In a text-and-tweet-saturated
world, where spelling and grammar are sacrificed for speed and spontaneity, young
English-language
students in Brazil are aiming to elevate our discourse by politely
schooling American celebrities in the rules of writing on Twitter.
Red Balloon, Brazil’s leading
English school for children, recently assigned students between the ages
of eight and thirteen a fun task: scanning the Twitter feeds of their favorite
celebrities for writing infractions, then gently correcting them via a
school-owned Twitter account. The students first discuss the tweets with
their classmates before offering their advice to the stars.
For example, when uber-celeb Kim Kardashian tweeted, “Up
early getting ready to film Chelsea Lately today with the whole fam! Were
taking over tonight!!!,” a Red Balloon fan responded, “You’re beautiful. I’m
Ana Beatriz from Brazil, I’m 8. Look, you wrote Were, but it’s ‘we’re’. Kisses.”
When Justin Beiber tweeted, “That
was a long bus ride. But we here,” another student replied, “My name is Maria,
I’m 9 and I’m a fan from Brazil. Watch out: it’s ‘we’re here’ not ‘we here’. :
)” Then she added an adorable picture of herself, as many of the other kids do in
their responses.
When the
athletically-gifted-but-intellectually-challenged Ryan Lochte sent out “Just
herd NYC power went out?!?! Is that true,” one girl tweeted back, “Hi, I’m
Louise from Brazil. I’m 9 and I love sports too! Look, you missed an A in
‘heard’. Best!”
What does this experiment
accomplish, besides irking celebrities who prefer uncritical adoration to
spelling instruction from foreign pre-teens? After all, these corrections aren’t
likely to earn them a retweet or a “follow back” from the celebs, and Grammar
Nazis don’t exactly command social media respect.
Baena’s concern is that this is
exacerbated online by “celebrities who are not really worried about the
language,” which is an understatement. So what, you say? Celebs aren’t
celebrated for their spelling. The problem is, as Baena correctly puts it, their
influence on young fans: “When [students] see their idols speaking that way,
they come to us and say, ‘But this is right. He’s American. He’s using it.’”
So Red Balloon engaged the
students in a project that not only makes learning
proper English fun, but enables them to teach
it to others as well. And God knows celebrities need the instruction. When
singer Mary J. Blige tweeted, hilariously, “Why is that people always try to
understand estimate my intelligents?!,” thankfully a Red Balloon student came
to the rescue with a polite correction.
It would take Baena’s entire class to correct rapper 50 Cent’s recent, barely
coherent texting tirade against his 16-year-old son that included,
sprinkled among the profanities, misspellings of words any 6-year-old should be
able to spell (this is texting, not Twitter, but the same principle applies). Fiddy
might argue that the only writing he needs to be able to do is to endorse his
checks. But to reiterate Andrea Baena’s point, he is a role model for his fans (7.4 million
Twitter followers) and for his own son, whose apparent illiteracy is
symptomatic of too many Americans of his generation.
Realistically, the Red Balloon
project is unlikely to enlighten many (if any) celebrities or anyone else on
Twitter. But it’s a clever way for the school’s own students to enjoy and
actively utilize their English language skills. Baena believes that even though
her students are Brazilian and English is a second language, “It’s possible to
have [her Portuguese-speaking] teenagers writing better than native speakers
because they are [in school], they’re studying, they want their accuracy.” Now
if only that enthusiasm for literacy and precision of language would rub off on
more Americans – celebrities and fans alike.
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 7/18/13)
