The week that was in Thailand news: Thai children and the end of English dominance.

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: Thai children and the end of English dominance.

 

 

I have always subscribed to the view that Thais are like children. It has held me in good stead over the years especially on those occasions when it was necessary to ditch my staid northern hemisphere upbringing and have a good giggle with the supposed adults of the kingdom.

And so it was yesterday as the whole country – young and old alike – turned out for Children’s Day. Twenty dinosaurs were brought in to wow the kids at Government House – no they were not past prime ministers or even present ones but, we were told, creatures who roamed the earth before even Thais began. I could barely believe there was such a time.

However, after a lovely day with the children – my own real, wide-eyed little ones that is – I was left to reflect that Thais really did take the role of playing the juvenile a tad too seriously this week.

Top billing went to the general PM himself for a story that topped the charts on the Thaivisa forum as he suggested that Thai language may well be the “lingua franca” of the world in the future usurping that tired old imperial English.

He didn’t give a timeframe for this new world dominance but I assumed it must be twenty years – along the lines of the eradication of corruption that is also proceeding so well, according to his advisers.

Giving as his reasons were some top quality and refreshing childlike reasoning – there are only 44 consonants, lots more vowels than English and Thai words can mean so many things. Oh you mean like Rooster means “cock” too. Understood, sir. I get it now!

Still, like my three year old, he means well and at least we didn’t have a toddler’s tantrum this week – that was not until he threw the toys out of the pram regarding who said what after his audience with His Majesty over some constitutional amendments.

Apoplectic Prayut couldn’t believe the temerity of reporters in quoting his exact words. Perhaps he was ascribing to the oft spouted view that you should never take a Thai at face value – there is always a hidden truth.

Forum comment had already been rife earlier in the week as apart from the hoo-ha over the Thai language came the story about the Thai flag and the two Italian ‘children’ caught ripping several of them down in Krabi. Foreigners seemed as indignant as the Thais and it will be interesting to see what penalty the tourists will have to pay or serve.

My guess is it will be pay but let’s hope, like children, they learn their lesson and perhaps appreciate later that it was just as well the flags were red white and blue and not yellow. And just as well, too, it was flags and not a picture they had vandalized. Some have enjoyed rice porridge for a considerable time for that.

Behaving worse children were officials in the South who denied that a five meter long crocodile had escaped in downtown Nakorn Sri Thammarat. Just like a five year old who cannot imagine the consequences, here we had grown men finally admitting that “Nadia” was on the loose. They didn’t want to spook the public, they said, but, hey, never mind if the odd child was eaten.

And I loved the name Nadia – if anything does go wrong they can always blame the Russians!

Talking of which, we also had the horror of two farangs bathing butt naked in the river in Pai – ok they might not have been Russians but who gives a monkeys especially as all foreigners look alike and speak that olde worlde English language thing.

But my goodness, the indignation from the locals! Reminded me of those many occasions with when I’ve been with Thais at beach resorts and they see westerners sunbathing in their birthday suits – strange how they just can’t keep their eyes from looking! Especially Thai women.

To wit forum poster ‘LomSak27’ gets my award for the pertinent observation of the week after mentioning how much the locals love to feel outrage: “Thai culture gets too much mileage on finding disrespect to put the brakes on it’.

Indeed, yet another occasion when Thais would rather stare than flee the scene and when the brakes just seemed to fail again.

Also in the realms of the childlike was the absurdity of the story that capital punishment might be used for public officials caught fiddling for – er, let’s pluck a figure from the sky – one billion baht. Lawmakers themselves suggesting such a thing! It was a bit like a father telling his child that the punishment for lying was no more supper, ever again.

Anyway, there will only be a conviction if it is the abject poor who do the embezzling and that, as the Thai language promoting PM might put it, is “Catch Yee-sip song”.

Calls for the ultimate penalty are also being made for the Bangkok robbers who murdered a man last week for his iPhone. We were told this week that the case is being expedited but the fact remains that no one has been executed here since 2009 and even Amnesty International says when ten years has passed without its use then for all intents and purposes it doesn’t exist anymore.

