villiers 3 speed and reverse gearbox

[richard]

a Gordon gearbox for sale would fit 6E / 8E / 10D etc
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331130750836?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_44wt_1275

[Big Al]

Blimey, its more than I got for my Gordon! It was a Kiit too.

[richard]

yes al but your Gordon had no gearbox - or engine for that matter  or much else  - i know i bought it !! anyway this isn't sold but he has an offer ! i wonder how he advertised it ?
i know i go on about speling but in this one advert two lines long these are the ones i noticed

kiit - kit
luge - lugs
freds - threads
splinds - splines
advertise - advertised
some were els - somewhere else
b 4 - before
now obviously some could be textspeak but really !!  God help us in the future 
 

[Big Al]

Mine was the green version  ! More than likely the unit was laying around in the yard but it was not near the remains nor obvious.

[AndrewG]

i know i go on about speling but in this one advert two lines long these are the ones i noticed ....  God help us in the future

OK, I'm swerving way off topic.....

I think it's more likely that this is a non-reader/writer who has to make a genuine effort to communicate - and as we can understand him, he has been successful.

It's easy to forget that a whole generation have now grown up with huge social pressure to read/write, so that they can text/facebook/etc, where in previous generations they just wouldn't read or write.

I worked in one shipyard that had found that it had employees who couldn't read/write.  It displayed more intelligence than all other 'yards put together in dealing with this - quite a problem if you want to get people to work from engineering drawings. 

They had pre-printed cards that supervisors or managers could give out to employees that they thought might have a reading/writing difficulty - the favourite technique was to put a card in people's knapsacks while they were working so they could find it when they got home.  The clever bit was that the cards told people where to go to get help, paid for by the shipyard, but with a guarantee that neither the 'yard nor anyone else would ever be told the individual's name.  The scheme was so successful, and so thoughtfully run, that there was little or no stigma attached to having reading difficulties and it wasn't unknown for guys to ask if they could "have one of those cards".

What I learnt there was the extraordinary lengths that people would go to to hide their inability to read/write, so it used to be easy for all educated people to think that "everyone" can read/write, because no-one ever said they couldn't.  In this respect it is rather like alcoholism - something that affects many people that each of us know, but so well hidden that we never have to acknowledge it.

And apropos "God help us in the future", I remember my grandfather telling my father what a failure my education had been since I would always be marked out by my failure to 'write properly' - by which he meant copperplate script, preferably made with a quill pen.  Curiously, I have never been aware of a problem caused by my lamentable lack of skill with a bird's feather.... 

Rant/lecture/sermon over.....

[richard]

again good point VERY well made . i know i am lucky ,my point is always with regard to research, archiving etc. The people selling items as Isseta, Hienkel, Scootercar , Bosh etc etc. do themselves a huge dis-service - but maybe cannot help it or cannot be bothered to check ? On this forum unfortunately it can make the search function non functioning , as it were . spell check costs nothing and although it doesn't work for our specialist stuff it's a big help - i use it a lot !

[Bob Purton]

It certainly didn't help you spell Isetta!

[richard]

what can i say Bob !!!!! I deliberately quoted that as i did the others all wrongly spelt commonly and on this forum , did you really only spot the one ! surely not

[Big Al]

Writing as a dyslexic I can appreciate being a late reader. However what that means is you have to work harder. Whether that is in secret, a product of not taking advantage of educational opportunity or a victim of circumstance. That help is at hand is good, but I am not sure it is acceptable as a reason for not referencing the checkable on something important like a public announcement. After all if another bad linguist is to take advantage, how can he make out what this is about, or does that not matter? That is why language has agreed forms and structure. Its not a lot to ask and it is a test of character to achieve, when its difficult. This is where texting falls down. Either its another language, or its lazy. I cannot understand it most of the time, do I really have to learn another language?

[Barry]

Eevn if you splel tinghs icnrrocelty, as lnog as you satrt wtih the rgiht lteter and end wtih the rhigt lteter and hvae the rgiht nmuebr of ltetres in ecah wrod you wlil sitll be albe to raed the snetnace

[richard]

 

[Bob Purton]

what can i say Bob !!!!! I deliberately quoted that as i did the others all wrongly spelt commonly and on this forum , did you really only spot the one ! surely not

Oh dear, what a wally! I confess to not reading everything, I tend to quickly scan posts and must have only got as far as Isseta, the keyboard finger quickly reacted to punish the headmaster and now the jokes on me!

[Big Al]

Eevn if you splel tinghs icnrrocelty, as lnog as you satrt wtih the rgiht lteter and end wtih the rhigt lteter and hvae the rgiht nmuebr of ltetres in ecah wrod you wlil sitll be albe to raed the snetnace

This is true up to a point. But try it on unusual words, especially in an odd formed sentence, so the surrounding clues are complex and I will not get it. I read words as pixals, so more like Chinese. So a good test of dyslexia is a few paragraphs such as you have produced.
Its all quite interesting stuff actually. I was part of a study group at Oxford University out of the Churchill when they really got into research on Dyslexia. It is not that common and has become a handy excuse for many who cannot spell etc. Its more complicated than that and you cannot be cured, nor really be a bit dyslexic, once diagnosed and the correct teaching methods applied. Like wearing differing coloured spectacles. You are, or you are not as you have to fall into one or other system to achieve. All stems from there and if you have it you just learn other ways to do things so as to be understood or understand. Easier if you otherwise intelligent, which most dyslexics are, strangely. It is also clear dyslexics think differently to most folk. That can create probs too. So we are a group of weirdos that have to fit in, however history seems to suggest we are good for the development of human progress because we are oddball.

[Barry]

One of my boy's is diagnosed as dyslexic and we have a tuoch of it in the family generally so I understand where you are coming from Al - It's called Engineering.

[richard]

we too have it in the family - my son is dyspraxic and my younger brother blames his own  dyslexia on some weird experiment that was called ITA I think something about spelling it as you see it ? not sure but he is now 50. The experiment only lasted a couple of years in the U.K. - the states kept with it