Spelling and Identity

How do you feel about language?

How do you feel about spelling?

How do you feel about identity? Yours as an individual? Yours as a citizen?

I rarely think about language. And I use it every single day. I speak it. I write it. I listen to it. But I rarely sit down and think about it.

Now spelling. I do think about spelling. Not when I talk or listen, but when I write. I think about it a lot. And not just whether I have spelled something correctly. Although I sometimes think about that quite a lot. For example, if you look at a basic word like ‘the’ for long enough, it starts to look pretty darn strange.

When I most often think about spelling is when I write on international sites like this and even when I write on my own site. I prefer Canadian spelling as it is what I grew up using and I live in Canada. Yet on a site like this, you don’t want to come across as someone who cannot spell. Therefore, the tendency is swing over to American usage.

In Canada, I would argue that American spelling is slowly becoming the new norm. The majority just don’t care. For instance, Canadian books that are being marketed outside the country, you see American spelling, not Canadian. In classrooms you see teachers beginning to spell words like ‘honour’ without the ‘u’. They are teaching the next generation to spell the American way. In a way, that is one small loss of our heritage and our ties to our British roots as a country.

I suppose us Canadians could blame Microsoft Word as the default language for spell check is American. And yes, it is possible to change the language over to Canadian although many people do not know how to change it, plus it never seems to remember that you were serious about Canadian spelling being the new default.

So how about identity? It is said that language is tied to culture and culture to identity. So, am I losing part of my identity? It feels like it. To me, having our own quirks of the language gives me pride. It is a way to distinguish myself from the pack.

I think a great number of Canadians do not care that there is Canadian spelling and do not realize that we are losing it. So what if we stop using all those pesky ‘u’s? What difference will it make?

When I worked as a librarian, I brought in the “Atlas of Disappearing Languages” for the social studies teachers teaching globalization. I’ve been thinking about that book lately. With the globalization of the written word, could Canadian spelling/language now be considered to be disappearing? It sure feels like it.

As for identity, what is the impact of losing our spelling? Will it affect our culture? It’s one of the small things that separates us from American culture.

Will North America become one big box store? Or are we already there?

The Future

What is up with the world? I just don’t get it. Sometimes when I see the future of the world in the context of what is happening in the here and now and what we are doing to prepare for the future, it freaks me out. Why don’t we listen to the warnings? What are we doing to the environment? What are we doing to each other? How do we expect the future to unfold when we act as though there isn’t one?

G Words: Google Earth, Geocaching and Globalization

I must say, Google Earth is definitely one of the coolest toys. (Even though Google is starting to scare me it is so into our lives.) I particularly like using Google Earth with the geocaching option. I have been going out caching lately, and have been having a fair amount of luck finding the caches–which always makes me want to find more, more, more! Today between a dance class and doctor’s appointment, I was like, ‘Hmmm. What to do so us ladies don’t get bored? Ah yes, let’s geocache.’ And voila, lots of caches right where we were going to be anyway! YAY!

Tomorrow we drop off the car to see what is wrong with the front end. Oh please, let it be something cheap. And in case we have time to kill, or are looking for a little adventure…a geocache or two along the way! I’ve located some caches in the areas we’ll be going to using Google Earth (what would I do without it?) and then zipped them off into my GPS.

Speaking of cars…where the heck is my environment rebate for the Toyota? The attitude of the government’s website is all like, ‘oh we’ll get to it.’ You’re eligible after March something-or-other.

Ummmm…hello, but it is now September and some of us would like our $1000!

I have a question about China. Or maybe it is a concern. Or maybe it is just a question about our own values here in North America. Either way, here is some randomish babbling held together with a few nouns.

Awhile ago I noticed that most of my daughter’s toys were being made in China. (Lately a few more in Vietnam–is it the new China?) I’m all for giving a country our business and all that. Maybe China could use our company’s hiring their citizens. Maybe they could use the money that is generated.

Questions are:

Do the citizens actually get to benefit from our purchasing products made there? Sure they are cheap labour to us, but what are the employee benefits like there? Wages? Conditions? Are we just taking advantage of them all because they are cheap and won’t squawk?

Are we just keeping a country like China down as a second world country (or whatever they are classed as)–or are we helping them out? Because, really do you want to piss off someone that size with a whole pile of tough factory workers? (I’ve heard they are very organized and obedient.) I know that it makes ‘business sense’ to ‘keep them down’ where we can abuse and take advantage of them.

What about the environment? Their laws may not be as stiff as ours. So then what? Are we not responsible? Should we not act like we are building these items on our own turf? Shouldn’t we uphold the ideas of the environment we hold dear here? Just because these countries can’t or won’t stand up for us or simply are unaware of the environmental things we have learned, or can’t afford it, does that mean that we should take advantage of the situation?

On a more personal level and therefore a more alarming one…are the quality controls.

Sure, I’ve bought junk at dollar stores that doesn’t work. And it does bother me. How much has gone into making that product and having it shipped all the way over here, just so I can throw it out? But, whatever. It bothers me not because of my wasted dollar, but that lots and lots of useless crap is made. We don’t need it. Someone makes money, but look at the waste. Power, gas, plastic, all that stuff.

But, what about things like contaminated food? Pet and human food? How does mercury or whatever it was end up in cat food? How do we let that happen? Do we have them so pinned in the corner that they will slip something deadly into the product in order to make their profit? How do we appear in their eyes? It must be pretty bad.

And scary, scary is that some food items may not be labeled totally truthfully. For example, I heard that apple juice that is made from trees in China and made into concentrated juice there, is shipped to Canada, diluted with water and then packaged as Product of Canada. Not. Where do we get off with that? What could be in that apple juice? It is not produced with the quality controls that we assume. Part of the reason companies use China is because of the fact that the quality controls are not the same. They are lessened. What kind of morals are everyone operating under? Oh yeah, the morals of make the most profit possible.

What about Argentina honey? Do they allow sugar to be added? Canadian honey controls certainly do not allow that.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I realize that to maintain our lifestyles we need globalization. We do. But at what costs? How many people have to get sick? How many rivers, airways and countries have to become polluted?

And what about toys? The whole Mattel thing? Lead paint? Hello? Lead??? Since when was lead back in style? On children’s toys? Scary, scary.

How many recalls have their been lately on products made in China?

And what does that cost? I mean to the environment. I don’t care about me or the company. It serves the company right as for as I am concerned. Trying to get away with that. I think they should be fined too. The buggers.

It really makes a person think.

Maybe like how the book ‘Slow’ suggests, we should try and become more localised in our shopping and eating.

Crap. Like who is going to do that? Okay, okay. I mean, I do buy local when I can. I go to the Farmer’s Market. My daughter calls the FM carrots ‘delicious’ every time she has them. Partly because the ones from California taste like wood. Yum. But, in a few months when there is snow on the ground, that is what we will be enjoying again at our table. Wood.

Anyway, I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t even know what I can do–other than to try and buy local and that sort of thing. I just know that I don’t like seeing what is happening here.

(An aside here while talking about global issues…did you hear about British banks running out of money due to citizens coming in and clearing out their accounts because of worries about the American dollar. Cripes! It is like the ’30s all over again. Very scary. But I do know what they mean. I fear too.)