Grammar grumbles

Feb 7, 2013 update: I ain’t the only one!!! I mean…I am not the only one!!! Read on…

43 percent of singles say bad grammar is a turnoff

YES!!! In total agreement and loved reading the comments. *sigh* I feel like I belong in this community of haters…

Originally posted: Jan 30, 2013

I don’t have any near-future plans of having my name beside a Pulitzer or Man Booker Prize and while I ain’t no great writer, I sure do appreciate literary geniuses. You know what, let’s take it down a notch – you don’t need to be a literary genius, I just appreciate good writing. Actually, let’s just take it down to the basics, I appreciate good grammar.

Seeing anything otherwise causes some pretty serious internal fits…internal fits that, at times, makes its way out to the external world. Twitter has become a good release for my rants and placing myself behind a wall of semi-anonymity makes it easy to unload. I started following @ItsDaGrumpyCat because oh, how he brightens my day so! I feel like his thoughts are my thoughts…except if I want to keep up my happy, peppy, image that I’ve created for myself here in England (alter-ego) I need to keep most of these thoughts locked up. But it’s comforting to know that there’s someone out there who can, and will, freely voice my sentiments.

Oops, like the cat that I am, I’ve strayed from the original topic. The reason why I brought up ItsDaGrumpyCat, and how it relates to this post, is that apparently he feels the same way I do in regards to poor grammar. I’ve been re-tweeting his tweets because that gives me the safety barrier of pushing my thoughts out there without me directly saying, “I despise people who, after 15 years of schooling plus life experience, still can’t get simple grammar straight.”

Yes, ItsDaGrumpyCat, YES!!! You know me so well…

It’s bad enough when I see general spelling and grammar mistakes floating around my emails…my social media…my chat boxes…but when it starts to appear on professional business packaging, THAT’S when the shock/rage factor shoots up a bit as I think, “You git! This is your professional branding! Couldn’t you have taken the effort to have it proofread before distributing to thousands/millions of people!?”

When I see something spelled incorrectly or notice a major grammar mistake it’s definitely enough to turn me off from using that product if there’s a suitable alternative around.

Case Study 1:

Spot the mistake?

 

It was so hard to eat my noodles with the bag facing me...leering at me...taunting me...

This restaurant’s in Bath, England. Notice before I said I’d switch companies if there was a suitable alternative available? Well, in this case there’s no suitable alternative :( Bath’s lacking in good Asian cuisine, and finding bubble tea, especially GOOD bubble tea is scarce. Almost as scarce as good spelling and grammar.

Tonight’s Italian class consisted of learning restaurant etiquette, ordering dishes, faux-pas’ etc. Have you heard of the dish Spaghetti/Penne all’Arrabbiata? It’s pasta with spicy sauce (arrabbiata means ‘angry’ in Italian). My teacher told us today that if she sees on the menu that ‘arrabbiata’ has been spelled incorrectly (on menus it’s often missing either one of the double r’s or the double b’s) she won’t order it because “if it’s not spelled right it’s not cooked right!” Trust the Italians to feel as passionately as I do about misspellings 😉

I say this even though M spells gym ‘jym/jim’, ache ‘ake’, receipt ‘receit’…Don’t worry, I’m working on it. I’ve always been one to take on a challenge!

 

Guess who’s back!

Me! Hope you’re not disappointed….who were you expecting? Michelle Tanner?

Anyway, it seems like all I ever do is begin my posts with apologies for not keeping you better updated and because I’m just so damn predictable, guess what I’m about to do now? …soorrryyyy!!!! I cringed when I saw the date of my last post. I’ve let you down, but more importantly, I’ve let myself down. I shan’t let that happen again. I was actually prepared to let this hang a while longer until I received an email today from a dear friend stating she was looking forward to going home tonight and reading the blog to catch up on my going-ons. That’s when I thought “ohhhhh shiitteeee”.

If it makes you feel any better I’ve THOUGHT about writing an update! So much has happened since the beginning of December that I think I’ll just skip it all and jump to present day. You don’t really want to hear about the new place, new job, Christmas in Sardinia and NYE in Poland anyway, right? Ya, didn’t think so.

I’ll get on to what I do best- rant. I tweeted something today: I’m not impatient. It’s just that ageing has made me value my time and made me less tolerant of bullshit. (Unless maybe the definition of impatience is “lacking tolerance for bullshit”)

I think that in general, I am a fairly patient person. If the situation calls for it. And there is a limit to where my patience ends. That’s usually when the bullshit, or in some (many) cases, stupidity, starts.

I enjoy teaching people things and am very willing to dedicate time to make sure you get a concept. But if after a while you STILL can’t get it, even after very logical reasoning, good-bye patience.

I like to listen and think I’m pretty patient when it comes to hearing people’s problems and dilemmas out. But when it comes to the point where listening to problems and trying to create a constructive answer becomes a pity-party-let’s-all-feel-sorry-for-me fiesta, good-bye patience. Quit yer complainin’ and do something about your shit situation or change your attitude towards it. *Just for the record, this is not me complaining, I’m clearly having a rant*

Things don’t come easy, people. I’m happy where I am now, but whoa baby it took a long time to get here. I was patient, I worked hard, I was flexible and now I’m happy I can look back and say “ahhh finally”. I think it’s the path that has lead me to where I am that’s made me a little harder and much less tolerant to stupid bullshit. The number of UGH moment I’ve been through are off the charts.

I guess this is an FYI for all those that are fortunate (hehe) enough to be in my life. Know that if I keep you around it’s because I want to. Because as I’ve made quite evident, I hate wasting my time- you’ve only got one life! (Assuming you don’t believe in the afterlife, which I do not)