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From: abeles@mhuxm.UUCP (abeles)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Mareet Iyeen
Message-ID: <297@mhuxm.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Jan-85 17:21:09 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxm.297
Posted: Thu Jan  3 17:21:09 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Jan-85 04:05:05 EST
References: <838@eisx.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Murray Hill, NJ
Lines: 67


I can't agree too much for the need to improve the spelling and
grammar (not to mention usage) of the postings.  Unfortunately,
many who consider themselves to be quite impressive cannot even
express themselves at the common level.  While net.religion.jewish
is not at the level of The Jewish Press (for those who are unfamiliar,
The Jewish Press is a family-owned newspaper written for religious
Jews in English and expressing a very Boro-Park-ish point of view),
where spelling and grammar are concerned.

I no longer subscribe to the Jewish Press primarily because of the
poor quality of the publication.  Opinions and facts are not easily
distinguished.  Ungrammatical sentences must be second-guessed to
uncover the true intent of the authors.  Spelling is atrocious.
Editors fail to eliminate verbal diarrhea in contributors' essays.
Lastly, there is a low quotient of thought-provoking articles in
The Jewish Press.

Unfortunately, among the religious community there is a significant
number who are not articulate in any language.  In the right-wing
yeshivas English is neglected and students commence their careers
unable to speak unaccented or proper English.  Especially for the
lesser students there is great difficulty in distinguishing the
language to which a given word belongs.  The result is that such
words as "bei" are incorrectly used, viz., "I stayed by the Cohens
last Shabbos."  In this example, the speaker may not realize that
the German or Yiddish preposition "bei" is not the same word as
the English preposition "by."  (There is no way that the use of
"by" is correct in this example)  We should not be surprised that
such people are unemployable in normal American businesses such as
the ones in which most readers of this newsgroup are employed.

The religious community, mostly in Brooklyn, NY, suffers additionally
from the handicap that it is descended from parents who themselves
did not speak English.  This community, while in competition with the
mainstream of Americans in the quite external ways of conspicuous
consumption and extravagant dressing habits, has not yet picked up
on the more important ways in which it is inferior to educated Americans.

I imagine some will say that "Torah learning" is more important than
improving one's language skills in a foreign tongue.  To them I
bring up two main points:  First, neither Hebrew nor any other language
compares to English.  English is the most advanced language in recorded
history.  There are more words in the English language by far than in any
other language and articulate speakers of English may express more with
their choice of words than speakers of other languages.  But uneducated
listeners cannot discern the extent of their meaning.

Second, thought follows language.  We are able to manipulate ideas in
our minds routinely only with the help of established words.  Any person
who is not articulate in any language will suffer because of it in the
quality of their thought processes.  It is often observed in Israel that
Israelis are "doers" while "Anglos" (Americans, British, etc.) are
more thoughtful.  While this is necessitated in the case of the Israelis
by the dire circumstances with which Israel must constantly cope, it is
also brought on by the limited nature of the Hebrew language.  There is,
I would argue, superiority to the English language separate from the
military superiority of the English speakers in the United States during
WW II.  This superiority commands respect among Israelis and is responsible
for the dramatic addition of English words to the Hebrew language as spoken
in Israel.

I have strayed from the original topic (we are discussing spelling and
grammar, not style and composition).  It is nevertheless important to
maintain a decent level of spelling and grammar, at least in my opinion.

--J. Abeles