Hi,

Naw, this voyeur thing is kinda fun... ;)

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Over the years there have been numerous international studies on illiteracy, all showing the same trend for the U.S. -- "Is our children learning?"

Currently, about 120 million adults in the U.S. are illiterate or read no better than at a fifth-grade level -- lacking the skills to handle many everyday tasks and read printed material such as credit cards, bus schedules, prescription labels and popcorn instructions.

If by simply acknowledging this fact is equal to calling someone's mother fat (as Mr. Z alluded to), well then, so be it -- your mother is a fat pig, (she probably ate too much popcorn ;^)

-- peer

My knowledge on this topic is limited. Certainly, the inability to read and write with some level of competence is a problem indeed.

Because I am so skeptical of governments in action, I wonder, just wonder, if the compulsory education monopoly that has been given to the local government units across the United States has anything to do with this outcome?

I would posit that is has.

I attended catholic school for the first 9 years of my life. When I moved to a public high school, I was just about ready to graduate from that school.

It was alas, a 3 year vacation of sorts (no advance placment classes and the like).

I was NOT better off for it!

Just one man's opinion.

Not quite sure where you got the 120M number, if you use these:
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/us.html for the USA
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/no.html for Norway

It shows a 99% number versus a 100% for Norway, like any stat I am sure we could debate the accuracy, but I really don't care. I think that it great that all 4.6 million people in Norway over 15 can read, which makes me wonder why you came here to get an education if it is so inferior. :p

Comes on guys! Stop picking on this guy. He is from Norway. We should all feel sorry for him instead. Imagine if you had to be from Norway?

NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!!

NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!! NEW SURVEY!!!


Take a look at the picture below.

Is this person:

1) Gay.
2) Closet Homosexual.
3) Gay Student.
4) Gay Student who thinks he has great grammer.

cartagena,

you have made me really laugh.....I give kracker props....and sd987 props, now cartagena....you seriously made me laugh

Thanks . . .

I was going to say the same thing myself . . . But then I thought for a sec . . . . ..
and then remembered that all of my family is 2gn Americans from Norway.

But it does make you wonder why all the norefruits fled to the west coast state with their freedom bags, jump up on a"striped" Boxster and take silly photos with no shoes on an spill a good glass of milk Call it Art and then take their subsidized Advance College classes that their own idiocracy government can not managed to create or lure qualified staff to operated a University locally.

We should count our lucky stars that special person decided to use some of his valuable time to educate us about how uneducated we really are :)

Oh an when will those car training videos hit the stores!

and about the poll . . . My peve is about stupid polls, who really cares what anyone thinks..... except when it might be Jim, Tool Pants and Randall and you have a sick Box.

This is a Boxster forum right ??????

I think I need to go to costco to buy a big bag of popcorn and twizzlers...Im running out :mad:

cartagena...you freaking rock! and you're the reason why I spill the popcorn..ahahahahahaha!

*when this thread is over, I don't know what to do next :( oh wait a minute...were is that burn out thread :D :D :D

....hmmm. i was reluctant to respond but shouldn't the question above be phrased ...
-'is our child learning?'
-or 'is my child learning?'
-or 'are our children learning?'
shouldn't the one pointing the 'i'm so literate' finger be able to use correct grammar?

c'mon let's get back to 986's.

7th Gear wrote:
> ....hmmm. i was reluctant to respond but shouldn't the question above be phrased ...
> -'is our child learning?'

Not according the President of the most powerful nation on earth:
http://www.slate.com/id/76886/

-- peer

cartagena wrote:
> Is this person:
> 1) Gay.
> 2) Closet Homosexual.
> 3) Gay Student.
> 4) Gay Student who thinks he has great grammer.


Why is it that you "cartagena" would resort to such frivolous & libelous personal attacks while cowardly hiding behind a pseudonym? It can't possibly be because you are classy & manly, or a person who can stand up for himself -- so I assume it's because you struggle with some shortcomings.

It's okay, but if you talk smack I think you should also be able to say this face-to-face, or better yet, meet my GF and tell her, and then we'll see what kind of man you are. But then again, cowards like yourself, who hide behind fake screen-names, wouldn't likely take me up on that.

Jeez -- the insecurity of some people...

-- peer

Damn. Why do all the good posts happen at night when I don't have internet access? And I missed out on all the popcorn and Twizzlers!

I'm taking my illiterate public school buttocks over to the Roast 'Em thread and see if anything's happening there....

Well, we have reached that line in the sand. When a topic degrades to the level of calling folks out, I tend to step in and close the thread.

I will give this thread a few more posts to take a right turn or I will shut it down.

Read, writing, treating folks with some level of courtesy, this is all related, no?

"Can't we all just get along?"

I think you should close it before he sends his boyfriend to beat me up. :rolleyes:

[I][QUOTE=Peer]
Why is it that you "cartagena" would resort to such frivolous & libelous personal attacks while cowardly hiding behind a pseudonym? It can't possibly be because you are classy & manly, or a person who can stand up for himself -- so I assume it's because you struggle with some shortcomings.

It's okay, but if you talk smack I think you should also be able to say this face-to-face, or better yet, meet my GF and tell her, and then we'll see what kind of man you are. But then again, cowards like yourself, who hide behind fake screen-names, wouldn't likely take me up on that.



