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Re: [OM] Happy Alphabet Day was:battle of ideas on the T

Subject: Re: [OM] Happy Alphabet Day was:battle of ideas on the T
From: Chris Barker <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 08:33:08 +0100
My brother now lives in Bulgaria (near Popovo), Boris, so I am interested in 
learning a bit of Bulgarian; it seems rather tricky at the moment (although not 
as tricky as Scottish Gaelic, which I am also trying out ...).

This country's education system tried allowing children to "express themselves" 
rather than bothering them with the trouble of learning to spell and to learn 
how to construct sentences.  It was an experiment that started, I should guess, 
in the early 70s in state schools; around 5 or 6 years ago, the educators in 
the state system started trying to get teachers to teach English again, only to 
find, I understand, that none of the teachers had had the requisite education.  
I'm sure that I have the details wrong, but the upshot is that a foreigner 
would find it hard to learn English from someone born here; it also means that 
those who work with my wife who have come from somewhere else in Europe to work 
here have better written English than those educated here.  I find that really, 
really frustrating!

For me, I was very lazy at school, I didn't go to university until later in 
life but I was educated at independent schools both abroad and in England.  I'm 
no intellectual, but I find it hard that an interesting language like English, 
with all its contributors and users, is having its vocabulary and grammar 
narrowed down to a mean and shallow form of communication by the efforts of 
misguided teachers and the Government ... oh, and by the hegemony of our fellow 
English-speakers in Another Nation :-)

But despite that, I applaud your cheering the Bulgarian alphabet.

Chris

On 25 May 2010, at 01:55, Willie Wonka wrote:

> I have been reading your writings on the subject for years and think that 
> when it comes to spelling you should reconsider your opinions...
> 
> I agree that the proper usage of language is a measure of persons 
> intelligence, but vehemently disagree that proper spelling should be in the 
> same category.  See, I see the alphabet just as a tool and feel really, 
> really sorry for all the children who waste their life learning how to spell. 
>  
> 
> I learned how to read and write at the age of four, privilege that only 
> geniuses in the West enjoy.  A tool is just a tool, if it makes getting the 
> job done more difficult, maybe it is not the write...:) tool at all.  Which 
> brings me to the main subject:
> 
> HAPPY ALPHABET DAY!!!
> 
> It is the day of the Bulgarian alphabet, wrongly referred to as the Cyrrilick 
> Alphabet.  The alphabet that gave me the opportunity to learn how to read at 
> an early age, because everything spells the way you hear it, but you can 
> still make a mistake....only if you really, really wanted to....:)

-- 
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