Spelling

[Digit]

So if I state that all the waiters in my local cafe are Polish that's racism as opposed to an accurate observation?

Roy.

 

[RogerS]

A bit of a random jump above from discussing spelling to going on about immigration.
Sounds like the casual racism spouted by The Daily Mail.

#-o How come?

If some English people have such a poor command of their mother tongue that it means an employer will offer a job instead to someone coming to this country with a better command of English, even though it may be their second or third language and so is better suited to employment...somehow how that simple statement of fact becomes 'racist'? #-o

 

[Digit]

Looks that way. Mind you a salon owner was recently turned away from a Job Centre on the basis that her advert for experienced staff was 'unacceptable' as it eliminated those lacking experience, on that basis inability to count shouldn't bar you from working in a bookies for example, or a bank even.
It's a mad mad mad mad world.

Roy.

 

[MickCheese]

A bit of a random jump above from discussing spelling to going on about immigration.
Sounds like the casual racism spouted by The Daily Mail.

This reaction is just so typical. As soon as the word immigration is used then someone jumps to the conclusion the underlying tone is racist. Is that not why we are forbidden from discussing anything to do with immigration in case we are labelled racist?

I find your comment quite insulting to the person who wrote it, maybe you are the latent racist looking to deflect attention from your suppressed true feelings.

Mick

 

[Mark A]

Looks that way. Mind you a salon owner was recently turned away from a Job Centre on the basis that her advert for experienced staff was 'unacceptable' as it eliminated those lacking experience, on that basis inability to count shouldn't bar you from working in a bookies for example, or a bank even.
It's a mad mad mad mad world.

Roy.

Last week at a bank, the woman behind the counter had to find a calculator to add £48 and £80 together!

My sister is currently working as a teaching assistant in a college in Northampton. Last week she taught a class of adults how to add and subtract! How have these people gone through life (one was 62 years old) with such a lacking in basic arithmetic?

I agree, it's a mad world.

Mark

 

[Digit]

You see them on TV, they can't add up simple figures and brush it off with a smile and state, 'oh I'm rubbish at maths,' as though it is something to be proud of, it should be a challenge.
I watched an episode of 'Britains worst driver,' once, the woman admitted that she often drove several miles further than intended, looking for a 'suitable' parking slot.
She had last attempted parallel parking in the 1970s!
If it first I don't succeed, I give up!

Roy.

 

[knappers]

People in shops look at me like I'm mad when I add up the total in my head and tell them the answer. They look at me as if to say "Don't be ridiculous, you didn't even use a calculator, how could you possibly know the answer?"
I am only in early forties myself, but I really do wonder where it all went wrong. The current standards of literacy and numeracy staggers me sometimes.

Si

 

[RogerS]

People in shops look at me like I'm mad when I add up the total in my head and tell them the answer. They look at me as if to say "Don't be ridiculous, you didn't even use a calculator, how could you possibly know the answer?"
I am only in early forties myself, but I really do wonder where it all went wrong. The current standards of literacy and numeracy staggers me sometimes.

Si

Or when, say, you give some small change plus a note in order to get a whole number of pounds or even a note back in change.

 

[Digit]

Earlier today I was looking at a glossy catalogue for loft ladders, all priced way beyond what I would pay, and ended up wondering why they couldn't afford, with the prices they charge, a decent proof reader. :twisted:

Roy.

 

[doctor Bob]

Earlier today I was looking at a glossy catalogue for loft ladders

and some people dare to say us woodworkers are dull............ keep living on the wild side Roy, rock n' roll..... :lol:

 

[Digit]

Dull? We spend all day risking life and limb with big nasty machines, the excitement is unbearable!

Roy.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Text speak is annoying, even more so when there using small animated icons in steed of a word.

Myself and im sure others are dyslexic and to people with this could quite innocently write draws meaning drawers and it be a mistake and not a just a lazy typer.

I struggled for years with your and you're and also their and they're. Hand many of people try and teach me out it never really clicked, just as I thought I had got it right, the grammar line would pop up in word and confuse me again. About a year ago someone said it to me in a way that made it click. The only time you use "you're" is when your trying to say "you are". Hope this helps someone!

Now a year on I even know the history to how the shortened versions came about :O . But that would be showing we are dull woodworkers hehe.

 

[mailee]

What really grates on me is the use of 'an' without the vowels, it's used after a,e,i,o,u for gods sake! Got to admit I seem to have lost some of my grammar over the years. On the news this morning it was stating a lot of school kids are now spelling 'well' as wew as this is how it's spoken on the only way is Essex! Looks like our language is dying. :roll:
Oh and while we are on the subject, The magazine even spelt my name wrong in this issue? and they have printed quite a few of my articles! :roll:

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

I have no idea what your trying to explain Mailee. How you explained that to me is saying after an "a" (in some words) you write "an" which would result in "aan"?

 

[Digit]

I am astonished HC, not with you as such, but with your teachers. The fact that you understood when it was explained makes me wonder what the school was upto. I'm not dyslexic, but that is exactly how I was taught to know which to use.
Mind you, there was report based on the freedom of info act in the press a couple of weeks ago of a would be teacher taking the maths entrance exam, I think it was, something like 36 times.
I'm sorry, but I cannot believe that anyone needing that number of attempts just to get on the course is ever likely to make much of a maths teacher!

Roy.

 

[Jacob]

I have no idea what your trying to explain Mailee. How you explained that to me is saying after an "a" (in some words) you write "an" which would result in "aan"?

I think Mailee is thinking of "an banana". He meant before not after.
Cant' say I've noticed this, but so what of that's how people want to speak?
If they pronounce "well" as "wew" then spelling it the same way is quite intelligent - it means they can spell phonetically, but they might need to work on their pronunciation. This is the the opposite of language dying, it's language asserting itself against standardisation.
Lerrum geronwivit I don't care!

 

[Digit]

Lerrum geronwivit I don't care!

Of coarse!
Mr and Mrs Wright have a perfect right to write about rites entirely as they wish, but it would be easier for their readers if they got it rite, wouldn't it Jacob?

Roy.

 

[RogerS]

Ah, the great grinding down on the slope of mediocrity.

 

[Jacob]

Lerrum geronwivit I don't care!

Of coarse!
Mr and Mrs Wright have a perfect right to write about rites entirely as they wish, but it would be easier for their readers if they got it rite, wouldn't it Jacob?

Roy.

Well yes, but it certainly shouldn't deter anybody from having a go, however badly they spell. Most of the time poor spelling is not ambiguous and so duz knot reerly matta.

 

[Digit]

But if you can't be bothered to learn to spell Jacob you would be unaware of any ambiguities wouldn't you?
Knot bovvering immediately closes doors, doctors need to express themselves correctly, so do chemists, engineers and physicists etc, so encouraging people to believe the matter is of little import, as you seem to think, is not exactly helpful is it?

Roy.