Expect to see the phrase ‘commuted to life imprisonment on admission’ once again.

Two massive stories dominated the Thai press this week and received their share of attention on Thaivisa. These – unsurprisingly – both had juicy connections with the constabulary.

The first was the continuing scandal of the entrance exams for top positions in the metropolitan police. Plod is desperately trying to blame everyone except their own and pathetically paraded a Pathumwan official who conveniently admitted to charging 400,000 baht a head to cheating candidates.

Of course, he acted alone. Perhaps this was the only time someone actually acted as an adult this week by doing the right thing and not dobbing in his mates. But, like the words of a child, no one is likely to give them much credence in the circumstances.

Cheating is so engrained in Thai exams of all kinds that it is a wonder they bother with the pretense of tests. Surely it would be better and less time consuming to just hold an auction for the police, school places or even driving licenses.

The second rozzer-related story was the alleged abduction of the Bangkok “tom” found buried in a deserted resort in Kanchanaburi. A superintendent from Ratchaburi told met chief Sanit that he had asked some mates to “teach her a lesson”.

Sanit first indicated he ‘bought’ that story by which I mean he believed it, not got paid for accepting it. But then he seemed to take a toddle down an evidential pathway for it now looks as though the super is in some serious “nam rorn” along with perhaps half a dozen others as more suspects spill the beans.

The errant cop is probably thinking, despite the exams, you just can’t get the staff these days.

My final word this week on the guardians of law and order concerns the incident where a traffic cop was helping some children over the road when a car hit him and revved off. It is a national disgrace not that the matter happened at a zebra crossing or that the impatient driver was a policeman.

The disgrace is that no one was in the least surprised.

Also not surprising was the shenanigans ” going on in Koh Samet. Several forum posters were taken in by the “crackdown” praising everyone from the new set of “upright” park officials to the junta for their “decisive action”. The reality is most operators are just being asked to pull down a bungalow or two that has encroached too near the sand.

It is typical Thai face saving and only a Thai newbie, or dare I say a child, will be taken in by it. Most Thais themselves, having grown up to a point with such nonsense, certainly won’t be.

And so to this week’s Rooster awards. The “Choice of Words” award goes to UK Prime Minister Theresa Thatcher, I think it is. She gave out a “Point of Light” commendation to the honorary consul of Chiang Mai. Shouldn’t that be “Beacon of Light?” I got the impression that the poor gentleman was so far away from helping anyone in distress that he was just a faint glimmer in some dark corner of the cosmos.

Not the case, said forum regular and former top poster winner ‘NancyL’ who spoke of the consul’s good deeds. Makes a change from most British
embassy personnel who usually manage just a few rubbers of tennis and some slurps of Pimms to justify their fat salaries.

The “Making the Most of Your Assets” award goes to the acumen laden and busty hairdresser in Klaeng who cried foul after pictures of cleavage rather than clippers adorned the internet. “I’m not a slapper. It was after work. That was my nephew”, she wailed.

But hey, the indignation soon gave way as the “all round” publicity was boosting business!

Finally, FIFA’s decision to expand the 2026 soccer World Cup from 32 to 48 teams had the Thai sports authorities optimistic that the national team would now qualify for the quadrennial showpiece.

Some chance. Sweet FA.

 

Rooster

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-01-14

[Brer Fox]

Great effort Rooster! You have summed it beautifully. 5 out of 5.

[davehowden]

Love it, keep up the good work please.

[nakhonandy]

Sweet FA indeed. 

 

Should I be writing this in Thai or do I have to wait 20 years?

 

Amusing as always.

[Ratcher]

Good summary

Edited January 15, 2017 by Ratcher
Miss spelling

[masuk]

Yes, a good summary of the week's shenanigans.   I thought you might have commented that NancyL was kind to praise the UK Consul, as she is not British.  Where was the praise from the Consul's UK clientele?

 

It was also cheering to see the income for a certain national park has risen so dramatically, in the absence of a number of ex-staff.

 

[Familyaffairs]

It has now been concluded that she first buried herself, and then committed suicide underground. Anything is possible in the amazing land of groundhog day.

