You might think this blog entry concerns the tea bagger meme about English as the official US language or a rail against tests being offered, in say, Spanish. I guess that in some ways it is. But then again, it’s not. I have been coming to the conclusion that if you are going to insist on something as silly as an ”official” language or be against having tests or forms available in multiple languages then you should be able to use the language yourself correctly and appropriately at least. That’s right, SPEAK AND WRITE THE LANGUAGE CORRECTLY YOURSELF BEFORE CRITICIZING SOMEONE ELSE.
This is what I mean. In the past few days I have heard the phrase “get used to vit”. This is a Massachusetts thing, not a mispronunciation but is spoken as if there was a word “vit”. Another person today said at a meeting, “for all intensive purposes”. Another pet peeve is using the correct word. There is a difference between to, too, and two. Please learn the difference and use them correctly. There also is a difference between you’re and your. GET IT RIGHT!
My daughter and son have pointed out to me that there is a website for examples of unneeded quotation marks. I guess people have come to see the quotation marks as something that adds emphasis. People, please realize that underline and CAPITALIZE do that, not quotes!
Just so you know that I’m not specifically targeting tea baggers, I also have an issue with the teen typing twist of adding all the extra letters written in text messages or twitter or Facebook. I have seen someone writing “I’m going for iiiiiiiice creammmmm tonight”. People, YOU’RE RUINING FACEBOOK FOR ME!!!
Even one of the “spiritual leaders” Sarah Palin added some controversy recently for making up a couple of words –."Refudiate," "misunderestimate," "wee-wee'd up." And then she defended this process saying “English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!” She is priceless, isn't she?
Note to dear Sarah - YOU ARE NO BILL SHAKESPEARE! One does not celebrate bad grammer, bad spelling or bad English.
Finally, in maybe the most ironic point of all, there are the tea bagger signs at their little get-togethers. This is a group that is advocating for the exclusive use of the English language, that cannot spell, cannot put together a simple sentence on a sign or even know enough to check it to make sure it is right.
A few examples I have seen:
“Make English America’s offial language!” Yep, that’s official;
“Respect are country – speak English” Yes, a sign of respect, it is our country;
“Against New Tax’s” That plural would be taxes; perhaps for better education;
“Say No to Socilism” Come on guys, you can call him a socialist but spell it right;
“This is America and our only langauague is English” Minus 5 points for spelling – language is the correct lettering, see increased taxes for education above.
"They misunderestimated me."
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"
"Reading is the basics for all learning."
You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
"Will the highways on the internet become more few?"
"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."
"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together."
"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."
So in conclusion, I guess I have to agree. We should require all American people to speak English or get out.
5 comments:
It's so flustrating!
How dare you violate the first amendment rights to speak as freely as we want---surely that extends to making up words and free-form spelling!!!! I suppose you're one of them that wants to take away our 2nd amendment rights to machine gun deer and pheasants (as well as peasants) too!!!! or is that two. Tea makes me so confused...... with tongue firmly planted in cheek........:-D
[You'll have to take my word for it, that I'd just written a brilliant counter point response. However sometimes when I go to save a comment I lose it, and in an effort to make sure that that didn't happen I selected the whole thing and went to hit "copy", but I hit "paste" and lost it all. This can't be as good a second time but here goes.]
I'm afraid that I must come out in favor of an official language. I think its better that we have one, though, I'm not opposed to anyone speaking their native tongue. On the contrary I encourage it.
And I'm not in favor of language being used to be exclusionary or opressive. Its strictly a practical sense that draws me toward this opinion.
I don't want language used to hold people back, by, say, keeping them from taking driving tests. Reasonable accommodations should be made. What a burden in our society if you couldn't drive. Our society is about openness and opportunity.
But should we make roadsigns in two languages? Three? Four? At some point it becomes impractical. So which languages do we choose? Surely English and Spanish, but what about Cantonese, Japanese ... and Gaelic? Lao, Hmung, Vietnamese and French are also spoken in numbers here.
I want language to unite us, not divide us as, I believe, it has in Canada.
I think one language would be unifying. Something we share. I would never want people to have their heritage taken away from them as happened to native Americans in the last century when they were restrained from teaching their culture.
However in Canada, two official languages reign and in the not so distant past Les Quebecois were offered a chance to vote themselves into existence as a separate nation. They nearly did! I think Canada would have been diminished if that had happened.
All cultures should be encouraged to maintain their self knowledge, celebrate their history, and pass it down to their young. Children should be encouraged to learn their culture and history.
Though I can think of a few cultural practices that I would oppose even at the risk of offending. We'll talk of moral relativism another time.
For right now let us have an official language, and let us all try to learn it. The immigrant and the ignorant.
And while we're at it, let's do the same for history!
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