derek
Grey Eminence
I agree. Language as liquid essentially means nobody is right, per se. But morons tend to miss that.
Making an Argument for Spelling
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I agree. Language as liquid essentially means nobody is right, per se. But morons tend to miss that.
Chromatose
Squid pro quo
Is Ebonics still considered a legitimate language anywhere like it was attempted to be in the late '90s? I sure hope not.
Captain Beard
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I don't think so.
I know in Italian, there are words that are no longer used, period. Watch any of Mussolini's speeches with an Italian person and you'll see them scratch their heads at some of the grammar. It's not that it just kinda faded away, they completely changed the grammar usage for some things, and this was less than a century ago. I'm not saying English shouldn't be refined, but streamlining is one thing and the complete disregard for proper grammar is another.
I know in Italian, there are words that are no longer used, period. Watch any of Mussolini's speeches with an Italian person and you'll see them scratch their heads at some of the grammar. It's not that it just kinda faded away, they completely changed the grammar usage for some things, and this was less than a century ago. I'm not saying English shouldn't be refined, but streamlining is one thing and the complete disregard for proper grammar is another.
Captain Beard
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Thank you. (I still use some archaic words for humorous value. It makes people do double takes.)
Chromatose
Squid pro quo
Also, why are things spelled differently in American and Queen's English? I'm all for keeping one way of spelling; if they want to change program back to programme in the US, I'm all for it.
Captain Beard
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Chromatose
Squid pro quo
Captain Beard
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Streamlining. They seem to think re is sillier than er, never understood that.
derek
Grey Eminence
Of course, but teaching English to foreign students becomes a bit of a challenge sometimes and can be confusing for them. Usually I tell them just to pick a style and stick with it, that I accept Queen's or American English...but they must be consistent.
Captain Beard
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Chromatose
Squid pro quo
derek
Grey Eminence
It depends on the country. Asians nearly always want American English, Europeans a bit of a mix.
With the shit thrown at me in every class, I don't think you'd be able to stand an entire hour and a half.
Maybe you'd have to leave to keep from laughing or in disbelief at how even the most basic of English subjects can be lost on some people.
My favorite part is when they tell me what they need.
Now that I'm on vacation, I'm teaching out of my house for the summer, under the table to a couple of people a few times a week. Those are the best students because they really want to learn and are eager to do it. The businesses suck because usually they're forced into the lessons by their bosses. People seem to think that learning a language is like learning how to use a computer or something. The biggest English scams are those "full immersion" classes, where they bombard you with English for 12 hours a day for one week. People still buy that shit and the schools make tons of money off of them.
The new Italian generation of kids will be able to speak English quite well, as Italy is starting to catch up a bit with the rest of the world. But my generation and older are a bunch of fucking drooling idiots when it comes to learning some other language.
derek
Grey Eminence
I'm teaching business English in the Czech Republic along with my job with the British Library. Can't be all that bad!
Lunar Still
Doodle drawrer
Yar, people learn new languages best at very young ages. As early as 3 - 7, I believe.
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