 

'The second rozzer-related story was the alleged abduction of the Bangkok “tom” found buried in a deserted resort in Kanchanaburi. A superintendent from Ratchaburi told met chief Sanit that he had asked some mates to “teach her a lesson”.
 

[EnlightenedAtheist]

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Giving as his reasons were some top quality and refreshing childlike reasoning – there are only 44 consonants, lots more vowels than English and Thai words can mean so many things. Oh you mean like Rooster means “cock” too. Understood, sir. I get it now!

 

Okay, the PM might not have a degree in linguistics or English, but he is right that the English spelling system sucks and no one (including Rooster59) seems to be able to fix a problem that affects, oh, just 1.5 billion people trying to learn the stupid system. Who cares about 1.5 billion people on Earth? Just deal with it! Isn't it fun to point fingers at others for incompetence (because then one does not have to speak much about one's own incompetence.). If that is the epitome of mismanagement, I don't know what iZ. 

 

Surely, people know that English has the worst spelling system ever created and managed. It has an alphabet that has ONLY 26 letters (making the Thai alphabet look like an elephant), but English has 44 phonemes/sounds. Oops! We lost some somewhere! Where are my glasses? Oh! And, to amuse those little learners and those English teachers, they thought it would be fun to have 205 or so ways to spell those 44 or so phonemes that are only represented by 26 letters. So! Oops! But, just learn the 80+ spelling rules. So, when you read this word, use the rules, one by one,... It is easy! Don't forget of course the hundreds of thousands of exceptions (that are explained in those extra rules). Rule Britannia! Rule! Indeed! NOT! Maybe that PM was not completely wrong. (Reference for those doubters: http://improvingenglishspelling.blogspot.com/ or, even more damning, https://www.ualberta.ca/science/science-news/2016/august/sorry-chomsky-english-spelling-is-hardly-close-to-optimal. Here is what it looks like, just for 10 phonemes in English.

 

 

Oops! Sorry! Got the wrong file! They kind of look the same, don't they?

 

 

 

 

Sure, sure, but if we did not have all of those different spellings for those different sounds, how could one possibly disambiguate "ad" and "add", and such?  Except NO ONE has any trouble understanding these words (heterographs) when they are not spelled (when they are uttered, when they are pronounced). Oops! How many of you misspelled "their, there, they're"?

 

There is something rotten! But, in what state? Of course, THAT cannot be fixed! LOL Where have you heard that one before? And, everyone was laughing at the absurd level of incompetence and complacency of ... I mean ... uv ....

 

But, these teachers, these students, these kids,... can they do anything right? LOL

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by EnlightenedAtheist

[bbbbooboo]

15 hours ago, Brer Fox said:

Great effort Rooster! You have summed it beautifully. 5 out of 5.

hmmmm......truer words have never been spoken on TV. I suspect this will put a Thai pigeon amongst the cats. Well done to the author

[elgordo38]

27 minutes ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

 

Okay, the PM might not have a degree in linguistics or English, but he is right that the English spelling system sucks and no one (including Rooster59) seems to be able to fix a problem that affects, oh, just 1.5 billion people trying to learn the stupid system. Who cares about 1.5 billion people on Earth? Just deal with it! Isn't it fun to point fingers at others for incompetence (because then one does not have to speak much about one's own incompetence.). If that is the epitome of mismanagement, I don't know what iZ. 

 

Surely, people know that English has the worst spelling system ever created and managed. It has an alphabet that has ONLY 26 letters (making the Thai alphabet look like an elephant), but English has 44 phonemes/sounds. Oops! We lost some somewhere! Where are my glasses? Oh! And, to amuse those little learners and those English teachers, they thought it would be fun to have 205 or so ways to spell those 44 or so phonemes that are only represented by 26 letters. So! Oops! But, just learn the 80+ spelling rules. So, when you read this word, use the rules, one by one,... It is easy! Don't forget of course the hundreds of thousands of exceptions (that are explained in those extra rules). Rule Britannia! Rule! Indeed! NOT! Maybe that PM was not completely wrong. (Reference for those doubters: http://improvingenglishspelling.blogspot.com/ or, even more damning, https://www.ualberta.ca/science/science-news/2016/august/sorry-chomsky-english-spelling-is-hardly-close-to-optimal. Here is what it looks like, just for 10 phonemes in English.

