Do people put to much importance on language and words when judging people?

I'll use your words to sum up my opinion on this:

Which he claimed after the fact once there was a large negative response to his comment, especially as he saw fit to contradict a woman with this "joke."

 

Yeah, especially since he could have always used "humankind" anyway. "Peoplekind" just sounds like a joke word.

 

This is the reason why I've stated that while I'd love to travel to the provinces I haven't seen (which is everything from Saskatchewan and east), I will not set foot in Quebec until they stop making my first language illegal, and allow it anywhere people want to put it.

When someone accused me of bigotry for that, I pointed out that here in Alberta, I could advertise my businesses in any language(s) I wanted - English, French, Klingon... and it's all legal. Mind you, advertising in Klingon wouldn't get me any customers since hardly anyone here recognizes Klingon, much less speaks or reads it... but the point is that it's not illegal and no language police will come along and order me to change it and fine me if I refuse.

It's how he meant it - as a joke. He made it at the town hall in Edmonton, Alberta, one of a series of cross-country town halls where people can ask him questions and tell him of any pressing issues they think the government needs to address.

I watched the one from Nanaimo, British Columbia. It's interesting how he gives people a lot of leeway to express themselves, and he's even fairly patient with the hecklers - at least until it gets to the point where it's obvious the hecklers aren't going to shut up and behave with civility.

I don't know at which point the "mankind/peoplekind" exchange comes in, but apparently it starts with a woman making some rambling complaint (likely to do with the federal government refusing to fund religious groups whose mandate includes distributing anti-abortion "literature" and otherwise undermining women's rights and LGBT rights.

 

For me I wasn't just thinking about it in terms of people's ability to use language. More about it being a incomplete way of judging someone's "soul" so to speak. Just because someone says something that might offend someone might be a simple mis-understanding about what the person is trying to say as oppose to how it might come off to another person. As for being able to determine if someone is smart I guess it's also really bad if your factor something in such as "street smarts" though I am not sure if people still use that term. Someone might be brilliant at one thing and a complete dummy at another. I know nothing about cars so that means that their is someone who is brilliant when it comes to cars compared to me but if it comes to sci-fi I might run laps over him or her.

Jason

 

Personal pet peeve that may or may not be relevant:

Self-righteous people lecturing others, trying their best to show how smart and educated they are, who A. can't spell, B. misuse words, C. can't assemble a coherent sentence, D. call out "fallacies" like it's high school debate team, or E. any or all of the above.

I'm laughing at the superior intellect.

 

I would love to visit Saskatchewan...specifically Rouleau, where my favorite TV show was filmed.

At first I read that as LOL 101...which is in itself a fairly accurate description of this whole situation.

And I don't know if this is more pathetic, or comical, but I keep hearing that Quebec's language laws are intended to "protect" the French language. Gee, I wasn't aware that it was ever under threat to begin with!

I do know one thing...if we ever tried anything like this down here with English, it'd get shot down in a cold minute. Even under our present administration.

Side note: To anyone else who might be reading this: Do NOT let it deter you from visiting Montréal. As I said, it's a lovely city. I always enjoy my visits there. The language barrier will NOT be a problem when actually speaking to people - Montréalers are as friendly as any Canadians I have ever met.

As for the rest of the province...I was originally quite keen on visiting the winter carnival in Quebec City but there's a few reasons why I had to strike that off my bucket list: 1) After our own recent winter, I've decided I really hate cold weather; 2) I don't think I want to be travelling at that time of year; 3) Quebec City's airport doesn't yet have US border preclearance; and...

4) Giant cartoonish snowmen with top hats really creep me the hell out.

 

I notice the language people use. When people post with grammar and vocabulary mistakes, or make typos, I usually notice, but it is not too important to me. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate and admire people who write well and express themselves artfully, but I have run across interesting people with character, compassion who have a lot to offer who make language errors. Improper language does not cause me to dismiss someone. I really make my judgements based on WHAT they are saying. Language is just one part of the overall impression.

 

That's... really petty. And ridiculous.

Considering that French is legally required to be on the packaging of most things sold in Canada, I don't get the choice to drop the 5 French channels that are part of my "basic" cable package, and even my friggin' computer defaults to the French keyboard once it realizes I'm in Canada, I sincerely doubt their language is going to go poof! any time soon. One of the things that stock clerks have to remember here is to make sure the English side of the packaging is face out. Otherwise you get silly situations like my dad thinking he was buying canned bananas, when it was really pineapple.

Mind you, French can come in handy in unexpected ways sometimes. My dad's girlfriend bought a new TV and VCR and couldn't figure out how to do the programming. So she asked me, and when I noticed that the instructions were some mangled translation from Japanese and German to English and basically unintelligible, I looked at the French instructions and found them perfectly clear. So I followed the French instructions and got it done correctly.

There are several French immersion schools in my city, and there are predominantly French communities in my province (something I hadn't known until a rather ugly spat happened when the mostly-French Catholic school system there refused to share even a single room of their school with the minority English non-Catholic residents so they could have religion-free education rather than busing the kids to a different community... one of the "Christian" parents posted "Suck it up or move!" on the CBC.ca website).

Are you referring to Bonhomme? Every picture I've seen of him shows him wearing a red toque.

 

Homophones are more frequently confused by native speakers, particularly by Americans (presumably due to the broad accent), than by foreigners. Also, without intending to insult native speakers, as a general rule foreigners have a far better command of English grammar than native speakers.

