ot: Thought this was funny as hell.

[svelte]

[quote=briansd1][quote=urbanrealtor]
That “one-must-learn-an-ancient-or-foreign-language-to-speak-English” is just about as credible as the dude belching out smog from his tree-hugger-bestickered volkswagen.[/quote]

Maybe there’s no direct correlation between the study of the foreign languages and how well one speaks English.

Perhaps it’s simply the amount of study/reading of the English language that’s important.

I know a Chinese gal who’s studied English on her own in China back the 1980s. She read all the English classics and speaks English beautifully. Of course, Chinese and English are not related languages.

My own experience is that people who speak a foreign language (e.g. Spanish) speak better English. They use more nuanced expressions.
[/quote]

Geez, my experience has been just the opposite. Most of the people I have known who speak/write multiple languages don’t do any of them well (though they think they do).

Jack of all trades, master of none is appropriate here.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
3) Third, formal documents no longer undergo scrutiny as much as before, because it is assumed there are technology tools to automatically correct, such as a spell checker. Unfortunately, spell checkers/grammar checkers can’t always detect “theire” as “their” or “there” and ends up making educated guesses sometimes. When you see your MS Word document without any more red underlines, you sort of assume it’s “ok”.[/quote]

I have to agree with this big time – and it’s a battle we’re fighting with our 3rd grade son. He’s a terrible speller and lazy about the grammatical rules.

After discussing it with his teacher – we’ve turned off the Word spell and grammar check option on the computer he does his book reports on. We’ve gone old school (and tree killing)… he prints out his report – I make grammar spelling checks – he looks up the correct spelling in the dictionary and discusses with me the grammar corrections. I’m hoping it will make it sink in more.

They have to know spelling/grammar on the STAR tests/benchmark tests/etc… So it’s our job (teacher and parents) to make sure he learns it rather than letting the “tools” correct his mistakes.

Even in tech based jobs, you still need good writing skills.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
3) Third, formal documents no longer undergo scrutiny as much as before, because it is assumed there are technology tools to automatically correct, such as a spell checker. Unfortunately, spell checkers/grammar checkers can’t always detect “theire” as “their” or “there” and ends up making educated guesses sometimes. When you see your MS Word document without any more red underlines, you sort of assume it’s “ok”.[/quote]

I have to agree with this big time – and it’s a battle we’re fighting with our 3rd grade son. He’s a terrible speller and lazy about the grammatical rules.

After discussing it with his teacher – we’ve turned off the Word spell and grammar check option on the computer he does his book reports on. We’ve gone old school (and tree killing)… he prints out his report – I make grammar spelling checks – he looks up the correct spelling in the dictionary and discusses with me the grammar corrections. I’m hoping it will make it sink in more.

They have to know spelling/grammar on the STAR tests/benchmark tests/etc… So it’s our job (teacher and parents) to make sure he learns it rather than letting the “tools” correct his mistakes.

Even in tech based jobs, you still need good writing skills.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
3) Third, formal documents no longer undergo scrutiny as much as before, because it is assumed there are technology tools to automatically correct, such as a spell checker. Unfortunately, spell checkers/grammar checkers can’t always detect “theire” as “their” or “there” and ends up making educated guesses sometimes. When you see your MS Word document without any more red underlines, you sort of assume it’s “ok”.[/quote]

I have to agree with this big time – and it’s a battle we’re fighting with our 3rd grade son. He’s a terrible speller and lazy about the grammatical rules.

After discussing it with his teacher – we’ve turned off the Word spell and grammar check option on the computer he does his book reports on. We’ve gone old school (and tree killing)… he prints out his report – I make grammar spelling checks – he looks up the correct spelling in the dictionary and discusses with me the grammar corrections. I’m hoping it will make it sink in more.

They have to know spelling/grammar on the STAR tests/benchmark tests/etc… So it’s our job (teacher and parents) to make sure he learns it rather than letting the “tools” correct his mistakes.

Even in tech based jobs, you still need good writing skills.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
3) Third, formal documents no longer undergo scrutiny as much as before, because it is assumed there are technology tools to automatically correct, such as a spell checker. Unfortunately, spell checkers/grammar checkers can’t always detect “theire” as “their” or “there” and ends up making educated guesses sometimes. When you see your MS Word document without any more red underlines, you sort of assume it’s “ok”.[/quote]

I have to agree with this big time – and it’s a battle we’re fighting with our 3rd grade son. He’s a terrible speller and lazy about the grammatical rules.

After discussing it with his teacher – we’ve turned off the Word spell and grammar check option on the computer he does his book reports on. We’ve gone old school (and tree killing)… he prints out his report – I make grammar spelling checks – he looks up the correct spelling in the dictionary and discusses with me the grammar corrections. I’m hoping it will make it sink in more.

They have to know spelling/grammar on the STAR tests/benchmark tests/etc… So it’s our job (teacher and parents) to make sure he learns it rather than letting the “tools” correct his mistakes.

Even in tech based jobs, you still need good writing skills.

[UCGal]

[quote=flu]
3) Third, formal documents no longer undergo scrutiny as much as before, because it is assumed there are technology tools to automatically correct, such as a spell checker. Unfortunately, spell checkers/grammar checkers can’t always detect “theire” as “their” or “there” and ends up making educated guesses sometimes. When you see your MS Word document without any more red underlines, you sort of assume it’s “ok”.[/quote]

I have to agree with this big time – and it’s a battle we’re fighting with our 3rd grade son. He’s a terrible speller and lazy about the grammatical rules.

