text: why do so many people not use correct english? the people that are natively from america are taught english from school.  they are taught this for 13 years and sometimes more.  why, then, do people continue to use incorrect english?  this has puzzled me for a long time.  you would think that a person wouldn't want to sound uneducated and this would cause that person to speak correctly.  i'm mostly just curious what other people's opinions are on this matter.  am i the only one that is bothered by this? no, it bothers me, too.  i notice a lot of incorrect, mixed-up verb tenses ("had went", etc) and it drives me nuts!  also, people just don't get it when to use "i" and when to use "me."  argh!  i think its several factors: -partly a lack at home (parents don't back up the school lessons because they're too busy or too tired or just uneducated themselves and don't know that they should) so those kids just never internalize the school lessons  -partly laziness on the part of the speaker/writer.  everyone's in too much of a hurry to spend a fraction of a second thinking about the sounds the word makes and matching up the corresponding letters -partly a lack of interest in getting it right.  the media glamorizes "ghetto" or "hip-hop" style language and makes fun of proper grammar.  who can blame kids for wanting to be cool instead of a geek?