My daughter runs the ED at a Sydney hospital. She often sees uni students (who should be going to a GP) who although enrolled in a university course, cannot speak a word of English. Standards for entry are a joke.

They wouldn't be a college Graduate if they were just arriving to start college?

It's funny and ironic to see the comprehension, spelling and grammar errors in this thread.

Ineedabiggerboat wrote:

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Are you criticising peoples intelligence or education? Either way, thats not very nice.

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Anyone who criticises others for their mistakes or ineptitude should be prepared to be criticised for their own. By the way, you need to learn about apostrophes.

People who point out the faults in others, but who bristle when their own faults are pointed out, are snowflakes. They shouldn't be mollycoddled.

"Every time I post, I find it a battle to get the point I am making across.
I feel at times that some just want to argue for no reason and I just give up.
It would be nice to have a discussion though."


I am traveling an hour today to a funeral for a really good old mate, much older than myself.
He suffered awfully in a care home on oxygen for about 5 years due to emphysema.

Also had a funeral very recently for another mate, aged 70 passed away suddenly overnight.
He could be a bit of a smart alec over the years, more so when we were younger he used to pay out on me fairly heavily.
I wasn't happy about that at the time or the odd occasion as adults, but I ran into him by chance just before he died and we had a beer and had a great rapport.
He was an excellent sportsman and one of his son's played R.L. for Australia and they were a great sporting family.

Our last interaction was on good terms, plenty of laughs, the same when I last visited my other mate in his aged care room.

As a result I have made a pact with myself to try and leave everyone on good terms with every interaction, as at my age now and the form of leukemia I have, I never know when my turn will come. So now I find as I grow older, possibly wiser and more time on my hands not living that 9 to 5 life (or 11 p.m. !!!!), that I am now more patient and respectful of friends, associates and checkout chicks etc.

I try to be fair and measured with my comments on here and bite my tongue often and reckon there is nothing wrong with being nicer and more accommodating as one grows older.

On topic, my grammar is not great, but I get by in life.
Also, I have noticed on this site a few times, what you compose and what ends up on page can be different in terms of inverted commas etc as biggerboat says?

Not everyone in this country had the benefit of a good education. There are a lot of factors at play that can cause this. Having to leave school at an early age to work on a farm, or become the breadwinner owing to a death of a parent to look after siblings.

I had the good fortune of having some wonderful teachers who cared about the kids. Just because you are not good at spelling and knowing where to put an apostrophe, does not make one a lesser person. To rebuke folks on here because of some perceived failure, is not what this forum is all about.

If people cannot understand what the poster is trying to convey owing to a spelling mistake, then just maybe, it's your lack of perception that's at fault.

Years ago, I was in the education system, Readers and Writers were allowed to help students in the SC and HSC. The student could have a Reader or a Writer or both. Students were not necessarily from NESBs.

Ineedabiggerboat wrote:

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Dorian is annoyed that people didnt comment on depression and loneliness. Previously he had commented about looking ten years younger than his real age, his ex partner and from memory, depression amongst others. I in an earlier post suggested he seek psychiatric advice due to a number of things he put out. His handel gives a clue. You can take a horse to water but you make him drink. I only come here for the jokes now. They are exceptional

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Your first post in this thread was a thinly veiled, opportunistic swipe at foreign students. In fact, my late sister was a PhD student. Many of her colleagues were foreigners who were not proficient in the English language but who nevertheless were able to read and write scientific papers in English. Actually, they were much more literate than the average contributor in this place.

Today we have boofheads attending tertiary institutions, especially in America where one can get a scholarship if they can throw a football or dunk a basketball. During my time at school these boofheads were sitting at the back of the class, tossing paper aeroplanes and flicking elastic bands. At university, there was a group of idiots who had food fights in the back row.

Nowadays, it appears to be fashionable to be illiterate, or at least the stigma has faded. If you can't spell or use an apostrophe, never mind, just churn out some SMS-ese drivel. "Hey, I'm not illiterate, I just choose to write that way." There are even some old fools in this place who have that same silly, adolescent affectation. It's like a balding man trying to disguise his hair loss by shaving his head.

"I wonder when this will get shut down."

Probably not too far away, not the best thread of recent times.

Illiteracy could become an even bigger issue.
I drove a mate for over an hour to a funeral yesterday, he is a very smart guy, a bit way out in his beliefs though.
Our driving topic was mainly A.I. A.I. scares the bejesus out of me, I am not big on it.

I reckon A.I. has the potential to dumb down generations, making them reliant on this new breed of rubbish.
Realise some applications will be advantageous, but judging by the A.I. canvassing phone calls I have been getting, the bad will outweigh the good.