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I was at Disneyland a few years ago and mickey Mouse signed "his" autograph. I took one look at it and blurted out, "Mickey Mouse is a woman!"
originally posted by: DanDanDat
Same can be true for any language; for example I am cut off from the vast trove of knowledge that was written in the other 6,498 languages that I don't speak. Knowing how to read cursive doesn't save me from this fact.
originally posted by: schuyler
People who are illiterate in cursive have been cut off from a vast trove of knowledge that is now hidden from them. Everything that is not typeset is now a foreign language to them. This does have implications. As a real-world example, my daughter passed away in September. She wrote her will in longhand. The kids can't read it.
originally posted by: crayzeed
Why don't you go on about lost knowledge of Greek, Coptic or even Latin.
originally posted by: fernalley
Don't we still need signatures for documents ect.?
originally posted by: proximo
a reply to: schuyler
You know what is next - soon they won't be asked to write at all, everything will be typed.
originally posted by: schuyler
originally posted by: DanDanDat
Same can be true for any language; for example I am cut off from the vast trove of knowledge that was written in the other 6,498 languages that I don't speak. Knowing how to read cursive doesn't save me from this fact.
6,498, huh? And how many of those languages actually have an alphabet? And how many of them have a library of literature? And how many of them have made a significant contribution to literature and the arts? Well, the ones that don't have an alphabet have made zero contributions, and that means their culture is almost completely lost, consisting mainly of a few artifacts stuck in the back rooms of museums. Only anthropologists care about that sort of thing.
It used to be that you were considered uneducated unless you knew Latin and Greek, plus a host of other languages, English and French among them. Today people, at least in the USA, are lucky to know one, and that imperfectly. The reason for that is because English dominates, of course. But here you are bragging that you are illiterate in a form of communication that was pervasive for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Moreover, people often seem to be proud of their inability to use correct grammar. If someone points out that there is a difference in meaning between "their," "there," and "they're" they are called Grammar Nazis or worse.
Clearly, there has been a massive downhill slide in educational attainment. That some people consider their own ignorance a badge of excellence shows that their contributions will be negligible.
You can be proud of that, or ashamed.
originally posted by: fernalley
Don't we still need signatures for documents ect.?