UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
Apr 12th 2013, 4:55 am
#136
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Apr 12th 2013, 5:00 am
#137
has lost The Game
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Chippendale, Sydney
Posts: 8,735
Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
I really wish I hadn't noticed actually - It's starting to bug me and EVERYBODY at work is doing it - or rather I am noticing it more and more...
It is interesting how language develops however - We're currently having the debate about transitioning to US spellings over AU/UK ones. We now have a larger US customer base, and they keep griping that we spell everything incorrectly...
S
Apr 12th 2013, 5:04 am
#138
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Hill overlooking the SE Melbourne suburbs
Posts: 16,622
Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
Look, (so), it shows that the population does not read enough as only 'eyes on' the word itself will allow the reader to pair it up with the spoken word he or she hears.
Apr 12th 2013, 5:22 am
#140
Officially Bewildered
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Blue Mountains, NSW
Posts: 5,523
Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
Something I have also noticed to be growing is the inability of people to start a sentence without using the word 'So'. This is happening more and more at work, and I am even finding myself doing it.
I'm not sure where it cam from but pretty much in every meeting or standup, everybody starts with:
"So, what's everybody been up to this week? Dave?"
"So, I've been working on the nucleonic ferkinators project"
"So what results have you seen so far?"
"So I ran the experiments and it looks like there's a direct correlation"
"So you think it will work then..."
Etc. The 'So' is completely superfluous, and adds nothing to the conversation, beyond a pregnant pause at the beginning. I guess it's the same as Aussie politicians always starting with 'Look' when they are being interviewed.
Of course, now I have noticed it, I am starting to hear it all the time!
S
I'm not sure where it cam from but pretty much in every meeting or standup, everybody starts with:
"So, what's everybody been up to this week? Dave?"
"So, I've been working on the nucleonic ferkinators project"
"So what results have you seen so far?"
"So I ran the experiments and it looks like there's a direct correlation"
"So you think it will work then..."
Etc. The 'So' is completely superfluous, and adds nothing to the conversation, beyond a pregnant pause at the beginning. I guess it's the same as Aussie politicians always starting with 'Look' when they are being interviewed.
Of course, now I have noticed it, I am starting to hear it all the time!
S
Apr 12th 2013, 5:28 am
#141
Officially Bewildered
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Blue Mountains, NSW
Posts: 5,523
Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
She was a southerner, what more can you expect?
I've calmed down since then.
(BC, I have a strong regional accent, someone who lived very close to me used to write in 'region text' all the time on a message board we frequented and I could never understand a word she was writing unless I said the words in my head. I have the same problem with Irving Welsh's works. Although my regional accent is very different to his
)
Apr 12th 2013, 5:52 am
#142
Brisbane's friendly cop
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: Brisbane
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Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
I received a message recently asking "what time are you's coming over?" and when I replied "you's?" she wrote "oops, meant youse"
Apr 12th 2013, 7:05 am
#144
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Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
My English is far from perfect, but one that really annoys me when I read it is "draws" - I've even picked it up in official documents at work and pointed out the wrong usage but people don't seem to get it, they really do believe that keeping papers in a particular "draw" is correct usage.
Apr 12th 2013, 7:06 am
#145
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Apr 12th 2013, 7:17 am
#146
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Location: Melbourne
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Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
My English is far from perfect, but one that really annoys me when I read it is "draws" - I've even picked it up in official documents at work and pointed out the wrong usage but people don't seem to get it, they really do believe that keeping papers in a particular "draw" is correct usage.
Apr 12th 2013, 7:18 am
#147
Brisbane's friendly cop
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Apr 12th 2013, 7:25 am
#148
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Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
Had a task handed over the other week to move the paperwork from the "draws" to the new "shelfs" overnight 
I responded that I couldn't find the right place but moved the "stuff that was in the drawers onto the shelves instead" 
I responded that I couldn't find the right place but moved the "stuff that was in the drawers onto the shelves instead"
Apr 12th 2013, 7:37 am
#149
Just Joined
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 15
Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
This ruling has been handed down due to the high population of international students and by 2015 they will out number native students. There was a situation in 2011, international students were constantly marked down for poor English and grammar, this translated into less international students applying for 2012 and as such the ruling was introduced.
We are also asked to not strictly enforce English spelling and grammar during marking of 1st-3rd year degree students, so most of the time we end up with an essay that in my opinion is terrible English, but we can't mark them down for it.
For example I had a young girl who had just completed her 2nd year experiment. When I was marking it, she had spelled the title wrong, couldn't spell Psychology (Among others), was in a completely awful format and suggested that a flaw in her experiment was people were sat on swivel chairs and it could have distracted them during the experiment.
Most of the students I've noticed moving up, generally suffer from pretty huge shock when they hit University level education, they have been helped and hand held so much during there previous education that when they have to do things for them selves, they really struggle and are constantly asking for "exam questions" and/or help that I can not provide them.
This is a University that requires 4 A's at A-Level and in the top 15 UK wide.
Again this is my observation of the past 3 years of teaching and marking.
Last edited by new-leaf; Apr 12th 2013 at 7:57 am.
Apr 12th 2013, 7:46 am
#150
Proudly Deplorable
Joined: May 2003
Location: Alloha snack bar
Posts: 24,246
Re: UK vs Australia for childrens' futures
At the University where I work, international students are not heavily marked on there ability to use English, if you can understand the paper, then its acceptable.
This ruling has been handed down due to the high population of international students and by 2015 they will out number native students. There was a situation in 2011, international students were constantly marked down for poor English and grammar, this translated into less international students applying for 2012 and as such the ruling was introduced.
We are also asked to not strictly enforce English spelling and grammar during marking of 1st-3rd year degree students, so most of the time we end up with an essay that in my opinion is terrible English, but we can't mark them down for it.
For example I had a young girl who had just completed her 2nd year experiment. When I was marking it, she had spelled the title wrong, couldn't spell Psychology (Among others), was in a completely awful format and suggested that a flaw in her experiment was people were sat on swivel chairs and it could have distracted them during the experiment.
Most of the students I've noticed moving up, generally suffer from pretty huge shock when they hit University level education, they have been helped and hand held so much during there previous education that when they have to do things for them selves, they really struggle and are constantly asking for "exam questions" and/or help that I can not provide them.
This is a University that requires 4 A's at A-Level and in the top 15 University's UK wide.
Again this is my observation of the past 3 years of teaching and marking.
This ruling has been handed down due to the high population of international students and by 2015 they will out number native students. There was a situation in 2011, international students were constantly marked down for poor English and grammar, this translated into less international students applying for 2012 and as such the ruling was introduced.
We are also asked to not strictly enforce English spelling and grammar during marking of 1st-3rd year degree students, so most of the time we end up with an essay that in my opinion is terrible English, but we can't mark them down for it.
For example I had a young girl who had just completed her 2nd year experiment. When I was marking it, she had spelled the title wrong, couldn't spell Psychology (Among others), was in a completely awful format and suggested that a flaw in her experiment was people were sat on swivel chairs and it could have distracted them during the experiment.
Most of the students I've noticed moving up, generally suffer from pretty huge shock when they hit University level education, they have been helped and hand held so much during there previous education that when they have to do things for them selves, they really struggle and are constantly asking for "exam questions" and/or help that I can not provide them.
This is a University that requires 4 A's at A-Level and in the top 15 University's UK wide.
Again this is my observation of the past 3 years of teaching and marking.
The graduate school that I go to mainly teaches MBAs and they are keen to keep on moving up the league table as it gets them more prestige, students and therefore, money. So they have a hard on for English standards. They constantly run extra classes on academic English. I try and attend them as I find them very useful.