Have you ever known anyone who was illiterate?

Killer Pigeon

I wonder if you'd find any on here.

needadvi

cosmicfart wrote: »

still makes my chuckle when I thing about it

Chuckled as I read this. :P

SpannerMonkey

yes and i was shocked that he is only in his mid twentys :eek:

nicechick!

My brother has dyslexia and sometimes it still hurts me to see him struggling he still would hide it as such though very intelligent and extremely gifted/talented. He manages just fine and if need be will rely on kind members of the public to guide him when need be or else ask his family/friends

sellerbarry

I know a guy who can't read or write. Owns a large roofing company with 50 or so employees. Didn't seem to hold him back.

Sarah Bear

my OH and i run a karaoke show.. had a group of traveller women in to the pub one night, (lovely girls great craic) handed out the slips for them to write the song choices/names on but they still kept coming up saying have ye got this song, can i sing such a song etc.. didnt cop on and just said yeah have a look through the book and write your name/song choice down for me.. after a while one of the girls called me aside and explained none of them could read or write.. thought it was very sad they ranged in age from 18-50 bout 10 of them and all illiterate.

krudler

a couple of customers when I worked in HMV, one guy was an absolute gent though I had great time for him, just a really nice old man who loved jazz and would always recommend stuff to us and vice versa, he couldnt read so would ask us to go through the song titles on some albums with him. never bothered me doing it and he spent loads so we looked after him.

SuperInfinity

Rabies wrote: »

With all the text speak floating around, I think the numbers will get higher in the next few years.
Society is getting dumber.

Text speak has got nothing to do with... oh why do I even bother.

MajorMax

When I was a boy in the Seventies, I grew up in a bar in the midlands. This nice old man used to come in nearly every morning for a few pints. He would take the morning paper from the counter and sit at a table reading the paper for a couple of hours, then he'd go on his way. It was after he died and my Father was talking to his sister at the funeral and he remarked how much this old man (can't remember his name) loved his paper that she said that her brother couldn't read, not even a little bit.

Since then I have met several people I would consider functionally illiterate

Ripsteel2011

I think ye should keep it to yourselves honestly, i know people that have problems with spelling and writing but i dont think its that big of a deal, they dont mind so you shouldnt either, this kinda **** is exactly what people with the untrained skills are embarrassed about which is people talking about them, just leave it alone, why would someone even start a thread on this topic get a life and stop worrying about others.

The Scientician

Ripsteel2011 wrote: »

I think ye should keep it to yourselves honestly, i know people that have problems with spelling and writing but i dont think its that big of a deal, they dont mind so you shouldnt either, this kinda **** is exactly what people with the untrained skills are embarrassed about which is people talking about them, just leave it alone, why would someone even start a thread on this topic get a life and stop worrying about others.

Right, thanks for that. If you don't like the topic of the thread you're allowed a) not read it and b) not post in it. Most posts in this thread have been civil and some people here are very informed about the phenomenon. Taking an interest in it isn't the same as making a big deal out of it.

Darkginger

Funnily enough, I was looking around yesterday to find out how to volunteer as an adult literacy tutor - and gawd, it's not easy - you have to go on a course (and of course - no pun intended - the nearest one to me is flippin' miles away), and in some cases get vetted by the Gards. I don't think I'm up to jumping through all those hoops - just thought it'd be good to help people who have literacy problems - anyone know if an ad in the local paper offering to help would contravene any laws? (Erm, but then again, those who might want the help might not be able to read the ad...any better ideas?)

locked_out

I used to be illeterate. Fixed that a long time ago.

nicechick!

Ripsteel2011 wrote: »

I think ye should keep it to yourselves honestly, i know people that have problems with spelling and writing but i dont think its that big of a deal, they dont mind so you shouldnt either, this kinda **** is exactly what people with the untrained skills are embarrassed about which is people talking about them, just leave it alone, why would someone even start a thread on this topic get a life and stop worrying about others.

Everyone has a right to an opinion including you, I do think that the posters are emphatic

Cill Dara Abu

Ally Dick wrote: »

I don't know any illiterates, but I know several people who cannot spell the word 'lose' properly

Haha loosers

Bob Z

The Scientician wrote: »

I've only ever encountered illiteracy a few times and even then it was never full illiteracy. One time in an internet café someone asked me how to spell "donedeal.ie". Other times I've seen how people spell their address, or other times they try to read something written down and have a terrible time. It must be awful to get to adulthood and not be able to read or write too well. My grandad left school at 12 but I'm pretty sure he could read and write then as well as he needed to in later life. The internet is becoming increasingly useful, pretty much necessary for lots of things, I dunno how someone who has low literacy skills copes nowadays especially.

I know, i know...just think there people reading this right now who are illiterate

Bob Z

The Scientician wrote: »

I've only ever encountered illiteracy a few times and even then it was never full illiteracy. One time in an internet café someone asked me how to spell "donedeal.ie". Other times I've seen how people spell their address, or other times they try to read something written down and have a terrible time. It must be awful to get to adulthood and not be able to read or write too well. My grandad left school at 12 but I'm pretty sure he could read and write then as well as he needed to in later life. The internet is becoming increasingly useful, pretty much necessary for lots of things, I dunno how someone who has low literacy skills copes nowadays especially.

