The dumbing down of America

[69CoronetRT]

too many words here, can someone sum up this thread?

Sure.

You start a sentence with a capital letter and should probably use 'There are' at the beginning of the sentence in order to clarify and direct the thought. A period after the word 'here' would be appropriate in order to start a second sentence. Again, the first word 'Can' should be in capital letters.

[Daytona R/T SE]

Phrases/words that annoy me:

As mentioned above "For Sell"

I've decided that I'm going to "sale it".

An ad for an old mopar car that says " Needs a new "Truck floor"....What in the hell is a "Truck Floor"

Every time Cody (and others) use the home made word "spose" as in "spose to" or "sposed two" or "spose too"...What the hell is that supposed to mean?...Oh,wait a minute!  "spose"="supposed"


"Prolly"  WTF is "Prolly"?   I'm guessing it means "Probably"?

[last426]

Well I have a dumb doctor's degree (JD) and still can't figure out the difference between affect and effect. Kim

[kab69440]

Well I have a dumb doctor's degree (JD) and still can't figure out the difference between affect and effect. Kim

Vintage cars affect your wallet by emptying it. They certainly have that effect.

[hemihead]

What I find annoying is the current 'coolness' of speaking and even writing in ebonics. If you were raised in an area where you learned to speak that way, then that is cool, it is part of your identity. But to attempt to adopt it later in life is as corny as all the kids that adopted the California Valley accent in the 80's.

Message boards are interesting too. I host one and visit many. It is interesting how offended some people get when you mention their poor spelling. I can think of a particular guy who would get words so screwed up that you could barely make out what he was saying. When corrected he would point out he was "typing with an accent and isn't making fun of someones accent rude?".

The Ebonics thing is what kills the English language . Besides it doesn't even sound cool . It just makes the speaker sound unintelligent .

[Khyron]

Sure.

You start a sentence with a capital letter and should probably use 'There are' at the beginning of the sentence in order to clarify and direct the thought. A period after the word 'here' would be appropriate in order to start a second sentence. Again, the first word 'Can' should be in capital letters.

Huh? *drools*

[Mike DC]

   
Functional illiteracy among adults is epidemic and it's going under the collective radar.  We've got a whole lot people who can sign their name, read the gender on a bathroom door, work a coke machine, etc.  But so many of them can't read to any useful extent.  By the time they reach their teens, the situation is already becoming a life-altering issue for many of them. 



I've thought for years that the school system should teach virtually nothing but reading & writing until at least 6th or 7th grade.  Forget history, forget saving the rain forests, forget the settlement of the americas, forget the state capitals, forget long division . . .  just focus on communicating in normal english until damn near high school.

It sounds excessive until you realize that this is what it would take to get kids up to the level we assume they're already at.

     

[RECHRGD]

Lack of math skills is also a huge problem.  Whoever decided that calculators were OK to have in math classes should be shot.  I've seen guys with college degrees that can't read a ruler!  Basic skills and common sense are becoming a rarity also.  What's up with a guy in his twenties that can't change a flat tire?  Bob

[Brock Samson]

 lookin' around the www i've found some interesting stuff,..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4073753.stm

one thing according to this sudy is that Canada rates rather high, near the top in fact. 
But beyond median scores, you can see right here there is a lack of care folks show in proofreading their stuff... how difficult is it to differentiate between to and too?.. i see that mistake half a dozen times a day,.. and don't get me started on punctuation... and Caps..
When i see that I think, this person dosen't care... 
Personally, i like to make up my own rules, so my mistakes are o.k.. 

[Back N Black]

Maybe you should be a proof reader for the site.

[Brock Samson]

 There simply isn't enough time in the day,... 
...actually it comes from working for a newspaper, catching mistakes is a full time job there, and you get brownie points for catching mistakes, catching "typos" in that enviroment, earns you heartfelt kudos...
The editors would often run any auto related story past me for mistakes, there I was concidered the resident auto expert.

[twenty mike mike]

It just drives me crazy when I get something from the school's counseling office that says, "Tell your child they..."  Of course that's the result of the politically correct revolution and the effort to make everything gender neutral.

[kab69440]

lookin' around the www i've found some interesting stuff,..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4073753.stm

one thing according to this sudy is that Canada rates rather high, near the top in fact. 
But beyond median scores, you can see right here there is a lack of care folks show in proofreading their stuff... how difficult is it to differentiate between to and too?.. i see that mistake half a dozen times a day,.. and don't get me started on punctuation... and Caps..
When i see that I think, this person dosen't care... 
Personally, i like to make up my own rules, so my mistakes are o.k.. 

