I no speak English

G

GAGO

New member
Yes life does suck, but alas not because so-and-so broke up with whats-his-name, or that I'm having a baby (although that would be interesting), no it sucks because my English department sucks. I'm not sure if you older posters know this or not, but I haven't learned anything new about grammar since the since the 7th grade. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, I could check out books on grammar from my local library, I do. But doesn't anyone think that it's more or less the English departments job to my teaching us this stuff? Many of you adults wonder why kids are so horribly illiterate, well the education system isn't helping any. Just look at me, I'm what the education system is cranking out these days folks, and unless you want your children as illiterate, or even worse than me, I suggest we do something.

Edit: It's not letting me indent...
 
Dude, I agree with you... Hey, my English isn't brilliant but it's really important these in this say and age obviously.

Here in the UK the whole education system is fucked up in my opinion and we need to get this arse of a government out of office because it's them that started this fuck up.

~~~~~

I know my English isn't the best... so... yeah...
 
Goethe said something to the effect of "A man who does not know foreign language is ignorant of his own." Obviously, he said it in german, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, if not for my study of a foreign language, I would have no idea what the subjunctive or indicative case was. Where am I going with this? I've learned more about grammar from foreign language classes than from english classes.
 
Well personally I haven't learned much grammar myself, for basically the same reasons but I never really bothered to try. It is seen as a hassle to teach such things when most english teachers would rather teacher about their favoriate authors and poets. Grammar and what not is what really brought down my SAT scores, if we had learend more in school it would of been closer to my math SAT at 680.
 
Well then, See I wouldn't know becuase I wasn't in the American school system. In Japan, at least I started to learn English at a very young age so that is why I am "ok" at the age I am now. Not the best grammer, not the best spelling, but eh, whatever. =.=
 
I haven't really learned a lot about grammar since 7th grade either. However, I think that's more or less because there aren't all that many rules and after 7th grade you should know them all by now. After that, it's a matter of honing and improving your skills through use.

After middle school, the focus seems more on communicating ideas rather than on syntax and grammar. That's not to say syntax and grammar aren't graded or looked at, but it isn't what you're trying to learn. You should know most of that by that point.
 
The problem is that the seventh grade brush over wasn't the in depth at all, we learned about subjects, and predicates. That's about it.
 
I'm not trying to knock anyone here, you might be completely right.

But I think laziness can attribute to this problem as well. Not just laziness on the students' sides, but the teachers as well.

I could have tried alot harder; I know this. I was in college preparatory classes until my junior year. I got fucking tired of the bullshit, I'm going to a tech school I don't need that extra work. But that's beside the point.

With internet chatting, and the great amount of "AIM speak" useage today, I don't think students really believe they need to learn to speak correctly. I hear things like "u no wat i ment so it dnt matter how i sed it" way too often in my opinion.
 
Same here, we would read a book, then take a test on it, then talk about it. Then this process would start all over again with another book.
 
Around here we get to choose what we want to learn kind of.

There is a literature course and a composition course.

I prefer lit, but my comp sucks, so I'm taking comp lols.
 
But, won't you learn by seeing it written? By reading?

If it is really that important to you, try to get tutored on this. The one on one learning can be very enlightening. My son had it after he broke his leg and was in a body cast. He learned so much more with the one on one than he ever did in class.

I give kudos to WTF for not allowing all the AIM speak. I try to stay away from it and I even get lazy now and then. I catch myself typing 'fav' instead of 'favorite' and things like that. Never did get the hang of the really drastic stuff like 'gratz' for 'congratulations' or 'btw' for 'by the way' and stuff like that. The first time I encountered this kind of talk I was lost and had to try to decipher what was being said without appearing too stupid. Strange itsn't it that being stupid was not stupid.

I have also notice this in emails and personal notes. I always start and end my emails and notes like a hand written letter. I may not start them with 'Dear' or end them with 'Sincerely', but I start them with 'Hey Lady' or something along that line. Then end with something along the line of , 'Later' for the most casual and 'love you bunches' for friends and family. I've always been afraid that it would all be lost if some of us don't keep up the traditions.
 
Yeah, reading can help to an extent. Reading has really broadened my vocabulary immensly, and has helped my composition a little bit.

But in a composition class you have a teacher nit-picking and taking many, many points off for the smallest grammatical/spelling mistakes. Just helps it to sink in.
 
Half of my senior class didn't know (and had to be taught, again) about the more complicated grammar rules and stuff.

Of course, like Siryus said, it stopped at 7th grade, and they've been shoving the same shit down our throats for the last 5 years of gradeschool.

I read a lot, too, and I learn from that. I speak differently from my friends, so I'm viewed as kind of "the smart one", but I'm not really that smart at all...
 
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