11 of March 2004
English Language Versus Slang
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3501356.stm
I couldn't help but offer my opinion on this subject after Stuii blogged his views.
Yes there are problems with the way people speak. Yes it may prevent some people from getting jobs. But what I find surprising is that people are behaving as if this is some sort of national crisis. I am somewhat dumbstruck that it is assumed that everybody in the country has to be in a high paid desk job. That simply isn't the case. In fact it is an impossible scenario.
If people choose to use such ridiculous language as
"what g'wan" and
"allow me a brown"
in a job interview situation then they get everything that is coming to them. These people clearly should not be applying for jobs that require them to speak if they can not make the effort to speak normally for one half hour interview. Let's be honest here, the people that say these things could speak correctly - or at least a lot better - if they tried, but they choose to talk like that and therefore they don't deserve to get the jobs.
"The key purpose of state education is to provide children of all backgrounds with a basic grasp of written and spoken English.
"If that is not happening then the system is failing them."
Personally I couldn't agree more. From what I've seen of the system it is failing in many ways. The reason why...? Because the system has become so polluted with red tape that teachers have less rights than the kids. If a kid doesn't want to learn then the kid won't learn no matter what. And of course the government feel that this is the correct approach, and are planning to impose the same restrictions on parents too.
When I was a kid I was lactose intolerant, so the obvious solution is to feed me Soya milk right? Wrong. I was also allergic to Soya. So I wasn't getting my calcium intake, which meant that from the ages of about 5 until 10 I was forced to drink the nastiest tasting soluable calcium tablets. If I'd had my way I wouldn't have drank the stuff. But I didn't have my way.
My point is that these kids are being given freedom by the government far too early and therefore they are taking control of their lives at an age where they are unable to sensibly control it. That is the reason that the system is failing.
Anyway, rant over. I'm off to get a drink and then a haircut.