I no speak English

G

GO COLTS!

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Part of the problem with the American school systems is that stupid no child left behind law. It's done nothing but hinder and cripple the educational system. All they care about now is preparing students for just what needs to be on a standardized test so they can keep their limited gov. funding. But in order to prepare students for these tests, the teachers don't "waste" time teaching things such as grammar, vocabulary, or even world history.
 
This is true. Grammar and proper sentence structure only make up a small part of english courses, and the rest is focused on reading compensation and other parts of speech. There is not much more grammar to be learned past the 7th grade, but in my school system, part of the course is spent reviewing grammar.

Grammar isn't as important as you make it out to be (it is important, but the entire english course shouldn't be teaching just spelling and grammar laws). More time should be spent on reading comprehension and recognizing different parts of speech like metaphors, hyperboles, alliteration, etc.. When an essay is being reviewed for marks, minor demerits are given for grammar and spelling errors, but most of the marks are given to good writting skills (as in the essay has a stong point of view and reinforces the topic at hand).

I think the last thing I learned in grammar was in the 9th grade, and that was writting an essay in proper MLA format. (I believe that would be considered a grammar lesson).
 
My husband took a Persuasive Writing course last semester through an on-line college. All of the students were required to submit posts regarding their goals for the class on a forum similar to this one. Reading the posts was saddening, and the level of writing skill would have embarassed a fifth grader.

The good news is that before the students were expected to begin their actual final papers, they were required to complete several weeks of lessons on grammar, sentence structure and punctuation. The quality of the posts definitely improved following the lessons.

Now this on-line college is all self-paced, to a point; which means that the student must be self-motivated in order to learn what is being taught. (Yes, I still get confused with colons and semi-colons, but I try.)

So, the bottom line is that if you're not learning what you need at high school, take advantage of other options, such as tutoring, or lessons like the ones DG posted. Learning to write correctly is definitely an advantage in life. When you know the rules (grammar, etiquette, whatever) you can choose to ignore them, but at least you'll be a step ahead of most folks.
 
Another thing, don't be lazy. You have an entire internet at your finger tips. If you aren't sure of the spelling, look it up.

Google will usually tell you if the spelling is wrong or right on a regular search. Then there is always dictionary.com.

I realize that we will all misspell at times. Bugs me when I do it. You will see me editing my posts because I realized that after I posted I see a typo.

One way to check spelling is to read it backwards, from the end to the beginning. That doesn't help if you missed the y at the end of they or typed there instead of their. It does keep you from seeing common phrases as correct, like "Going out for more business". We used to have a sale named that and people would always ask when we were closing. HeHe. We never pointed out their mistake.
 
In some cases, yes, this is true. But there are writers out there who are so gramatically incompetent it's a wonder how they ever get published. And most of these are the writers people refer to as "hard." My girlfriend is reading a book by Henry James and she told me of one of the sentences in his book that ran on for HALF A PAGE! Literature is published for content moreso than grammatical correctness. So, just because you read it in a book doesn't exactly mean that it's automatically correct.
 
My English teacher thinks "throwed" is the word "throw" in the past tense. She thinks "stupid" is a noun. She says "You people are stupids" .. and I top the English class. :thumbsup:

You should be happy that your teachers are at least not as screwed as mine.

Thankfully English is the only thing that is screwed up in my place.
 
I was born in Oakland California. I agree my grammar needs working on and I, am not good with puncuations. My spelling sucks a bit, but no one gave me a fucking Highschool diploma because I was a poor black kid who wouldnt get a Civil Servent job without one.

If you think I'm full of shit, research a story about how African American Moms in Oakland California were suing the state of California and the Oakland School district for allowing their children to graduate highschool while being illiterate.

How fucking crazy is that? Not only did they win the case and get a shitload of money, but it allowed their kids to go onto college with the education of a 2nd grader.

How does something like that happen? And if you say "It doesn't matter because once they get to college, they won't advance" you're dead wrong. Watch Jay Leno interview college students and ask them 4th grade level questions. People in American Colleges are dumb as fuck.

and, The last thing that pisses me off is how close "Ebonics" came to being legalized as a "dialect" of the english language. How fucking insane is that? I AXE MY TEECHA
 
Sad state there, Goldie. You'll find so many fucking smart guys who are unable to speak proper English in India. They'd be mocked at by a bunch of dumbasses who have no god damn redeeming feature but who can speak fluent English. They get the jobs. That's just sad.
 
India is a different story. Those guys get paid like 3 bucks an hour, which is great pay for them. They can afford homes, and even house maids. They pay people to clean their homes and wash dishes something like 20 cents an hour. I think mexico used to be like that some decades back. Not anymore, but India will be the same way.

still, its cheaper to pay them then Americans I guess. yes, outsourcing is bullshit. They say more jobs are outsourced into America then out. Oh really??? Where the fuck are these Jobs? Where is my Customer Service job at?
 
I have a maid who does the stuff you mentioned. She takes about Rs.300 per month . $1 is approximately Rs.50 and it comes out to about $6 per month. That is exactly 20 cents a day and they work for about an hour. Your figure was on the mark.

As for the jobs.... I know many students with a degree who became auto-rickshaw drivers because they could not get jobs. With a population of approximately 1.2 Billion, only the best will get jobs. Makes you wish that the concept of population control was introduced much more earlier.
 
A friend of mine and I have reached the conclusion that all of the English teachers at our school are dysfunctional idiots. I have never had a sane English teacher since the 6th grade. Our English teachers listen to songs about drinking and drugs and all that during class. They are late for class themselves. Group projects are the only things we ever do. They send kids outside as a "punishment". They hand out 100 extra credit points for existing every quarter. They walk out of a room when we're taking a "test" with the answers on her desk. They get the answers wrong on the test; there have been times I've had to point out the correct answer for my English teachers.

It's quite sad, actually.

I wonder why teaching English is attractive for morons....
 
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