(no subject)

[fpb]

I just had the depressing experience of trying to correct an adult who did not know the meaning of noun, verb, and conjugation, without sounding snotty. What the Hell do they teach people in schools, if adults don't know the difference between a noun and a verb?

Comments

Pride

[sanscouronne.livejournal.com]

People are just too darned sensitive, and feel personally affronted when others try to salvage the English language.
I do not know if it is an English-speaking world phenomenon to be so flippant about grammar, spelling, etc., but it's a pity to see such a rich language abused by those who should know better.

In France, by contrast, people never hesitated to correct my grammatical errors or defects in pronunciation. I was told by my professor that this is actually a sign of goodwill from the French, in addition to being part of a culture of respect towards the language. In any event, I was VERY grateful to be corrected.

Inferior education, in most cases, is not a sufficient excuse for such errors in one's native language, and we would all benefit by constantly correcting one another.