Computers Make You Stupid

[Charles]

[dimwit]

And good riddance to most of it too. It has always struck me as amazing that Japanese a beautifully phonetic language should be stuck with such an ill-suited writing system. I can think of very few language where people are in senior high and still learning how to read and write.

[Charles]

I can think of very few language [sic] where people are in senior high and still learning how to read and write.

Did your school system stop English classes after grade school? Most universities still require one year of Rhetoric or other English language instruction.

[dimwit]

Bull. Rhetoric may be a subject learned by students in liberal arts programs but no one in sciences, engineering or medicine would study it.

Furthermore your analogy is false. A better question would be could a 10 year read a newspaper story in English? Could the same be true of a 10 year old reading a Japanese daily?

Writing is a different issue. Few adult waste their time writing out Kanji because IT IS A WASTE OF TIME!!!! Just as high schools no longer teach typing using typewriters, computers have reduced the number of errors people make while writing.

[Charles]

Apparently you don't understand what the "rhetoric" classes are about. It is just a fancy name for writing and reading classes at the college level. At my university, it was required of all students regardless of major (unless you passed the APP English test).

You'd be surprised at the literacy level of many high school graduates. I'll never forget when I was a freshman living in the dorms, and someone from next door asked me what was this word in his textbook, he couldn't understand it or pronounce it. The word was "through." He didn't make it past the first semester.

[dimwit]

Apparently you don't understand what the "rhetoric" classes are about. It is just a fancy name for writing and reading classes at the college level. At my university, it was required of all students regardless of major (unless you passed the APP English test).

I studied at university some 25 years ago so the standards may have changed but we were also required to pass an English writing test -the name of which escapes me. Most did. Generally, the people who didn't were ESL students or generally dropped out by the end of the first year anyways.

Charles could you read a newspaper article when you were 10? I can't think of a single 10 year old student that I have that could read an article from a Japanese paper.

[MrUltimateGaijin]

I studied at university some 25 years ago so the standards may have changed but we were also required to pass an English writing test -the name of which escapes me. Most did. Generally, the people who didn't were ESL students or generally dropped out by the end of the first year anyways.

Charles could you read a newspaper article when you were 10? I can't think of a single 10 year old student that I have that could read an article from a Japanese paper.

gotta agree. it's a truly crap thing that they have to spend so much time learning how to read words they already know. Their reading is well behind their speaking, as opposed to intllegent systems

[American Oyaji]

What's rhetoric?

Been to college twice and never ran across it.

[Takechanpoo]

I hate Kanji wholeheartedly.
It is enough that can use Hiragana and Katakana only.
Kanji is wicked character.

[Mike Oxlong]

I studied at university some 25 years ago so the standards may have changed but we were also required to pass an English writing test -the name of which escapes me. Most did. Generally, the people who didn't were ESL students or generally dropped out by the end of the first year anyways.

Charles could you read a newspaper article when you were 10? I can't think of a single 10 year old student that I have that could read an article from a Japanese paper.

At the Canadian university I attended nearly two decades ago, if one's high school English scores were above a certain cut-off point (generally 80%), the first year English requirement was dropped. The university considered it remedial English.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Bull. Rhetoric may be a subject learned by students in liberal arts programs but no one in sciences, engineering or medicine would study it.

Ever heard of English 101?

Furthermore your analogy is false. A better question would be could a 10 year read a newspaper story in English? Could the same be true of a 10 year old reading a Japanese daily?

So, when you were ten there wasn't a subject or vocabulary word unfamiliar to you in the newspaper? Being able to read something doesn't mean recognizing every character on a page. It means comprehending it. Few ten year olds can fully comprehend every article in a newspaper regardless of their language.