I swap with Swap-bot!This one was a swap I really enjoyed! Being a former 8th grade English teacher, I have seen such horrors in grammar that would give any sane person nightmares.
The back of the postcard must have a friendly greeting or anecdote, and be full of grammar errors ... phonetic spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. As for the front of the postcard: anything goes. Senders choice.
Ooo, the former English teacher in me is going nuts right about now!!! This reminds me of a few good books and one of my favorite bumper stickers.
I will now share with you some of my favorites. These first ones are books by Lynne Truss. The pics are from her website, go check it out!
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!
Aaaand a bumper sticker, courtesy of facebook.
The card I sent, sadly, will not be depicted here because I'm moving and I forgot to scan it before sending it out. Trust me, though, it had plenty of "grammer airs."
Here's what I got in return:
And the back:
Hi jenny-
Sea that u were a farmer english teacher. I are sure u have many humerus storys from the daz in your classroom! Like most whom teach u could probably right a book.
Do u mess teaching at all.
This is a postcard I baught while on a mini-vacation with my honie last month over to the panhandle of florida along the golf of mexaco four a short stay of too nites. It was verry party!!
This postcard is verry hard to right.
Sallie
Personally, I would have added more inappropriate uses of you're/your and more incomplete sentences, but this was pretty good. I found mine hard to write, as well. I kept messing up and writing properly! Can't spot all the mistakes? Here, I'll help you out:
Hi jenny-
Sea that u were a farmer english teacher. I are sure u have many humerus storys from the daze in your classroom! Like most whom teach u could probably right a book.
Do u mess teaching at all.
This is a postcard I baught while on a mini-vacation with my honie last month over to the panhandle of florida along the golf of mexaco four a short stay of too nites. It was verry party!!
This postcard is verry hard to right.
Sallie
Not sure why some of them are wrong? Then you need to go back to 8th grade. Here, let me translate for you:
Hi Jenny,
I see that you were a former English teacher. I am sure you have many humorous stories from the days in your classroom! Like most who teach, you could probably write a book.
Do you miss teaching at all?
This is a postcard I bought while on a mini-vacation with my honey last month, over to the panhandle of Florida, along the Gulf of Mexico for a short stay of two nights. It was very pretty!
This postcard is very hard to write.
Sallie
Just call me the Grammar Nazi! :)
4 comments:
For serious, there are people who post in my online classes--finished papers, online required discussion posts, etc..--that write and spell that exact same way! Do you think it's because of texting abbreviations? Lack of a red pencil when correcting spelling papers? Lack of spelling tests every week? Relying on Spell Check in Word too much (let me tell you--it misses a lot!)?
At any rate, it drives me crazy. I love the highlighted postcard that was then corrected!
Hurray for proper grammar!
Hahaha Jen! It's not because they text that they write and spell incorrectly. Do you want the sociological answer or the short answer? How about both?
Short answer: People are dumb-asses. They are such dumb-asses that they don't even know when they are being dumb-asses.
Long answer: Mandatory public education and lack of social mores has resulted in the dumbing-down of America, most commonly seen by myself in the classroom where it is more socially acceptable to be good at football than good at math. In our schools, every child gets praise for what they do, and that is right, in my opinion. But what they do not get is the motivation for developing intelligence further than what they have. In China, for example, if you are not intelligent enough, you don't get to go to high school. Harsh, but effective. And we wonder why China is so far ahead of the U.S. in intelligence and test scores? Blaaaaaah. There, now you have heard my sociological and political rant on mandatory public education in America. I'm glad we had this little chat. ;)
Feel free to put sociological and political rants on my blog ANYTIME. I agree with you, China's methods are harsh but EFFECTIVE!!!
My kid thinks I'm mean because I insist on legible handwriting and correct spelling. I say he will be glad one day he isn't embarrassing himself in public.
Ivy and I play spelling games..ALL DAY LONG. She will know how to spell properly before she gets to school. GOD I miss the red marking pen! It was always humiliating to get a paper back full of red marks, but for me, I'm such a nerd it was inspiring to try better and prove I could do well without being discouraging. Damn sensitivity to everyone's feelings, these days.
This is scattered but I can follow up on it later. I'm being harassed about popcorn right now, by a tiny 3.5 year old dictator.
:)
Yay! You're providing our country with two literate children! Go Jen!
Post a Comment