Comments

Illiterati — 15 Comments

  1. A few weeks ago I bought 10 nuts and bolts.   They cost 35 centimes each.
    I put 3€50 on the counter.
    The young lady at the cash desk had to use her calculator to work out the cost.
    She was amazed that I had worked out the correct amount in my head.

  2. My point exactly.  The system seems to think that they don’t need to be able to add, subtract, multiply or divide as they can always use a calculator.  Daft.

  3. Thank Heavens – I thought it was just me being cranky!
    I just can’t bear reading some of these illiterate posts, it doesn’t matter how good the ideas are I just switch off and stop reading.

  4. Sorry – that post was pretty ropey as well.  Three ‘justs’ in two sentences – pot & kettle comes to mind. 

  5. I am so with you on the text speak Grandad. It drives me absolutely crazy.
    When I was living in Germany American English used to drive me nuts too. Now that I live here I actually find myself using it sometimes. (Okay, a lot). I think that goes to the argument that over time what used to be unacceptable becomes totally acceptable. (Even though as a lover of the English language I’m unhappy with the fact that my standards have changed. I hide behind the idiom “When in Rome…” ).
     

  6. Meltemian – Ten minutes on the naughty step for those justs.  In fairness, if the sentiment is good, I will do my best to read it, but it is damned difficult.

    Denise – I have no problems with Americans speaking American English [God bless ’em but obviously proper grammar and spelling is is beyond their capabilities] but I really object to it when I hear it on the streets, or even worse, on television here.  To try to convert Americans to the True Path would be akin to pissing agin the wind [to use a bit of Irish English]

  7. I wus edukated here in amerika. you shuld come visit us sommday we like forignercaters.

  8. I must bow my head in shame.

    The only way my spelling can seem to be in any way passable is due to the assistance of a spell checker. Even then I’m very aware that it probably drives people mad.

  9. I am happy to see Ireland is up there in the top ten of the happiest people on earth. (Wouldn’t know it around here.) USA got 12th place.

  10. Darragh – For fuck’s sake, I’m attacking the teaching industry not the individual.  And we all know how unreliable spell-checkers are.

    Peacock – Thank you ever so much for depressing me even further.

    TT – There is a very simple reason for that.  When asked if they are happy, most Irish will crack up with hysterical laughter.  You can see how that might give the wrong impression?

  11. I had a bad speech impediment as a lad, so I took speech from an English lady.  It was her love of the language that inspired me to at least write properly.  As far as math goes, I had a grand math teacher that would slap me with a ruler every time I used my fingers to count.  It must have worked because I am now a walking calculator.  Perhaps there should be Nuns armed with rulers and a penchant for slapping hands in every school.  🙂

  12. JD – You can’t beat the religious for teaching.  They would bounce you off the walls and ceiling until you got it right.

  13. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

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