Below is a second set of comments from the writer, Alexander McCall Smith’s, in his funny article in the June 2015 edition of “Prospect” magazine, the British magazine designed for those who think and who have a sense of humour, under the title “If I ruled the World”.
Teachers too would have their authority returned to them. Children would be taught grammar, and in particular encouraged to use the accusative properly and to put verbs in their sentences, where possible. They would be told what a verb is. They would be taught not to use the word “like” every 10 seconds. They would be taught not to run alltheirwordstogether. This would mean that when they got jobs announcing flights at airports people would be able to understand what they were saying.
Epicurus, when he had stopped laughing, would agree that the “What the hell – let them speak the language anyway they like” gang who have dominated education in the English-speaking world since baby-boomers were invented, should, like, be pensioned off and our language restored to what it used to be – the universally understood and agreed way of communicating and created a vibrant community.
You and Alexander McCall Smith should like get a little Breakthrough Prize or a mini-Pulitzer for these recommendations.
Few things are like more important than language to sustain vibrant communities and precise elocution in announcing airplanes going up and coming down. Like I mean it.
Now I understand the French sometimes better than I do the British, who gabble, especially on the phone, leaving totally incomprehensible messages, maybe in Kwa-Zulu.