quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Yep, it's right up there with people using numbers 4 words

I know, right?

I could care less.

When everyone is edumacated by this post, we'll all do better.

Actually, I used to use that phrase often.

After I retired, I started instructing at a community college and a local adult education center here.
I would often tell the students in the first class, "I can TEACH you, but I can not LEARN you".

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
What's so wrong about "teach me about" or "please explain" or any number of similar expressions?

I would be more than happy to learn you about what your browsers back button is, how it works, and why it's there

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
I could care less.

Haha. Savage!

quote:

It is not the educational system, it is parents and society as a whole that are responsible.

My first thought was that the so-called education system has caused this crap. But thinking a millisecond, or 2, it occurred to me that society as a whole IS! responsible.

If our society had not allowed the destruction of our national education system this nonsense would never have happened!

How can we expect our children to actually learn proper language skills when the teachers do not have such skills themselves?!?

This goes back at least several decades. Example would be ebonics. "I be at the game". It was considered racist to correct pronunciation such as ax instead of ask.

But ebonics is not the only problem. Insisting on proper grammar and sentence structure and learning how to write clearly and concisely is pretty much a relic of an earlier era. On top of all of this, PC and the twin evils of diversity and multiculturalism at all costs added fuel to the destruction of the educational system.

Defining deviancy down was predicted many years ago. Moynihan was ahead of his time. I dread to think of how much further the fall will be, especially while social media is busy coarsening whatever culture we have left.

quote:

Originally posted by RogB:
This goes back at least several decades. Example would be ebonics. "I be at the game". It was considered racist to correct pronunciation such as ax instead of ask.

But ebonics is not the only problem. Insisting on proper grammar and sentence structure and learning how to write clearly and concisely is pretty much a relic of an earlier era.

Experienced this first hand.

My first job out of the Army was something I was doing just to tread water until I got my feet back on civilian ground: A night shift production job making, believe-it-or-not, O-rings. One Saturday afternoon my shift partner and I were tooling around when he up and said "The reason you're not making better friends with the rest of our shift is the way you talk--all proper with "big," complicated words."

Talk about being taken aback!

So I spent some time listening more closely to the speech around me at work and set about purposely degrading my word usage and syntax.

Damned if he weren't right. Next thing you know I was jus' another one of the guys.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I spent some time listening more closely to the speech around me at work and set about purposely degrading my word usage and syntax.

I know this is thread drift but your post reminded me of an incident I experienced around 1975-6. I had written an evaluation on a junior enlisted subordinate and was called into my department head's office about it. He asked what the heck "phlegmatic" meant. I explained what it meant and why I felt it appropriate. This full navy commander reiterated he didn't know the word and ordered me to rewrite the passage removing it. He further counseled me to write all future evaluations at an 8th grade level or less. I was utterly stunned.

I was taught that using poor grammar was a reflection of your social class and quality of your upbringing.

If a woman begins using improper grammar it is as a big a turnoff as if she were missing all her front teeth. It is indeed possible to speak simply and clearly using the Kings English.

The one that really irks me, especially when seen in the context of formal or work-related communication, is “of” instead of “have”.

Would of, could of, should of, might of.

Please make it go away.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
It is people trying to be cute, but it is a tiresome joke.

This

sammich

It ain't right!

It's what they learned me in skool to say.

quote:

Originally posted by RogB:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
It is people trying to be cute, but it is a tiresome joke.

Along with "it'll buff right out"

Yeah. Two tiresome jokes

Is this where I can bitch about the SIGforum contest of cut, pasting and posting the longest article you can find on the internet (or in this case - the interweb).

Damn. Post the link and a highlight. Maybe the first paragraph. Maybe the second.

“Give me” drives me crazy! When someone orders at a restaurant, meat counter at grocery store, or anywhere else it just drives me crazy to hear someone say, “Give me....” I say “I would like,” or “Could I have?” I think it sounds more disrespectful when someone demands.

Back button <- and lighten the fuck up. Learn me where I am wrong thinking that? Learn me big time. Learn me how we got from Old English to Middle English. Oh, that's right? Languages evolve whether you like it or not.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

Back button <-

Back button? Is that used in corporate speak? I have never heard nor seen it used in any context other than the correct (original), but my imagination transports me to a conference room full of pompous middle managers and first-level supervisors. Is "back button" now a popular phrase in that setting? I no longer participate in those horrible meetings (Hallelujah!).