March 13 2015, Friday
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Let’s
right the wrong!
I wonder if you
have ever noticed this poster. “LETS RUN
TOGETHER”.
As an English
Language teacher, I am furious that such a mistake can be made! It should be
“Let’s Run Together” with “let’s” meaning “let us”. “Lets” can only be used
with a third person singular noun or pronoun such as “Toms lets (allows) his
wife bully him.” Of course, we can also use “lets” in “She lets (out) one of
the rooms to make some income.”
Mind you! This
poster is everywhere transmitting the wrong use of the word “lets” to our
easily impressionable young minds! All that is taught in class can be
forgotten! Or worse, students can rebut teachers when they are corrected using
the word as it is in the poster. Indeed, this slogan is so eye-catching that it
is adopted by many school teams in designing their uniforms. Teachers or
students responsible all assume what they see in advertisements cannot be
wrong.
There are two
Chinese idioms that succinctly capture this situation: 習非成是 and 約定俗成.
The literal meaning of the
first one is that when enough “negative” or “wrong” things or opinions or
responses are collected, then cumulatively speaking, this “wrong” will be taken
as the “right”! The second one means more or less the same: when many people
agree to do one thing together, then a custom is formed!
Chinese wisdom works again!
Let’s
right the wrong!
I wonder if you
have ever noticed this poster. “LETS RUN
TOGETHER”.
As an English
Language teacher, I am furious that such a mistake can be made! It should be
“Let’s Run Together” with “let’s” meaning “let us”. “Lets” can only be used
with a third person singular noun or pronoun such as “Toms lets (allows) his
wife bully him.” Of course, we can also use “lets” in “She lets (out) one of
the rooms to make some income.”
Mind you! This
poster is everywhere transmitting the wrong use of the word “lets” to our
easily impressionable young minds! All that is taught in class can be
forgotten! Or worse, students can rebut teachers when they are corrected using
the word as it is in the poster. Indeed, this slogan is so eye-catching that it
is adopted by many school teams in designing their uniforms. Teachers or
students responsible all assume what they see in advertisements cannot be
wrong.
There are two
Chinese idioms that succinctly capture this situation: 習非成是 and 約定俗成.
The literal meaning of the
first one is that when enough “negative” or “wrong” things or opinions or
responses are collected, then cumulatively speaking, this “wrong” will be taken
as the “right”! The second one means more or less the same: when many people
agree to do one thing together, then a custom is formed!
Chinese wisdom works again!
