Why can't the English teach children how to spell .... or at least set a good example?

With apologies to Alan Jay Lerner, composer of lyrics for the movie "My fair Lady" (1964)

Is it only me getting highly annoyed and beyond irritated with the blatant lack of regard or vague concern with spelling in general written communication? No, I am not referring to netlingo, acronyms, text shorthand or slang (which is most cases is at least spelled correctly) - I am talking about everyday communication in the written form, whether it be in emails, advertising and yes, even the dreaded social media.

Posted on Facebook by Owen Calverley, Tucats Media

Were you one of the many, many South Africans that cringed back in June with the TV advertisement from the Department of Labour, promoting their online filing of UIF? The advertisement ran for 2 more days before finally being replaced - and I have to wonder, how did it get so far? Did nobody pick up the spelling error from eNCA or SABC (who flighted the advertisement), the advertising agency, the Department of Labour, anybody?? Or if someone did notice it, was there perhaps a decision to let it go and hope nobody noticed?

As South Africans with our 11 indigenous languages and much cross pollination of words and idioms has resulted in a colorful and pretty awesome dialect of sorts."Eish" and "Yebo" are but two widely accepted words used in everyday English that everyone understands. And again, not the point of my tirade, its the deliberate misspelling of words for some unknown reason. Whether to appear cool, or hip or whatever - it just sucks. When one of my favorite columnists falls into that trap, I really do despair. "GAWGIS"??? And in another instance "GORJUSS"!!!! Eish!

English is a hellishly difficult language to get the hang of if its not your mother tongue - and relying on a spellchecker can sometimes cause even greater difficulties. A fellow writer sent me the following paragraph as a perfect example: 

"Yes well when your busy with your family there kneads take priority over other things. It does'nt always suite me that other people that have the same interests try to always make me listen to there really bad stories cause they think i am interested... it just makes me want to go lay down or something. It like really peaves me you no."

Understanding that the use of acronyms and text shorthand is vital to keeping costs down when sending an SMS, I also have another gripe - PLEASE could we decide on a universal meaning for the alphabet soup and stick to it?? I, (and half the world) use LOL as "LAUGH OUT LOUD" while the other half understands it as "LOTS OF LOVE" - which probably explains the reason for some not so happy people - one lady in particular thinking I love her husband lots!!!!!

The other one that could cause some confusion is BFF - in most circles considered to be "BEST FRIENDS FOREVER" until I discovered it could also stand for "BEST FRIENDS FUNERAL" - I can see that also causing some painful misunderstandings.

In my wanderings and browsing on the internet in search of information for this blog, I stumbled upon a rather entertaining website which produced such wonderful new words like "guncle", "unkeyboardinated" and "dilligas"! I happily wasted lots of time on www.urbandictionary.com discovering new slang words I never knew existed just scrolling down WORD OF THE DAY. A word of advice, avoid the FAVORITES tab if you don't like foul language - even if some of them are hysterically funny! 

Sometimes I bump into a word that I don't understand at all - MWAH was one of those. It appeared on a number of social media messages and I wondered if it meant "MURDER WITH A HAMMER" except that it did not seem to fit the text so Google again supplied the answer - it is supposed to reflect the sound of a kiss!! Just as well I did not try and use it - the lady would be after me with a shotgun for sure!

I spent many years in the recruitment industry and I had on a number of occasions discarded an applicant because of poor spelling on their introductory letter or CV. From friends still in the industry I understand that the problem is getting worse instead of better and they too blame social media and texting for this decline. Sadly the everyday usage of bad spelling is in some cases having a very detrimental effect on someone's life and they are blissfully unaware of the repercussions.

So here is a challenge - how about we set a good example and use proper spelling in our written communication? If enough of us take up this challenge, perhaps the message will get through and people will start realising that there is really only one chance to make a good impression - and coming across as hip and cool does not always achieve that result!

Or are you going to respond to this challenge with "DILLIGAS" ...........??