English is Dum!

Posted by Ali S. in Book & Lit, Video Clips on September 14, 2008 at 9:49 pm



[YouTube - Link]

Ed Rondthaler, is an interesting old man…a 103 year old man to be precise. Former “President of the American Literacy Council” he gives us an interesting lesson about the absurdity of the written English Language as he sees it from a purely phonetic point of view.

*Neat tidbit about him is how he believes he got to be so old from a quote from Wikipedia:

Rondthaler credits his long and healthy life to clean living, good genes, and regular cold showers. In an interview with CNN Ed stated “When my brother in 1918 came home from the army, he said, ‘Ed, whenever you take a hot shower, end it with an ice cold one and count to 100. When your older brother tells you to do something, you do it,” he said.

I highly suggest that after you watch this you go ahead and check out the comments posted up on Boing Boing. Very educational and interesting.

Link – via Boing Boing


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7 comments to "English is Dum!"

  1. Howard
    September 14th, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    Dude's ripping off Gallagher...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2acXjdPzlY

    (4:30 in)

  2. Christophe
    September 14th, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    103? wow.
    may we all reach that age in that shape.

  3. Orjan Morjan
    September 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am

    Food for thought.

    English does have a lot of irregularities, sometimes hard to learn as a third language. But if you can't spell your mother tongue...

  4. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    September 15th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    It has so many irregularities because it's a mish-mash of a whole bunch of languages. Our language's etymology is a nightmare.

  5. xadrian
    September 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

    I think as a typesetter, font creator, member of a spelling reform organization, it's likely Gallagher was ripping him off.

    But I mean, it's everyone's language. Everyone knows this.

  6. CheeseDuck
    September 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    I want to be him when I grow up even more.

  7. just a guy
    September 15th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    I thought of Gallagher too. But... perhaps Gallagher ripped him off? He *is* older.

    I guess only they will ever know!


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