Language

[View page without inline references]

The world has many languages and dialects, and today, language is as important as ever in a rapidly globalized [see the Internet] world where written [see writing] language often is the primary means of communication [see communication]. Language is what enables two otherwise very different people to exchange thoughts, ideas and knowledge.

Thus, it's extremely important that those two people speak more or less the same language -- otherwise `noise' will enter (wow, this sounds very theoretical =) ) and the communication [see communication] gets very fuzzy. Fortunately, there is a more or less standard written language (English) that has become the de facto standard for most international communication, and the rules of both English and most other languages are quite clearly written down, and not too hopeless to learn [see school] for most people.

Unfortunately, I [see me] way too often observe that people do not care about the language they write or speak anymore, in these times where it has become more important than ever. Not only do people not know how to write the simplest words correct, but they also refuse to correct it. How on earth is that possible? The usual response is "everybody understands what I say anyhow, so I don't care", but that's just plain wrong. As language slowly deteriorates and breaks down, so does the precise meaning of what you intended to say gets fuzzy and lost, not to mention that precise, good language is a lot easier to read and comprehend than language with errors all over the place. It would usually help if people spent five minutes looking over what they wrote before they sent it to hundreds of potential receivers :-)

I'm quite aware that every generation complains about exactly this same phenomenon. But that shouldn't imply that it's any better this time, right? ;-) Writing correct language is not hard if you're just giving it a try (yes, there are dyslexics, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try -- I know a lot of dyslexics that write excellent language), so please take those few extra minutes or seconds and make the world a better place, okay? ;-) Nobody is perfect (and I'm [see me] far from perfect), but at least trying is a lot better than not trying.