Grammar Utilization

One of the things that has a tendency to bother me more and more these days is improper grammar and spelling. Now I’m human, and I make mistakes like every couple years or so, and that’s fine. A mistake is a mistake; I’m not worried about that. What I am talking about is the blatant disregard for what makes our language function properly.

I think one of the reasons I was able to learn Japanese so quickly (besides me just being amazing in general… and I guess the gift of tongues or something…) is because it makes so much sense. Sure there are a lot of rules, and it is very different when compared to English, but the language on the whole just makes logical sense. There are so few exceptions, everything has a place and an order, and everyone seemed to follow the rules. Rules are good; they help us to understand each other. Sure sometimes they are a pain, and sometimes you can skirt around them a bit, but for the most part, I think they should be followed

Let’s list just a few of the problems I see commonly around today:
Confusion over “you’re” and “your”
Improper/Misunderstood contractions i.e. “Could have” turns into “could’ve”, not “could of”
“teh.” Don’t even get me started on that one
Apostrophes. Oh boy, apostrophes.
I’m sure there are so many, many more that escape me at the moment.

The biggest issue I have is when people just don’t seem to care. These are the people who throw everything out the window when it comes to writing. People that are fully capable of proper grammar utilization that just don’t care to follow the rules. No capitalization. Hardly any (if any) punctuation. “teh” again. These people are slowly tourturing and/or killing the English language and everything that makes it great (you know, as great as it is… which may not be so great actually). Let’s liken this kind of writer to a drunk driver. They know what they should be doing, but they just don’t care, even if it hurts themselves or others. Sometimes this is so painful to read that I just don’t. If you couldn’t be bothered to communicate effectively, why should I be bothered to read it?

Sometimes slang or speech mannerisms just don’t fit into all the grammar rules, but that’s not that big of a deal (I have a tendency to write how I speak, and I don’t always speak with proper grammar, but at least I’m close).Let’s call that changing lanes without signaling when you have a big gap and traffic is light. It’s not a great idea necessarily, but you can get away with it. Since I do this one myself, we’ll let this one slide, for now.

A lot of times people just don’t know any better, and that’s ok I guess (but they should at least try). These people are like student drivers. They’re bad just because they can’t really help it. With a little help and some practice I’m sure they could do better, as long as they are willing to put in the effort. This is often painful to watch and you can’t help but cringe sometimes, but we were all there at one point or another, so we can forgive so long as you try better next time.

Every now and again someone will poke fun of me for almost always using proper grammar and in general refusing to abbreviate, even over chat or text. Now while these mediums may be some of the few acceptable places to throw some of the rules out the window, I just don’t like to. I would always prefer to take those extra few seconds to make sure that I am understood, even if doing so results in a second text message, or a longer gap in my chats.

Effective communication. I’m all about it.