Penjection

014-penjection
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

I meet a lot of people who are book junkies, partly because I work with translators and teachers of language. Although bristling with advanced degrees in linguistics, a great interest in consuming books, few have the the courage or the conviction to turn their back on their professor's preaching and find their own place in this world of words. The result is that they largely remain passive consumers of words, ever-looking for that next fix but never really taking all that knowledge anywhere.

Society generally encourages people to collect things, as long as they are safe things like stamps, ornaments, paintings - things with a secure tradition as collectables, but for what purpose? To meet people with similar interests? An archaeologist is also a collector, but does not collect to amass an impressive array of object, to meet people of similar interests or to learn what is known - the archaeologist instead wants to deduce the unknown, to write the books that other collectors to define their possessions.

Book knowledge is similar, if you only seek to learn what is known then become like a silent partner in a conversation - offering nothing but silent disapproval of any error in grammar or vocabulary.

When I was at primary school I always had to use a pencil, as my handwriting style never achieved a level deemed by the teacher good enough to warrant one of her cartridge pens. At schools here in Poland they are taught really fancy forms of lettering and insist that they are used - nothing but hell for students like me who lack the skill in forming fine letters inflicted by teachers without the ability or vision to know how to teach me any different. Our niece is able to form these letters, but she has dyslexia, and the teachers have no skill in dealing with her problem.

Even scarier, many of the linguists teaching at university here will downgrade students work for poor calligraphy - so what would they do with me in an exam, as I have arthritis and on some days find it difficult to form letters even to my normal rough and ready style?

Writing is an ill-taught skill, with little understanding of how to encourage the art in writing. We are told that presentation is very important, which is a pity as potential employers must get as tired of well-presented trash as they do poorly presented quality.