And reading the text messages from Dominicans......almost impossible. The only solution I found was to read them aloud sounding out the phonetics. Doing so, I can usually figure out what the heck they are trying to say.
Lindsey
Lindsey
- Thread starter Marianopolita
- Start date
DR spelling
The spelling and grammar appear to be just as bad among the university educated. I was a student at a University in Santo Domingo, and as a foreigner who learned Spanish on her own, received the highest grade in the Lengua Espanola classes, and even noticed several errors with the instructor (including the confusion of b and v). Spelling and grammar just don't seem to be a focus.
C'est la vie
I disagree.
I have many contacts on Whatsapp and the likes from DR, I can usually guess pretty accurately their education level based on the way they write. They do make mistakes and but nothing close to someone who dropped out of school in 6th grade.
Do every single university educated Spaniard has impeccable grammar and spelling? Don't American make spelling mistakes in English ?
It s going to get worse for the younger generation who are growing up with Auto correct, texting and with acronyms for every other words. So, let's relax unless we are writing a novel or sending a cover letter
I disagree.
I have many contacts on Whatsapp and the likes from DR, I can usually guess pretty accurately their education level based on the way they write. They do make mistakes and but nothing close to someone who dropped out of school in 6th grade.
Do every single university educated Spaniard has impeccable grammar and spelling? Don't American make spelling mistakes in English ?
It s going to get worse for the younger generation who are growing up with Auto correct, texting and with acronyms for every other words. So, let's relax unless we are writing a novel or sending a cover letter
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I have never been part of the grammar police crowd, and I tend to agree that the most important is getting the message out there and understood.
I would add to " be understood " a " and try not to look like an idiot ".......
What I've noticed in the dr is that "slang " takes over all the spectrum of the language. As opposed to back in europe where "slang" is for friends, " familier" is for family and everyday stuff ( shopping, neighbours, etc....) and " soutenue" is for work and other formal stuff.
When I started using an app to improve my spanish, I was amazed at how some simple words were spelt...... like holy sh.it !! amazed. I had never ever seen them written correctly ( at that time my spanish level was too poor for newspapers and books ).
Before that I thought my niece and her boyfriend-now-husband could help me out in my spanish-learning quest, as they are both teachers........well I quickly forgot that idea. They hardly grasp the basics themselves let alone have the skills to explain them to someone else ( respectively a geography teacher and a math teacher, in private schools.......... even sadder is I, at times, have had to help them with basic stuff ).
I would add to " be understood " a " and try not to look like an idiot ".......
What I've noticed in the dr is that "slang " takes over all the spectrum of the language. As opposed to back in europe where "slang" is for friends, " familier" is for family and everyday stuff ( shopping, neighbours, etc....) and " soutenue" is for work and other formal stuff.
When I started using an app to improve my spanish, I was amazed at how some simple words were spelt...... like holy sh.it !! amazed. I had never ever seen them written correctly ( at that time my spanish level was too poor for newspapers and books ).
Before that I thought my niece and her boyfriend-now-husband could help me out in my spanish-learning quest, as they are both teachers........well I quickly forgot that idea. They hardly grasp the basics themselves let alone have the skills to explain them to someone else
( respectively a geography teacher and a math teacher, in private schools.......... even sadder is I, at times, have had to help them with basic stuff ).Unfortunately, this is often the answer that you get when you bring it to their attention. While they are embarrassed to be illiterate, they will always make excuses about not writing it down, misspelling, etc....
This may be just me..... but when I see a crazily spelled sign in DR, I pay more attention to it. If it was spelled correctly, I'd barely notice it.
Could make a good advertising scheme, lol.
Remember the old "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should"? The stink over the grammar gave them more publicity.
Could make a good advertising scheme, lol.
Remember the old "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should"? The stink over the grammar gave them more publicity.
It's simple to you, but not to someone who is functionally illiterate. There are a lot of people in the US that go through life that way. My ex for example can't spell her way out of a wet paper bag.
Any which old way just to get it done. According to the net, it comes from when an American company called Bridge and Dinna started building bridges in the DR. They built them very fast but also of very bad quality. So when people referred to a bridge, they'd say it was bad because Bridge and Dinna had built it and that eventually came out to brigandina.
I support your post.
I think at the university level you should see proper spelling by professors. How the other students spell is not your issue but the educator teaching the course should know how to write properly in Spanish. If the profesor can't write what type of confidence will students have and you were studying Spanish? Even more concerning.
At that level confusing b and v, s and z should not happen. After all the same professor is the one grading your work. Keep doing what you are doing and correct spelling is important even though some will say otherwise (digital age, technology etc. no importa hay que escribir bien en cualquier idioma).
-MP.
The Bridge and Dinna was an American construction company contracted by ex dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo back in the day in order to build bridges in the Dominican Republic, this company was known for the fast and low quality construction of the bridges.
This is why in DR when people see something that is not correct will use this regionalism... Eso fue hecho a la Brigandina.
JJ
Should we be surprised by the spelling of this individual?
Yes, he is un limpiador de cristales but he most likely was not always one and his sign does reflect what people see regarding spelling in the Dominican Republic. Hand written spelling that’s considered public signs have awful spelling.
For me the issue is always the same:
The spelling is terrible and if you analyze it you will observe some constant errors:
In my opinion, there is too strong of an influence of the Dominican vernacular across all levels. What I am referring to is the ‘s’ not being written in the plural. As we know even though it’s dropped in the spoken language it needs to be written in formal writing. Confusion between ‘s’ and ‘z’ for e.g. Conosco instead of conozco, confusion between ‘b’ and ‘v’ for e.g. viene is correct biene is not. There is no debate here.
This ties into the broader debate that I formulate in my mind when I see this which is:
How do you advance a country when the general populace is semi-illiterate? It’s just mind boggling and unfortunately, we see this way too often in the DR. Lately, I have been seeing more and more articles in newspapers of other Spanish-speaking countries regarding the need for better education. Students of today are not getting enough of the basic and fundamental requirements of education -reading, writing and spelling and are just getting by.
https://www.diariolibre.com/noticia...a-actitud-del-alcalde-david-collado-IF7689497
Now in terms of the message that this window washer is trying to convey to the mayor about his situation and many others like him what is your opinion?
Responses in Spanish are welcome!
-MP.
This issue has been one of my biggest pet peeves of all times. I left the Dominican Republic at the age of 9. At the time of my departure I could neither read or write. In the states my bilingual classes were short-lived, therefore, giving me very little time to learn much in Spanish. I decided, however, to teach myself how to read and write (in Spanish) as much as possible. Now, I don't claim to be perfect, yet there was a lot of improvement. It kills me, though, when I read comments posted by Dominicans on YouTube as their writing is equal to the cavemen times. I hate it and it's really sad to say the least. I feel like a lot of the other latin communities look down on us because of this but it's so rampant that it's seriously scary. And by the looks of it, I am not sure there is any effort being put forth to change this.
First of all congratulations to you for recognizing and taking ownership of your development in Spanish. Most people I know who transition from one language to another at a young age don't want to do the work and as a result lose the first language partially (can speak only and not read and write) or completely.
Your description of the DR situation when it comes to literacy sums it up well. It's a huge problem today and those who attribute it to technology being the main problem are out of the loop. This problem in the DR has been going on for decades. The difference now is because of technology the visibility of it is full blown. It's interesting that you describe some of the writing you see on You Tube as being equal to cavemen times. I used to have a colleague who described some of her Spanish students' writing as being like Tarzan. When she was frustrated she would say to me- hablan como Tarzan escriben como Tarzan.
Maybe we can have you pay a visit to Danilo to open his eyes to a huge problem. Advancing the country requires educating the masses.
Do you still speak Spanish?
-MP.
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We see all that and worse in the Dominican Cooking/Cocina Dominicana comments in Spanish - many of the readers are second, third generation Dominicans in the US and elsewhere, or they left the DR as children. But that only goes so far as an excuse. Look at cases like KateP and mine - we were not educated in Spanish but still know how to spell.
I also know Dominicans who taught themselves English and their written English is as good or better than most native speakers of English.
I also know Dominicans who taught themselves English and their written English is as good or better than most native speakers of English.
I have been learning Spanish for some time using the Duolingo website. If I spell something wrong, it marks my answer wrong, and hence I learn. So now I would say my written Spanish is better than most Dominicans I know. If only Dominicans used such a simple method to learn how to write their own language correctly.