The average American daily newspaper's writing is aimed at seventh-grade English. The New York Times and Washington Post are written for college graduates' English level. The Wall Street Journal is aimed at post-graduate level English. Or something like that.
Labor specialization is a mixed blessing and a trade-off. If everybody knew all that we did and could do all that we do, our employers wouldn't pay us the big bucks. That's true for computer nerds, medical nerds, rocket science nerds, biogenetics nerds, language nerds, and a veritable potpourri of other occupations. Bill Fairchild Programmer Rocket Software 408 Chamberlain Park Lane * Franklin, TN 37069-2526 * USA t: +1.617.614.4503 * e: [email protected] * w: www.rocketsoftware.com -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Gilmore Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 9:15 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Too true to be funny - 51% of the surveyed Americans think that stormy weather can interfere with the functionality of the cloud. Literacy is uncommon; technical literacy is exiguous. The last time around here--American presidential elections are quadrennial--the late Gore Vidal observed that Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. --jg On 8/30/12, Elardus Engelbrecht <[email protected]> wrote: > Vernooij, CP - SPLXM wrote: > >>Not so strange. That's what you get, when you take a normal word, that >>has a normal meaning to everybody and use it for a very special niche >>thing that lives fully outside of normal lifes of 95% of the people. > > Of course. There are dictionaries for each field/career/study etc... > Here at IBM-MAIN members are discussing/using terms about z/OS, OS/390, MVS, > etc. > > AFAIK, Medical terms are not used much here for example, the last time > I checked. :-D > > >>Don't be surprised that the 'normal' people suppose the 'normal' >>meaning of this normal word. > > I once made an error where I asked a parent of a Down syndrome child > where he will put his child. In a 'normal' or 'special' school? He asked me a > counter question: "What is 'normal'?" Oooooops... > > >>We have elections coming up and a survey showed that many people don't >>know the meaning of terms that are used only in parliament and on >>political talkshows on TV. > > Here in sunny South Africa we are using the term 'voting station', not > 'polling station' during elections. > Why? 'polling' sounds much like 'police'. > > :-D > > Groete / Greetings > Elardus Engelbrecht > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
