Taylor Mali performs "Any Language, Much Less English" at the book release party for "The Last Time As We Are" at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. September 2009.
I was a sophomore, maybe a junior in high school when our teacher brought him in to perform for us ! 5 years later and I'm still in love with his work. He is absolutely amazing ♥
I am so pleased he ended it that way. The content/intent/heart means more than the word/prose/punctuation/grammar. I do think grammar and knowing proper punctuation is important, but it's not the most important thing, and I'm so glad he said that.
That's exactly the point, when he says that he's actually portraying the inaccuracies as he judges them (notice he also says "irregardless" at the end of the sentence to make his point).
Being a person who is always correcting others' grammar, I fully appreciate this poem. Just because I am strict when it comes to the written rules of communication, people often feel intimidated talking to me face to face, but really there is no need. ^_^
When i was a kid, i used to correct the notes my friends passed me. As a teen, I would wince when people used incorrect grammar and correct them. Now I force myself to simply be open to receive the point the person is trying to make. My relationships have definitely improved.
When Ask The Editor at Merriam-Webster posted a video saying that "irregardless" is technically a word, I admitted to my students that I was, in fact, incorrect in telling them that they couldn't use the term because it wasn't a "real" word. I then clarified and told them that they shouldn't use the term in my classroom because there were more effective ways to communicate that didn't make them sound like twits.
Holy...!!! I just met him a couple days ago and he looked at me really strong and I started being very interested in my feet..... Good god he was diving into my left eye >.
@straightjacket510 Very well said, my friend. I hate to admit having been a "grammar Nazi" in the past, but you get your point across so well, that I don't think it matters, personally! And having taken some harsh criticism on RU-vid myself, I'm learning that there will always be critics, but ultimately, I can be the bigger person.
Fun science fact: Saying uhm or ah, so long as it is done irregularly makes what is said around it more memorable which is why it is good for lectures. And as much as this is competely irrelavant to the main content of the video, I couldn't help but share
@globulin if that's true then I retract my comment . @nvyseal199 just because its in a dictionary that doesn't make it proper English which I assumed mr Mali is quite good at
You know what's funny? Finding people online who try to correct another person's grammar and spelling... while using incorrect grammar and making spelling mistakes. People just want to make themselves look more intelligent (which, in turn, often times does the exact opposite) XD
I correct grammar and spelling all the time. I can't read something if those two elements are messed up, but I can understand that people aren't perfect. The only thing that really gets on my nerves is pronunciation and making up words. I'm fine when people use a real word in the wrong place (because at least they can learn the meaning of the word and learn where to use it), but making up words to seem smart doesn't work for me.
@Fitchsticks That's absolutely incorrect. People just accept the use of their as singular, but it is not correct to use it in the singular form. It should be his or her. It is also perfectly acceptable to just say his when there is an unknown gender, but our society has pretty much exorcised that in the name of feminism.
Funny that as he starts making his poem sound ridiculously impressive with really long words he says 'mispronuciate' which isn't a word, it would be 'mispronounce'.
Taylor Mali Why does irregardless draw such ire? I've dismissed it from my vocabulary, because I'm not even sure its a word. But I've noticed people get really irritated upon its mention. Why?
Sidney Anderson Because it is an illogical, non-existent, made up word, like 'ungodless', which I just made up and just means 'godly', as does the made up word 'unungodlessless'. If you can't follow the syntactical logic of that, I'd advise you to give up with language generally. I'm being harsh, I know.
Sidney Anderson I disagree with Keith's admittedly harsh judgment that it's an "illogical" word. "Irrespective" IS a word, and people who say "irregardless" probably think they're on safe ground because of it. In fact, my father said that if you ever found yourself ABOUT to say "irregardless," try to switch to "irrespective" if you can, and no one will likely notice. But why does the mistake elicit such vituperation? I think it's human nature. We criticize in others what we know we could be guilty of ourselves. We want to be the last person on the elevator. Whatever our IQ is, we tend to think it's high enough; anything higher is superfluous, and anything lower means you're an idiot. Anyone who says "irregardless" has accidentally drawn a line, and it's up to us to point out that they're on the WRONG SIDE.
I get very very vexed when otherwise intelligent people make the massive massive mistake of doubling many many adjectives/adverbs. It really really ticks me off so so much. Inanywayshapeorform, does it kindalike annoy anyone else, or am I basically the Lone Ranger on this one?
My thing with using the same word twice is to emphasize the action. Such as, "We went shopping but we didn't go SHOPPING shopping." "I was asleep, but not ASLEEP asleep." This bugs me. For the first one, it's easy to just say, "We bought some things, but nothing expensive," with the second one being easily remodeled to, "I dozed off a minute."
His noun and pronoun didn't agree with each other when he said "in their left eye." Their is plural and eye is singular. I just thought I should point that out since he said that he corrects grammar.
