Myth 1: The meaning of words should not be allowed to vary or change

Languages are used by humans. Humans are living and thinking creatures. Just like our world around us, language evolves and changes. Language is a concept created by humans and it tends to regulate itself. There are no clear rules that will never change. Gravity, for example, is a constant. Languages do not have rules that stay the same over time. Due to factors like slang and new ideas on how to communicate more efficiently, our language keeps changing and evolving to be more fun and/or efficient.

 

Myth 2: Some languages are just not good enough

Some languages cannot keep up with what time requires of them and as a result of that, less people tend to use said language. This happened with Gaelic and Latin for example. No language is simply “not good enough”. A language might be difficult to change and unable to adapt to the times and the words necessary to describe new developments in technology or social interaction.

 

Myth 3: The media are ruining English

Every single decade, there seems to be a new group of people defending the old ways of a language. They strive to preserve it and in their pursuit of preservation, they blame different parties for their unjust treatment of the language in question. These days, the media is to blame. Journalists write in a certain style that captures the attention and sustains it. It is not an unjust treatment of the language, but rather a different writing style from the literature that supports the older habits of language. Journalism writes about events and news of the past few days. If journalists were literary writers, only a select few would be interested in reading the articles. Usage of language changed over time, and we change with it. It changes with us, and to preserve the ways of language-users before us, would require us to stay the same as well. 

I think that when society changes and times are different, language changes with us. I cannot imagine a world where everything is incredibly futuristic and high-tech, but we still talk in complicated, long-winded sentences that make sense only halfway through. That would just be illogical. The language is not ill nor dying. It is simply changing with us.

 

Myth 5: English spelling is kattastroffik.

The English language houses many different systems for spelling and pronunciation. Though, spelling and pronunciation are almost never the same. A single vowel can be pronounced differently in many words and still be the exact same vowel. And depending on your location and the dialect or background, that same vowel can be pronounced differently and mean the same. Words are often borrowed from other languages or made to resemble fancier Latin words. Those words then become harder to spell. I think a language like English can be very confusing yet very attractive due to certain spellings of words. If we would spell everything the way we said it, we might as well start teaching first-graders to write in phonetic symbols. Languages are complicated because they have been developing over many centuries, and that’s what makes them interesting.

 

Myth 8: Children can’t speak or write properly anymore.

Concern about the literacy of children has been around for centuries and nobody really knows why. Functional literacy was achieved in the late 19th century, but then again, it was only functional literacy. Many people could not write long personal letters, literature, read Shakespeare or partake in literary culture. They could write their names and make simple instruction notes to other workers or to their boss. Just like the myth about the English language being ill or dying, this myth also seems to be false. Children these days are being taught to read from a very early age and by the time they are 7 or 8, they can write their names and construct simple sentences on paper. By the time they graduate from elementary school, they can read books all on their own, write letters, short stories and read signs so efficiently, they instantly know what to do with that information. Children are much more proficient in literature than 100 years ago, and we can be proud of that. The Dutch literacy rate is 99% of the population and that counts 99% of both males and females