Destroying the English Language

I haven't spoken to anyone for over a week now, since Kay has gone home to Kuala Lumpur to visit her family. The last conversation I had was with the bloke who owns the tobacconist shop at the Village when I bought my tobacco Thursday week ago. I haven't been out either because of the weather and I have really had no necessity to go out. I was hoping to go for a walk to Aldi, but the rain put an end to that thought. So, I have had a lot of time to think and listen to others talk, mainly on TV.

And what a load of dribble they come out with!!! I think that most people who know me will say that I am not what you might call verbally challenged, but I do believe that some of the so-called presenters and news readers on TV do surely have a problem with the English language.

One of my greatest hates is when a so-called "educated person" blatantly makes the same error or mispronunciation time after time. Women are some of the greatest offenders when they say something like: "I wanted to arx her if she was OK." or something in that vein. The correct word is "ASK" not "ARX". I have noticed that it is quite rare for a man to make this pronunciation error but a terrible lot of women do.

But men don't get off easy either. When a newsreader can change "gears" in mid-speech it is either very clever or very stupid. You be the judge.

The word in point is KILOMETRE. I believe the correct pronunciation is KILO-METRE, not KILL-OMMITTER. Take into consideration other metric measurement terms such as centimetre, millimetre, etc. We don't pronounce them as CENT-IMMETTER or MILL-IMMITER do we? So why mispronounce kilometre???

There was an instance the other night on the news when a reporter was talking about a speeding motorist. He reported as "The driver was travelling at over 80 KILO-METRES per hour and he travelled well over 15 KILL-OMMITERS before being apprehended by the Police." Why change the pronunciation within the same story??? Does the word need to be pronounced differently to suit the scenario????

NO!!!! Whether it is KPH or just KM it is pronounced the same way, which should be the correct way. This reporter is raking in humongous dollars and can't even speak the English language.

Another common problem with "educated" newsreaders, and this is mainly the younger generation, is that they use acronyms incorrectly. Take ATM for instance. An ATM is an Automated Teller Machine. You will often hear it referred to as an ATM machine. Therefore that translates as "Automated Teller Machine Machine". How stupid is that???

Another one cropped up the other night when there was a report about a well known TV star who was being charged with breaching an AVO (Apprehended Violence Order) and the reporter called it an AVO Order. Again, it is so ridiculous that it is beyond belief. 

Don't they proof-read their scripts before presenting them?? Or are the script writers at fault for making the errors in the first place?? Then why don't the presenters read their scripts first??? 

What has happened to all those good old-fashioned English classes that we all used to hate when in Primary School??? Oh for the good old fashioned education system to be brought back --- cane and all!!!