mwedzi,
As I stated in my first post, we all make mistakes. The English language is one of the harderst to learn--at least that's what all my english teachers in the past have told me.
"there is no objective value on language, what is right or wrong. language is what people speak and use. period."
My question is now, how can we teach english if there is no right or wrong way to speak or write?
"of all the things in the world to worry about, it seemed so trivial. but hey, to each his own."
Yes, maybe it is trivial. Some people get upset because their spouse squirts the toothpast from the middle instead of from the bottom. Some people can't stand to see someone without their shoe laces tied. Some people get road rage, some people care too much about how the look. Some people have to wear name brand clothes and wouldn't dare be seen around a clearance rack. We are ALL trivial. Here's an example of just one of the trivial things that drives me crazy. My boyfriend REFUSES to put his toiletries in a drawer or cabnit. He MUST keep them all in this black tavel bag. If you put them in the cabnit, he goes nuts. I absolutely HATE that darn bag. Every morning I go in the bathroom I see that bag, some mornings I'm ok with it, some days I just want to throw it out the window. I suppose the bag is his trivial thing too, I tried to put the stuff in a cabnit and he went nuts. Does he get mad because I curse the bag? No. He doesn't care. And if this grammar rant is so trivial, doesn't that mean that it's trivial for you to even care we do it?
"tsk, tsk, tsk, you all get really uptight about this grammar thing, huh? I taught English and don't care as much as ya'll do (hee hee)."
"but before that, they must think how others feel when their language forms are mocked."
Unless I misinterpreted, it seems you are mocking as well?
"that's the part that really upsets me. there is no objective value on language, what is right or wrong. language is what people speak and use. period."
It seems that what we are doing is YOUR pet peeve?
The reason I responded is because I don't think that we are being uptight, I think we are being human, just as you are being human.
And besides, I don't think any of us were really stessing over it, most of us were having a good laugh.
[This message has been edited by mgdzkm433 (edited September 15, 2000).]