Re: OT-ish: txt - Could it replace Standard Written English?

* H. S. Teoh said on 2003-03-06 23:48:02 +0100
> On Thu, Mar 06, 2003 at 04:08:48PM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> > Christophe Grandsire scripsit:
> [snip]
> > There probably just isn't a lot of experience in France with teaching
> > adults [..]
> > I'm talking here about people who cannot read a menu in the simplest
> > restaurant (they have to always order the same thing), who cannot write
> > a single sentence without leaving out or massively misspelling many of
> > the words, who are almost as illiterate as if they lived in the Third
> > World -- in the bush.  (They can usually write their own names.)
> [snip]
>
> Hold on a sec here... I thought the original discussion was about teaching
> in schools (which I'm assuming to mean schools for minors). If you're
> talking about educating adults, that's a totally different barrel o' fish.
> As you point out in your message, adults no longer have that knack for
> rote learning; their minds have already been formed, so to speak.
Uhm... people underestimate how much *time* it takes to learn things
as a child and/or by rote. I think *that* is the problem, not ability;
an adult simply has too many other worries to be able to spend all
waking time on learning. Heck, even *I* can't spend all my waking time
conlanging and computing these days *grumble* as I have to go to work,
spend time on being social even outside of work, manage bills and the
1001 household worries and chores etc.


t., who's currently averaging 1.5 books a week (that's reading)

Reply