After discussing it with his teacher – we’ve turned off the Word spell and grammar check option on the computer he does his book reports on. We’ve gone old school (and tree killing)… he prints out his report – I make grammar spelling checks – he looks up the correct spelling in the dictionary and discusses with me the grammar corrections. I’m hoping it will make it sink in more.

They have to know spelling/grammar on the STAR tests/benchmark tests/etc… So it’s our job (teacher and parents) to make sure he learns it rather than letting the “tools” correct his mistakes.

Even in tech based jobs, you still need good writing skills.

[briansd1]

[quote=svelte]
Geez, my experience has been just the opposite. Most of the people I have known who speak/write multiple languages don’t do any of them well (though they think they do).

Jack of all trades, master of none is appropriate here.[/quote]

haha.. There’s a whole lot of that too.

It depends on the people you meet.

I believe that, overall, learning a foreign language causes you to pay attention to the sentence functions and structure of your own language.

[briansd1]

[quote=svelte]
Geez, my experience has been just the opposite. Most of the people I have known who speak/write multiple languages don’t do any of them well (though they think they do).

Jack of all trades, master of none is appropriate here.[/quote]

haha.. There’s a whole lot of that too.

It depends on the people you meet.

I believe that, overall, learning a foreign language causes you to pay attention to the sentence functions and structure of your own language.

[briansd1]

[quote=svelte]
Geez, my experience has been just the opposite. Most of the people I have known who speak/write multiple languages don’t do any of them well (though they think they do).

Jack of all trades, master of none is appropriate here.[/quote]

haha.. There’s a whole lot of that too.

It depends on the people you meet.

I believe that, overall, learning a foreign language causes you to pay attention to the sentence functions and structure of your own language.

[briansd1]

[quote=svelte]
Geez, my experience has been just the opposite. Most of the people I have known who speak/write multiple languages don’t do any of them well (though they think they do).

Jack of all trades, master of none is appropriate here.[/quote]

haha.. There’s a whole lot of that too.

It depends on the people you meet.

I believe that, overall, learning a foreign language causes you to pay attention to the sentence functions and structure of your own language.

[briansd1]

[quote=svelte]
Geez, my experience has been just the opposite. Most of the people I have known who speak/write multiple languages don’t do any of them well (though they think they do).

Jack of all trades, master of none is appropriate here.[/quote]

haha.. There’s a whole lot of that too.

It depends on the people you meet.

I believe that, overall, learning a foreign language causes you to pay attention to the sentence functions and structure of your own language.

[SD Transplant]

I should be living proof that speaking other Latin based languages does not improve your English (anecdotal evidence). Mind you, English is my 3rd official language, and I still suck at it. I also started a little later in life (I was 20).

The biggest issue or challenge is spelling because English is an odd language that does not follow “you write what you hear”. Hence, spelling rules are a unique way of learing it, and I have been dealing with the limitation of my style of learning.

Moreover, English is easier than many other languages, and it makes it tougher to learn (that’s no joke). Let me share a great example, in English I heard fewer words than any other language I speak, and the word “GET/GOT” gave me the biggest challenge of all….I have over 20 unique meanings my native tongue, and I’m always limiting my use of certain “got ya” words.

I didn’t even bother spelling anything

[SD Transplant]

I should be living proof that speaking other Latin based languages does not improve your English (anecdotal evidence). Mind you, English is my 3rd official language, and I still suck at it. I also started a little later in life (I was 20).

The biggest issue or challenge is spelling because English is an odd language that does not follow “you write what you hear”. Hence, spelling rules are a unique way of learing it, and I have been dealing with the limitation of my style of learning.

Moreover, English is easier than many other languages, and it makes it tougher to learn (that’s no joke). Let me share a great example, in English I heard fewer words than any other language I speak, and the word “GET/GOT” gave me the biggest challenge of all….I have over 20 unique meanings my native tongue, and I’m always limiting my use of certain “got ya” words.

I didn’t even bother spelling anything

[SD Transplant]

I should be living proof that speaking other Latin based languages does not improve your English (anecdotal evidence). Mind you, English is my 3rd official language, and I still suck at it. I also started a little later in life (I was 20).

The biggest issue or challenge is spelling because English is an odd language that does not follow “you write what you hear”. Hence, spelling rules are a unique way of learing it, and I have been dealing with the limitation of my style of learning.

Moreover, English is easier than many other languages, and it makes it tougher to learn (that’s no joke). Let me share a great example, in English I heard fewer words than any other language I speak, and the word “GET/GOT” gave me the biggest challenge of all….I have over 20 unique meanings my native tongue, and I’m always limiting my use of certain “got ya” words.

I didn’t even bother spelling anything

[SD Transplant]

I should be living proof that speaking other Latin based languages does not improve your English (anecdotal evidence). Mind you, English is my 3rd official language, and I still suck at it. I also started a little later in life (I was 20).

The biggest issue or challenge is spelling because English is an odd language that does not follow “you write what you hear”. Hence, spelling rules are a unique way of learing it, and I have been dealing with the limitation of my style of learning.

Moreover, English is easier than many other languages, and it makes it tougher to learn (that’s no joke). Let me share a great example, in English I heard fewer words than any other language I speak, and the word “GET/GOT” gave me the biggest challenge of all….I have over 20 unique meanings my native tongue, and I’m always limiting my use of certain “got ya” words.

I didn’t even bother spelling anything

[Author]

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