Meerkat masterpiece

You may have seen the meerkat adverts on tv. In case you live in America or somewhere equally unfortunate (in not having the meerkat ads) you can catch them on youtube. Anyway, one of my favourites is the 'Steve Smith' ad. In particular, the receptionist who is asked where Steve Smith hangs out. This is a masterpiece of acting: observe his gestures and the way he says 'Steve Smith'. It's the ultimately restrained method acting approach: totally understated. The people who devised these ads are brilliant - they don't miss a trick, even linguistic ones.

A humble day for Marbles

Jonathan May-Bowles, who apparently calls himself Johnny Marbles, has appeared in court following his conviction of assault of Rupert Murdoch. He, Marbles, said that this was 'the most humble day of my life', quoting Rupert Murdoch's words. I find it linguistically interesting when a perpetrator (it's okay, we don't need 'alleged' now that he's been convicted) uses the words of his victim: is he trying to make himself out to be less of a perpetrator and more of a victim? However, this linguistic trick does not blind me to the fact that he has tried to assault an 80 year old, which is pretty disgusting whichever way you look at it.

Phone hacking

The BBC reports that 'in an interview with the Wall Street Journal' Rupert Murdoch said he would 'establish an independent committee to investigate...improper conduct'. Reporters at the BBC are very sharp. They phrased this as an 'interview with'. They are clearly aware that when a newspaper 'interviews' its owner it is not a typical news interview. If this had been a normal interview they would have said something like 'Murdoch interviewed by the Wall Street Journal' or perhaps 'WSJ interviews Murdoch'. Full marks to the BBC for phrasing this so subtly. The use of 'with' says it all.

The cost of poor spelling

It's official. Poor spelling is costing the economy dear. Why? Because when people go onto websites to buy goods and services the first question they are concerned with is the credibility of the website. If the spelling is poor, then people do not want to buy. It's as simple as that. I blame it on so-called phonetic methods. I knew one kid who had begun to learn with the traditional 'ay bee cee' method and was then taught 'ah buh cuh duh'. He was so confused he became dyslexic. It's time to take literacy teaching out of the hands of the illiterate and start recruiting teachers who know how to spell. I'm afraid very few do. My step daughter's English teacher was a case in point: he failed to correct her spelling when it was poor and actually tried to 'correct' words which were correctly spelled. Typical of our half-literate educational establishment, I'm afraid.

What this blog is about

This blog is about my personal reaction to news stories which concern language. It is a truth universally recognised by linguists that in general politicians and civil servants understand little or nothing about how language works. This includes issues such as the need for a well funded interpreter service in our courts, the importance of teaching second and even third languages to school children, and other language related issues such as literacy, including the teaching of literacy, and bilingualism. That's it. That's what the blog is about.
Oh, and anything else to do with language that catches my interest.

SCHOOLS TURN THEIR BACK ON CURSIVE WRITING

A stealthy move by schools across over 40 states is likely to damage the  neurology of generations of school kids: the abolition of cursive  writing. Cursive writing has been around for a very long time and,  despite the protestations of the establishment that most kids nowadays  text and type, this does not make cursive writing redundant. Instead of  learning to write cursively, however, school kids will from now on  mostly be learning to PRINT! What educators do not seem to appreciate is  that when children learn to write cursively, it literally helps them to  'join the dots' between different parts of the brain, creating  essential neurolinguistic pathways which help to keep the brain healthy.  Apparently, though, cursive writing is about as popular as learning to  spell - perhaps that will be the next item off the curriculum? Judging  from one teacher's blog - she says she taught grade school for 10 years -  this may be no joke. She writes - and I quote verbatim: "...at least  half of my students have horrible handwriting that takes me forever to  decifer". Yes, 'decifer'. Can you believe that? Clearly, the Department  of Dumbing Down is in full swing. Manifsetly, education is too important to  be left in the hands of educationalists.

ABOLITION OF LIVE COURT REPORTERS

In many UK courts we will soon no longer see any sign of the court reporter. He/she will be a thing of the past. Instead, courts will make digital tape recordings of proceedings. This is a terrible move. A digital recording can never capture everything that goes on in the court room. Only a qualified person sitting there can do that. Evidently, they intend to hand the job over to typists, in the mistaken belief that a knowledge of typing is an adequate preparation for learning to capture live spoken interaction. Manifestly, the powers that be think this is going to save money. Well, maybe it will. But we will lose a great deal of what is happening in courts because of it. At the end of the day this move does not bode well for justice. It is not quite on a par with the abolition of cursive handwriting, but it comes close.