Gordon Barlow

Miss Anne Thrope. Ah well, it could be worse. I could have a name that perfectly describes me. And, by the way, there is nothing inevitable about my blog; in trying to be clever, you over-reached. Your written English could do with some proofing.

typical

I don't know about Japanese, but not so any more in Korean - there are now many words that can't be written in Chinese characters, many modern and therefore many technical. Some are pure Korean inventions and some come from other languages (especially English).

E.g. you'd rarely see computer written as anything other than it's transliteration into Korean, 컴퓨터.

mikewot

Punctuation is the traffic lights of grammar. It tells you when to slow down, when to stop, and when to 'drive on slowly but with caution. I suppose really that punctuation is just good manners, and one should write with the readers comfort in mind, and not have them gasping for breath!

Bahtatboy

And neither would I. There isn't a "but" there...

Bahtatboy

Same with Japanese, although not sure about "old" technical expressions.

The Dean

Anyway......... to answer Gordon Bennett's original question: no, the schools out here do not have a good reputation......

Gordon Barlow

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/...s-cannot-read/

The above link is to a report about high-school graduates in New York needing remedial courses in English before starting college. We have the same problem here in this British colony (which is why I wrote the blog, for my local audience, that the misanthrope and a couple of others took such a dislike to). Thanks to Deano for his answer to my question. It's an important issue worldwide, it seems.

Beakersful

I think in KSA 4 year olds are now getting taught English as a second language? One of my students (in his mid to late 20's) surprised me by bringing up the theory about bilingualism increasing other skills during learning development due to extra brain connections, which is an argument used back in the UK by linguists pushing our government to introduce second languages as early as possible.

Language development failure is not a sign of the first or second language being a problem. Those of us here in the classroom know exactly what factors are at play.

Gordon Barlow

Interesting, Beakers. I have two Norwegian grand-daughters, half-sisters - one aged 12, very slow at speaking English and also at reading it, though her understanding of spoken is strong: the other aged 9, excellent at using colloquial English in speech, and also at reading English. It used to worry me that they were slow learners of a second language (my son speaks Norwegian to them all the time), but now I presume that they will learn it in their own time. Can you re-assure me on that score?

Ethos83

The majority of NYC state school pupils are immigrants, children of recent immigrants and overwhelmingly poor. The scenario is different at affluent suburban schools or the NYC private schools.

People like to complain about the lack of "fundamental" writing and mathematics capabilities among younger graduates but I haven't seen evidence of how it's hurt the larger society in the long run.

Gordon Barlow

It certainly hasn't hurt that part of society that comprises the graduates of private schools! It's a very large world that we're talking about, but in my observation a too-large proportion of government high schools' graduates in pretty much all countries are inadequate in the basic skills. Has it hurt society in the long run? Well, society always needs plenty of semi-educated serfs and low-level clerks. But to the extent that educational levels are hereditary (as welfare recipients tend to be hereditary), then, yes, I think it has hurt society as a whole.

The standard US college degree is a four-year course; the first year is often (usually? mostly?) devoted to bringing first-year students up to levels of English and math(s) that used to be expected of high-school graduates.

An interesting discussion.

Beakersful

Wildly different culture. I've only dealt with Norwegians students post-IELTS who were very intelligent and their english pretty much native (yet chose my lower uni to come study at!) Although they did tell me that a culture of 'education is uncool' is spreading across Norway and grades are lowering. When it comes to linguistic imperialism, there is also a backlash against English in a number of countries now within such crumbling education structures, and lessening L2 takeup in certain regions. Much as we hear this argument in the UAE.

Then of course, there's the genetic variables. We're all individuals, and parents ability (or non-ability) and this can skip generations. Stalin, Hitler, and even Michael Young (Rise of the Meritocracy) have raised this element with relation to ability. How parents are never happy with their kids, and kids think their parents suck. We're none of us robots!

nonthaburi

My children's first language is Thai , their second language is English and they also have a knowledge of the mother's local language Laotian . they are now learning Arabic too . They are 5 and 6 . What I found with both of them was that although they always understood English from birth it wasn't until they were about 4 years and three months that they started speaking it . This is called the silent period when children listen and absorb . It was very strange when almost overnight they started speaking to me in full sentences . I hade felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall so I was quite relieved when they did .

Meow

Read your blog? Good grief, no. Whatever for? 99% of blogs are a total waste of time, serve no purpose and the self-important, pointless witterings should remain as a personal diary.

Gordon Barlow

But if you had taken the trouble of reading the first line, you would have seen clearly that the title was ironic,and you would have saved making yourself look an asshole. Your choice, of course! The words you missed were as follows. They were addressed to my local audience.

Ahh – loose, lose, what difference does it make, eh? You know what I mean.
Confusing lose and loose happens not just in Cayman, but all over the English-speaking world. Unfortunately, the rest of the world isn’t doing anything to fix the problem, so we must fix it ourselves – if we can.

Next time, test your assumption before jumping to false conclusions. If you want to discover some of the mistakes you make in writing, feel free to read the rest of the item.