I heard myself chuckle then groan when I stumbled on this old, old column of mine about grammar adequacy and the lack thereof. I suggest you read it to find out why.Within the hour after my column on English pronunciation appeared in the online edition of
The Manila Times that year, I received an e-mail with this odd heading: “A gr8 accent alone isn’t gr8 English.” This, of course, is a playful transliteration in SMS text of that column’s title, “A great accent alone isn’t great English.”
Here, I thought, was some adolescent prankster out to engage me in some harmless wordplay, but I had to dismiss that idea when the sender, J., identified himself/herself as an English-language lecturer from Auckland, New Zealand, who now works in Hong Kong.
The message had this to say, verbatim
(typos and misspellings uncorrected):
“Hello there Jose,
“Thanks for your article in The Manila Times.
“U r right of course. Getting one’s pronunciation right isn’t the only requisite in mastering the English languague. Knowing the the English grammar is one of the fundamental keys in learning the language. Just like playing a game of chess or tennis, one needs to know the rules and so is in speaking English, one needs to know its rules to speak well.
“However, there are 2 more requisites in mastering the language:
“1. to have an adequate range of it vocabulary &^
“2. to know the spelling of the words that one uses so that one may be abel to write it or recognise it in a text.
“That’s all.”
Here’s my open reply to that e-mail: Dear J.,
I agree with your point that one needs an adequate English vocabulary and must be good in spelling as well to achieve mastery of the language. I realize though that you must have found it odd that I didn’t cite the need for an adequate English vocabulary in that column. My reason for that is this: I feel that what an adequate vocabulary should be is a highly debatable thing.
IMAGE CREDIT: WWW.YOUTUBE.COMI believe that unless we are aspiring to become Spelling Bee or Scrabble champions, we don’t really need to get to know, say, even a fifth of the 615,000 English words authoritatively listed in the
Oxford English Dictionary. After all, some language experts say, only about 200,000 of those words are in common usage, and all that a typical native-English-speaking college graduate needs to be functionally literate in English is about 20,000-25,000 words. I suppose that the counterpart educated nonnative English speaker probably could manage with even less.
Whatever the advisable figures, however, I believe that we can actually get by with much fewer and simpler words and yet become even more communicative. Indeed, unlike some academics, we should avoid using strange or big words that only befuddle our listeners or readers. What’s more important is improving our ability to learn to adroitly tap the words that are already inside the heads of our target audiences.
IMAGE CREDIT: SLIDEPLAYER.COMBut as to good spelling, J., I absolutely agree with you about its importance. In fact, when I was still managing an English-language services company, I would routinely throw into the trash any job application letter for editor that contained one misspelled word too many—even if the applicant had a
summa cum laude or a Master’s or PhD to his or her name.
To me, misspellings are a mark of a careless and undisciplined mind.
With my best wishes,
Joe Carillo
To this reply, J. sent me the following rejoinder (typos and misspellings uncorrected): “Hello there Jose, My apolgies pls. I didn’t check my e-mail before I sent it out to you. You must have realised the unforgivable mistakes in my last sentence: ‘to know the spelling of the words that one uses so that one may be abel to write it or recognise it in a text.’ It should read: ‘ .... able to write them or recognise them in a text.’ Many thanks!”
This essay first appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the July 19, 2008 issue of The Manila Times
, © 2008 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
