Spoken vs written words 2014 1 22 +30 hits 2025 1 17

as opposed to the articulated thought..!

No, I have always been fairly comfortable with the spoken word from way way back when I didn't have the means or wherewithal to write the words down sensibly either on paper at a type-writer or wherever for the neighbourhood in which I grew up was macho male-dominated where the spoken word was everything and the written word nothing..?

So learning to read and write came much later: much later for most people but in my case much much later: flunking untold numbers of examinations because of one's poor knowledge of the written word, or of the means to express one's self satisfactorily, until I would have to say my mid 20's when at last I succeeded in gaining a C grade in GCE (the UK General Certificate of Education) O-level English, a pre-requisite at the time to gaining University entrance.    

And much of the problem was to do with inhibition: our Head Mistress a Ms Grundy not helping matters for either me or my bosom friend Brian, who incidentally later in life I would come to regard as one of the world's most naturally gifted Philosophers, who regularly wrapped our knuckles with a wooden ruler to help us do better during reading lessons.

Well I was fortunate to the extent that writing the words had a lesser than crucial role in advancing my chosen career which centred on mathematics physics and chemistry... but crucially important for writing a blog for example..? hahaha.

But the immediacy of the spoken word especially in a one on one situation is something I really really like when one can at the same time read the body language learn from the accent and intonation and later choose the language though not from such a wide choice..?

The major obstacle to my gaining the O-level English then was an inability to write the hour-long essays, until one lecturer at an Evening Study College helped me overcome these inhibitions by his timeless patience and forbearing plus more than a little encouragement...  

So there you have it. And aside from a number of world-wide patents the odd Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice and the annals of the US Customs Service and the International Harmonized System of the Brussels Nomenclature I shall be able to lay no claim on the written word in posterity… unless that is the odd descendant takes the trouble to delve into my blog archives..? led as he or she may be by more than the odd spoken word or two at least as far as the next couple of generations so far are concerned…

Have a good day everybody as perhaps one day you will consider your legacy of words written or spoken…