QA's check

[9thFloorNightmare]

Just wanted to report that part of my new job is to do quality checks on very important documents and while other people absolutely hate and find to boring, it feels me with joy.
They always say I have such a "good eye" and are always grateful when I check their paperwork.
It is not only for spelling but incongruences with numbering and other things that don't make a lot of sense.
As a non native speaker, it makes me so proud of myself.
Why are some people more pedantic then others though?

[upinaballoon]

"... when I first started teaching it was all about creativity."

When I was trained, earlier, 'formal' was regarded as the pits, and 'informal' was the big deal.
A wise education lecturer said, "It doesn't matter whether you teach formally or informally --- the criterion is Are The Children Learning?, but she would have been regarded as old hat at the time.

[upinaballoon]

In the play 'Pygmalion', George Bernard Shaw ( Irish) has a character, presumably Professor Higgins, say this :-
"The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it..."

[9thFloorNightmare]

Made a mistake *not doesn't - don't!

Oh and why are grammar schools called grammar schools then? Do they teach more grammar there?😆

[WashAsDelicates]

I understand the sense of pride you get, OP. English is also not my mother tongue, but at work I am the one the native English speakers consult on questions of grammar and vocabulary. I am not quite as strong on spelling, except when it is a vocabulary issue, like stationary/stationery.

[cheapskatemum]

I was taught English grammar at my Church of England primary school in the late 60s & at grammar school in the 70s. I also read a lot. I then studied English language & literature at degree level & after that I did the TEFL Prep Cert, which involved learning more grammatical rules than all the rest put together! As you can probably tell, I love the subject, but I would say I'm in the minority of native born English speakers.

I taught English in state comprehensive schools from 1987-2009. Towards the end of that period I remember explicit grammar teaching being part of the National Curriculum, but when I first started teaching it was all about creativity.

[PedantScorner]

I should have proofread before I posted.

[PedantScorner]

It wasn't really taught. The English lessons at my state secondary school was appallingly poor. It was mainly the teachers that were not good.
They didn't instill a love of the language in me, and we were taught at the pace of the slowest in the class, and it was an unstreamed class, that included some with no interest whatsoever.

English Literature was taught by a different teacher and he was excellent.

We were taught other languages and were taught grammar in those. I loved those lessons.

[PAFMO]

I'm an English teacher and learned English grammar rules at university by comparing them to the French and Spanish that I was studying, and as part of the linguistics modules.
I was at secondary school in the late 70s and we did absolutely no grammar whatsoever.

[9thFloorNightmare]

@PedantScorner

@9thFloorNightmare , my mother tongue isn't English but I work in editing.
Many in the UK weren't taught English grammar. I had to learn English, and was already familiar with grammar from other languages.

The worst English I see in the workplace is from native English-speakers, but that isn't confined to UK English.

The English I see on MN and social media generally fills me with despair.

How come they are not taught grammar?

The grammar of my mother tongue is more complicated than English and the spelling even crazier - so many more rules that doesn't make sense but it is in the curriculum and we all got tested time and time again.

Or maybe it is my selective memory, since I liked it and did well.🙃

[upinaballoon]

"The English I see on MN and social media generally fills me with despair."
I know the feeling.

Re grammar teaching in England,
I am English-born and educated in England. I learned Latin and French after I was 11. I had never seen

I am ........................We are
You are...................You (pl) are
He/she/it is...........They are

until then.

I don't know if the present tense of the verb 'to be' is ever presented as above in an English primary school nowadays. It wasn't in my days as a pupil. I wish it would be.

[PedantScorner]

@9thFloorNightmare , my mother tongue isn't English but I work in editing.
Many in the UK weren't taught English grammar. I had to learn English, and was already familiar with grammar from other languages.

The worst English I see in the workplace is from native English-speakers, but that isn't confined to UK English.

The English I see on MN and social media generally fills me with despair.

[follyfoot37]

@9thFloorNightmare

Just wanted to report that part of my new job is to do quality checks on very important documents and while other people absolutely hate and find to boring, it feels me with joy.
They always say I have such a "good eye" and are always grateful when I check their paperwork.
It is not only for spelling but incongruences with numbering and other things that don't make a lot of sense.
As a non native speaker, it makes me so proud of myself.
Why are some people more pedantic then others though?

Non-native English speakers tend to be the best grammarians and spellers!

And some are pedantic because it's probably a reflection of how they were taught and/or brought up. People are quick to villify those who believe that grammar, punctuation and spelling are important, but on such things, lives can be changed (happens often between imperial and metric measurements/volumes)
And personally, I am pedantic (although nor infallible!) because of the creeping Amercanisation of our language. I will never omit the 'u' in colour!