ot: Thought this was funny as hell.

[NotCranky]

[quote=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.[/quote]
It would take a convergence of many fortuitous events and/or sacrifices for a native English speaker from this country to become highly bi-literate. Odds are so against it. Hopefully, this is changing. Perhaps being a jack-of-all-trades is a decent accomplishment, lignustically speaking.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]Perhaps being a jack-of-all-trades is a decent accomplishment, lignustically speaking.[/quote]

LOL. Poor Dan… he’ll never live this down.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]Perhaps being a jack-of-all-trades is a decent accomplishment, lignustically speaking.[/quote]

LOL. Poor Dan… he’ll never live this down.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]Perhaps being a jack-of-all-trades is a decent accomplishment, lignustically speaking.[/quote]

LOL. Poor Dan… he’ll never live this down.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]Perhaps being a jack-of-all-trades is a decent accomplishment, lignustically speaking.[/quote]

LOL. Poor Dan… he’ll never live this down.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]Perhaps being a jack-of-all-trades is a decent accomplishment, lignustically speaking.[/quote]

LOL. Poor Dan… he’ll never live this down.

[sd_matt]

My momma was taught Latin in school. She’s pretty good at picking up on other Romance languages, at least gleaning out the basic message after reading a paragraph.

[sd_matt]

My momma was taught Latin in school. She’s pretty good at picking up on other Romance languages, at least gleaning out the basic message after reading a paragraph.

[sd_matt]

My momma was taught Latin in school. She’s pretty good at picking up on other Romance languages, at least gleaning out the basic message after reading a paragraph.

[sd_matt]

My momma was taught Latin in school. She’s pretty good at picking up on other Romance languages, at least gleaning out the basic message after reading a paragraph.

[sd_matt]

My momma was taught Latin in school. She’s pretty good at picking up on other Romance languages, at least gleaning out the basic message after reading a paragraph.

[CA renter]

[quote=flu]
I think it’s a combination of a few things.

1) Email/blogs/message boards/textin are not viewed as “formal writing”. As such, they don’t get the same sort of scrutiny/review as normal documents.

2) Unfortunately, because of the things in #1 have become so prevalent, we’ve become use to these shortcut means of communication for which speed takes precedence over gramatical accuracy. As a result, more traditional formal writing suffers from all these habits.

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]

You nailed it, flu.

[CA renter]

[quote=flu]
I think it’s a combination of a few things.

1) Email/blogs/message boards/textin are not viewed as “formal writing”. As such, they don’t get the same sort of scrutiny/review as normal documents.

2) Unfortunately, because of the things in #1 have become so prevalent, we’ve become use to these shortcut means of communication for which speed takes precedence over gramatical accuracy. As a result, more traditional formal writing suffers from all these habits.

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]

You nailed it, flu.

[CA renter]

[quote=flu]
I think it’s a combination of a few things.

1) Email/blogs/message boards/textin are not viewed as “formal writing”. As such, they don’t get the same sort of scrutiny/review as normal documents.

2) Unfortunately, because of the things in #1 have become so prevalent, we’ve become use to these shortcut means of communication for which speed takes precedence over gramatical accuracy. As a result, more traditional formal writing suffers from all these habits.

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]

You nailed it, flu.

[CA renter]

[quote=flu]
I think it’s a combination of a few things.

1) Email/blogs/message boards/textin are not viewed as “formal writing”. As such, they don’t get the same sort of scrutiny/review as normal documents.

2) Unfortunately, because of the things in #1 have become so prevalent, we’ve become use to these shortcut means of communication for which speed takes precedence over gramatical accuracy. As a result, more traditional formal writing suffers from all these habits.

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]

You nailed it, flu.

[Author]

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