What is the world coming to? (Rant)
 

[rant] I was watching tv tonight and Canadian ballet dancer Karen Kain was featured in an ad for the National Ballet School of Canada. The captions said that Ms. Kain was an ALUMNUS of the school. Now, how can Ms. Kain be an ALUMNUS if she's a woman? She is an ALUMNA!!! Has this gender equality thing gone too far? It just hurt my eyes to see that, and I only took one year of Latin and barely passed! [/rant]

ok.. I know nothing of Canada or their ballet school, but is it a coed school? That could be why their are using "alumnus" instead of "alumna"

Some coed fraternities use "alumni" or "brother", for example, to describe their members regardless of their gender.

I believe that alumnus is a gender neutral word, and that alumna is gender specific.

I was taught this:

1 female grad: alumna
2+ females: alumnae

1 male grad: alumnus
2+males or co-ed group: alumni

I am considered an alumna of Queen's University and will be an alumna of U of T when I get my M.Ed. I've never heard of a girl who's graduated calling herself an alumnus despite going to a co-ed school.

Oh yeah, the National Ballet School is co-ed.

Or it could have been just an honest mistake that's not even worth getting worked up over that has absolutely nothing with gender equity.

Maybe the person who did the commercial didn't take Latin. Such a tragedy.

Or they're like me and don't care enough to remember the rules...LOL! Sorry - I can't keep track :p

I was taught the same as taualumna. I just think that it is an error.

Re: What is the world coming to? (Rant)
 

I think that whoever wrote the captions was just ignorant of the correct term and just made a mistake.

I see typos on TV all the time, like when I was watching the "A Channel" (the cheaper, poorer kid sister to City TV...so that's how I think of it) and they were doing a story about Winter Driving and about the Alberta Motor Association...it SHOULD have been the website: www.ama.ab.ca, but no, they wrote
www.aBa.ab.ca

Another example of this is here:
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivo...ios/kimj.shtml
The reference to Kim being in "Pi Beta Pi" Sorority...well, we all know that the webmaster made a mistake and it should be "Pi Beta Phi". Sigh....

Oh well, not all of the rest of the world is obsessed with all things Greek the way we are....

Re: Re: What is the world coming to? (Rant)
 

Maybe you're right. The Toronto Star made a similar mistake on Thursday when they called a woman who recently became the managing designer (or whatever her title is...don't remember) at GAP an "alumnus" of a design school. Oh well

Outside of the greek world, most people don't know the correct usage. Hell, many greeks don't know it either. While the copy editors should have spotted it, it's not a suprise that it went by without notice.

When I write it I usually use the correct conjugation, but when I speak there's so many times that I say alumni without even realizing it. It's not a big deal though, it's not like it's derrogatory.

Actually saying pronoucning "alumnae" "alumni" (alum-neye) is correct according to some Latin scholars (if that's what you mean). Some say that "alumni" should really be pronounced "alumnee" (or pretty close to it, anyway). But I get confused too! ;)

Never did remember all that stuff. Just never seemed that important.

When I talk about Mrs. DeltAlum and me, I cop out and use the term "Alum's."

Now the world as we know it will come to an end.

All because of the word "alumnus." What a sad, sad day.


woo woo

pm_mamma, do not pick on DeltaAlum! He is getting Mature as We all do!

Hell, I dont know the difference, so for me it is always Alums!:D

I always love how Brothers defer to me and I was only a LXA Active for 1 year! But I have Been An Alum (37 years)!:cool:

I, he, we, use, them, those, I wonder if Aint or Shit is really in the new dictionarys as new coined words that have become acceptable!?:confused:

Egonomics, akseptable! God what moronic ideas of teaching anymore! Why so people can speak and maybe read, but they cannot because that is not how it is "REALLY SPELLED"!:confused: