(no subject)

[twirlgrrl]

OK, I usually put stuff like this on my impersonal blog-style LJ, spread_word, but I'm going to put these out here to the universe because no one EVER reads the other LJ. Someone might actually see them here.

I understand that language morphs. But it bugs me to see brand and band names become substitutes for the "real thing," word-wise. Thus, I hereby inform the LJ universe that the word "ludicrous" is not spelled like Ludacris the singer (whose given name has a Chris in it, get it?) And also, to "segue" is to transition from one topic to another, and a Segway is a moving scooter whose dorkiness was perfectly illustrated by Gob in Arrested Development.

I've always been a frustrated English teacher. Ever since first grade, when I corrected the teacher's spelling of the word "vacuum" as she wrote out the 4th-grade spelling words of the day on the chalkboard. I can't help it. I mean no harm.

Comments

[ninjalie.livejournal.com]

hah thanks! I actually didn't know about the segue thing since it's not a word I use or ever see other people use. Thanks for teaching me something :p

-Nat

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

At your service! :-)

[two-roads.livejournal.com]

Heh, this stuff has always bugged me too.
I remember I was a teacher's assistant when I was in 7th grade, and I would spend my lunch hour in a 1st grade classroom correcting papers, etc. The teacher always wrote the day's schedule up on the marker board, and he would constantly write:

October 10th:
* Finnish workbook page 10
* Finnish art project
* Finnish map assignment

Every day I would correct "finish", and every day I would come back and it would be spelled wrong again. Is it so much to ask that TEACHERS know how to spell correctly?

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAARGGGHHH! Unless he was teaching a class in Finnish art and cartography.

[rebeckola.livejournal.com]

mon cher amie,
eh bien, tu sais i was a late bloomer with good spelling and grammar. never the less, not with standing, although, but i appreciate your feelings. i enjoy reading and listening to commentary form geoff nunberg, professor of linguistics at stanford univ. he was interviewed by terry gross for his new book, "going nucular". and now for a short story... my junior year at PAA mrs.winter returned to teach english. i was curious to experience her schooling since she had also taught english when my mother was enrolled back in the day it was pua,(1960). as a result mother was an english major at walla walla college. oh but what a card winters was. some of my favorite hs class room memories were in her class. but the story that is relevant is she would stand up in daily assemblies and inturupt teachers to correct their bad grammar and use of words. brazen old woman! ode to the power of language. and cheers to champion brains!!!

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

It's so hard to care about language and, at the same time, not come across as a total jerk. How did Mrs. Winters do at that?

As you know, I have willfully chosen to use less-than-proper grammar in my everyday speech. I think it was part of my teenage rebellion. My mom still grits her teeth at some of my intentional incorrectness--as does my husband! :-)