 

 

Oops! Sorry! Got the wrong file! They kind of look the same, don't they?

 

 

 

 

Sure, sure, but if we did not have all of those different spellings for those different sounds, how could one possibly disambiguate "ad" and "add", and such?  Except NO ONE has any trouble understanding these words (heterographs) when they are not spelled (when they are uttered, when they are pronounced). Oops! How many of you misspelled "their, there, they're"?

 

There is something rotten! But, in what state? Of course, THAT cannot be fixed! LOL Where have you heard that one before? And, everyone was laughing at the absurd level of incompetence and complacency of ... I mean ... uv ....

 

But, these teachers, these students, these kids,... can they do anything right? LOL

 

 

 

 

Just had to give you a like for all the work you put into this. 6500 hundred languages in the world amazing. Mandarin Chinese being the most popular so maybe the learning should be more slanted in that direction than English. Thanks Google love yah. 

[Dustdevil]

46 minutes ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

 

Okay, the PM might not have a degree in linguistics or English, but he is right that the English spelling system sucks and no one (including Rooster59) seems to be able to fix a problem that affects, oh, just 1.5 billion people trying to learn the stupid system. Who cares about 1.5 billion people on Earth? Just deal with it! Isn't it fun to point fingers at others for incompetence (because then one does not have to speak much about one's own incompetence.). If that is the epitome of mismanagement, I don't know what iZ. 

 

Surely, people know that English has the worst spelling system ever created and managed. It has an alphabet that has ONLY 26 letters (making the Thai alphabet look like an elephant), but English has 44 phonemes/sounds. Oops! We lost some somewhere! Where are my glasses? Oh! And, to amuse those little learners and those English teachers, they thought it would be fun to have 205 or so ways to spell those 44 or so phonemes that are only represented by 26 letters. So! Oops! But, just learn the 80+ spelling rules. So, when you read this word, use the rules, one by one,... It is easy! Don't forget of course the hundreds of thousands of exceptions (that are explained in those extra rules). Rule Britannia! Rule! Indeed! NOT! Maybe that PM was not completely wrong. (Reference for those doubters: http://improvingenglishspelling.blogspot.com/ or, even more damning, https://www.ualberta.ca/science/science-news/2016/august/sorry-chomsky-english-spelling-is-hardly-close-to-optimal. Here is what it looks like, just for 10 phonemes in English.

 

 

Oops! Sorry! Got the wrong file! They kind of look the same, don't they?

 

 

 

 

Sure, sure, but if we did not have all of those different spellings for those different sounds, how could one possibly disambiguate "ad" and "add", and such?  Except NO ONE has any trouble understanding these words (heterographs) when they are not spelled (when they are uttered, when they are pronounced). Oops! How many of you misspelled "their, there, they're"?

 

There is something rotten! But, in what state? Of course, THAT cannot be fixed! LOL Where have you heard that one before? And, everyone was laughing at the absurd level of incompetence and complacency of ... I mean ... uv ....

 

But, these teachers, these students, these kids,... can they do anything right? LOL

 

 

 

 

That's all very well but I get annoyed when native speakers confuse "lose" with "loose." Can't even spell a four-letter word. No to mention in predictable and invariable confusion with they're, their and there. My God, is it so difficult to get it right?

[EnlightenedAtheist]

35 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Just had to give you a like for all the work you put into this. 6500 hundred languages in the world amazing. Mandarin Chinese being the most popular so maybe the learning should be more slanted in that direction than English. Thanks Google love yah. 

 

Thanks! 

 

Yes! I see the writing on the wall (pun intended) where the Chinese could impose their way (as they are trying to do in African now, from what I am seeing on their English-spoken Channel). While some people might want to learn Chinese, most would prefer looking at a tee (probably made in China, mind you) and drinking their tea! It is a beautiful-looking language, but it is not easy to learn! English isn't too! Lots of Chinatowns around the world. There is still time though. 

