Is proper grammar a lost art? 1

[Paul4Meep]

More and more these days, I begin to wonder if proper grammar is a lost art. All I know is that my high school and college both crammed it down our throats. However, I often answer customer e-mails for my company, and wonder what ever happened to grammar.

Nevermind the customer e-mails. Who really cares about being perfectionistic with your grammar, punctuation, etc. in your personal life? Well, I still do, but I'm weird.

What I'm talking about in this thread is my co-workers. Often times, an issue may take several e-mails to resolve. This means, if I get such an e-mail, I need to look at the customer's history to find the related e-mails and see what they have said, and my co-workers have said in response thus far.

In doing so, I am shocked at what passes for good grammar, punctuation, etc. amongst my co-workers. They are representing our company! The saddest thing about it is that some of the worst people are the actual e-mail reps! (We have a group of dedicated e-mail reps who are the senior e-mail people. They answer e-mails, answer employee questions regarding how to answer an e-mail, all escalated issues through e-mail are sent to them....)

Sometimes, even with these top level e-mail folks, I'm forced to read their response to an e-mail over and over again, and I'm still left with a puzzled look on my face saying "HUH?!" as I rub my beard in confusion.

Another thing that drives me a little crazy that even our top level e-mail reps do: When you represent the company, there is no "I," there is no "me," there is only "We." "We are sorry for any inconvenience," not, "I'm sorry to hear that happened to you." "We will check into the issue and get back to you when it has been resolved," not, "I will look into this and contact you later." I mean, come on. That is actually one of the first things this company teaches us when you start as a customer service rep!

 

[GwydionM]

Consider the standard use of English.

- people today barely know the difference between flammable and inflammable.
- you write 'Dear Sir' to people you'd never call either 'sir' or 'dear'.
- no one counts sheeps.
- one does not find mouses infesting hice.
- there are not oneteen ways to count 11.

The grammar we have is an accidental accumulation. Why should people be respectful of it?



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An old man who lives in the UK

 

[Paul4Meep]

LOL! That's great, man. Don't get me started on other aspects of English language. Good food. Why don't those words rhyme? Why do we drive in a parkway and park in a driveway? Why do we call them buildings when they've already been built? We do we call them busts when they stop right before the body part that gave them their name? If come and dumb rhyme, why aren't the c-o-m-e and d-o-m-e or c-u-m-b and d-u-m-b? Why is come pronounced the way it is when dome is pronounced the way it looks? Some? Numb?

I before E except after C or when sounding like ay as in neighbour or weigh.... you know, or when we feel like having a word spelled E before I instead. Our language is bizarre, to put it mildly.