And as for pleasure reading, I’m strongly in favor. Creative writing allows for the language to expand in a manner that adds color to the language and better enables us to express life and the world around us.

Completely agree, Logan! What’s more, sometimes the more “colorful” word can turn out to be the more precise one as well.

Thanks,
David

Theres not really that great a need for rigid standards the human mind can work around a lot of inperfections. The important thing is exposure get that and yourll learn.

Today the published book might actually be dying the same way the gutenberg style printing died when Aldus Manutius started publishing his pocet editions.

Language is moving. It is always moving. Daniel, you seem to take this as some sort of insult that “your” language may not be the ultimate in communication. And that’s really the key, here: communication.

A standard for language exists to facilitate communication. (This is especially important when the participant is not a native speaker.) As long as the standard moves slowly (you yourself use the number of 100 years), then communication among people will not be an issue.

And this is ignoring that there are multiple standards for the language today and that English, in general, is a pretty awful language. The language serves its purpose well, but it is clear that it is a natural development borrowing from multiple sources.

And as for pleasure reading, I’m strongly in favor. Creative writing allows for the language to expand in a manner that adds color to the language and better enables us to express life and the world around us.

Theres a point reading is much like walking or riding a bike you “can” learn it in classes but to achive the point where it’s as natual as hearing spoken word it’s going to have to be something you do for fun and something you do alot.

Access to volumes of stuff thats exiting to read is core here, and lets face it doing recession that source is the internet and mostly ad financed or public domain sources, taking over not really from books but the cheap low culture magazines that clasics like the three musketeers was originally published in.

Ask any elementary teacher that teaches reading. Pleasure reading is essential to developing good reading habits. Especially oral reading.

It must be very hard going through life unable to read. It would severely impair a person’s ability to learn and can result in a poorer quality of life, just because they can’t read.

While we’re at it, let’s mention schools passing students from grade to grade to graduation who can’t read. What’s with that? We should all be ashamed.

But yes, I have seen it myself – reading ANYTHING that’s been proofread and corrected will improve a person’s skills. The more, the better.

By the same token, reading this new (r u ok?) shorthand crap is going to degrade a lot of people’s skills, and I’m sad to know it.