Common
English language errors need change
Eric Strand
The Latino population is on the rise. According to the 2002 government census,
Latinos make up 34.7 million of the 296 million people living in the United States.
Similarly, 30 million
native citizens in the United States speak the Spanish language. While many
Latinos are fluent in both English and Spanish, some people are concerned
Spanish will eventually become an officially recognized language in America,
in the same way French is recognized in Canada.
Those against Spanish becoming an officially recognized language contend if you
are going to live in the United States, you should learn to speak English. I
agree with this completely, but believe we should hold everyone to the same standard.
If you haven’t been around a person between the ages of 10 and 30 lately,
you may not have realized the English language is in the process of being completely
reconfigured.
Just as “Beavis and Butthead” tainted the speech patterns of our
generation in the early to mid ’90s by teaching us to describe what we
found favorable with sayings like, “uh, that’s cool,” items
such as text-based technology, reality television, a decreased awareness in education
and our very own president are teaching us more ways to turn the
English language into something dismal.
Take instant messaging for example. This text-based language has somehow found
its way into our spoken and formal written language, making phrases like “lol” common
amongst those who instant message.
These tricks pop up in e-mail as well. Now that e-mail has basically replaced
the written letter, language and formatting have gotten sloppy. Proper introductions
now consist of “yo,” or “what’s up,” while the
crude smiley face has become an actual word.
The decline can be seen in the education system as well, as teachers and professors
rarely fail students for poor grammar. This allows students to disregard proper
English so they may concentrate on areas many teachers take much more seriously,
like page length.
Similarly, a very significant amount of college students still do not know the
difference between simple words like “there” and “their.” Here’s
the trick my fifth grade teacher taught me: “there” is a place because
it ends with “here,” and “their” is possessive because
it ends with “heir.”
Reality television is another culprit, making it normal to, like, say the word “like” before
everything we say. Even in the classroom, at universities where it should be
understood semi-formal speech is expected, students, like, preface every answer
they give in class with, like, something which makes them seem very unsure of
what they are, like, saying.
And even though I hate to pick on him because he’s such an easy target,
our very own Commander in Chief has a difficult time using the English language
properly as well.
In fact, he has had such a difficult time articulating his ideas one company
was able to produce a 365 day calendar of phrases they call Bushisms. Among the
best is “We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better
do our job.”
We use words that are not words at all. “Disingenious” is not a word.
Neither is “irregardless.” But “bootylicious” is, thanks
to Destiny’s Child. This should tell us exactly who is in charge.
My point here is that if you are indeed one of the people who thinks all Spanish-speaking
people should learn the English language, first make sure you also know the English
language. We are all guilty of these mistakes.
I agree monolingual Spanish speakers should make an attempt to learn English,
but this doesn’t change the fact the Spanish language is on the rise in
America and is not going to just go away. Instead of fearing the acceptance of
Spanish, maybe we should be worrying about the dismal state of English.
This article originally appeared in the Daily Vidette at Illinois State University.
.
|