 

Btw, this is my work (and I can prove it), except the cable photograph! LOL

 

All the best to you.

Edited January 15, 2017 by EnlightenedAtheist

[elgordo38]

2 minutes ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

 

Thanks! 

 

Yes! I see the writing on the wall (pun intended) where the Chinese could impose their way (as they are trying to do in African now, from what I am seeing on their English-spoken Channel). While some people might want to learn Chinese, most would prefer looking at a tee (probably made in China, mind you) and drinking their tea! It is a beautiful-looking language, but it is not easy to learn! English isn't too! Lots of Chinatowns around the world. There is still time though. 

 

Btw, this is my work (and I can prove it), except the cable photograph! LOL

 

All the best to you.

Is it really work at your age or a labor of love. Yes we are slowly undergoing an assimilation process by the Chinese. Thankfully I am to old to let it bother me. 

[elgordo38]

39 minutes ago, Dustdevil said:

That's all very well but I get annoyed when native speakers confuse "lose" with "loose." Can't even spell a four-letter word. No to mention in predictable and invariable confusion with they're, their and there. My God, is it so difficult to get it right?

Yes some of my days start like this to. Have another cup of coffee take deep breathees and count to well your age and things will improve.

[aslimversgwm]

38 minutes ago, Dustdevil said:

That's all very well but I get annoyed when native speakers confuse "lose" with "loose." Can't even spell a four-letter word. No to mention in predictable and invariable confusion with they're, their and there. My God, is it so difficult to get it right?

yes it b---dy well is! I, and many 'educated' British or US born people do ALL the time for as long as they live! English is NOT an easy language - you really have to believe that or you'll continue knocking poor Thai students who find it horrendously difficult.

[EnlightenedAtheist]

23 minutes ago, Dustdevil said:

That's all very well but I get annoyed when native speakers confuse "lose" with "loose." Can't even spell a four-letter word. No to mention in predictable and invariable confusion with they're, their and there. My God, is it so difficult to get it right?

 

Mmmm! True! It is annoying because it confuses you when you read the wrong spelling. They get confused when they must write the wrong spelling (because these words are misspelled). Why are so many people gatting it wrong? They are not misspelling the "L". You have found a way, maybe tricks to know. To be honest, knowing that you know is also a way to stroke your ego, isn't it? Your ability is to memorize. The ones who are getting it wrong cannot memorize these things, cannot be bothered, might have a more analytical mind that values logic which creates interference. The truth is that the "s" that has 2 pronunciations or the 2 phonemes (/s/ and /z/) that has 1 spelling is anything but smart!  Then, we thrown another curve ball at people's brain and spell the (vowel phonemes), the same phoneme, 2 different ways when it should NOT. The "o" and the "oo" are pronounced in the same manner! So, the two elements are contradictory. I don't think it is that easy, unless you memorize it. So, the right spelling is lose > looze (actually) and loose > loose or loosse (since "s" is notorious for being/z/). Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of these to memorize which then, using that metric, is not easy at all.

 

The "they're/their/there" is a different monster, in my mind, since there is a grammatical element, which messes up the grammatical logic or system  if words are misspelled. However, the spelling of "there" is annoyingly wrong, when you think of the spelling of "here"! On the other hand, spelling them all "ther" would be problematic since the "r" in the subject/verb combo is a verb. I guess if there were so much time devoted to spelling, maybe there could be more time devoted to grammar. More time to brainwash kids that ethics matters? Imagine the possibility? Imagine!

 

 

 

[jaltsc]

“Top billing went to the general PM himself …”

Hope he didn't dislocate his arm from patting himself on his own back.

[steve73]

So Thailand hasn't executed the guilty since 2009.   Yet it continues to allow the execution of innocents by the score every day with its pitiful road law enforcements... 

 

As to the 1 billion baht limit; if it were set any lower there wouldn't be anyone in a position of responsibility left.

