Your Favourite Whitney Memories: 'Singing At The Back Of The Bus'
Jamie Lee Curtis: Blame It On The Fame Game?
Well, this is embarass ... embarrasin ... um, awkward. A survey has shown that Americans are worse spellers than their British counterparts. The study tested 2,000 adults and found that Brits bee'd out Americans on every word on a spelling bee except for two -- "definitely" and "friend." Americans particularly missed out on words like "liaison" and "embarrassed."
The poor results of Americans are being blamed on the high rate of high school dropouts. (No word on whether Yankees got dinged for spelling "color" without a "u" in the middle.)
And the Spelling Society, who sponsored the research, wants to revamp the entire "spelling system," which they think is to blame both in the U.K. and in America. (Step one: Quit having spelling bee debacles.)
Click here to read more.
Irritating Phrases: Reader Pet Peeves
from user "Rex": Put me down for the most meaningless phrase in the English language.That being By and large.I have no idea what that means.
NBC
from user "lois": "I am from the old school and am irritated by the use of awesome."
Everett Collection
User "williamdaley" : I hate hearing basically. Basically, that word is over used.
Fox
User "lester": I swear if you took the phrase you know out of the english language 80 of the people in this country wouldnt be able to carry on a conversation.
Getty Images
user "Arnie": By far, the worst is any variation on what's up?
Getty Images
user "Skeeter": my daughter uses is whatever. Even though she's forty, every time she opens her mouth and utters that word I want to wash her mouth out with soap.
foam, Flickr
user "Allison": Not!
Getty Images
user "meledstick": I'm "reaching out" but "can't get my arms around" "sharing" "at the end of the day", but I guess it's just my bad.
shira golding, Flickr
user "Mike W".: LIKE, every third word in a sentence.
Paramount
user "JB": Living in the NYC area I also hate this little gem: How you doing?
Getty Images
We theorize that it's because Americans are always saying "that guy is definitely my friend," whereas the Brits are apparently dashing off e-mails rife with sentiments like "I'm awfully embarrassed I missed my liaison with that lady. Hopefully we'll meet up sometime this millennium to sort out those accommodations."
Tell us! Embarrassed? Commitment? Your/you're? What word do you always misspell?
Amazing and Addictive Timekillers
Burst Bubbles
With one click, set off a chain reaction that bursts as many bubbles as possible. Get started now
Boomshine
Make Faces
Hit any part of the face to shuffle to someone else's feature. Get started now
Monoface
Build a House
Follow a few simple directions to draw a house, then answer some questions about it to learn important things about your personality. Get started now
Draw a House
Set Up Dominoes
Set up and knock down your own game over... and over... and over. Get started now
Drawminos
Find People
The concept is the same as classic Waldo -- track down a specific person within a huge crowd. Get started now
Alan Outten
Create Museum Art
Upload a photo from anywhere, choose a museum setting and instantly see the two combined.Get started now
Museumr
Toss a Ball
Use your mouse to steer the ball from person to person -- it actually takes a bit of eye-hand coordination.Get started now
dura.cell.free.fr
Pretend it's Winter
Draw a snowflake with a kaleidoscope-like tool, then use two different rotating functions to enhance the wintry fun.Get started now
Ze Frank
Make Over Mr. T
Use this virtual playset to give the tough guy a new look.Get started now
Ironic Sans
Knit a Christmas Sweater
Choose from tons of different decorations to create your own wintry woolen masterpiece.Get started now
weloveholidaysweaters.wehatesheep.com
Comments:
Add a comment
Monday 09 February
By Jdman
as long as we can read the words what difference does it make?
Reply
Tuesday 10 February
By Angela
The difference it makes is that reading is more than knowing the configuration of words. It is comprehending them in context.
Monday 09 February
By ernie jarrell
Does anyone remember, "phonics"? Most people today wouldn't be able to spell, "spellcheck", if it weren't done for them!
Reply
Monday 09 February
By LS
Maybe it has to do with the fact that American education departments are one of the first to get hit with buget cuts even when there wasn't an economic crisis. The teacher/student ratios continue to be ridiculous, as well as the decreased supplies. Also, why would time be wasted on spelling when other important things such as covering all the topics on state exams need to be emphasized? - Don't forget easy use of "spell check" in these mordern times as well.
Reply
Monday 09 February
By Brian
Dear LS,
I suppose "spell check" didn't catch "mordern"? Oh, the hypocrisy!
gstdcn
Monday 09 February
By Brian
... didn't catch "budget" either!
Monday 09 February
By LS
to Brian- oops! didn't see the option to spell check before i sent it ..."modern"
LOL!
Monday 09 February
By Kam
Perhaps a better understanding of the funding of education in America would assist you in your opinion and opinings. First, education is the responsibility of the individual states (remember it is a republic and not a democracy). The federal government does meddle with education but the effect is a greater imbalance between the teachers and the administrations. Allowing for inflation and other monetary variables, the US is spending more money today per student than ever before in our history. As more and more money is delegated to education, more and more administrators are hired and more bureaucratic positions siphon off the new money. The ratio of salaries between administrators and the teachers is vast, and yet the teachers do all the work. If we take your suggestions, we just increase the bureaucracy and still provide nothing more for the students. Remember the converse, when educational budgets are cut, the teachers are fired, but the bureaucrats keep their jobs.
