Is English important?

Listening to the radio the past couple of mornings on my drive to work (about an hour and a quarter!), there has been a lot of chatter regarding the teaching of English.

New government rules mean kids taking GCSE’s will need a better understanding of English to get the best grades.

Some teachers believe this is putting more obstacles in the way of our children getting the best grades and that, for example, students studying science “do not need to have a good understanding of English”!

I’d like to consider that for a moment.

If we told our learners that they didn’t have to know how to spell correctly then the written word would, in time, become redundant. The same would be true for grammar, pronunciation and punctuation.

Whilst I will freely admit to making errors with both the spoken and written word (I trained as a designer and we have ‘previous’ with our lack of discipline in this area!) I still try hard to get it right, even half a century after I first started my learning journey.

If we only had the spoken word, think of the implications.

signs become pointless

 

No road signs. (Safety would be compromised, so not good!)
No more great literature.
No more computers (code)
No menu’s (I’m writing this at lunchtime, sorry)
No more just about anything

And, certainly no more messages that all you lovely brand managers want to get across so, no more jobs.

 

without words, this would never have taken place!

No more flying banners for us to make for you (but we can print quality images so maybe some work still for us) or any other of the great ideas Expandasign can bring to your brand with the printed word.

So, I think English Language does matter. But there again, I am only a designer!