Is expecting good grammar and/or manners racist? (speeches, Michigan, California)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
President Kennedy had quite the regional accent but it didn't seem to impede him.
I don't think it's racist to expect standardized English. We all need to understand each other. And of course job opportunities will be greatly limited with inadequate communication skills. There needs to be a standard. The perfect example is Air Traffic Control. All airline pilots must speak English all over the world. No one needs an explanation for that.
I only learned whatever grammar/spelling skills I have by incessant reading. I know something sounds wrong but I don't know why. The technicalities of grammar went over my head....
As someone else said, when I see a post with no paragraphs, capitalization, punctuation---I just don't read it. I feel the poster is saying they don't need to bother with those "niceties" so I don't bother to read them.
Take into consideration that this apparently happened at an elite college, Amherst College. I used to live close by. The place is not normal--when I lived there Prince Albert of Monaco was attending.
Just so people know historically many persons went very far in their professional careers with bad grammar/English usage.
Here's a "fact" that certainly doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny.
If you use poor grammar and use improper words to describe things, you have lousy communication skills and you are failing to make yourself understood. That will stall most professional careers. You have to be an order of magnitude better than everyone else in everything else to overcome it.
In general, poor grammar labels you as being poorly educated. If you can't construct a coherent and grammatically correct paragraph, it's not much of a leap to assume that you don't have math skills, adequate reading comprehension, or a heck of a lot of intellectual capacity, either.
I might cut an English as second language job applicant some slack on their grammar but it's going to raise red flags if I'm looking at the resume of a US citizen.
Although (sniff), I do miss saying "I'll have a slice of pizzer and a soder" when ordering lunch with my co-workers .
My Dad was brought up in Dawchestah, my Mom in Mefud, or as I pronounce it, Medfud.
Every Saturday my friend and I would walk down to the North End from where we lived, Beacon Hill, and order pizzah and a sodah. Accents within accents. I can tell a person from Southie the minute they open their mouth and speak.
Down here in SW Florida I hear lots of atrocious grammar, mostly with hillbilly accents behind it. Not that I am an elitist, yeah right! I most certainly am and proud of the fact that I DO have good grammar AND manners. Speaking of manners, I am always blown away by how gentlemanly men are down here. Women are more manners too.
I have been noticing even spell check can be wrong. "Sh*t in, sh*t out" is the old, very true saying.
I watched most of it. This is ludicrous (says this liberal.)
Take into consideration that this apparently happened at an elite college, Amherst College. I used to live close by. The place is not normal--when I lived there Prince Albert of Monaco was attending. Elite enough? NOT a normal place. Most liberals roll their eyes at places like this.
So don't assume that we liberals are really like these idiots. These are EXTREMISTS.
I will not judge all conservatives by their extreme idiot wing so do not judge liberals by their extreme idiot wing either.
I think a balanced approach is wisest. My mother made me speak correctly--and I do sometimes cringe if someone says "ain't" or "He don't". It's not to the person's advantage to speak that way though. I keep quiet because it's rude to correct them, but their poor grammar may negatively reflect my opinion of them and I may not value what they say as much as I would a person who speaks correct English.
There's something called standard English--it's best if people learn it. Better for them if they wish to be respected and better for all because all of us need to communicate.
I think you're poorly informed. My dad did his undergrad at Amherst College. My sister did a year of undergrad there the first year they went co-ed in 1975. Amherst College is pretty much the most selective school on the planet. Any undergrad admitted there is pretty much top in their high school graduating class, had top-1% SAT scores, and had to submit writing samples with flawless grammar. Any college prof at Amherst is going to expect proper grammar out of their students.
That video clip shows a rant from a social justice warrior who likely does not attend Amherst College. Across town, you have the monster UMass-Amherst state university. Amherst College doesn't stop UMass students or the community at large from poking their nose into these kinds of events. Amherst College grads largely go on to professional schools (medical, dental, law) or graduate school. Most end up as top-5% career earners. They may be politically liberal in the sense that they acknowledge that most of the population doesn't have their intellectual, societal, and educational advantage but you're not going to find many social justice warriors on that particular campus.
...
I might cut an English as second language job applicant some slack on their grammar but it's going to raise red flags if I'm looking at the resume of a US citizen.
And I think that's fair.
When hiring teachers, some would come in for an initial interview wearing worn jeans, sandals, and polo shirts. Sometimes unshaven or otherwise unkempt. I would think -- if that's how they're dressing to impress in an interview, what will they be like every regular day.
I think you're poorly informed. My dad did his undergrad at Amherst College. My sister did a year of undergrad there the first year they went co-ed in 1975. Amherst College is pretty much the most selective school on the planet. Any undergrad admitted there is pretty much top in their high school graduating class, had top-1% SAT scores, and had to submit writing samples with flawless grammar. Any college prof at Amherst is going to expect proper grammar out of their students.
That video clip shows a rant from a social justice warrior who likely does not attend Amherst College. Across town, you have the monster UMass-Amherst state university. Amherst College doesn't stop UMass students or the community at large from poking their nose into these kinds of events. Amherst College grads largely go on to professional schools (medical, dental, law) or graduate school. Most end up as top-5% career earners. They may be politically liberal in the sense that they acknowledge that most of the population doesn't have their intellectual, societal, and educational advantage but you're not going to find many social justice warriors on that particular campus.
Wow. As a UMass-Amherst low life graduate that poked my nose into Amherst College's precious campus events in the early 90's, I can say that there were certainly some over privileged students that would make a scene like that just because they could, and I think these types of "protests" on campus have only gotten worse in the past few years. Comparing Amherst in the 70's to now isn't a fair comparison. You could have made your point without the disparaging remark. And Amherst as "pretty much the most selective school on the planet"? I think the students at MIT, Harvard, Cal Berkeley, MIT, Yale, Stanford, UPenn, Brown, Duke, etc. would disagree. The most recent rankings have Amherst at #20, not exactly #1. And plenty of UMass-Amhert grads have incomes well into the top 5%, gasp even the 1%.
Correcting someone's grammar outside of perhaps school, being their parent/guardian or some such is just rude, not necessarily racist.
I've told this tale before, but here goes:
Young southern girl is very excited about going to college in the north. On moving in day she meets her roommate; a cool northern girl.
Southern girl: Hi! Where y'all from?
Northern girl responds coldly: Where I am "from" we do not end out sentences with prepositions.
Southern girl looks hurt and confused for a moment, then replies: I'm sorry, where y'all from, B**th!
This story or a variation has been used by English teachers/professors for decades to shoot down grammar Nazis.
My previous comment about employment situations not withstanding, I only correct children in my charge, and perhaps every now and then friends or acquaintances when they do something often enough to get on my nerves, and or should no better. Use of "irregardless" is one of those moments.
was that on purpose ?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
Accents within accents. I can tell a person from Southie the minute they open their mouth and speak. 
