There's a Blog in here Somewhere!

I taught English for several years, both on the college level and in public schools. (In the public schools, I team-taught with a seasoned English teacher.) After retirement, and much time to think about the reasons that students of every age and learning ability have such a hard time with our "written" language, I have concluded that it is because English requires too much memorization.

Think about it, we have, "there, their, and they're," and "bear and bare" (I have friends that spell their last name "Bair" and another friend who's maiden name was "Baer.") We have to deal with "to,too, and two," "sit, set, sat," and the whole (hole) "whom, who, who's, whose" thing is really confusing.

Years ago, we had an exchange student from Japan. She spoke English, but when she had to write it, she was a mess. In Japanese, there is a special or separate word for everything. Spanish, which is what I took in HS, is much the same way. Why didn't the creators of the written English do the the same thing? It would have made teaching it so much easier.

We confuse the issue even more by using same spelling but different pronunciation of many of our words. Such a, "I read the paper this morning," and "What do you like to read?" Oh my. The list could go on for a long while.

As a student and teacher of the English language, I have come to the conclusion that it's much easier to speak it than it is to write it. But, we must continue to teach our students to be good writers as well as readers. (And I am saving the new "text-speak" for another blasting blog!)

I think I will go read from my red reader which I have already read.

Peace,
JE