Correct English

[Rodney Mills]

Yes John, I do believe UCL school was in Woowich.

Here in the U.S. one is usually eighteen when he/she completes grade twelve. Sure some can be shuffled along—as I was in England, but to enter university here you must have good grades. To enter the twenty or so of the top universities the student must have near perfect grades, even then he or she may not make it in. The five years of grade catch-up (grades 7-12) I did, using my wife's student and teachers books was not easy, so poorly formally educated was I.

The Two years of university English I did was under the auspices of the University of Arizona. I had to write a paper as to why I wanted to enter the program...It was bloody tough...and I was given credit for work experience.

I studied five hours a day, six days a week on the course, and three years of the same doing the high school work. Had I been attending school going for a B.A. I would not have had that luxury, I would have had additionally 'to carry a load,' quite a few other subjects to study at the same time...then, my brains ain't nineteen years old either.

With jobs for the unskilled or uneducated nonexistent or minimal in quantity in this day and age, the level of education demanded of applicants by employers makes a bachelors degree about the same level as one who completed high school in my time. To even consider making a decent income today it's a masters degree.

I remember when I was a kid, the old f@#ts saying all that "When I was young, blah, blah, blah" and I swore when I was an old f@#t I wouldn't condemn the generation coming up collectively. I'm not talking about 'yobs' I'm talking about the decent youths that today have to understand the intricacies of computers, not just to play games on, but to manufacture with. There's robotics in the factories not sweat labor, and they must be serviced and operated plus the millions of items that didn't exist when I was a kid.

My next promise to myself was that I would never say "We have to send the troops in to... (pick a country)..." . Bugger them, I didn't want to get my butt shot off then and I don't want any of my three sons or grandsons to get their butts shot off today. We (the U.S.) are attacked then it's defend ourselves, but I didn't raise three sons to have them used as cannon fodder to save any other country.

Not meaning to rant, but what the heck, I'm out of school.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Like many here I too only went to what was then Std 6 that was then still four Years away from Matric as it was called or STD 10.
Cheers

HI Vernon.
We had teachers who could do the job properly in those days, if you didn't pay attention that was our fault, most of today's teachers wouldn't have got a job then. Just watch the nightly quiz shows, many teachers on there who are ignorant.
Cheers Des

[john walker]

I also like many on here left school at 15, with a very poor standard of education. This was not the fault of the school I attended nor the teachers that tried to teach me. It was my own lack of interest and my own attitude towards school. My parents warned me that if I wished to 'Get a good job and have a good career' Then I would need to sit my GCSE exams. I did not bother, I wonder if that is the same with the present generation. I think that we were a lot more fortunate than the present generation, as at the time (Mid 1960's) There was just about full employment in the U.K. and employers did not expect you to have a long list of academic qualifications. Eventually I went to sea as a galley boy. I do not think that at the time I intended to make a career out of the M.N. I only liked the idea of the travel and to get paid for it. We were also fortunate that if you had the right attitude promotion was possible by gaining the correct certification and getting paid by the shipowner to do that. There was also access to things like the Seafarers Education Service and College of the Sea. I would hazard a guess that those on here who are of a similar age probably have never read so many books as they did in their youth on board ship. Either supplied by the Seafarers library service or purchased or swapped in various ports around the world All that reading was an education in itself . I also like Rodney went on to work in management in the Middle East/Africa and eventually I also gained a degree. I am a Cockney by birth my 'Gor Blimey' accent has mellowed,. my punctuation is still poor but none of those things has stopped me from having an enjoyable career. As an afterthought how many homes of friends and family do you visit where there is not even a book in sight, be it a paperback novel, encyclopaedia, dictionary, atlas or whatever. Yet there is always a t.v and this seems to have become the modern form of entertainment and education.

[happy daze john in oz]

One of the problem encountered at Uni is the students who do not want to be there. Many would be better in vocational education learning a trade. But sadly they are brain washed by parents, grand parents and school principals who say that without a degree they will be nothing. I have seen students struggle as iot was not what they wanted but did not want to let their peers down. Sadly many did.

[gray_marian]

#1, Another two John.

When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it’s true
We say so and sew and few.
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of comb, tomb and bomb
Doll and roll or home and some.
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone –
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sound and letters don’t agree!





ENGLISH- A Dreadful Language to Learn?

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it’s said like bed not bead –
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not moth in mother
Nor both in bother, broth in brother
And here is not a match for there
Nor fear and dear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose -
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword
And do and go and thwart and cart –
Come! Come! – I’ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I’d mastered it when I was five!

[happy daze john in oz]

Here in Oz there are many variations of the 'English' language.
A town named Moe is pronounced mo- e not like hoe as you would expect.

The suburb of Eltham is not pronounced Elt ham but El tham.

Then we have the color Marroon pronounced morone.

We do not take a route we take a rout as a route is pronounced the same as root which as we know is like the Wombat, eats roots and leaves. I will leave that to your imagination.

[Jim Brady]

Little Tommy says to the teacher miss I've got no pencil.TUT TUT said the teacher Tommy it is please miss I do not have a pencil,Mary has not got a pencil,Jimmy has not got a pencil and they have not got a pencil.Well who the f***** hell has got all the pencils asks Tommy.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[j.sabourn]

Je ne comprehend pas, tu parlez vous francais, avez vous (straight) bananas. Bon Voyage Monsieur. JS

[Doc Vernon]

C'est la voie est parfois difficile de comprendre quelque chose

[j.sabourn]

Ya Mein Herr. JS Quanto Costa Para-Nacha. JS All good practice for coming years in the Euro. Brian is the linguist for the Arabian languages. JS