The Mother-Language Loses It

For, well, EVER, British has been the stronghold for the “proper” English.  Walls raised, drawbridge closed up tight, war-flags flying in the face of a world that’s run by 140 character news casts, txt speak, and a general lack of caring.  And for a while, America listened.  As the mother-land (albeit disenfranchised), it felt, at least, courteous to extend a bit of respect to the protectors of our spoken and written word, but in two very interesting strokes, they have gone off the deep end.

A little while back, Britain announced that it would be eliminating the proper punctuation on street signs to save space.  As much of a shocker as that was, we live in txting land where words just suddenly start losing things all the time:  letters, punctuation, meaning, dignity…  So, losing punctuation on street signs didn’t seem like that big of a blow, but… maybe we should have counted it as a warning sign.  Maybe a sign of the End?  I’m not sure.

But news of another more shocking development in the deterioration of “proper” English is in the works!

In an article by the Associated Press on Yahoo!News, Britain has decided that it’s schools will no longer teach the “i before e” rule.  Apparently, because it doesn’t account for words that don’t follow the rule…  So, I guess technically, it’s discriminatory.  ”The ‘Support For Spelling’ document, which is being sent to thousands of primary schools, says the rule ‘is not worth teaching’ because it doesn’t account for words like ‘sufficient,’ ‘veil’ and ‘their.’”

Maybe it’s not going to be that big of a deal for children that have never heard the little jingle, but for those of us who have survived most spelling challenges with mumbling, “i before e except after c and sometimes… something else…  crap.”

I mean, considering that the rule applies to almost everything, the odds of getting it right were better than wrong.  But now, I guess I’m just lucky I’m not growing up in Britain.

Besides, little jingles are the way to go for remembering stuff like that.  For its and it’s, I still remember Strongbad’s little song:  ”If it’s going to be possessive, it’s just I-T-S, if it’s going to be a contraction, it’s I-T-apostrophe-S.  Scallywag.”

To recap:  Britain is off it’s rocker with these crazy redefining the way we learn English kick.  The next thing you know, people are going to be taught by the people that translate things on this site:  Engrish.com

What do you think?