:confused: :confused: :confused:

so peer is amazed that cartagena would resort to these attacks, which he labels cowardly??? this from the man who posted attacks breaking his very own code of ethics....cartagena only "talked smack" to one person....now mr peer degraded all of the Americans here, Porsche owning mind you, classifying us as lazy... oh, and his ethics and rules for insulting others are:

you should also be able to say this face-to-face
not cowards, who hide behind fake screen-names

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:
next lesson for the student at school is......the double standard :D

so I'm with Bruce, quit acting a fool and you won't have to worry about people insulting you......



So let me tell you this, as I'm one of those "foreign guests" that you allude to -- I initially got bulged-eyed when I came to the US and discovered how badly you Americans handle your own language. Sure, back home we always heard about how crummy your educational system was, and were aware of Americans "lazy" mindset -- but had never expected it to be so prevalent. Come'on, how hard can it be to at least learn your own language?!

-- peer

To point to a nations' illiteracy level, along with repeating a prevalent notion about that very nation (as in "a 'lazy' mindset"), is not a personal attack. I hope that you, super66, can see the difference between this and the libelous personal attack by "cartagena".

To get back to my poll -- it's interesting to see that almost 75% of the voting forum members are in fact annoyed with the English level used on this forum. So maybe the mindset, at least on this forum, isn't all that "lazy" after all ;^)

-- peer

Perhaps. But some might consider your poll a "push poll" given that the choices slant predominantly towards a certain mind set..... I hardly would take the results as indicative of the state of the union....

[QUOTE=Queer]To point to a nations' illiteracy level, along with repeating a prevalent notion about that very nation (as in "a 'lazy' mindset"), is not a personal attack. I hope that you, super66, can see the difference between this and the libelous personal attack by "cartagena".

To get back to my poll -- it's interesting to see that almost 75% of the voting forum members are in fact annoyed with the English level used on this forum. So maybe the mindset, at least on this forum, isn't all that "lazy" after all ;^) /QUOTE]

Repeating the untrue "notion" as a truth, while spouting numbers that have no basis in reality (120 million illiterate Americans) is the behavior that got you into trouble in the first place.

You equate people being irritated with internet shorthand with the erroneous personal belief that somehow Americans are illiterate. That's your own problem.

You come to the US, and harbor yourself in the academic world. It's evidently better here, or you would be back in your own country. Then you sit behind your keyboard and slam your host country. You may be able to read, but you have no manners. That's your mama's fault.

Or maybe that's a failing of the country you grew up in. Are you all jerks? I doubt it, I think it's just you.

Cartagena, what a great poll you posted a couple of items back. Funny stuff. I vote #2. I showed my wife, she laughed out loud, and said "#1, no doubt".

Buh-Bye. :cool:

[QUOTE=JackG] Peer, the # 1 country in the world is the USA....we didn't get there for being illiterate. We tell your country to jump and they ask "how high?" We basically own your country. In other words, don't mess with the US.

I agree, it is #2. He just might need some more time to realise it.

Wrong. I guess they do not teach you people too much about statistics in Borway. (Have you ever met someone from Norway who is not Boring?) The fact is you offered no real positive options in the poll such as "I am happy with the level of English" so the results are scewed. Duh.

"We are the world, we are the children ...............!"

:)

We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving....

Peer, your manners leave something to be desired. I refer mainly to your use of the phrase "lazy American mindset." Every country has lazy people in it, and America is no different. But we are a nation where the vast majority are hard-working individuals and law-abiding citizens, despite what the press says.

You may have met some lazy people and used them to form your opinion of all Americans, and for that I am sorry.

I will not, and hopefully others here will not, judge all Norwegians by you and your behavior. I'm sure you are a minority and most Norwegians have proper manners.

Good day, sir.

Peer,

I suggest you make an apology and move on.

It is not nice to insult an entire nation.

Now, if we were bashing France ............!

Just kidding, please don't attack.

:D

No no no!! It is ok to insult French people!!!! I lived in Canada for 32 years. All French people suck! There is no exception anywhere in the world. They are just born bad. They all think they are the best but have not succeeded in anything since Napoleon. Bad smelly people. Nothing more.

JackG wrote:
> Repeating the untrue "notion" as a truth, while spouting numbers that
> have no basis in reality (120 million illiterate Americans) is the
> behavior that got you into trouble in the first place.

No, what I said was "about 120 million adults in the U.S. are illiterate or read no better than at a fifth-grade level."
I believe you need to read the word 'or' (and the rest of that sentence) to understand it. Ain't literacy a wonderful thing!


Adam wrote:
> Peer, the # 1 country in the world is the USA.

Yes, I agree -- so why not make it even better? For years I've been criticizing Norway and the mindset of its people -- not in spite, but rather the opposite -- there's always room for improvements.


Brucelee wrote:
> I suggest you make an apology and move on.

I've already apologized -- see post #70.

-- peer

That’s like me saying all people from Norway are condescending pompous jerks OR just Peer.


Oh, I see, destructive criticism. That will get you far.


Thanks for that back handed apology. We are sorry you are a condescending pompous jerk then. There, now we can all be friends again.

Rob-00BoxsterS wrote:
> That’s like me saying all people from Norway are condescending
> pompous jerks OR just Peer.

Well, if you think I'm a jerk for pointing to factual numbers in regard to illiteracy, then I guess there are lots of jerks in your world -- including this National Review author:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-14752502.html

I bet they are all latent homosexual jerks over at the National Review.

-- peer

All we are is dust in the wind :ah:

You forgot condescending and pompous. The homosexual part was added by you and is something you are going to have to work out on your own. Good luck.

Alas, in the interest of good taste, I feel compelled to close this thread.

I thank you all for playing!

Be well my friends!

:)