Korean Job Discussion Forums

jmbran11 · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Location: U.S.

I thought I was seeing an extraordinary amount of "definately"s on this board, so I I did a search, and it's been used more than 40 times in August alone.

Is this some alternate spelling? And, if not, why is it so common among English-teachers?

(I'm actually asking, not just being a smart-ass).

VanIslander · Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:41 pm Post subject:

As a grad student I graded a lot of undergrad papers with such mistakes.

Call it the distinctive mark of a 'B' student.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

The 'definately' phenomomenenomen was discussed earlier this year. I think a lot of posters are purposely using the wrong spelling to keep the joke going. Or they just can't spell definitely!! Laughing

periwinkle · Joined: 08 Feb 2003

I used to think "whinging" was "whining" spelled improperly. Then I read the word in a book written by a British author, and I realized it's all good. Embarassed

Just not used to it, I guess!^^ Now I'm reading a book from an Australian author, and everytime I come across "kerb", it throws me a bit. I wish I weren't so.... pedestrian.... Embarassed

(Sorry, kind-of off-topic)

thursdays child · Joined: 21 Sep 2005

for me, it's one of those words that always looks wrong. Whenever I write 'it' I always delete it and try again... still not convinced I change to something like absolutely.

Stupid really, because it has such a literal meaning and I can spell finite!

seoulsista · Joined: 31 Aug 2005

I am a culprit with a solid GPA at University (thank you very much). I can't explain for everyone but I grew up in the era of spellcheck and a lot of words have slipped through my mind. I never had to think about how to spell "definitely" because I just pressed a button and it fixed my spelling errors for me. I have lived a happy and productive life in spite of it all.

flotsam · Joined: 28 Mar 2006

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

In university I took a senior-level creative writing course. Some of my classmates were English Honours majors. They still didn't know how to use an apostrophe.

I did a search for "definitely" and "definately" on this site. This is how many times they appeared.

definately = 1137
definitely 3985

That's 28.5% of the time the word is used. Holy crotch, and you people teach English?

In comparison, punknews.org, a horrible site filled with morons turned up these results:

definately: 22
definitely: 297
which is 7.4%

keithinkorea · Joined: 17 Mar 2004

Some people should not be taken seriously as teachers at all. It is a shame that the level of literacy on this board is so low. We all make mistakes, I'm not the world's best typist, but some posts are shocking.

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

jmbran11 · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Location: U.S.

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Woland · Joined: 10 May 2006 Location: Seoul

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

The people on the Flat Earth Society forums spell it "definately" 25.6% of the time. That means the people on this site are dumber about spelling. We should get those Flat Earthers over here teaching English...if they didn't believe they'd fall off the edge of the world.