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RSS icon Comments on Failure of the Oregon Education System

1

Meth-onics

Posted by always with the meth | October 2, 2006 11:00 AM
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Idiots from Mexico and Africa move here and don't bother to learn Standard American English. Take a look at the message board at a supermarket and if you're like me you'll cringe. Grammar and spelling are an indication of a person's true worth. Most of these rural types and immigrants are little better than vermin crawling through trash.

Posted by Captious | October 2, 2006 11:01 AM
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maybe it was a jewish yard sael?

Posted by konstantconsumer | October 2, 2006 11:05 AM
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I saw a sign this summer that said 'Garge sale' :D

Posted by Impossible Prince | October 2, 2006 11:09 AM
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In defense of the immigrant vermin: if my options were between living in Mexico or the US, I might not wait until I had achieved complete mastery of The Queen's English before moving to America. So, I can't begrudge newcomers their learning curve.

That having been said, this sign reminds me of the Far Side where a dog lures a cat into a washing machine by making messy signs saying "CAT FUD --->"

Posted by Mattymatt | October 2, 2006 11:10 AM
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Perhaps an outreach moment?
http://www.saelmovement.com/

Posted by Fun With Google | October 2, 2006 11:16 AM
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There is a brand of Mexican packaged food that is actually named "FUD." In Spanish it's pronounced, roughly, "food." I can't quite bring myself to buy any of those products yet. (Even though I can eat natto.)

Posted by Sachi | October 2, 2006 11:18 AM
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Languages with non-phonetic writing systems are inherently difficult to spell, because they are illogical. The poor sap who wrote this sign was attempting to apply the rules of logic to the spelling of the English language.

Languages with phonetic writing systems are logical, and hence ridiculously easy to spell. For example, Spanish. You would never encounter this kind of error in a Spanish speaking country. Unless, of course, local pronunciation had changed, in which case local spelling might change as well.

Posted by Blob | October 2, 2006 11:22 AM
9

Spelling errors are not limited to those people who are not native speakers. My sister can't spell cat, and she's got herself a college degree.

As an example, she recently sent me a package of stuff from my mom's house. On the manifest, when asked to write down what was in the box, she wrote "Miss Stuff"

It was her stellar spelling skills that convinced my parents that I should probably go to public school. :-)

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay | October 2, 2006 11:40 AM
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It got you to notice the sign. It probably also enticed more than a few people to head to the sale to see what sort of cretins can't spell "sale."

Posted by kinaidos | October 2, 2006 11:50 AM
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Not all words in Spanish are spelled phonetically. If they were, guerra would be pronounced gwe-rra.

Posted by keshmeshi | October 2, 2006 12:06 PM
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Where does "Captious," who doesn't have the balls to post his name, get the impression that the person who put up the sign is an immigrant from Africa or Mexico? I used to live off S.E. Division St., and there are plenty of semi-illiterate white people living in that area than those he mentioned.

If you are going to post racist crap like this, at least have the hair to post your name and justify your vile attack.

Posted by Russell Lorenzini | October 2, 2006 12:39 PM
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OMG SPELING ERRERS IZ SO INTERNETS

Posted by matthew fisher wilder | October 2, 2006 12:40 PM
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keshmeshi, according to phonetic rules the word should be spelled gerra--but other phonetic rules would require that gerra be pronounced with a soft g. placing a u after a normally soft consonant is a firm exception to a firm rule. guerra is more phonetic than the alternatives.

Posted by annie | October 2, 2006 1:33 PM
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Catalina, I assume that if we start calling you "Miss Stuff" here there will be dire consequences?

Posted by Fnarf | October 2, 2006 3:26 PM
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i thought that we had cured ourselves of captious's posts by now...

Posted by z is for xylophone | October 3, 2006 6:35 PM

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