Does anyone realize how bad our spelling has gotten in the last

[glowing]

6.5 years due to an idiot who can't talk? There isn't a thread about dubya that doesn't contain spelling snafu's. Not to worry, heh, heh, heh... His reign of idiocity is almost over.

[mwb970]

1. Many Americans cannot speak or write proper English.

This is a dumbing-down trend that long pre-dated the Chimp. He is an effect, not a cause.

People don't read any more. They have thus not seen correctly spelled words often enough to have learned them, so they guess. English being English, they generally guess wrong, and end up looking like idiots to the 10% who detect the error.

[alcibiades_mystery]

32. I can show you treatises on English education making the same claim

from every single decade in the history of the Republic.

[NashVegas]

2. What Do You Mean, "Our"?

;)

[glowing]

7. I meant that trying to spell all dubya's dumb ass words and made-up

words. I wonder how the journalists can make it through a press conference without laughing or how many editor's shake their heads as they have to press ignore on their spell checkers.

[malaise]

8. I hope so

What exactly is idiocity?

[glowing]

10. see... I'm even coining words myself these days....

[malaise]

11. LOL n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. A bu$hism?

:shrug:

[karlrschneider]

20. Urban stupidity?

:D

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

40. Idiocity? It's the driving force behind idiocracy.

I'm not sure how much education we give our kids, and how much we just condition and prepare them to score well on standardized tests.

Time will tell whether that's an improvement over the past.

We may be headed toward idiocracy, or we may be there now, with our chimp-in-chief.

Anyway, spelling is slowly being replaced by "texting", even in informal business communication.

[HereSince1628]

3. Di you reely think that Cheney will hand over the sock puppet in 09?

I don't.

The guy is blessed with the sociopathic Deadly Duo of dominator & authoritarian personality traits. The only thing he has ever wanted is to be in control and have it his way.

I have some doubt that January 09 will see a peaceful exchange of the reins of power.

[MissWaverly]

4. Ha, not on here

We can have a country were torture is tolerated, secret renditions, warrantless wiretaps, stolen elections and yet one word misspelled on here is enough to bring fiery castigation by the word police.

[napi21]

5. I've noticed, but I can't blame THIS ONE on Shrub!

I enjoy playing some of the games on POGO like bowling, tumble bees etc. and each game has a chat pane along the right side for gamers to chat with each other. Some of the speelling on there is TERRIBLE! I don't mean typos, but so many people typing the words as they speak them, and they don't do a great job of that either!

I used to blame it on the schools not teaching phonics, but I thought they went back to that and things haven't improved!

[glowing]

9. I suppose I should have clarified... I meant trying to re-spell the words

he mumbles and rambles and makes up. I think the spelling here is far better than most forums... of course, if you are here, you are most likely better schooled in using that thing on top of your shoulders

[Clark2008]

14. Maybe they ARE spelling phonetically, and that's why their spelling

sucks.

The English language is rife with odd spellings for something that sounds simple. One could easily think it's "telefone," and not "telephone." Or "thru" for "through."

I've heard from foreigners that learning to spell in English is much harder than learning to speak it.

[napi21]

15. Maybe, but that wasn't the case in the past, and the spelling of

telephone hasn't changed! Do they still teach spelling in grade school? I remember haveing a list of words I had to study every night for spelling class the next day.

[MedleyMisty]

27. Nope.

Fourth grade (or maybe third) was the last year spelling was taught in my school district. At the end of the year they had piles of spelling books and were giving them away free. I don't mean that spelling wasn't taught past that grade - I mean that was the last year it was taught at all.

It was the late 80s, during Reagan.

[alcibiades_mystery]

38. Did they include "haveing" spelled with an "e"?

:rofl:

[bumblebee1]

25. In English, one word can be spelled different ways.

I remember a friend of nome whose family emigrated from Ukraine by way of Austria. She was talking about her father and his struggles with English. One of the words he has trouble with was "aisle." Aisle and isle sound the same but are both spelled differently. They also mean two different things.

[mwb970]

37. You remind me of the quote from Andrew Jackson.

"It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word"
- Andrew Jackson

[old guy]

28. Guilty.

I use thru as it saves time typing. Guess I won't anymore.

