So, apparently we don\'t need to spell correctly
|
|
|
|
| #2 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | | The English language is unnecessarily complicated and a lot of kids do get held back for stupid stuff like this, so "stupifying" it would be a smart idea but some of those changes are just fuck-tarded. |
|
|
| #3 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | | The first thing I noticed was that the article misspelled "memorize." I thought the internet was supposed to make the world smarter. English may be complicated, but not unnecessarily so. I'm surprised Professor Wells didn't call for capitalization and punctuation to be abolished. |
|
|
| #4 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | | I never found learning English hard and I'm quite thick |
|
|
| #5 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | The first thing I noticed was that the article misspelled "memorize."
The article spelled "memorize" with an "s" because the Times is a British paper, and one of the main differences between Commonwealth English and American English is that while American English the suffix "-ize" is spelled with a "z," in Commonwealth English "-ise" with an "s" is also used. So no, it's not a misspelling.
But this article does seem to be ridiculous. You can't call for the mass phoneticization of a language simply because you find the current spelling to be too difficult. You would essentially be destroying the entire English writing system, its rich origins, the culture attached to it, and devaluing the entire English language written tradition.
In all honesty, this reads like a parody article. In fact, it reads like a very clever parody (kind of like the snopes.com article about the school board in Misissippi that was planning to change the curriculum to do away with fractions). In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would assume that this is a parody.
But if we're really aiming to make things easier to learn, why are we still speaking English at all? The grammar is so complicated it's ridiculous. If we're really trying to make things easier for kids to learn we should all just switch to Spanish and call it a day. |
|
|
| #6 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | The apostrophe can't be abolished- it can change the meaning completely. It might lead to the other punctuation marks being dropped. The spelling can be a bit odd sometimes but you get by.
Has anyone read "Eats, shoots and leaves"? |
|
|
| #7 Posted 2 months ago, in reply to post #6 by lilliejean | Reply | Very true. "It's" means "it is" whereas "its" is posessive.
I noticed that too... |
|
|
| #8 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | Great...
The only reason people would have to stay behind, really, is if they had just been lazy and not done the work...
So instead of a bunch of lazy, stupid people, this act would make them all lazy, stupid, illiterate people...
I don't see many positives there... |
|
|
| #9 Posted 2 months ago, in reply to post #8 by Fenrir502 | Reply | | Now, that I don't agree with. Don't equate spelling, or any academia, with work ethic. The proposition in the article is ridiculous, yes, but suggesting that if you 're not "lazy" and "do the work" you're not going to have any problems understanding the material you learn in school is just ill-informed and presumptuous. The "work" is something that can help some people in learning, yes, and serves the primary function of reinforcing what's already been learned, but the initiative to complete schooln assignments is useless if you don't understand the material, and just "doing the work" is rarely enough to understand things that are conceptual, especially phonics. So no, people don't have difficulty with spelling and reading simply because they're slacking off, but rather they have difficulty because it can be very difficult material when it is first learned, and because the "do the work, end of story" approach taken by educators in the modern world does nothing to help with this difficulty. So in the end, if material is difficult, the "work" does more harm than good. |
|
|
| #10 Posted 2 months ago, in reply to post #9 by Tatterdemalion | Reply | ...
Perhaps I phrased that incorrectly.
I don't know about where you live, but here, understanding the work is part of the work. Questions or Google are always a good way to understand. As is looking back over notes, or as happens to be a favourite game of one of my friends: take my notes.
You see, my point was that if you do not understand, and make no effort to understand or pay attention, you can hardly be surprised when you do not know the work, hm? |
|
|
| #11 Posted 2 months ago, in reply to post #10 by Fenrir502 | Reply | Yes, but young children who can't spell aren't going to have much luck using written notes, are they?
I mean, if you're talking about secondary education, then what you're saying could perhaps be applied (although still only in part). But if we're talking about spelling here. Spelling is conceptual, and I don't really think it's fair to say that those who have difficulty learning spelling, even beyond phonics, have this difficulty because they're too lazy to make any effort to understand and pay attention. I mean, it can help, but in reality all of the effort in the world doesn't guarantee that you'll have that understanding. |
|
|
| #12 Posted 2 months ago, in reply to post #11 by Tatterdemalion | Reply | No, no, of course not.
However, I must point out that the people who try and fail are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who never try at all. My English class contains maybe five people who try, One who can not get the work, and all the rest just don't care.
That, however, could be coincidence. |
|
|
| #13 Posted 2 months ago, in reply to post #12 by Fenrir502 | Reply | If you think you've got it bad, my school is worse. My English class is filled with students who don't care, but try anyway. And let me tell you, that is almost infinitely more depressing.
Still, at the same time, when you're talking about primary school, I don't really think the same frame of mind can be applied (at least, I assume you're not in primary school). Once you get on to secondary education then you can expect people to not only have much more individual responsibility, but to be in a position to make the decision as to whether they care or not. But at the lowest, most basic level, you really can't break it down that way. |
|
|
| #14 Posted 2 months ago, in reply to post #13 by Tatterdemalion | Reply | In primary school, however, you have one teacher for all of your subjects, giving more opportunity for one on one learning, Which I believe helps immensely.
And you assume correctly, I am in 10th grade. |
|
|
| #15 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | | language evolves. Neither side will win the fight, some strange middleground will appear eventually |
|
|
| #16 Posted 2 months ago | Reply | | I'm tired of things getting dumb down for people. It's one thing when someone has a real problem with language, like difficulty reading or spelling, but dumb-ing it down is just well, dumb. Personally, I'll find it more confusing if we did that. If we remove the apostrophe and turn words like "Their, there and they're" into a single word, you would have to base the meaning on the context. And in my experience I've see people mistake the context of what was written on a page even when proper spelling and grammar were used. If the problem here is that too many kids are being held back for it, just hold them back for that one subject, and let them move forward with the other subjects, and give them individual attention for what they're having trouble with. And give them some real motivation. I didn't give a damn about spelling until I was twelve, but when I started putting my stories to paper (I just stored them in my head before), and started getting active on the internet, Then I started caring about how I spell. |
|
Add Post
You must login before you can post. If you don't have an account, please register with us. |
