dux Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 I seriously hope this is a joke. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 698949.ece Quote
Sindwiller Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 That's a known problem of the English language, which confuses a lot of people, but saying it would hold back children is just short-minded. After all, your brain's flexible as hell as a child - and the educator's job is to fill the void with stuff correctly. Chinese pupils for example, too, have to struggle with an a lot more complex scripture, with, like, 5 symbols with the same pronunciation but having different meanings. Yet, they manage to handle it. In the end, the English orthography is just memorizing a variety of ways to write a word and then memorizing the correct one. Hooray! Quote
Psy Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 That is most retarded thing I have ever read. Quote
e-freak Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 (edited) -snip- Edited August 8, 2021 by e-freak Quote
Sentura Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 before you start judging it, let's look at the point of it first: basically this academic wants the english language simplified so that every word can be spelled from the phonetic description rather than the system that is set up now; what with certain irregularities and borrowed words. per se this isn't a bad solution, since i know some people in the UK have severe problems learning their own, let alone other languages. this would remove large amounts of error margin due to everyone just listening to the word in their head, rather than dissecting it in a dictionary or equal. i'd support this decision if it were true for all languages, but i guess even then you have to start somewhere. Quote
dux Posted September 13, 2008 Author Report Posted September 13, 2008 It's fine if you want to change or evolve a language. To do so in order to aid those unable to normally succeed in the same way that everyone else can, then we should be able to do so for every other subject. It's why we call our classes "English and Language Arts" not "English as a Communicative Medium." We shouldn't simply bypass established rules and laws, or standards (as arbitrary as they may be) in honour of the laziness or "inability" of children of this generation. Quote
kleinluka Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 To put a dent in this guy's logic seeing how he's using "time wasted on teaching children how to spell" as a reason....if the rules were to change wouldn't it also be a big waste of time to re-learn how to spell english incorrectly, re-print all the books with tard-english, teachers having to re-learn spelling the wrong way simply because some kids are too retarded to learn how to put an apostrophe behind certain words. Give me a fucking break. Quote
FrieChamp Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 Isn't this similar to what happened in Germany a few years back? I learnt pronouncing certain words, use punctuation one way and then the government introduced a new orthography which is supposed to make it easier for kids to learn it. For example the borrowed word "portemonnaie" (french word for wallet) that is common use in German has been changed to "portmonee". Or the infamous constellations of 3 letters ("Schifffahrt") that were impossible before. Harmless? Maybe for kids who learnt it from the get go, but it sucks when you are told in 10th class that this is not the way you are supposed to write anymore. The original way is inccorect, thankfully there was a gliding time where both orthographies were legit during exams AS LONG AS you stuck to one throughout. Honestly I've never bothered to wrap my head around the new way of spelling until today. There was also a huge controversy in the press, certain papers refused to adapt to the new style and there was a time when it almost looked like everyone would dismiss the idea and just fall back to the old system, but I guess it prevailed. I still think it was a waste of time and work, when this country had a lot more important things to deal with. Quote
Steppenwolf Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 I think its complete bullshit. English is probably the easiest language to learn. Ask some kids in china or japan about their languages :roll: Or even in europe. Like russian for example with their countless grammar rules. I learned this language in school for 6 years and couldn't even have a basic conversation with someone from russia And its funny that they bring finnish as an example which is as far as i know one of the hardest languages to learn. Quote
Sindwiller Posted September 13, 2008 Report Posted September 13, 2008 To put a dent in this guy's logic seeing how he's using "time wasted on teaching children how to spell" as a reason....if the rules were to change wouldn't it also be a big waste of time to re-learn how to spell english incorrectly, re-print all the books with tard-english, teachers having to re-learn spelling the wrong way simply because some kids are too retarded to learn how to put an apostrophe behind certain words. Word. Quote
Ginger Lord Posted September 14, 2008 Report Posted September 14, 2008 This borders on becoming far too American. Quote
Bic-B@ll Posted September 14, 2008 Report Posted September 14, 2008 This borders on becoming far too American. :roll: Quote
dux Posted September 14, 2008 Author Report Posted September 14, 2008 Thinking about it this would sure help George Dubya a great amount. Quote
Spellbinder Posted September 14, 2008 Report Posted September 14, 2008 They allready did this in swedish school aswell. Like the word "mig" (me in english) many pupils wrote "mej" which is wrong but they change it to correct, theres a few other words aswell but i dont know which ones and don't care really since i learned how to spell and have quit school a long time ago. Quote
Sindwiller Posted September 14, 2008 Report Posted September 14, 2008 Languages evolve but just because a bunch of educators are incapable to teach things... :-| Oh, whatever. Quote
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