[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Fun with Spelling and Grammar (was: Ultimate Guide)

[Torsten]

Susanne wrote:
>Ack! That's gruesome!
>
>And all my old children's books I brought with me to teach
>my daughter to read in German are now completely outdated!
>
>Are they planning on changing the spelling in older books?

It's all rather complicated ... There was a huge uproar about the reform, many people 
refused to accept it, some federal countries/teachers tried to refuse to teach it, a big 
newspaper refused to adjust ... Some authors, like Grass, refused their books being 
printed according to the new rules.
And it all cost a lot of money, reprinting important books, schools had to buy new 
books, everyone had to buy new Dudens and so on. I'm sure they didn't just publish 
new editions for normal books (fiction, children's books) just for the sake of having an 
edition with fixed spellings and grammar, but if a they release a new edition normally 
because a book sells well, they surely fix it. Unless the author refuses.

>I'm not sure I'll ever completely grasp the new German,
>since I'm not using it often enough in the written form, and
>I don't think my parents or sister are going to correct my
>letters :}

Well, in general it does make more sense and is easier to learn. Kids and foreigners 
learning German have it easier, but for grown-ups using the old form all their life it's 
difficult to adjust. My main complaint is that the reform is good but not consequent 
enough, they didn't go all the way. There's no da anymore, only das and dass. Fine, 
but why not get rid of  totally?

I didn't like the uproar about it, though, because it's not as if nobody knew the reform 
was coming. But they all started complaining only after everything had been done, way 
too late. And that crap about going on to teach kids the old rules - how stupid! I think 
Hamburg was one of the countries refusing to adjust, which would be terrible for the 
kids. They'd grow up learning officially wrong rules. They might do fine in their 
schools, but if they go to universitiy in another federal country or get a job in which 
they have to correspond with people from there, they'd be screwed.

And it's of course a lot of intolerance and lazieness. Yes, Seeelefant looks just crazy to 
the eyes of grown-ups, but there's a limit to how much fuss you can make about it. 
Just go and practice and get used to it, is it too much to ask to make some effort?

Don't worry about your grasp of German or your kids, the new rules aren't THAT 
much different anybody has trouble understanding someone else. And many people, 
like me, are still insecure about many spellings which of course leads to more tolerance 
regarding the mistakes of others. I make many more mistakes in writing German than 
before the reform, because the old rules are still too stuck in my mind. But hey, it's for 
the greater good. ^_~ If it helps kids get a better grasp of the language and make less 
mistakes, and makes it easier for non-natives to learn German, that's the best we could 
ask for, IMHO.

-Torsten