sayitwell

I also get told that I trip over my tongue and that I miss words out in my sentences. I think it's because I talk a bit slangy therefore say less words where I don't see them necessary. However, I don't know I'm doing it until it gets pointed out.

in speech i am also prone to stumble.  i prefer to write out my thoughts.  i think very clearly and quickly but when i try to verbalize my thoughts they come out jumbled sometimes.  i'm not exactly sure why.  maybe my mouth can't catch up to my brain's speed.  oh well.

i tend to use the phrase, "oh well" a lot.  i also say "wow" a good amount.  i'm not sure why i resort to those words.  i also say "interesting" all the time.  that is a nice word that can describe a lot of things succinctly.

adobo,

that is a fair point about the surname brown and the color brown.  in that situation i would definitely use capitalization for the surname.  i would deviate from my capitalization protest in those situations.  fair point, indeed.  i like how you think.

i've been thinking about all the time i used to spend learning how to spell words.  all the time i spent memorizing the spelling of words and those poor kids in spelling bees that also spent countless hours learning how to spell obscure words.  what a gigantic waste of time!  the computers can spell the words for us. this wasn't the case when i was in school.  now that it is the case, i reflect on the time and effort that i wasted learning all of those words and it makes me cringe.

i just flat out do not care what others think of me.  i wish more people would live in this manner.  i know that my grammar and language skills are well above average but what does it even matter?  it does not matter in the slightest.  i would only be concerned about such things if it determined whether i was to lose my job or gain a promotion.

I have no problem with the shortcuts during texting/e-mails and even in person conversations.  It is all about what you are communicating, not how you do it.  Function over form every time for me.  I use shortcuts in texts all the time!  Get with it, this is 2013.

i am learning spanish at the moment and i consider it to be much easier than french and english.  that's probably why so many students in my schools took spanish instead of french.

it's learning the tenses.  french has so many issues with multiple tenses.  i still get confused with the different versions of french tenses.  that has always been my hangup with learning new languages.

sometimes but it really depends on if the lyrics are intelligible.  if someone from another country listened to american hip hop, chances are that they would not learn much actual language because hip hop lyrics are full of slang words that are not used in normal conversations.  i've learned a few foreign words through foreign music but not many.

What about a game similar to hang-man but with words of another language, one you are attempting to learn? It would be easy and hang-man is always fun!

that's a fantastic idea.  i like your creative thinking.  i would also favor a game that is similar to mad libs.  i always enjoyed playing mad libs.  is anyone else interested in hangman or mad libs at all?

Writing a letter without using capitalization seems really informal. If you are just writing to your friends it's okay if you don't like to use it, but with some letters like applications or some other formal letters, it is necessary to use the right way. I think there is a time when you can disregard rules but there are times when you have to follow. It is the correct way and there is nothing you can do but to follow unless you want to make your own set of rules.

it might seem informal but that is in the eye of the beholder.  to me, lower case letters do not indicate an informal nature.  i usually follow the rules of language but i hate capitalization to start sentences.  from here on out i am protesting this rule.  this is the beginning of the lower case movement.  join me.

I'm competent enough to know when I'm wasting time and effort.  I hate doing things just because others do them.  That is the non-conformist in me.  I always march to the beat of my own drummer.

I am also a native English speaker that reads this forum.  I am always ready to learn something new.  I am not a master of the English language so I am open to criticism and new ideas.  Carry on.

I like what you wrote, jodiann.  If you want to change people one of the best ways is to write a story that strikes a nerve.  Several works of fiction have changed me.  You will be better served if you target a younger audience.  Most people develop their life views while in school and are hard to change afterwards.  So, if you can write a book that is read in schools then you'll have a good chance to change views and behaviors.  I'm thinking of the Catcher in the Rye when I type this.

Literature is fiction that is over 100 years old.  Fiction is stories that are not true that have been written within the past 100 years.  That's all that the term literature means to me.

There isn't a proper way to spell the word.  I usually write "geez".  But that's just my style.  It's not a big deal either way.

I don't find capitalization that pointless. If you start doing away with grammar rules for no reason other than age, then you might as well get rid of other rules that you deem archaic or useless. We might see a shift due to current technology enabling the butchering of the language and its rules, but to me I find something like capitalization just as important as proper punctuation, perfect syntax, and verb conjugation.

I'm advocating eliminating the capitalization of the first word in sentences.  I'm not encouraging everyone to stop using punctuation and grammar rules. It's just this one that bothers me and always has.  And I have a good reason: It is pointless to capitalize the first word in a sentence.  The period, exclamation point and semi-colon separate sentences/thoughts.  Capitalizing the first letter of each and every word in a sentence is redundant.

Capitalization serves as barriers between thoughts or sentences. Periods serve as pause. All the fundamental parts of a coherent sentence serve a function that is designed to make understanding them easier. I very much dislike receiving e-mails that are grammatically incomprehensible. I just assume that the sender is too lazy to take me seriously and end up sending a horribly written e-mail.

No.  Periods separate sentences.  Commas serve as pauses.  You'd hate my e-mails as I'm protesting capitalization and have been going on about twelve years now. 

Even in this day and age, I think that capitalization is important as it adds clarity.  It helps to differentiate one sentence from the next, which makes for easier reading.  I also think it's still important for the names of proper nouns as well as for the pronoun "I." 

That said, I do know what you mean about the extra effort it takes.  I'm typing this on a keyboard and to I have to keep hitting the shift key.  It would be easier if I didn't, but I think I'm just so accustomed to it that it's become second nature.

It could very well be that as years go by, the custom of capitalization may diminish although I hope that doesn't happen.  Either that or, we will have keyboards and touch screens that do all of the auto-correcting that we need; even more so than what we have now.

But we use periods to separate sentences.  that should be enough.  do you have a difficult time reading these sentences because i stopped capitalizing?  i think the periods suffice to separate the thoughts from one another.

I like how Californians speak.  They sound so relaxed and jovial.  That's how people should sound when they speak their native tongue.  The Northeasterners of the US sound nasally and unhappy.  The males from the South sound gay to me.  I do like the southern accent when it is women speaking though.

I agree.  My pen pal from France really helped level out my learning curve.  I borrowed a lot of his expressions for my papers and written exams.  It gave a nice window into the slang used by the native speakers.  I wish I had kept in touch with my pen pal. 

Why is capitalization even necessary?  When I type out e-mails to family members I rarely capitalize the first word of any sentence.  It is really pointless to me.  why can't we all just type like this?  is it really that childish?  i don't think so.  it takes less effort and is less time consuming.

I don't agree with the study's results at all.  I've known skilled musicians who hate learning other languages.  I'm not a good musician and I enjoy speaking/writing other languages and language in general.  I knew someone in college who played multiple instruments, including the drums and he smoked a bunch of weed before his language placement test in an attempt to make himself look stupid so that he would be allowed to forego the foreign language credit requirement.  It worked well enough and the musician was able to skip the dreaded foreign language classes.

Probably just English.  I feel like it was sort of a waste of time to learn French.  I rarely use it.  I don't plan on putting my kids into the public school system.  If I have any, I'll teach them at home.  If they really want to learn a language then I would teach them Spanish because it has more utility in 2013.

Which tense was the hardest for you to learn?  Was it passe compose?  Imperfect? There are so many and they are more difficult than other languages.  Did anyone else struggle with French tenses when learning the language?  I still get confused.