Say you, say me…

The debate on whether Science and Mathematics should be taught in English or not has been dragging on and on for so long now that it does not look as if it is ever going to end. Well, I am not going to dwell on that in this post as personally, I feel it is more a political thing rather than any genuine concern for what is good for the students. But one thing’s for sure, the standard of English in the country is really going to the dogs.

I do listen to the radio quite often and I must say that the errors the announcers make on air can be quite appalling at times. Our Malaysian newspapers, unfortunately, are not much better. To prove my point, I just picked up ONE copy of a national English language newspaper and I found this…

I do not know if the columnist is trying to be clever by twisting the title of Thomas Hardy’s novel or whether it is a sheer exhibition of her ignorance. For one thing, the article makes no mention of people getting on her nerves, just that the place can be very busy and advanced reservations would be in order. Still, I fail to see the relevance of the headline. Then, on another page, I saw this…

Now, isn’t “anymore” one single word anymore? Anyway, let us see if there are any more slips in the daily…

I will not say that I’m a fan of Nat King Cole or I will never hear the end of it from people like Kpenyu…but I do like his song “Unforgettable” especially the duet with his daughter, Natalie (after his demise).

I also wonder why the capital letter “P” is used for “prawns” here…

Has it got anything to do with the size? Maybe they are HUGE ones like those Kpenyu is bringing over for me when he comes here in April. ROTFLMAO!!!

Moving on from the subject of prawns, all of you will agree with me, I’m sure, when I say that little things mean a lot…even if it is something seemingly insignificant like a comma or an apostrophe. Just look at these two sentences, for example:
1 The principal says, “The teacher is very lazy.”
2 “The principal,” says the teacher, “is very lazy.”
Note how the meaning is changed once the punctuation marks are shifted.

Well, there is this report on David Beckham in the sports section…

Ok, ladies…*clapping hands…attention, ladies! Don’t get distracted now, and that goes for you too, TOC!!! Hahahahahaha!!! Now, what do you think of the following headline? I am not the possessive type but I am positive that there is a need for an apostrophe mark to show possession…

Other than the above, I also find the use of the hyphen or the dash somewhat erratic and mind-boggling. Should the words be hyphenated or should they be two separate words? Or perhaps they should be joined together to form just one word?

Let’s see how good you are at this. Can you look at the following and tell me which are correct and which are incorrect?

Have a great weekend, everybody!!! LOL!!!