I know, i know...just think there people reading this right now who are illiterate

paddyandy

The english language is long overdue revision.There are a lot of words like yacht that still have the old spelling.The Yot clubs around the world wont like it and the printers won't either.The average paragraph could be a lot shorter.The irish language is a nightmare when it comes to the number of letters in words Life is hard enough for young people starting their school days and then the illogical confronts them.Phonetics is one unnecessary set of hurdles.

susiewoosie

With 1 out of every 4 person in Ireland experiencing literacy difficulties, it still surprises me (and annoys me) when I see information being distributed that's not considered "plain English"

It does not mean 'dumbing' down the English language but ensures that information is accessible for all.

I work with people with literacy difficulties and as part of the class, they bring in leaflets or even letters they have received from revenue and their city councils etc. and when they see a few words they do not understand - they get scared, panic and end up not reading what could very well be vital information.

Sorry to go off the point OP, but you would be surprised how many people have difficulty.

My first experience with this issue was when I was a teenager and my cousin had his homework copy book open (he was older than me) and I saw loads of grammar and spelling mistakes and being horrified.... It was years later I realised then that my cousin was not unusual.

*Ok.....hesitant in sending this.... Hope no-one spots too many mistakes in this post - I never said I was an English expert....*

MadameGascar

My boyfriend is dyslexic, its obviously not the same as illiteracy, but as a child reading was embarrassing and he would be ridiculed by teachers so he avoided this and his other school work. Now he is dyslexic and part illiterate. He gets so frustrated sometimes with not being able to deal with the simplest words.

In secondary school he was stuck in a class with people who just didn't care and although he is very intelligent, teachers didn't want him in their honors classes so he was limited in his choices after his leaving cert. Now he is about to finish a degree in science (that he only got into arseways and has to pay a lot for it anyway) and he will be getting paid by his ability to read another kind of language.

cocoshovel wrote: »

Yes, there was at least 3 in my class during secondary school. They were the biggest thick ****ing dopes I have ever come across in my life. One of them once asked "How do you spell dawn? is it dan?" To which the teacher replied "no thats how you spell your name".

The other one quite ironically asked how to spell "illiterate" once. I'm pretty one of them was inbred too.

This is disgusting, do you realize you're the one who comes across as thick?

Kidchameleon

Me is ilitorit. me find life hord. me seein techeer so will injoy lyfe morer soon

hatrickpatrick

Rabies wrote: »

With all the text speak floating around, I think the numbers will get higher in the next few years.
Society is getting dumber.

That's not really the same though, that's language evolving - they can still read and write, it's just basically a different language.

tayto lover

Spoke to a young lad recently who went through Primary School and two years of Secondary School with great difficulty before being diagnosed as Dyslexic. No how can that happen in this day and age ? We are supposed to have Educational Psychologists who visit schools and interview youngsters with literacy problems and yet something like this can still happen. Disgraceful.

That young lad had no problem with numbers but had with letters. Why did his school not seek help for him. His way of dealing with his problem was by misbehaving in class and being sent out. He did this to stop the class laughing at his reading abilities and was a self-protection mechanism.

How many others are out there just like him and not getting help.
I have decided to do a Literacy Awareness course myself to help adults in my area who need it.

RichieC

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

That's not really the same though, that's language evolving - they can still read and write, it's just basically a different language.

It's not language evolving, English will never be text speak in any situations except txt messages. Not while I draw a breath.

There were a few travelers that came into where I work that were illiterate. One or two staff members would assume they were joking when they asked for the movie listings to be read out to them and would actually laugh in their faces.

The ignorance of some people is simply astounding.

later12

I know a man from the midlands in his 60s who cannot write or read *anything* beyond his own signature. As a farmer's oldest son he was brought up knowing that he would inherit a large farm, so schooling was deemed un-necessary.

Little could his parents have known how farming would change, and without his family he would be lost. But life has changed as well and this man is very inhibited in a personal sense - he doesn't go anywhere outside of a 10 mile radius without someone with him. He doesn't even have a valid driver's licence.
Although he is obviously a bright man in terms of his knowledge of agriculture, for example, I think it's sad that he has never had the opportunity to make full use of his intelligence.

His illiteracy has locked him into a small, internal world where his leisure activities are extremely limited and where he is, and always will be, highly dependent on others to an extent which most of us would probably find intolerable.

Semele

When I worked in a nursing home in the UK there was a patient who was a traveller and her family used to have to knock on my door and ask me to sign them into the visitor book when they came. I didn't cop at all the first time so just showed the girl in question where the book was...for some reason I think I was more embarassed than her when she told me she couldn't read or write! I met her younger sister once too (10-ish) and again put my foot in it by asking if she liked school, to which she told me she'd never been:eek:

Saddest part of the story though was that the patient herself (mid-30s only) was admitted following a brain injury that robbed her of the ability to speak. The speech and language team worked with her for ages on various assistive technologies and concluded that her brain damage was too severe to allow her to learn to use them. It was only months later that we learned the reason she couldn't use them is because she can't spell. They are now in the laborious process of having to teach her to read so she can communicate beyond pointing at pictures.