Job Discussion Forums

Cuffs · Joined: 10 Feb 2009 Posts: 77

Whether the English language has shifting rules of grammar is not the point.

The point is, as someone intermittently employed as a language teacher, you have to give your students something to build with. It's what they expect, especially here in the Middle East. If they haven't been ground through a load of dull & tricksy grammar gap-fills, and absolutely hated every last minute of it, they feel cheated.

The sideswipes at your writing style were made by people who were probably taught from an early age about the sanctity of the correctly spelled word and the perfectly balanced sentence. I know I was. My father was the most fearsome teacher I ever had.

This reflects back through me now. I read poor spelling and atrocious prose and I immediately have a lesser opinion of the writer. I consider it slack; lazy; a rush-job. It appears to me that such a slapdash approach to something that one produces, and that one puts on public display, denotes a general cack-handedness in other areas of life. I imagine that you are a scruffy dresser, with poor personal hygiene, lacking balanced judgement. It's a prejudice of my upbringing.

Likewise, it baffles me how people seem to be able to unlearn how to spell and punctuate correctly. It takes more effort for me to write '4' meaning 'for', or '2' meaning 'to', or 'u' meaning 'you', than it does to simply spell the words as I was taught. This style of writing is supposed to be snappy & instantaneous, but it just slows me down. Textese and webese may be an interesting topic of study for some, but it tires me out. My eyes stumble over the words, the rhythms of the sentences stutter in my brain. I get frustrated trying to figure out what you really mean. I didn't even finish reading your original post.

I think that's what your detractors are talking about.

lcanupp1964 · Joined: 12 Dec 2009 Posts: 381

Woody Allen once mused, �Those who can�t do, end up teaching and those who can�t teach, end up teaching gym classes�. Now everybody go to the locker room and change into your P.E. uniforms!!! Razz

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 5:11 pm Post subject:

Back on the farm, we spelt "you", this way..."ewe"...

Sheepishly.

NCTBA

Sashadroogie · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 5:18 pm Post subject:

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

Basic grammar and syntax are like common Western music scales: they are not important in themselves but for where they lead the practitioner once proficiency is achieved. As every jazz musician knows, perfecting those "boring" scales and arpeggios is preparatory to Play, i.e. the thrill of arrangement and improvisation. Students can learn the Art of breaking the rules once they've achieved the basics.

Why learn and normally stick with the rules of punctuation and syntax? First, almost all of the rules make sense, even if you might have written them differently were you alive to write those popular grammars two hundred years ago. Second, most of the basic rules carry the force of public morality, so I can expect that my reader is aware of them and will judge me by how well I use them.

We can talk L8R about bad spelling and whassup with the acronyms � my concern is that textese and webese, which seem to open up new vistas in the world, may be shutting us down. As Cuffs remarks, "I didn't even finish reading your original post."

I know a woman who at age 34 inherited a potful of cash and found a financial advisor who seemed smart enough until one day, referring to a partner in the firm, he said, "Me and him think you should stick with stocks."

"Should I accept financial advice from someone who uses Me as a subject?" she asked me.

No.

killthebuddha · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 6:25 pm Post subject:

Dear Mr. snuka,

(May I call you superfly?)

I'd like to help, but I can't help you if I can't understand you. Do you really want to endure a lifetime of being misunderstood, or not understood at all? Do you think there's a war going on between grammar and context? Would this make you a contextualist? Isn't it possible, or even preferable, to teach both grammar and context? I'm sorry. I'm trying to understand your situation, your context, or your point. No matter. You're simply suffering a mild bout of the fallacy of the undistributed middle. Don't worry. It'll pass.

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

We told him a thing or two, didn't we, Ollie?

We certainly did. [nods] Hmmph!

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

An "English teacher" who thinks Grammar is not important ? I suspect this is one of those who would not know a substantive if it bit him on the posterior.

Of course he is not a REAL English teacher - just a TEFL-er. Probably has a degree in Sociology.

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:27 pm Post subject:

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

The guy's a backpacker.

Or, in another era, Ensign Gay, the one who spent the day clinging to a life vest while the battle raged on.

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 4:07 pm Post subject:

Kornan DeKobb · Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 242

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

There's a theoretical-linguistics specialist on these boards who told me in many different vicious ways how stupid I am because I had termed the following misuse of the past unreal conditional "If you would have stayed, you would have enjoyed the show" incorrect. His reasoning was that if enough people use a "new" kind of syntax, it's stupid to call it incorrect and I should look for an easier field of study.

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

So would that classify him, ummm, as a douche bag or douchebag?

http://www.theawl.com/2010/07/what-its-really-like-to-be-a-copy-editor