To start with the last question: unless it happens frequently, that one counts as a genuine accident. Yet, one is to try and prevent such accidents by either having curtains or painting the pane with a narrow grid (there are special felt-tipped pens with ink invisible to humans but very clearly visible to birds and insects). If, however, a building causes frequent accidents and a high number of birds are killed, the court can force the owner to take all possible measures to prevent further accidents. This can go so far as them having to hire a falconer to scare birds away.
If a bird kills a bird it is considered the way of nature. After all, like everybody else a hawk or owl must eat.
If a cat kills a bird it is being ignored if it happens only once. If the cat is a frequent bird killer, it must be kept indoors at all times else the owner gets fined.
My parents' dog hates birds (no idea why) and tries to catch them. During the first few months the blackbirds in our garden lacked their tailfeathers. By now they have become faster and have taken to putting out sentries who raise alert as soon as the dog enters the garden. This way there haven't been any casualties yet. Else we'd have to fit the dog with a muzzle before we let him out.

 

And if the cat is a stray or feral, I suppose the cat is executed? What's the policy toward un-owned cats?

 

You're right...well at least my attempts to repress all memories of him are partly working. I got his headgear wrong!

 

To be honest, I think it's because as Americans, we're becoming more stupid than other places. In fact, we're celebrating anti-intellectualism at this point. Fancy book-learnin', ivory tower liberal professors, 'round' Earth, all that nonsense. My belief is just as good as your fact these days around here. Half of it is because not many people read on their own anymore, so more and more their knowledge of language is based on hearing and not seeing. Why people screw up so many things (idioms are the worst) because they have only HEARD them, not seen them.

And yet, we're super arrogant about it, and still think we're better than everyone else. Which is why I enjoy it so much when those rants are filled with very basic errors. Who doesn't think less of the people protesting for awful causes when they have obvious spelling/grammatical errors on their signs? Especially when the error changes the meaning of their sign? Come on...

Maybe your right, tho, and were beeing to hard on peeple that cant use English to good. There not all loosers, I no. Mute point, I guess. Its hard too say, we should take a pole.

(wow, that was a lot of effort to get through auto-correct!)

Can't tell me that if someone posted that as a serious response that it doesn't change how you think of them, or adjust your response slightly. That the (in my experience) majority of posts like that are usually attacking or judging other people doesn't help, either. Just a bunch of dummies trying to find SOMEONE they can put lower on the totem pole then themselves.

 

It even happens in the comment section of the online comics site I belong to. I subscribe to a couple of Canadian comics - Betty, and For Better or For Worse. It's astounding how some of the American commenters can be so unbelievably ignorant. I don't expect them to know our history (although the major stuff would be nice), but I'm so tired of the really ignorant stuff, such as with the current storyline of FBoFW, when the family dog keeps getting into the garbage bags. Someone there actually posted that the dog's owners didn't need to worry about vet bills, because health care is free in Canada.

Well, no. It actually isn't. For humans it's funded through taxes and many people do have health insurance. Prescriptions are through the roof, though, and there are people who die because they can't afford the stuff that's meant to keep them alive.

As for veterinary care, no, it is certainly not free.

Or take the example of people who post on news sites. I'm still shaking my head over the woman on CBC.ca who kept ranting about Justin Trudeau saying "peoplekind" and she kept spelling it "poeplekind" and screeching about "poeple" this and "poeple" that. If she's going to criticize the Prime Minister, she should at least get her spelling right.

There are some of them who should be mute.

 

Biggest plus AND minus of the internet; gives everyone a platform. People that would be quietly stupid have a place to scream it to the masses, the gullible have digital pamphlets and manifestos by the terabyte, don't have to meet in shady basements to join a cult or conspiracy theorist group. And because it's all just ones and zeroes, the craziest thing can be presented just as importantly as the most rational. Tons of pluses, but making us dumber as well. People rejecting vaccines because they 'did their research', by which they mean googling things that reinforce their worldview for 5 minutes. Or get a slant on the news that is insane, but comforting because they tell you what to think, and it matches your preconceived notions.

Ugh...

 

it's even worse in 'journalism' lately. such a rush to be first that there's little import placed on being RIGHT as well. And then basic spelling and grammatical errors from people that are paid to know better. Quick bursts of crap on the internet, no editor, no review, no fact check.

Things just aren't trending positively these days...

 

That's awesome! =) Congratulations to the drivers - it's a victory both for a badly payed profession and for grammatical correctness.

People often seem to think that punctuation marks are superfluous. But they are meant to highlight connections between words and to unambiguousely define the sense of a sentence. Ignoring punctuation marks is like driving without flashing the indicator - sooner or later it'll lead to terrible accidents.

Two examples how punctuation marks can save a sexlife or a child's life, respectively :
"What do you want again?!" - "What? Do you want again?"



Translation: children's special: 2 adults eat 1 child for free

 

When writing it's hard to understand what a person is feeling or what kind of emphasis they are putting into those words they write. They usually ad something like, I'm being sarcastic at the end or something, or would be good for people to actually do so that people understand what you're saying and wanting to convey.

In person it's much easier to understand these things.

 

I couldn't agree more, Moe! That's why I have such a huge smilie collection. Not being a native speaker of this language, I use them as handy tools to emphasize the feelings behind the words. After all, a grin is international
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