Two activists in Quito, Ecuador were offended by the poor grammar and punctuation that they saw in the city’s graffiti, seeing them as showing a lack of respect for the language and people. So they decided to do something about it, by becoming grammar vigilantes who prowl the streets at night, anonymously correcting errors wherever they saw them.
Of course, the idea that one should take pride in one’s graffiti and that they should be grammatically correct goes back to Roman times as we saw in the film Life of Brian.
“Romans they are ‘go home’!?” thundered the centurion, “what is THAT?!”
Somewhat related, a recent article in the Granuiad, Stranger corrects errors on friendly postcard from Argentina: ‘Learn English!’: “A postcard sent to Canada from Buenos Aires arrived with the text — ‘I west thinking in you, Have a nice day’ corrected with a red pen and a ‘mean’ note”.
By a happy coincidence the vocative case and imperative mood are contained in the same chapter of the Cambridge Latin Course. Which means that once students have finished that chapter you can give them this clip to finish the lesson.
#2 blf
Weird, most Canadians I know would have just ignored any minor grammar mistake. We are a nation of immigrants. Grammar is pretty fluid.
Are we sure the card did not transit the USA?
Reminds me of some local graffiti… Some person had taken spray paint and written on the side of a barn: “The Cripes”. We about died laughing. I’m pretty sure they meant, “The Crips”.
Best Python scene ever!! As soon as I saw the title I was giggling, thinking of Cleese at his pompous best.
Are people familiar with greengrocer’s apostrophe
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/greengrocer's_apostrophe
A librarian friend once showed me a résumé she received where every plural that required an “s” was written as ‘s.
I had little confidence in the applicant’s ability to file fiction alphabetically.
jrkrideau @4 Unfortunately I know plenty of “Learn English!” Canadians, but that could be the result of living in Alberta.
# 8 Tabby Lavalamp
Alberta ??
Oh dear, isn’t that known as “Texas north”??
But then I am a smug Central Canadian 🙂 Who, come to think of it, is eagerly awaiting our first Syrian-Canadian restaurant. Rumours are that Syrian cuisine is outstanding.
I live in a small Ont. city where anything goes including sign language.Considering that my former landlord was a Cantonese speaking Japanese citizen, my next door neighbour is from Portugal and my former boss was from the Netherlands, who cares ?
On the other hand, I tend to be a language “purist” and anyone using “it’s” when one should use “its” is , well, let’s not go there. I try not to be violent.