[Occulus]

29. I've always thought it was BCAUSE schools teach spelling by phonics

Lots of people don't seem to know that they're and there and their are three different words with three different meanings. Same thing for lose and loose- and I'm 98% certain that one is because they both have an "ooo" sound in them, and "all 'ooo' sounds have two o's".

I guess my point is, if we teach spelling by how words sound, people will spell incorrectly. Words aren't always spelled the way they sound in English, and I'm getting the impression that that fact is being glossed over.

Whose and who's are two more. Then there's the use of the apostrophe, but that's a separate issue.

[jimshoes]

6. Are you Series?

This is hugh. On the other hand, sometimes even a well thought out post loses some luster when a word is spelled wrong, but it usually doesn't detract from the author's meaning. Oh, and thank god for spell check.

[NoPasaran]

12. Don't go casting asparagus at our linguistocratic combonaroos!

[VP505]

16. Is that supposed to

be some kind of suppository remark???

[Clark2008]

13. A lot of it has to do with Internet Speak, as well.

People typing "u" for "you" and using acronyms for most everything. Some 'Net Speak makes me cringe, it's so bad.

I never was a fantastic speller, despite being a communications major and English minor, but I did know how to use spell-check.

[soothsayer]

17. I was an excellent speller pre-spellcheck; it's made me lazy

[mmonk]

18. Whut r u talking abowt?

[book_worm]

21. Actually "our" handwriting has gotten pretty shabby too because of computers

people don't write anymore and send letters--they send e-mails. By not writing the way we used to our handwriting just isn't what it used to be.

[Bluebear]

22. "Snafu's" what?

Or did you mean "snafus"? :)

[Bitwit1234]

23. I have to admit

even in school I couldn't spell very well. But then I went to word processors and they have spell check. If you are close to the word it does it for you. And I love my word perfect. They even have a thesaurus and if you use one word too much you can look up another right on the spot. You type type type away and don't even have to hit the return button.

[datasuspect]

24. "the english language will become a patois of gang slang, hillbilly, and hip hop"

we ARE idiocracy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2izZYZVhEA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDRNc-SLos

[alcibiades_mystery]

33. Since these are remarkably creative linguistic communities

I can only hope that you are correct.

[Hubert Flottz]

26. Wee Doo Bedder then booosh

[chaska]

30. Your right. There dumber than a box a rocks. Bunch a loosers...

I think it's very unique to say that we're different than anybody else on that front. (personal pet peeves: 'Very unique' is very rong English. It's either unique or it isn't, never 'very unique'. And it's 'different from', not different than)

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. Are you attributing "bad" spelling to George Bush?

:shrug:

I stand amazed.

[Bluerthanblue]

34. funny, i

just posted a * quote this morning, and when i checked the spelling, it wasn't one of my words it stopped on - but his.

I'm a terrible speller. *'s grammar and 'mis-speaks' make me look literate though.

:hi:

[JacquesMolay]

35. I thought that was 'speling'

I didn't realize it had two l's.

[Rosemary2205]

36. We can't blame GWB.

In the old days before spellcheck I had to use a dictionary when I wrote anything important. And on anything that matters I go to great lengths to proofread my typing. I am constantly amazed at how bad professional writing is sometimes. At least once per newscast there is an on-screen typo or the wrong info. Pamphlets we get at work from the Federal government are the worst, but it was already getting bad before GWB. Over the last 10 years I've had quite a bit to do with Federal employees and have noticed the majority seem to be people who's first language is not English. I have to wonder if that has anything to do with it, along with the fact fewer people take personal pride in their work.

On the BBS I could care less. To me this is a conversation not a college exam. As long as I get it down well enough for others to understand my ideas then I succeeded in communicating.

[Cha]

39. Sorry, don't buy that...I don't

let that shit-for-brains dictate how I talk, write, and spell.

We're not that easily brainwashed by the backward man-ape. If anything it should make people appreciate how well they can speak in complete sentences.

[Bucky]

41. Capitalize "Dubya" since it's a proper noun. Don't use apostrophe-S for plurals.

And when a number is at the beginning of a sentence, you should spell it out ("Six-point-five" instead of "6.5").