Letter to the Editor-Technology & Language

Where do I start? I just finished reading your “Twtr? It's majorly bad! Leading headteacher condemns 'text speak' for eroding schoolchildren's language skills” article from 2014, and the best word to describe how feel is both disturbed and quite humored from these critical quotes you have provided.

I would like to start by pointing out, why do you question the children’s academic ability to learn? Instead you should be questioning the quality of teaching in these schools. Could you explain to me how a teacher hasn’t taught a child the difference ‘I don’t know who you are’ and 'I donno huu u r' or how numbers don’t belong in the structure of words like ‘m8’. Keep in mind this is in a leading private school in Oxford of all places. Rather what you’ve pointed out in the article is how it is deliberately the student’s fault for not knowing the difference. It baffles me that simple grammatical lessons have clearly been overlooked by these teachers of the “perfect English”. Now I propose the question, could we have reached this “perfect English” without any change. You provide the quote “'We should teach English in a traditional way.” Was there ever really a traditional way? It is an ignorant statement to think the English language isn’t prone for change. Keeping in mind that the English Language was created from convenience of not speaking Latin, similar to how many teenagers find writing in the manner of how they speak more convenient in a formal environment. As such instead of beating a dead horse it would seem logical to open towards the change that technology presents to the English language. On the topic of technology, throughout you’re article you claim that Technology has had only a negative impact on the English language through various quotes like “'With the continuing reliance on technology, "textspeak" is eroding hardlearned skills in such basic areas as spelling and grammar.” If anything, technology has been a milestone in the progression of the teaching of the English language. Technology has the ability and tools to provide the teachings of the English language on a platform that many teenagers may find more comfortable than a class room. Additionally, think of the infinite sources of English literature that teenagers can learn and benefit from, an educational standard that I fear the school you interviewed doesn’t match. Overall your article is based on the belief of a prestige dialect, and that the English language can never be changed, an argument so short-minded that it should raise academic concern.

The Gangster Rapper Who Inspired The Black Youth

“I'd rather die like a man, than live like a coward.” Tupac Shakur has been a voice speaking for the many youth and adults of the black community. Shakur has expressed his experiences and anger regarding the oppression his community has faced in recent times. Like many hip-hop artists, Tupac had started out his career in poverty allowing to feel with the black Americans he fights for in his music. Only a few artists such as Tupac have been able to make a significant change and effect on the black community. Tupac talked to our journalist Sami Dabbous to discuss the connection Tupac has with his community. 

How have your roots inspired your songs?

I was like any other black kid in the ghetto. Single mama, family struggled putting food on the table, got into gangs, saw many brothers fall victim to the street, and like everybody at the time was suffering in the game. I was blessed by god making it out of the ghetto in one piece. You can see it in my lyrics. The love I got for my brothers who be going through what I went through. I do this for the kids who be crying themselves to sleep, hating themselves, and need a person to look up to see that there be life outside of the ghetto.

What connection do you have with the Black American youth?

Back when I was young we never thought there was life outside of it, it was always just trying to live another twenty-four. I had a one-dimensional view on life yah feel me? I didn’t have nobody to look up, no black kid in the gutter did. I want these ghetto kids who be vibing to my records thinking that a person with the same color of their skin spitting the same language as they do, came from nothing to making a couple million. That life is more than just the ghetto.

Spitting the same language?

The brother and sisters in our community were taught the English language the way I be speaking it right now. I feel that not only the kids but anyone who be listening to anything in the words that they mama taught ‘em, you gonna connect with they heart more.

What’s so important about this connection?

I want to use this platform I’ve been blessed with to make a change. The cycle. The white man has designed a cycle around the black man to keep him down, and the only way we, the black community, are getting out of this hellhole of a cycle is by making a change from within. Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender. And its that connection I have my listeners that gives me the power to give my message to a whole generation of blacks. So, when I die at least I got some young brothers out there who be keeping my legacy on and making some sort of change out here.

What impact do you feel you’ve had on the black community?

I’ve been using my media for a change. I’ve been speaking a truth that nobody else has had the balls to say. That has had an impact. It’s simple, the people are seeing that they are weak alone, but strong as a community. Everyone’s been seeing the black lives matter movement and the call against oppression by the black community. I don’t think I started this, but I got ‘em seeing that they not the only ones out here going through s***.

Tupac Shakur has rallied a community behind his powerful songs. Inspiring the black community to come together against the oppression they have faced for years. Hopefully the interview gave some of our readers a taste of the man behind some of the highest selling albums in the Hip-Hop genre. Next month we send our journalist to talk to Tupac’s east coast adversary Biggie Smalls