It's painful enough watching the local evening news

[Mosiah]

as John Public struggles through the intricacies of the English language. From hand cart vendor, to high school student, to athlete, to school principal, to coach, they all take turns trying to put a decent sentence together, only to eventually say, screw dat, mi a go talk di way mi waan talk before mi bite off mi tongue!

So, when the person charged with the responsibility of keeping the nation safe, to rid the streets of the wicked and the violent, kept saying voilence, a word that does not exist in any language i know, it was indeed a cringe moment, several of them. And he did this over and over again at a meeting attended by all manners of persons and fellow guest speakers who seemed to overpronounce the word correctly, as if to be nudging the minister, saying, this is how the word is pronounced.

Ruel and Floyd have dem work cut out!

[Karl]

Majoring in the minor?

...I think Islandman and Don1 would say the fear should be directed at: What happens when the already underway 3rd Wave hits and our country with an huge unemployment rate undergoes massive displacement in our waaaay too tiny job market? ...and the way the world turns Jamaica shall be in turmoil if all our citizens are not dragged to view what is coming and dragged to aggressively change to meet that oncoming 3rd Wave.

Yuh kno its not dissimilar to a football match...how it unfolds and how results are tied to how a TEAM adapts to meet future challenges as the life of the game progresses.

[Mosiah]

Majoring in the minor?

Perhaps! But I must admit, I have absolutely no confidence in persons who should know better sounding like any random person with a mic on Wat a Gwaan.

[Reggaedoc]

as John Public struggles through the intricacies of the English language. From hand cart vendor, to high school student, to athlete, to school principal, to coach, they all take turns trying to put a decent sentence together, only to eventually say, screw dat, mi a go talk di way mi waan talk before mi bite off mi tongue!

So, when the person charged with the responsibility of keeping the nation safe, to rid the streets of the wicked and the violent, kept saying voilence, a word that does not exist in any language i know, it was indeed a cringe moment, several of them. And he did this over and over again at a meeting attended by all manners of persons and fellow guest speakers who seemed to overpronounce the word correctly, as if to be nudging the minister, saying, this is how the word is pronounced.

Ruel and Floyd have dem work cut out!

Very embarrassing indeed. I will never forget during the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake when they did man-in-the-street interviews in both Haiti and Jamaica, and the Haitians invariably spoke better English than the Jamaicans. I am still trying to wrap my brain around that.

[Mosiah]

The entire world speaks better English than we do!

And we cry bloody hell when anyone suggests changing the pedagogy of English, especially if it involves the use of our native tongue, Patwah.

Well, let's see what else we can do, or should we just continue doing the same thing we have been doing since slaves were allowed to read yet expecting different results?

[Islandman]

It is VERY difficult for someone to correct those types of liguistic challenges after you are an adult. I think we have all known some very bright people who just didn't learn to speak standard English while growing up, and it always seems to be a constant struggle for them as an adult.

As has been said here many times, our educational system needs to take the position that English is not the first language of the majority of our citizens.

[Mosiah]

As has been said here many times, our educational system needs to take the position that English is not the first language of the majority of our citizens.

It has been said on numerous occasions but I don't think it's a majority viewpoint.

[Karl]

Definitely something that must be addressed as speaking, writing and understanding are intricately bound.

Not unmindful that being execellent in those areas
also directly impact how recognition of environs and situations is processed, conclusions drawn, solutions and actual actions are taken. So yes, it is important to our Jamaica future...but do you think greater emphasis should be placed on Islandman and Don1 pet areas within STEM Education?

[Mosiah]

You like to say we can multitask, nuh true?

Well, let's multitask here as well. I'm not sure one is better than the other. I write more reports than anything else and I work in an engineering setting. Worse, I review reports turned in by Contractors and it is clear that many did not feel report writing was important.

The fact is, no matter the state of the art robot we create, we better be able to communicate to the public its bells and whistles.

[Reggaedoc]

The entire world speaks better English than we do!

And we cry bloody hell when anyone suggests changing the pedagogy of English, especially if it involves the use of our native tongue, Patwah.

Well, let's see what else we can do, or should we just continue doing the same thing we have been doing since slaves were allowed to read yet expecting different results?

Given the number of half idiots we have in Ja, once we change to patios we are going create a new subset which is illiterate in patois, then we have a patois-patois language and so we start down that slope.

[Mosiah]

Ok. I respect your point of view while not entirely understanding it.

But I hope you agree that we must do something different. I refuse to believe we just can't learn English, while every Somalian, Iraqi and Finn out there can master it.

[Peter R]

It's a mindset Mo'... if you THINK you already can listen to and understand, speak, read, and write English, why worry? No need for improvement!

I see the same mindset (in many cases) when I have a native speaker of Spanish in one of my classes. "¡Profe, en Venezuela no escribimos con tildes!"

[Peter R]

Add report it accurately! It's not until I really got into foreign languages that I realized how ambiguous English could be.

When I was working in Canada, I used to work closely with our translators (everything had to be done in French as well) and they'd always send stuff back with a variety of questions. Invariably, it made us re-write our English for greater clarity.

Try translating: "I made a cake for my mother", or "The apple is green", to Spanish... not until you do you (in many cases) realise there are two interpretations! (The "green apple" is easier to see).

[Mosiah]

In his defence, maybe, like everything else in Venezuela, you don't see tildes on the shelves anymore!

[Mosiah]

Try translating: "I made a cake for my mother", or "The apple is green", to Spanish... not until you do you (in many cases) realise there are two interpretations! (The "green apple" is easier to see).

I'm not getting this.