Apparently, language is not something they do well.

Why you ask?

I often pick up my grandchildren from school and as they have got older it had become the highlight of my day or week depending on the frequency.

At some point I realised that their ability to speak English the way we were taught was not a high priority. Not when just about every sentence started with a ‘but’ and ended with a ‘like’.

And as one got older the starting word was ‘basically’.

Seriously.

Did the teachers speak that?

A few questions deftly worded in ‘kidspeak’ elicited the fact that some of the teachers, particularly the stand-in teachers were not much older that the kids themselves

Something else I learned when once in the workforce and taking public transport to and from work, was that the school leavers and those up to five or six years older all had this funny way of speaking, endless buts or lines punctuated with real words.

Whole sentences were an excruciating mish-mash of words that to me made no sense whatsoever. Something else that was alarming was the number of swear words, and yes, those that should never be spoken aloud in company, was a similar mainstay of conversation.

And yes my grandchildren can and do swear like sailors, sometimes worse, though they sometimes remember to not do so in our family gatherings.

This is the rubbish our kids are being taught.

And more than likely with the expectation that the university will exorcise the demons they planted and turn the foul-mouthed students into model citizens.

However…

Perhaps it’s all wishful thinking on my part. The English used in reporting, on-screen and in papers, and especially in digital newsreels is appalling.

Not to mention the coverage of any event which sensationalised misfortune and disaster on every level.

Perhaps I’m writing too much onto it, or I’m living in a time warp where standards used to be a lot higher.

Let’s hope when I get to heaven everything will go back to normal.

If I get to heaven…

The questionnaire the man at the pearly gates gave me has every question starting with a but and ending with a like.

I mean, like …. what the …. but!