[EnlightenedAtheist]

31 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Is it really work at your age or a labor of love. Yes we are slowly undergoing an assimilation process by the Chinese. Thankfully I am to old to let it bother me. 

 

Labor of love, for sure!

 

Let's be clear! There is self-love and then there is true love. Both are needed, IMHO. Maybe we need another pill for the latter.

 

And for those who think this is all for nothing, ... no one believed that a black man should/could be a chief of state and it has happened twice (South Africa), no one believed that women should/could vote,... No one believed that water could ever be going to someone's house. Warm water? No way! Thanks to some people, it did happen. Change can happen for the ones who believe in it. 

 

 

If we all worked together, imagine what this world could really be.

 

[TPI]

Thanks Rooster! You always bring a smile to a cloudy day!

[pumpjack]

good post

Edited January 15, 2017 by pumpjack

[sambum]

2 hours ago, Dustdevil said:

That's all very well but I get annoyed when native speakers confuse "lose" with "loose." Can't even spell a four-letter word. No to mention in predictable and invariable confusion with they're, their and there. My God, is it so difficult to get it right?

Yes indeed - agree 100%! I am of an age where the 3 "R's" (Reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic) were regarded as the fundamental rules of education. I did not go to University as my parents could not afford it, but I find it obscene when a teenager/young adult gets a degree in English and can not even spell proper(ly)! (But we have "spellcheck" now!)

 

I am not anti American in most respects, but I feel that they are to blame in many cases of misuse of the English language - e.g. "it must of been their fault - its kinda obvious".

[BlindMagician]

Anyonelse know of a nacarsitic wannabe Hichahorhip,who can't handle a professional relationship with media. A twitler?

[billmichael]

The author, Rooster, is utterly and completely gifted.  Thank you for a clever and delightful article.

[EnlightenedAtheist]

56 minutes ago, sambum said:

Yes indeed - agree 100%! I am of an age where the 3 "R's" (Reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic) were regarded as the fundamental rules of education. I did not go to University as my parents could not afford it, but I find it obscene when a teenager/young adult gets a degree in English and can not even spell proper(ly)! (But we have "spellcheck" now!)

 

I am not anti American in most respects, but I feel that they are to blame in many cases of misuse of the English language - e.g. "it must of been their fault - its kinda obvious".

 

 Yes, the 3rs. It is important I grant you that!

 

But, isn't ethics? Communication? Parenting? Financial literacy? Critical thinking? (I like fragments, btw! Great writers use them!) Because, no matter how you dice it, something had to go and did. There aren't enough hours in a day to teach the hundreds of thousands of misspelled words and the rest. (Reading a lot tend to mitigate this problem though. And depending on what you are reading, I guess that is a good thing. Still, is there any redeeming quality to reading those "Dick and Jane's book where one could have read "Why shouldn't Jane steal the maid's wage?" Of course,  we could keep the status quo and do like the Chinese students who work 18 hours a day to ace PISA exams and make it look good. Or, we could hire more literacy teachers at everyone's expense. Or, we could not bother at all and let some fall through the cracks. Or, we could fix the system? Nah! 

 

But, you did it! You can spell better and they can program a spaceship to go to the ISS or fix your brain. Still, you can spell and they cannot. Still, it is undeniable that the spelling system is obscenely obscene and, I should add, excruciatingly excruciating (Pleonasms added for effect!) It affect 1.5 billion people worldwide. So, what should it be? Keep the bad system and bother 1.5 billion people or fix it? The system forced you to spend unimaginable amount of time memorizing all of those quirks. Again, you did not learn as much as these students have. But, you did it. Still, the English spelling system is the one that is obscene.  Keeping it that way is?.

Edited January 15, 2017 by EnlightenedAtheist

[EnlightenedAtheist]

52 minutes ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

It affectS 1.5 billion people worldwide. 

 

Sorry!

 

And, ...

 

Reading a lot tendS to mitigate ...

