The importance of good writing skills

You have to wonder? English is a mess. History took three languages, tossed them into a blender, and out came English. We gained some simplicity by dropping gender, but in the trade we ended up with a rich and complex vocabulary. I like it, but it's not for the faint of heart.

Tom

 

umass. and they don't flunk anybody. if you're struggling with something, they work with you until you get it right. (hopefully)
and, if at some point you decide you don't want to be a doctor, they try very hard to convince you to finish anyway. graduation rates and all that.

 

That's what bothered me about learning French. I could almost accept things like boats and cars having a gender, but having to memorise the supposed sexuality of every inanimate object was too much for my stubbornly logical mind. So, I stuck with English.

 

Gotta ask: What gender is the Prius in languages such as French?

Question deserving of a thread.

 

You don't have to memorize everything, there are rules that govern the majority and you memorize a couple extra. When you first start out (like Francais 101) it might be easier for the teacher to teach "le garcon" and "la fille" and that sort of thing. But eventually you just learn a word, and you know its gender just by hearing it. Of course like all languages there are exceptions, and some that make no sense at all!

Feminine. "La Prius"
Toyota Prius, Test Prius, Achat Prius - Toyota

 

Answer to the question: "What gender is the Prius in French?"

Somehow I expected that answer.

 

"Prius" is not a French word. The closest French would be "Prieuse" or something similar. All nouns (with some exceptions of course) that end in "-euse" are feminine. That's the only reason...

 

Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in France?

 

I only went to McDonalds once when I was in France but I recall there being a "Royale" on the menu. Looked like a big burger.

 

Oh boy, I remember that... flunked German twice, and Spanish once... I called things by gender neutral pronouns... teachers were not thrilled by that. Insisted I had to memorize the gender pronoun for every single thing I could ever come across. Though the second time, the German teacher flunked me for not liking my parents at the parent-teacher get-together in high school.

Languages really need to be taught at an earlier age, perhaps in early grade school - continued through high school; just like English.

 

Very true. I was in a test group that was given a 6 week long German language class in the 1st grade. I soaked it up and I still remember it quite well. I wish the class had continued.

 

"They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?"
"They got the metric system. The wouldn't know the *** a quarter pounder is."
"Then what do they call it?"
"They call it Royale with Cheese."
"Royale with Cheese. What do they call a Big Mac?"
"A Big Mac's a Big Mac but they call it Le Big Mac."
"Le Big Mac. What do they call a Whopper?"
"I don't know. I didn't go into Burger King."

 

The gender thing drove me nuts when I was learning Spanish. They are easy enough to figure out in Spanish: -a feminine, -o masculine. However, I had trouble remembering to think of the gender to determine the article that came before the noun. Then the adjectives have to change with the gender as well.

I have since decided that handling genders in language is a distinct skill that can be learned. People who speak only English will not have that skill yet because they have no use for it. It involves observing that attribute whenever the word is used.

I am designing a game that helps people learn genders in foreign languages. I hope it will be more fun than trying to memorize them.

 

Okay, I just had to say, "their attire is unkempt, they are unshaven, they misspell words on the whiteboard, and their use of the spoken language is linguistically chaotic."

I see this sort of thing all the time myself, but if the message is clear, as it was here, then I am inclined to let it pass and evaluate the candidate on the strengths in their resume (skills) that are most germane to the position they are applying for. Ooops, for which they are applying.

I agree with Winston Churchill's quip when confronted with the accusation that he ended many sentences with prepositions: "This is the sort of errant pedantry up with which I will not put." Proper, but conveying a clear message in the modern vernacular is probably the best bench mark.

That being said, the best place to start is at home. I rework every email that is not just a communique to a friend. I long ago tired of trying to get people to stop saying "begs the question," or using a conjunction between two infinitives. I am not going to try and do that anymore. =P

 

If that last sentence didn't make your skin crawl, then I think you need to go to the junior grammar rodeo. =)

 

Indeed it does, but you's doin' it on purples.

 

It reminds me of the prospective student who was visiting Harvard. He asked "where the admissions office is at?"

The person who answered said, "This is Harvard, we don't end sentences with a preposition"

To wit the young man replied, "Can you tell me where the admissions office is at, donkey!"

Icarus

 

Not with German. Gender and gendered suffixes in German are entirely random. Even native German speakers have no idea why they are what they are.

Tom

 

That's why German is such an angry language!