otherwise it defeats the purpose.