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Spelling it out — and how!

Embarrassed about your English spellings?

Relax, half of native Britons whose first language is English struggle with their spellings, and are unable to get even commonly used words like “friend”, “liaison”, “definitely” and “accommodation” righ t, according to a new survey.

Some 1,000 respondents from different backgrounds and age-groups were given ten routinely used words to spell, and to the researchers’ horror all got one or more of the words wrong with 54 per cent misspelling “embarrassed”; 46 per cent “liaison”; and 43 per cent “millennium”.

Other words which had them stumped included “accommodation”, “separate” and “accidentally”. Some didn’t even know how to spell “friend”.

The study confirmed the anecdotal evidence that the young are more likely to maul the English language; and it gets progressively worse with the SMS generation which has difficulty spelling anything that has more than one letter!

“The under 35s were more likely to be uncomfortable filling in a job application form than their parents or the over-55s. Thirty-five per cent of under 24s relied on some form of spell-check compared with 13 per cent of over 55s,” The Daily Telegraph reported.

The Spelling Society, which commissioned the study as part of its campaign for simplifying spelling, called for modernising English spelling saying it “archaic” and difficult to learn.

“We are, in effect, still using 16th-century spelling for a 21st century language… Grammar and pronunciation have changed since then with the written language lagging a couple of centuries behind,” said a spokesman of the society.

There may be a point here but it is an easy fix and doesn’t address the main problem. What next? “Simplifying” mathematics and science for those who can’t get their heads round “difficult” numbers and concepts?

The respondents themselves were closer to the mark in holding teachers and parents responsible their poor grasp of the language. The problem lies with Britain’s language teaching system which pays very little attention to grammar and spelling. This is compounded by students’ easy access to “spellcheck” and dictionaries. Experts have warned that a whole generation of young Britons is growing without basic writing and numeracy skills — unable to count and string together even simple sentences without making too many mistakes.

Employers have been voicing frustration at the quality of job applicants. Forget school-leavers, even many university graduates are unemployable, they say.

Over the past ten years, the Labour government has poured in millions of pounds in expanding the school system and improving the infrastructure which is admirable but teaching standards in much of the state sector remain abysmally poor.

Meanwhile, another study which reads suspiciously like a plug for the mobile phone industry (even if it is not, it will be greeted there with whoops of joy) says that children should be encouraged to send more text messages because “txting” helps improve literacy.

The logic is that as “txting” requires imaginative ways of inventing abbreviations it helps literacy. At least that’s what the study’s author David Crystal, professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, believes.

“People have always used abbreviations. They do not actually use that many in texts (oh, really, Professor Crystal?) but when they do they are using them in new, playful and imaginative ways that benefit literacy,” he told The Sunday Times which noted that the finding was in “stark contrast to fears that texting’s free forms and truncated words herald the abandonment of traditional grammar.”

Anyway read all about it in Prof. Crystal’s forthcoming book: The G8 Db8. Which, one presumes, means The Great Debate!

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Sir Richard Stagg, British High Commissioner to India, sweeps into the room profusely apologising for being late. Someone jokingly suggests that after eight months in India perhaps he, too, has caught the “IST bug”, the notoriously flexible Indian notion of punctuality.

“No, no,” he protests mildly and plunges straight into giving us an ultra-rosy snapshot of India-U.K. relations which, he insists, couldn’t be in better shape.

His audience consisted of two London-based Indian correspondents inexplicably singled out by his advisers for a special briefing. “Should we feel flattered?” we wondered. Or had we attracted attention for the wrong reason?

Sir Richard, a quintessential diplomat — courteous, correct and cautious — wouldn’t of course let on though, it slowly emerged, that he was a bit miffed about some of the reporting in the Indian media of the controversy over the Highly-Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP).

For example, he thought that the figure of the number of Indians affected by the changes to the HSMP had been “exaggerated”. He also questioned the view that the issue might have damaged Britain’s credibility abroad, and insisted that the “shift” in Britain’s immigration policy had not in any way affected India-U.K. relations.

“No I am not bruised and battered,” he laughed adding: “Generally, I don’t think it has had a pervasive effect on Indian opinion.”

Sir Richard acknowledged that immigration was an emotive issue and had the potential of causing “friction” but said that during his travel across India he did not notice any public anger though individuals might be upset.

“There’s no objective effect and I don’t think HSMP has affected our credibility,” he said.

Was there any area where India and U.K. didn’t see eye to eye?

Not really, Sir Richard replied, except climate change. Britain wanted India to move more quickly to “accept some controls” and it was willing to help. And, then like a good diplomat, he hastened to add: “Of course, we don’t want to bully India into accepting what we want.”

Sir Richard was still in full flow when his aides signalled that the meeting had already gone into extra time. Wouldn’t he be late for his next appointment?

Oh, no, he wouldn’t be caught “IST-ing” again!

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