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Dumbing Ourselves Down - Page 2

I feel so lost sometimes when talking to a lot of my peers. I have never gotten into the slang of our culture, unless I'm just goofing around, but then I have no clue what I'm saying. Ha ha.

I live in the good ol' South, and interesting it is. The accent I can handle, but sometimes I do find myself speaking in a way I don't usually speak in when I'm around certain people.

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Interesting that you feel this is necessary. I would always say "with whom did you register." It is correct and proper. I don't think anyone would take offense with such proper use of the language. I could see them thinking you thought you were something special if you always used words that were not a part of the average person's vocabulary and not necessary to describe the situation, but proper grammar in my opinion should always be tolerated and used!

If you use incorrect grammar around me, I am likely to correct you.

Keep in mind that most of the people I contact at work are college students. Unfortunately, higher education seems to be more about the parents' financial situation than the students' attitude or aptitude. Since I work on campus, the unwritten law of my employment is to FIT IN at all costs. I am paid to be friendly and knowledgeable, and to explain everything in simple terms that even the most inebriated freshman can understand.

I do not mean to call my peers blithering idiots, but university life is shocking. On at least three occasions, I have submitted perfectly proofread letters to the editor of the campus newspaper via e-mail. When I read these letters in the printed newspaper, the editorial staff had inserted grammatical or punctuation errors into my writing. This is allegedly an award-winning campus newspaper.

This is my concern - I use better syntax than most of the English and Communications majors I know, but my language would have been merely average in the universities of 20 to 40 years ago. I am afraid for the future of language, but to communicate about it or to try to change it makes me sound whiny and nitpicky. What is the solution?

(By the way, tenaheff, thanks for your willingness to watch my grammar!)

Dumbing Ourselves Down UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

I personally use slang quite alot since I learned it by talking to my friends and now it became automatic but whenever I speak to someone older or someone with whom you should have a proper conversation and use the proper language I use it. But when I'm with my friends I just talk as I talk.

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English language is becoming more and more casual and too informal. If anyone watched the champions league final you would have noticed that players from AC Milan who were brazilian, Dutch and Italian when interviewed spoke better english than most of the liverpool players who were natives and were almost incomprehensible.

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U.S. Is Only Developed County where Younger Generation will Receive Less Education than their Parents:

Today, only about 20% of young adults will reach a higher level of education than their parents, a rate that's among the lowest rates in the developed world Ref. Source 4