Job Discussion Forums

[basiltherat]

I am working in an industrial environment in which my main task is to train local workers (engineers, technicians etc) to be able to communicate better with expat workers. After 18 months I feel progress has been more than just satisfactory.
However I was concerned at the following, uttered by an expat during a conversation at lunch in the mess a day or so ago:

[Albulbul]

The next task is clearly to teach Standard English to the British proles who are employed as technical experts.

An uphill and thankless task. I am not sure what progress you can expect on that front.

[been_there]

There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as StanThere is no such thing as Standard English. dard English. There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard EnglishThere is no such thing as Standard English. . There is no such thing as Standard English. There is no such thing as Standard English.

[James_T_Kirk]

[Albulbul]

Standard English is a fiction or a construct.

But that can be just as real ! Fiction is sometimes more real than the other stuff !

To pursue the other track - that there is no Standard English - has disturbing implications.

[leeroy]

For me, "Standard English" encompasses a number of dialects that aren't seen as too extreme. Geordie certainly isn't standard English, neither is the South Texan drawl. Most of the English in published coursebooks and cassettes seems fairly standardised, though. I suppose Standard English is more about not having any specific regional linguistic clutter than having something else specifically.

[sidjameson]

Interesting question. Too lazy to think about it right now, but I will tell you this story.
Last summer I went back to the UK with my girlfriend. She has great English but by no means fluent. Definitly an accent too. Anyway we went up to Sheffield to visit my friend. In a local bar I am buying the drinks, I come back and there is a local, in his 40's I'd guess chatting away to my girl. So I smash his face in. Oops, just joking, no problem as she does always seem to attract a certain amount of attention. Actually he is happy to talk to me too and we begin some small talk. That is until about 30 seconds into the conversation he suddenly says "you're a vulgarian, you talk vulgarian" and says goodbye to beautiful, ignors me and walks away.
Now you had to be there as believe me what he didn't like and refused even to talk to is the fact that I speak with what could be described as classic BBC English. Middle class, university educated English. I do now speak this way but ironically I grew up in a council estate with none(as in unemployed) working class parents.
For him my English wasn't the standard that he was used to and so ended any hope of communication between us.
Loved the phrase "you speak vulgarian" though.

[johnslat]

Maybe the term "Standard English" is similar to the psychological paradigm, "normal" in that it's (almost) impossible to define just what "normal" means, but it's usually not so hard to recognize what isn't "normal".

Hey, just a thought.

Dear sidjameson,
Vulgarians - hmm, aren't they the ones on Star Trek who are often allies of the Klingons and are at war with the Vulcans?
Regards,
John

[nik_knack0828]

Vulgarian?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
That's good.

[denise]

basiltherat--

I wouldn't worry too much about the grammar that you heard on a break. Maybe it was just venting? Hopefully the teacher in question knows about context, register, etc., and knows to be a little bit more grammatically correct (although there is plenty of debate about what exactly that is...) in the classroom.

d