Wayne Koorts’ Blog

One of my passions has always been the articulate expression of oneself through language.  We have this wonderful, rich language we call English and there is great joy to be found in learning to use it effectively.  The point of this post isn’t to rant about the degradation of the language or our frequent abuse of it – I’ve covered that already – instead, I’d just like to talk about different ways of using the language in different contexts, and that I believe it doesn’t make sense to enforce strict, blanket rules across the board.

Spoken language

With the possible exception of presenting a formal talk or making a speech, I don’t believe we should be pedantic about spoken language.  People are all raised in different environments and have acquired their knowledge and techniques of language usage in different ways.  Everyone’s thought patterns also differ widely and speech is our way of converting those thoughts into a form that we can share with others.  I will never correct someone’s spoken language under any circumstances.  We need to respect each individual’s way of expressing themselves.

Written language

This is really the core of knowledge transfer and has formed the basis for accurate handing down of knowledge through the ages.  Thanks to the digital age this might change to include new mediums such as video, but for now we all still write a tremendous amount in various forms.

Attention to detail and careful thought are required to make sure that our thoughts are interpreted to the reader as clearly as we perceive them in our heads.  Even when writing a simple email there is something about sending away a piece of writing, to be read at the receiver’s leasure, that forces us to be more broad and accomodating with our choice of wording and sentence structure.  We are never quite sure what mood or state of mind the reader may be in when they read it.  Often we may never even have met the person.  This is vastly different to spoken language because when we’re speaking to someone, or even to a group of people, we can update our attitude and try different approaches in real time.

Text messaging, instant messaging, and services like Twitter technically form part of written language but based on their semi-live nature I treat them the same as spoken language.  I can’t help but still make at least a half decent attempt at proper spelling and grammar, but I don’t mind how casual people want to be as long as they’re able to get their point across.

Remember, the reason we have language is for communication.  As long as we can get our point across clearly and effectively then I think we’re doing just fine.

In the age of cellphone text messages, online instant messaging and e-mail we are using written communication more than ever before. It seems ironic then that our language is suffering as much as it is.

Believe it or not but “txt speak” is actually going to be allowed in some schools. Why have we spent centuries developing our language to be so expressive and concise only for it to be mangled virtually beyond recognition?

Worse still, this problem isn’t limited to teenagers and others from the online generation.

We seem to be relaxing on our written language standards even in the workplace. Every day I write far more words in e-mails than I speak in phone calls. Far too much time is spent reading and re-reading e-mails trying to decipher what people are talking about. It seems that many people don’t even read over their messages even once after they’ve written them to detect the most basic of grammatical errors. Spell checkers are obviously useless in this instance even though sadly they have somehow become the one and only check for not only e-mail but much documentation.

I’ve recently even seen job advertisements with horrible “txt speak” adaptations! What kind of people do recruitment agencies hope to attract? If I see a job ad with that kind of rubbish in the title I skip immediately over to the next one.

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This is obviously more of a vent than anything else. I don’t expect anyone to become a language Nazi like me in the near future just from reading this article. Perhaps people just need to pick up a classic novel now and then to re-learn the basics. Is the problem in schools? I’m not sure. It’s not all that long ago that I was in school myself and there was certainly a decent amount of emphasis on effective usage of the English language.

I think it’s probably just our culture. Maybe it’s just another by-product of our constantly expanding hunger for super convenience. Come to think of it, maybe we will be much more efficient once we devolve back to grunts and basic body language. The integration of basic universal sign language in every day life, particularly on the roads, seems to also be on the rise anyway so why not add in a few grunts and screams for good measure?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the continuing evolution of the language.  I can certainly also appreciate subtle online additions such as the humble emoticon.  Used appropriately these can effectively enhance or emphasise in just the right way ;-)

It’s more important now than ever before to have decent written communication skills. With so much writing going on we can’t afford for effective communication to suffer any further. We’ve already let our standards slide far too much.

-Wayne