Wednesday, November 21, 2007

this blog will never run out of topics!

Ok, "why i hate everyone in the world" post is brought to you by the downfall of the english language. Everywhere I turn people are using poor grammar, slang words, gansta rap phrases, etc. Shorty-this and shorty-that and good lord enough already. It's almost like another language - like Esperanto was a mix of english and spanish - today it's a lazy mix of street slang and already low-grade american (too far from "english" to keep the title).

I've already blogged at strange things compel me about the ridiculous misuse of "your" vs "you're". Today I want to talk about "someone's name and I". If you're (not your :) saying "Sally and I went to the store" that's fine and correct. But many people caption pictures with "Sally and I" - it should be "Sally and Me" - if you were the only one in the picture would you caption it "I"? No, I don't think you would.

I don't know if I'm holding people to impossible standards - I don't think so, many generations have survived speaking properly. I'm not being old and saying "kids today...." I know each generation has come up with new words, slangs, phrases, etc. and I'm fine with that. They're incorporated into the vernacular and life goes on. But the constant and overwhelming overuse of street slange, cursing and sexual phrases is beyond the pale at this point.

Personally, I believe, that soon the South Americans and the Iraq will be more conversant with the rest of the world than the youth of America. I fear for the future of the country quite honestly. The % of youth who read voluntarily has declined, text messaging (which I love, don't get me wrong) has eroded spelling, the use of calculators for the most simple math problems (many teenagers don't even know their multiplication tables) have all contributed to a youth that doesn't know the meaning of most polysyllabic words, doesn't know or comprehend metaphors or 'sayings' - like one I used above - "beyond the pale" and so on, and can't make change or calculate a tip without their cell phone's calculator!

A National Endowment for the Arts study showed that "the percentage of high school graduates deemed by employers as "deficient" in writing in English" was 72%. The NEA chairman "called the decline in reading 'perhaps the most important socio-economic issue in the United States,' and called for changes 'in the way we're educating kids, especially in high school and college. We need to reconnect reading with pleasure and enlightenment.' The study suggests we are losing the majority of the new generation.... 'the majority of young Americans will not realize their individual, economic or social potential.'" (you can read the full article at yahoo).

I also read a recent article by a teacher who said he'd had entire classes who couldn't define 'agriculture' or who didn't know how to use a ruler - he said he was moving to another country when he retired. My friend Mark's idea to move to Kenya and be adopted into a tribe that reveres their elders is sounding more and more appealing!

Anyway it wasn't a specific person or event tonight, just something was a catalyst for me to talk about this ongoing annoyance. So the tally for tonight, overall would just be:

The downfall of civilization if we're relying on the youth of today - 1 :)

p.s. The whole "licking the fingers to get a plastic bag" thing happened again today - this time at Walmart. That brings the tally for "People sharing saliva that I don't want" to 2.

toodles

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

here is a test comment