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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder how people make it to adulthood without knowing

671 replies

Staffy1 · 08/12/2020 10:59

That a Christmas tree decoration is called a "bauble", not "ball ball"? Or how they make it through junior school without knowing the difference between "his" and "he's"? What happens in schools these days and don't people ever read anything?

OP posts:
Janegrey333 · 09/12/2020 20:26

@opinionatedfreak

And despite being a well educated professional my use of apostrophes is unreliable.

Amidst a school change I somehow managed to skip any formal teaching on the subject and have been winging it for the last 30 years.

Mostly I catch it. Occasionally I don't and include a howler in a written document designed for a wide circulation.

Sigh.

This is really helpful.

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zr6bxyc/articles/zd7w7p3

Crumbleweed · 09/12/2020 20:28

@lazylinguist

French and German lessons were a surprise; grammar was taught there.

Yes, it's absurd that we MFL teachers (and Latin teachers in schools where it's still taught) have had to teach English grammar 'by the back door' in order to teach our own subjects for generations.

At least since the new Spag SATs test was introduced we do get kids who know what a noun, verb, adjective etc are, but it's ditched as soon as SATs are over, so there's not much continuity.

Yes completely agree. It was also my French teacher who taught me how to structure an essay.
Miraf1 · 09/12/2020 20:34

Neither IS incorrect.

HarryHarryHarry · 09/12/2020 20:35

Part of it is also people’s attitude to learning. Sometimes people seem to look down on me for knowing something that they didn’t, as if it’s really embarrassing!

SchrodingersImmigrant · 09/12/2020 20:38

@Janegrey333

Some people are surprised that the word Pacific is the name of an ocean because they tend to use it instead of specific.
I know solicitor like that. Also refusal to use many of the irregular verbs. Also used lighted (frontage must be lighted), stealed (instead of stolen items), broked (instead of broken)... Not even joking. We dropped the firm (high street) and moved to another.
Kaytopotato · 09/12/2020 20:39

I always thought that the phrase was”rein it in” as in pulling up a horse by the reins?

Faultymain5 · 09/12/2020 20:42

@EBearhug

To be fair it depends on the curriculum, in my day we did 1760 to 1870 Industrial Revolution. I ultimately went on to fail History and re-took it in college which included ww2.

But it also means someone went through school without reading the Diary of Anne Frank or Goodnight Mr Tom or various other books with a setting of WW2. (We did Jill Paton Walsh's the Dolphin Crossing at one point.)

I think ven if you don't take history past 13, it quite hard to get through to adulthood without having even hearing of WW2, Hitler, Churchill or the Holocaust, even if that's all you know. I'm pretty sure if I turned the TV on at any time of the night or day, I could flick through all the channels and at some point would come across a war film or documentary covering that period, even if I only look at Freeview channels.

Yeah, but I've literally seen people (ahem relatives) who will automatically turn the tv over if anything like that comes on.

I never did read Anne Frank, but I'm interseted in WW2 (long before college), so I take an interest. Someone upthread mentioned that people make a choice not to know stuff. i actually agree.

sbhydrogen · 09/12/2020 20:46

One that gets me every Christmas:

Good tidings we bring, to you and your king

pessimistiquerealistique · 09/12/2020 20:48

I've heard a few school children saying, "I have brang" instead of 'brought' 😬

Europilgrim · 09/12/2020 20:50

Kaytopotato - it is. But a lot of people think it is reign in. It is really easy not to know that you have got a spelling wrong when the sound is exactly the same. I see some very well-educated people write "slight of hand" and "pour over a book" and I am sure there are some expressions that I am blithely getting wrong all the time surely not?!

Europilgrim · 09/12/2020 20:52

And I read this in a book the other day (Ok, I admit it, it was Jeffrey Archer Grin ) "He was Bristol's answer to Cary Grant". Does JA not know how to use that expression or is it some sort of in-joke? Hmm...maybe he reads mumsnet and could answer?

Allergictoironing · 09/12/2020 21:11

@pessimistiquerealistique

I've heard a few school children saying, "I have brang" instead of 'brought' 😬
I hear "brung" most often Sad
Janegrey333 · 09/12/2020 21:14

@Kaytopotato

I always thought that the phrase was”rein it in” as in pulling up a horse by the reins?
It is! Lots of people use “reign” instead which is wrong.
shinynewapple2020 · 09/12/2020 21:16

In a way though , the educated and otherwise intelligent people who just can't grasp how different other people's lives are and how it is possible to grow up with less than basic literacy and general knowledge are worse than people who genuinely think that there are ball balls and Chester draws because they write what they hear.

I would suggest that instead of suggesting that others 'educate themselves' or google things that they don't know they don't know : that they make a bit of an effort themselves to understand people's lives outside of their middle class bubble (or should that be bauble ......)

shinynewapple2020 · 09/12/2020 21:19

@Janegrey333

I really don’t buy the favourite excuses for poor spelling and grammar: pronunciation and accent. It’s laughable. Why not just educate yourself? Never too late and all that.

An example of the kind of ignorant thinking I mentioned above

hugocat · 09/12/2020 21:20

I use subtitles and the people who do those frequently get it wrong . I see incorrectly spelt words and simple grammar mistakes eg 'you , you're , their , there , they're .....

shinynewapple2020 · 09/12/2020 21:21

@Janegrey333

Yes, also, to “reign in that behaviour”. Don’t they know that it doesn’t make sense?

No Jane, they really don't. They hear the sound reign, rein, rain. It all sounds the same .

shinynewapple2020 · 09/12/2020 21:21

It's shocking to me that you can't see that .

Janegrey333 · 09/12/2020 21:24

They hear the sound reign, rein, rain. It all sounds the same.

Surely if the word is in context, only “rein” makes sense. It’s a riding metaphor. How can “reign” or “rain” be contenders?

Janegrey333 · 09/12/2020 21:25

@HarryHarryHarry

Part of it is also people’s attitude to learning. Sometimes people seem to look down on me for knowing something that they didn’t, as if it’s really embarrassing!
How sad is that!
Janegrey333 · 09/12/2020 21:27

@hugocat

I use subtitles and the people who do those frequently get it wrong . I see incorrectly spelt words and simple grammar mistakes eg 'you , you're , their , there , they're .....
Subtitles are all present and correct in the Walter Presents Scandi crime dramas.🙂
MummyBearBoo · 09/12/2020 21:28

It bugs me when people us 'of' instead of 'have' e.g 'I should of done that' - it should be ' I should have done that' or 'can I lend a pen' - there is a difference between an active and passive verb it should be 'can I borrow a pen' or 'shall I lend you a pen!' Xxx

BunsyGirl · 09/12/2020 21:29

@Janegrey333 That’s one of his subjects!!!

nopenotplaying · 09/12/2020 21:31

I've bin wandering this myself. I carnt stand it!

Gwenhwyfar · 09/12/2020 21:33

"I use subtitles and the people who do those frequently get it wrong . I see incorrectly spelt words and simple grammar mistakes eg 'you , you're , their , there , they're ....."

Do you mean the 'live' subtitles e.g. for the news? These are often done by machines I think.