Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy - Page 2

Mystere, I am old too, BUT I love a REAL CONVERSATION,

      I think it's PATHETIC, that "even in gist"  proper English is a JOKE. I may not always use it, or Always be correct in writing it. But one SHOULD KNOW IT!!!

     There is a place and a time where it comes in "HANDY". I worked for Legal-Aid, for quite awhile, and the amount of Illiteracy in the US is ASTOUNDING. I find it appalling that some one can go even to tenth grade and be UNABLE to READ and WRITE. Something VERY WRONG in the School System.   

    George Bush's," NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND," was as Big a JOKE AS HE WAS!!!

I could not agree with you more!!   The first time I saw some of the writing by my then schutzhund club members, i was HORROR-STRUCK!!.   I could not believe that people who had actually graduated from high school in this country were so semi-literate.   It was almost scary!!   Half the time, I could not figure out what the heck they were trying to say.  

 Yes, the American public school system is a mess!!  The richest country on Earth...and we are churning out illitertes.  Having books on tape in bookstores certainly isn't helping that .  These kids don't HAVE to read a damn thing anymore:  they can watch a video or listen to a book on tape.  Then, they can use Dragon-Speak to type their book report.  We may not  have always read the whole book for  book assignments, but we did have to be literate to read the Cliff's Notes!!

 America is not alone.  I was once on a French-language  dog email list to hone my French language skills and had HELL with one long email that I could not make any sense of at all.  I took it to my Franch instructor at the time and told her that I just did not understand it, or why.  She read it and burst out laughing.  She said it wasn't me: I  was trying to read the writing of someone who was only semi-literate, so of course it made no sense to me--it made no sense to her, either. .  When you read things writen in semi-literate English by a native-born American, just imaging a German trying to read it, when WE have trouble figuring it out half the time.

I started reading at 2.5....I have a larger vocabulary than most adults I meet today, and my spelling and grammar is much more correct.

I find it disturbing when I read memos from my bosses, and I spell their misspelled words in my head correctly.

I'll give a cookie to anybody here that can tell me what "Pusillanimous" means without looking it up.

<3 you RLHAR!!  By the way, scientists now think that spelling is more genetic than learned.  Of course learning has something to do it, but it seems to be more genetically founded than thought before

I do not like President-Elect Barack Obama and do not think I ever will. But he will soon be president of the U.S.A. and I hope that he will be diligent towards leading our country by the tenets of its Constitution. It will be most refreshing to have a President who understands the basic and simple method of English sentence construction described as subject-predicate-object and demonstrates this understanding on a regular basis. Elitist and eloquent? Hardly; moreso merely correct in his manner of spoken communication.

I am still amused by the local country people and small town people who are so impressed with Barack Obama's oral delivery of concise and clear communication. "But, have you heard him speak?" "Man, he talks real good" is a question and statement that I often hear when I am near a discussion or critique about Barack Obama. Yes, I listened to some of his speeches and was able to understand everything he said without the need for an interpreter, so that is a plus as far as I am concerned.

I too have found that many American people are suspicious of those who can, as they say (sic) "talk real good". On at least two (2) occasions during my management career I was asked to be more colloquial and less correct in regards to my spoken and written communication style. In essence I was asked to "dumb down" my writing and speech to the "Bubba" level so that I would be a "more effective" manager. I think the true reason behind this advice was the embarrassment and resentment felt by my fellow managers and boss because a German-born American demonstrated a useful command of the English language.

The correct spelling of English words is a skill accomplished only by excellent memorization since the words are seldom spelled the way they sound, and the spelling "rules" are often self-contradictory. For that reason I easily understand how spelling mistakes are made so I usually employ a spell checker or thesaurus when I am writing a document. Of course I am comparing the spelling of English words to the spelling of German words; that tend to be spelled exactly as they sound. I know the usage of "ss" or "ß" has to be memorized (even though there is a very slight difference in the sound) but that is about the only thing I ever question.

So, even though I have some negative opinions about our President-Elect, I am anxious to see how a man who "talks real good" leads our country and I do wish him the best. 

Best Regards,

Bob-O

Thank you Triodegirl and Hodie.  An intelligent President - wow, what a concept!  

 Bob-O,

I guess we can agree to disagree. I believe at the end of Obama's term you will be among the people who recognize that he was the right man for the job at this time in our history. For one thing, he is surrounding himself with the best people, and surrounding himself with people who will have the guts to say what they think. In the end, open dialogue, even in the White House meetings, is important if long-term, creative, and viable solutions are to be found for the monumental problems facing the next President, and indeed our nation and each of us.

As for people's inability to read or write their native language....don't even get me started. But it isn't only reading and writing skills that are so non-existent in so many Americans, but basic math skills too. Two young men, freshly graduated from high school at the grocery store checkout cash register recently cannot figure out what 20% of $20 is!!!

I could go on, but what's the use. Worse yet, college grades are now so inflated and courses so watered down at so many of our nations universities that it is beyond belief. In my state alone, last week a study came out saying that more than 50% of all community college students must take remedial classes coming in. And worse yet, for four year schools, something like 33% needed remedial classes. What does this say about our educational system?

In any case, I could simply not listen to GWB. He and Sarah would have made a pair. Thank God that never happened.

Mystere, I hear you about the lack of literacy among the Schutzhund crowd. When I first joined some 10ish years ago, I was astounded at the poor quality of the magazine, the lack of correct English in most of the articles and that was not only reflected among the leadership but some of the members. I think it has improved, at least in the magazine. I am fortunate because I have a club full of people who, while we all might make a mistake here or there, can at least express ourselves and spell so that the next person has an idea of what the hell we were trying to say. 

Reading the posts on this board, and I am NOT talking about the people outside the US (whose English is sometimes better than American citizens) is a good example of the lack of literacy in our nation.