Monday 09 February
By Cheri
Yet teachers throughout the country continue to be paid very well (with a few exceptions). Perhaps it isn't how much we spend on education but rather problems with content instead. Our children are taught how to take tests, so the schools look good. If we took the focus off the test results and put the spotlight on back to basics like spelling, history, maybe our children would excell instead of fail. Technology has it's place, but without the core skills, all you have are a bunch of kids who can play video games but write at a 4th grade level (and they are in high school).
Tuesday 10 February
By Mike
You people still don't get it. What's wrong with the American educational system? Parental Apathy! Parents don't get involved with their child's education anymore. They don't attend Parent-Teacher conferences, they expect the teachers to teach without the enforcement of discipline, and they treat public school as if it is nothing more than free daycare.
Oh, and PLEASE knock off that "Teachers are well paid" crap. There isn't ONE profession out there that REQUIRES a college degree AND State certification that pays LESS than teaching. My g/f teaches Kindergarten and makes $42,000 a year. Do you think that's "good money" for putting up with 18 six-year olds for 8 hours a day? You can't handle being with ONE for that amount of time, never mind 18 of them. She leaves home in the morning looking beautiful and comes home looking like she just did three tours in Iraq.
You want Johnny to read? Know what Johnny's doing in school....be there when he's doing his homework. Get INVOLVED with your children and stop using the internet and video games as surrogate babysitters! How do you expect teachers to be excited about teaching your children when their own parents couldn't care less?
Tuesday 10 February
By Richie
It is because our education system has had its quality and standards lowered over and over too allow for more children too have a chance at passing. This way, the education being offered would not be considered racist, too hard, unfair too the poor, unfair too immigrants, etc, etc. The whole bunch is now spoiled because we have to cater too the lesser and dummy down the curriculum. Next thing you know ebonics will be the new English and the language used in text and instant messaging will replace creative writing.
Thursday 12 February
By L
Perhaps it has to do with the fact that teachers(atleast here on Long Island) are over payed, consume more then 85% of the total school budget, work only 181 days out of the year, get all benefits paid for, have unlimited sick days, work less then 7 hours a day, are virtually impossible to fire once tenure is obtained and refuse to comprehend that in the real world their inflated 90K+ salaries would DEMAND they accept responsibility for their work product and be rewarded or penalized for their performance.
Teachers salaries should be standarized across the county. Teachers SHOULD be government employees, held to a higher standard , tenure must be eliminated,and a swift kick given to UFT for strangle holding the american public while protecting the rights of the teachers .. Who is protecting the rights of the students? Who is championing their cause, demanding that EVERY child should be given the best education this country can give? Certainly the children in the US arent less bright, arent less teachable, then those in other countries? Education reform is needed , starting with WHO is teaching, HOW they are teaching and WHY they are teaching. Hold teachers as accountable as you would in any other business environment.. pay them a standarized, equitable and fair salary, reward them for acheivements and eliminate those that are complacent, unmotivated and have a poor track record. Your child, ALL children deserve no less. Then and only then can true education reform be acheived.
Monday 09 February
By Phillip Logan
That's a good idea to revamp the spelling system, one I have championed for years. China revamped its language some years ago to consolidate a bunch of different dialects, etc., and it's a good idea for us to do something similar to make words more user friendly. For example, officially change "though" to "tho" and "through" to "thru." Dropping "whom" from use and changing the spelling of words that end in "tion" to "shun" would be other useful changes. That's just a few examples, as everybody knows there's lots more.
Reply
Monday 09 February
By Annie Lawrence
In other words, let's dumb things down to the lowest common denominator!
Heaven forbid we should strive to improve the use of grammar/spelling.
I'd rather know that there are some people out there who can and do use the language properly than to have everyone speaking/writing on the level of a third grader!
Monday 09 February
By britus3
I'm English and have lived in the U.S.A. for 21 years. I am constantly appalled by the spelling and grammar seen on these blogs. How can anyone not know the difference between 'your' and 'you're', or 'there', 'their', and 'they're'? Another awful mistake Americans make is saying 'could of' and 'should of' instead of 'could have' and 'should have'. As for changing 'through' to 'thru' and 'though' to 'tho', how lazy is that? Everyone should read 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' and 'Talk to the Hand' by Lynne Truss.
Monday 09 February
By Louisa
I sincerely hope you're kidding.
Monday 09 February
By lily
are you frickin' kidding me? The day we have to changet tion to SHUN we should just blow the damn planet up. How dumb are we? 100 years ago people used a wider vocabulary then we do today. If they mastered it, why can't we? It's laziness. It's the embarrassment kids feel when they actually speak using proper English. I say, instead of making it easier we should concentrate on making it more difficult and smack the heck out of our kids if they won't put their mind to learning
Tuesday 10 February
By jareedia
by revamped, do you mean dumb down? i'm embarassed that someone would want to be the champion of that. now capitalization, that's what's really over-rated! (is there a hyphon in over-rated?)
Monday 09 February
By courtney kochutin
I was about 12 before I was able to spell FRIEND correctly. My brother learned in school that you are a friend til the end, and now each time I spell it, I just simply say your a friend til the end, and I have never spelled it wrong since!
Reply
Thursday 12 February
By Jinny
It's you're a friend for life because you are saying, you are a .... You are contracting "you are" and coming out with " you're," not your, which is possessive.