Edited January 15, 2017 by EnlightenedAtheist

[elgordo38]

3 hours ago, aslimversgwm said:

yes it b---dy well is! I, and many 'educated' British or US born people do ALL the time for as long as they live! English is NOT an easy language - you really have to believe that or you'll continue knocking poor Thai students who find it horrendously difficult.

I find as I age my fingers seem to get fatter and my brain finger coordination is not what it used to be. I try to proof read before I hit send but sometimes the wrong imprint stays on my memory screen and bang its there for all to see before I hit edit which well does not always happen and thus theirs etc. and all the before mention mistakes happen. My deepest apologies but I am afraid it will only get worser as I age more. Moreser the pity. 

[sambum]

1 hour ago, EnlightenedAtheist said:

 

Sorry!

 

And, ...

 

Reading a lot tendS to mitigate ...

 

I see your point, but if the words were taught correctly in the first place, there wouldn't be " hundreds of thousands of misspelled words"

 

I also believe that learning all things at all levels correctly (not just spelling) instils a type of respect, not just for others, but also for yourself, and makes for future jobs being performed correctly.

 

P.S. And " It affectS 1.5 billion people worldwide."

 

       And " reading those "Dick and Jane's bookS" ?

          Or " reading those "Dick and Jane" books" ?

 

(Sorry - not being pernickety, and I do like your post!!)  

 

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by sambum
Additional text

[EnlightenedAtheist]

32 minutes ago, sambum said:

 

I see your point, but if the words were taught correctly in the first place, there wouldn't be " hundreds of thousands of misspelled words"

 

I also believe that learning all things at all levels correctly (not just spelling) instils a type of respect, not just for others, but also for yourself, and makes for future jobs being performed correctly.

 

P.S. And " It affectS 1.5 billion people worldwide."

 

       And " reading those "Dick and Jane's bookS" ?

          Or " reading those "Dick and Jane" books" ?

 

(Sorry - not being pernickety, and I do like your post!!)  

 

 

There are hundreds of thousands of misspelled words in the lexicon. I went too fast or I am getting lazy. Remember the diagram? There should be one and only one way to write any phoneme. There are 205 ways of spelling 44 or so. Methinks the problem is more the 160 or so incredibly stupid spellings of phonemes.

 

If a car has faulty breaks, do we blame the driver for crashing it? His parents?

 

If the schwa in words can be any vowel as shown in the diagram, then there are going to be a boat loads of words that are misspelled. Take the word "hundreds". It looks like a beautifully correctly spelled word, until you listen to it. Both vowels are pronounced roughly the same way, but are not spelled the same way. Both of these vowels are called schwas. Usually, these are unstressed and reduced, but the stressed ones are virtually the same phoneme. So, this word (like word, if you think about it ) is misspelled in the lexicon. It should be spelled: hundruds or hendreds. (I am not touching at the "s" sounding like a /z/, btw.) It is called "consistency". How do we expect people to follow rules, when the very first ones they learn are broken time and time again. In fact, it is even crazier than this because we are urging people to break the rule. No, do not write like it sounds. No! Do not write "peepul"? That's wrong! Write "people"! I know we are breaking several rules, here, but that's OKAY! LOL

 

(Note: I am lazy (not paid a penny to write this) and do not like to proofread.)

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by EnlightenedAtheist

[elgordo38]

44 minutes ago, sambum said:

 

I see your point, but if the words were taught correctly in the first place, there wouldn't be " hundreds of thousands of misspelled words"

 

I also believe that learning all things at all levels correctly (not just spelling) instils a type of respect, not just for others, but also for yourself, and makes for future jobs being performed correctly.

 

P.S. And " It affectS 1.5 billion people worldwide."

 

       And " reading those "Dick and Jane's bookS" ?

          Or " reading those "Dick and Jane" books" ?

 

(Sorry - not being pernickety, and I do like your post!!)  

 

 

Me to. We will share the word pernickety or is it persnikety after all whats a few grammar errors among friends.  

persnickety. Persnickety is the American word for fussy, fastidious, or highly detail-oriented. Pernickety is the British word.Mar 29, 2015

Pernickety vs. persnickety - Grammarist

grammarist.com/usage/pernickety-persnickety/