"Simple English"

[Victoria]

Offshore's post on the passing of Rene Rivkin made me Wiki him for the date of death. 2005. Wow, I'm behind the times.

Here's the Wiki entry for Rene Rivkin, in case of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Rivkin

But what did my eyes spy, to the lower left of the page, where foreign language entries are usually labelled "French", "German", even "Esperanto" sometimes, but "Simple English".

Simple English?

Here's what it says, in toto:

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Rivkin

Rene Rivkin (6 June 1944 - 1 May 2005) was an Australian man who made lots of money by buying stocks and shares on the Australian stockmarket. Rene Rivkin had his own television show and magazine to help people to make money. One day police said that Rene Rivkin had cheated to make money out of the stock market. Rene Rivkin got very sad. Rene Rivkin was put in jail. While Rene Rivkin was in jail, Rene Rivkin killed himself. Before killing himself, Rene Rivkin said on a television show called "Enough Rope" with Andrew Denton that if he went to jail he would kill himself. Andrew Denton has said that he is very sad about this.

"One day police said that Rene Rivkin had cheated to make money out of the stock market. Rene Rivkin got very sad." ... "Andrew Denton said he was very sad about this"?

What? This is "See D1ck and Jane Run" type of storyline!

My God, talk about the dumbing down of culture in general. Simple English, indeed.

Wikipedia is ALREADY the dumbed down version of the Encyclop

[Pugwash]

Simple English on Wikipedia is there for those people that don't have the vocabulary of a native speaker. I applaud the initiative as it allows beginners in English to use parts of the internet normally too complex to understand.

Dumbing down? IT'S NOT FOR YOU OR PEOPLE LIKE YOU. Sheesh! What next? Complaining the Spanish don't do a decent Fish-and-Chips?

Edit: Did you even consider looking it up?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sim...glish_Wikipedia

[Victoria]

Simple English on Wikipedia is there for those people that don't have the vocabulary of a native speaker. I applaud the initiative as it allows beginners in English to use parts of the internet normally too complex to understand.

I knew someone was going to reply about the poor, half-starved (implied), overworked (implied), illegal (not implied but bloody well often true) non-native English speaking people who might otherwise have died without knowing who Rene Rivkin was, if not for the good offices of Simple English Wikipedia.

And that he was sad when he was put in gaol/jail.

And that his dog Spot was sad too. And that made him sad.

Oh, give me a break.

It has nothing to do with simple English, but the utter brain-dead quality of the telling of the "story".

If only I had time to alter these Simple English entries on Wikipedia, I'd put that entry so right, even your weeping heart full of mercy and humanity towards these poor confused non-Anglophones, would applaud me!!

Unfortunately, I cannot take time off from my busy Rep Watch forum replying.

I'm sad.

[Pugwash]

Oh, give me a break.

When your posts are as daft as that one, you of all people don't deserve a break.

The target for Simple English isn't the people you listed as they don't have computers, internet or the inclination to read about some dead bloke on the 'Pedia. I thought you'd learned other languages and would understand the issue.

How would you have written the article, knowing the constraints of Simple English?

[Victoria]

How would you have written the article, knowing the constraints of Simple English?

I used to be an English-as-a-Second-Language instructor, with an emphasis on advanced Business English. Yeah, that's right. I taught Japanese businessmen how to make nice with rich Americans and Brits. And was I was damn good too.

So if there is anyone on this board who knows how to make themself understood in simple, clear, but INTERESTING English it is Ryyannon...who is AWOL.

And dammit, I'm sad. He would've been all over this thread, with insouciant replies about Regine and perhaps some French techno dancing too.

(Yes, I used insouciant, but I presume YOU don't need Simple English. Maybe Simple French? )

@Ryyannon: LOL! Bad spelling. You're so ironical. FREAK!

[Pugwash]

I used to be an English-as-a-Second-Language instructor, with an emphasis on advanced Business English. Yeah, that's right. I taught Japanese businessmen how to make nice with rich Americans and Brits. And was I was damn good too.

Yet you can't equate "suffered from severe clinical depression" to "sad"? You can't have been that good.

ps: It'd be insouciante as reply is feminine in French.

[narikaa]

Seems like yet further interference from that harridan Chrissie Maher (a waste of human skin -lots of it BTW - from Liverpool) a low life, uneducated piece of immoral white trash, who decided that all documentation etc in English should be bought down to her (Janet & John) level.

Needless to say in nanny-land they gave the [censored] an O.B.E. !!!

.

[cornerstone]

Seems like yet further interference from that harridan Chrissie Maher (a waste of human skin -lots of it BTW - from Liverpool) a low life, uneducated piece of immoral white trash, who decided that all documentation etc in English should be bought down to her (Janet & John) level.

Needless to say in nanny-land they gave the [censored] an O.B.E. !!!

In Maher's own words (from The Guardian):

"Poor communication in a public document was the reason the campaign began. I was helping two old ladies complete a form for extra heating allowance. This was money they desperately needed; they were choosing between turning the heating on and eating each evening. Both these ladies were perfectly intelligent but the forms they had to complete were just too baffling to decipher. Eventually I gave up and promised to return in the morning to finish the job. When I did so, I found the pair being carried off to hospital where they died of hypothermia. I vowed to do whatever I could to stop people suffering for the sake of gobbledegook."

The bitch killed them!!

I mean, if she was that worried she could have put a quid in the electricity meter. Or not "given up".

[Pugwash]

I mean, if she was that worried she could have put a quid in the electricity meter. Or not "given up".

I realise your post is only humour so I'll not comment adversely.

[Emmzy]

I realise your post is only humour so I'll not comment adversely.

That will make a nice change!

BTW My Spanish friends 'do' excellent fish and chips...............rosada a la plancha con patatas fritas.

I'm introducing them to porridge and sarcasm.

[narikaa]

Typical of the emotional BS this POS has been feeding off since she found this marvellous way to top up her -plain english- giro.

.

[georgegrasser]

It will come in handy after I have my stroke.

[cornerstone]

Joking of course (and her merits don't impact one way or the other on the merits of simple English) but half-seriously if she was that concerned she could have taken them a meal and let them have heating for the night. The forms didn't kill them, even if they'd been filled in and posted, they'd still be frozen stiffs come morning. (If it were true.... )

One other comment to make on her - for someone who loves plain simple English (because she couldn't read until her teens) - she loves the word "gobbledygook". I mean she can write it several times in a single paragraph - it almost looks like keyword stuffing on her website she loves it so much. And sure, enough, if you Google "gobbledygook", the plain english campaign is in the top 5 results...(number 1 in the UK results).

[Victoria]

Needless to say in nanny-land they gave the [censored] an O.B.E. !!!

.

What, no way? Seems I left my homeland just in time...

(No, she got it when I was still there. Just recalled)

We seem to delight in rewarding busybodies like Mary Whitehouse and Chrissie Maher with OBEs. Whitehouse at least could be mocked. Mock Maher, and you're the equivalent of Dr. Crippen because of the PC-brigade.

I'm all for speaking plain English, but Plain English is as bad as nonsensical officialese.

When it becomes mandatory to the point of destroying the origins of the English tongue (such as calls for restructuring its spelling), I rue the day I wasn't born French.

It would never OCCUR to them to have a Simple French Wikipedia equivalent, since they revere their tongue, preserve its origins, and if foreign-speakers can't master it, tough merde.

They even have the Academie Fran