Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site mhuxm.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxm!abeles 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