“Mommy, You’re Different”

Yesterday Ricki caught two spelling mistakes (in Hebrew) that I had made. I am a terrible speller in English (I LOVE spellcheck!), and I fare considerably worse in Hebrew. So more than once my daughter Ricki (yes, my daughter with Down syndrome), has managed to catch my bloopers. Yesterday, having caught me with TWO mistakes, she turned to me and said: “Mom, You are Different”. Now was that a compliment? I guess she wants me to go for remedial work in spelling. Well, maybe I need it. I have “Americani syndrome”.

The Terrible Speller (or, Murder of the English Tongue)

My mom, seeing the first half of this title, will be sure, erroneously, that this post is about me. I am a terrible speller. The only D I ever received as a final grade was in spelling. But I was lucky; someone invented “spell-check”, and has made my life easier.
But this post is not about me. It is about the daily slaughter of the English tongue which I am witness to.
First, there are the people (including my own offspring) who use English words, thinking that they are new Hebrew terms. And they will invariably mispronounce it. (Rolling the “R” being the least problem here.)
Do you recognize “absurrrdit” as “absurd”? And “Food Professor” is not a new college instructor, but a food processor.

The next absurdity is the misspellings. And they pop up all over. In package instructions, advertisements, etc. You would think that people would spend a bit of change for an English proofreader……
So it should come as no surprise that coming home from a shoe store in the city center today, my adult daughter and I came over a grocery store with its name written in bold letters over the door:
“Ceaper Buing”


PS: “Disability Blog Carnival”#48 is posted over at Terri’s blog.