Grammar, spelling, and other language skills in the 21st century

By the way, to give you some indication of how far this snobbery can go, my wife and I lived half our lives in Texas. Every time we went to a restaurant the wait staff would greet us by saying something like "How are y'all tonight" and "What can I get for y'all". If you hadn't guess, "Y'all" is a contraction for "You all". However, we often saw people writing it out as "Ya'll", which made absolutely sense to us al all. What is that a contraction for? "Ya will"?

Now obviously, "Y'all" isn't a word at all... but my pedantic nature simply won't accept the improper punctuation of this non-word!!! :)
 
Proper writing skills are as important as they ever were.

Thank you. To accept less is to continue down this road of social degradation upon which we find ourselves.
There is absolutely no reason to accept poor and/or lacking basic skills.
20 year old at the movies, the other day, couldn't even make change for me.
Is that an example of what we're pumping out the end of our educational system these days?
We're screwed.
 
I'm reminded of an incident a few years ago.
I lived in a shared house with a mate of mine and at the time a Korean guy.
Young Soon could speak English as taught in Korean schools. More than adequate but not enough to fully understand the subtlety of the
Australian(aussie) tongue.
Phil the fireman(firey) came to visit one afternoon(arvo).
"Lets go drink some piss!"(beer) shouted Phil.
Off we went.
A couple of days later Young Soon approached me with a disturbed expression on his face.
"Jon,why do you and Phil go to drink...urine?" he asked earnestly.
I could see that he was struggling with this disgraceful concept.
It was then that we embarked on his enlightenment and taught him to speak strine(Australian).
 
I have a heavily accented Alabama cousin, who was an English teacher. Our mothers were sisters and both were English teachers. When we would talk, she would always start with "How's Y'all."
I would answer, "I have a sloop, and it is fine." We would both laugh, and she would turn off the Southern speak.
 
To slide to the next door topic that has bugged me for 25 years, what is the general feeling about cursive handwriting? Related to grammar issues exacerbated by digital shorthand, longhand writing has gone the wayside. Why is it still taught in schools? So people can sign their name. Strangely enough, keyboarding isn't taught until junior high school. Luckily, voice recognition is still progressing and eventually will completely replace the keyboard in the future! Seriously though, is it lazy to say LMFAO into the voice recognition?

For what it's worth, I haven't texted since I quit using ICQ 10 years ago.
 
To slide to the next door topic that has bugged me for 25 years, what is the general feeling about cursive handwriting? Related to grammar issues exacerbated by digital shorthand, longhand writing has gone the wayside. Why is it still taught in schools? So people can sign their name. Strangely enough, keyboarding isn't taught until junior high school. Luckily, voice recognition is still progressing and eventually will completely replace the keyboard in the future! Seriously though, is it lazy to say LMFAO into the voice recognition?

For what it's worth, I haven't texted since I quit using ICQ 10 years ago.

Handwriting still matters. I called the service company and they sent a man out to repair a dryer. He left a note: “Problem with the breather.” Okay. I didn’t know dryers had a part named breather, but I’m no expert.

It was only when I called the company that I discovered the mechanic thought he had written, “Problem with the breaker.”

Other consideration aside, you may need to take notes when your computer crashes.

I taught myself Italic years ago. It’s easy to write. It’s easy to read. It’s a pretty script.
 
I received a letter written in pencil, very poor handwriting, letters facing the wrong way spelling beyond me - but 5 pages long, written on both sides. I could not begin to make it out. I thought of this this thread and was about to toss the letter, but decided someone had worked very hard on it.

I had my present woman who has worked with "special kids" in a state ran outfit. She looked at it and called it for what it was, written by an individual who was dyslexic. She translated it into her own handwriting and it turned out she was correct.

He asked some very good questions, is employed and very well paid as a top machinist in a company, doing research and highly intelligent. He included his phone number, I called him and we had a very motivating conversation.

I am pretty bashful about my initial reaction to his letter and am thankful that I had someone who could help me out. It is the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover" that applies. I also have have hopes for the style of communication we learned and have trouble with the new style of some. Usually I simply ask them to try to explain their abbreviations for my benefit. Sometimes my method works and sometimes it does not. While it may be aggravating me personally, for some it is important to let them know we are interested in their thoughts and try to work with them.

Another killer is translations via computer from one language to another.
 
Another killer is translations via computer from one language to another.

It’s an old story, perhaps apocryphal. In the early sixties the CIA was looking at a translation program, English to Russian. They entered the English phrase, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” The Russian translation read, “The vodka is good but the meat is rotten.”
 
By the way, to give you some indication of how far this snobbery can go, my wife and I lived half our lives in Texas. Every time we went to a restaurant the wait staff would greet us by saying something like "How are y'all tonight" and "What can I get for y'all". If you hadn't guess, "Y'all" is a contraction for "You all". However, we often saw people writing it out as "Ya'll", which made absolutely sense to us al all. What is that a contraction for? "Ya will"?

Now obviously, "Y'all" isn't a word at all... but my pedantic nature simply won't accept the improper punctuation of this non-word!!! :)
Now this post makes absolutely sense to us al all to. Cause I hadn't guess what "Y'all" meaned.

Word.
 
I can't stand it when people say "same difference".

My father regularily screws up the english language. Like when my daughter wore a pretty dress and he called her "the ball of the dance". Or when his eye doctor told him he had "macular conception". He also doesn't believe in "prenatal sex before marriage" and loves a good "quarter horse steak".

All true... I can't make this stuff up... I should have wrote a book.

Hey man don't knock those "Quarter horse steaks". It's now legal to serve horse meat in the U.S. They might be the new Black Angus.:D
 
Its a good thing you guys dont live in rural Appalachia..You would kill yourelves within a week:D
 
O remembered another pet peeve.... "quinch". What kind of earl you quinch your steel in, ya'll?
 
Its a good thing you guys dont live in rural Appalachia..You would kill yourelves within a week:D
Yeah, or watch an episode of swamp people and their brain would flip over trying to find some logical explanation of the universe.
 
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