Brock is about the last person this site needs as a proofreader. I find his incessant errors in spelling and grammar while cursing others for the same faults quite comical. Let's nitpick his post for a while:

Why is the "o" at the beginning of his paragraph not capitalized? The first sentence is missing it's primary subject, also. What precisely does Canada rate near the top of? Personified "i"s should be capitalized all the time. What does that "sudy" suggest overall? There is no reason for periods after a question mark. "half a dozen" should be hyphenated as half-a-dozen. His afterthought "and Caps" does not need to have "Caps" capitalized and would be more correctly composed as 'or caps'... He should also use quotation marks when referring to his own thoughts. The sentence should read- When I see that, I think "This person doesn't care."
I, myself am guilty of chronic abuse of the ellipsis. Dave, however, has elevated it to an unprecedented level with this post. Aside from the aforementioned double period after the question mark, he does it again immediately after a comma in his next semi-sentence. There are THREE periods in a proper ellipsis, and under normal circumstances they do not follow other punctuation marks. Since he makes up the rules as he plays the game, what the rest of us call mistakes don't actually exist in his world. I guess that makes this entire post irrelevant, and I suppose I should have posted a typical "Bronzy-esque" post count-padding nodding head smilie instead.
  That brings up something else I am tired of seeing in posts here and everywhere else. People who "must of" seen this, or that. It makes any post, regardless of depth or brilliance seem to have been composed by an utter ignoramus. The thought you are trying to get across is the improper contraction "must've" as in "must have" As an aside, there is also no such word as "irregardless", so please stop using it in my presence.
I realize that I am not James Kilpatrick and do err myself on occasion, (I thought I was wrong at one time, but as it turned out, I wasn't...) but there is little excuse for some of  the despicable bastardization of the predominant language of this land. Those for whom English is a second or third language are excused from this condemnation, and I thank you for attempting to communicate in my language in spite of my total ignorance of yours. 

PS- Dave, I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist needling you for this!

[Brock Samson]

  why arn't ya' out in the garage?..   

[kab69440]

  why arn't ya' out in the garage?..   

This isn't San Francisco, and my garage is not heated. The car will wait. I will not repair anything while holding cold steel tools if it can possibly be avoided. A wrench with a mean temperature of 30 defrees Fahrenheit might as well be -30 for the way it hastens frostbite.

[Back N Black]

Ok i take that back you can proof read for the site.  start wit dis one.

[The70RT]

One of my favorite spelling mistakes often seen here in the south is "For Sell".

Buddy of mine was driving through Iowa, saw a sign at gas station that read "Toe service- $25.00".

That is how they spelled it on a dealership invoice I have from 1973. Toe bill 9 bucks. New 440 HP short block $175.

[Charger_Fan]

   
Functional illiteracy among adults is epidemic and it's going under the collective radar.  We've got a whole lot people who can sign their name, read the gender on a bathroom door, work a coke machine, etc.  But so many of them can't read to any useful extent.  By the time they reach their teens, the situation is already becoming a life-altering issue for many of them. 



I've thought for years that the school system should teach virtually nothing but reading & writing until at least 6th or 7th grade.  Forget history, forget saving the rain forests, forget the settlement of the americas, forget the state capitals, forget long division . . .  just focus on communicating in normal english until damn near high school.

It sounds excessive until you realize that this is what it would take to get kids up to the level we assume they're already at.    

I'm with ya.
Another setback is having poor grammar & will offen affect a person's chances of being picked as the right person for a job that 45 other people are applying for. If you're in an interview & things like "I seen the cashier answer the...", or "he gots snow on his hat", etc can slam the door really fast on your chances of being hired for the job, simply because you're giving the impression that you're lacking education.
If you start using slang (homie, bro, etc,) in an interview, you're just screwed.

[nh_mopar_fan]

   
Functional illiteracy among adults is epidemic and it's going under the collective radar.  We've got a whole lot people who can sign their name, read the gender on a bathroom door, work a coke machine, etc.  But so many of them can't read to any useful extent.  By the time they reach their teens, the situation is already becoming a life-altering issue for many of them. 



I've thought for years that the school system should teach virtually nothing but reading & writing until at least 6th or 7th grade.  Forget history, forget saving the rain forests, forget the settlement of the americas, forget the state capitals, forget long division . . .  just focus on communicating in normal english until damn near high school.

It sounds excessive until you realize that this is what it would take to get kids up to the level we assume they're already at.    

I'm with ya.
Another setback is having poor grammar & will offen affect a person's chances of being picked as the right person for a job that 45 other people are applying for. If you're in an interview & things like "I seen the cashier answer the...", or "he gots snow on his hat", etc can slam the door really fast on your chances of being hired for the job, simply because you're giving the impression that you're lacking education.
If you start using slang (homie, bro, etc,) in an interview, you're just screwed.

"dude" and "lookit" do it for me.

Use either and..."next!".

[400/6/PAC]

I just used the word ( gonna ) in a sentence on another post and the spell check did not find it as misspelled.

[remta1]

What happens if words are spelt wrong in the dictionary  ....( whoops i hope i spelt dicktionery write )   

[1FastCharger]

A younger guy came into my shop a few weeks ago and began asking me about a car I had for sale. He spoke with that ebonic/rapper style speach. I told him,"Dude - I do not understand a thing you are saying." Amazingly he began to speak normal English. It was pretty funny how he turned it on and off.

[Mike DC]

Dave Chapelle: 

"Every black person in America is actually bilingual.  They can speak "urban vernacular," and "job interview." 

   

[Charger1970]

Every time Cody (and others) use the home made word "spose" as in "spose to" or "sposed two" or "spose too"...What the hell is that supposed to mean?...Oh,wait a minute!  "spose"="supposed

I saw a cop on TV saying, "supposivly". 

I might have to revise my thinking about this being a modern trend. I saw a show on PBS about JFK, black and white film clips. One clip showed a sign in the window of a business;

Close to
day

[The70RT]

Like median strip on a highway. I heard a cop say you were in the medium