The English language is interesting and fun: the writer teaches grammar right on the streets of the USA

Ellen Jovin is a writer and English grammar guru. She gathers people at the “Grammar Table”. She says that language is a living, developing thing, the rules of which depend on the desires, needs and whims of those who speak and write it, reports USAToday.

Photo: IStock

Jovin is so passionate about English as an interactive activity that she not only wrote a book about it (“Rebel With a Clause", HarperCollins), but also organized Grammar Table just outside to talk, answer questions or connect with other word lovers. Her husband Brandt Johnson, also a writer, is working on a documentary about the Grammar Table.

“I appreciate everything that has to do with language,” Jovin said. And she loves sharing this passion with others, no matter how they feel about words.

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“It's about a love of language in all its forms - slang, deviations from traditional grammar, what words mean and how that can change. It's fun,” she says.

Since 2018, Jovin has taken Grammar Table to all 50 states (she has stops planned in Gilbert and Mesa, Arizona, in February). She often visits New York parks. As an educator, consultant, and writer, Jovin founded Grammar Table as a way to escape the computer screen, where grammatical rules seemed to be degraded almost as much as personal and political discourse.

“I knew people were interested in the language, and I spent so much time studying online and getting annoyed,” Jovin said. “The point of language is to communicate with other people.”

Jovyn 'doesn't look like your old school teacher'

Jayden Wong is a pediatrician at Stanford University and a “self-confessed grammar nerd.” She loved the book Rebel With a Clause so much that she found the author's website and contacted her by email. She was glad when Jovyn answered.

“Her writing is so humorous and fun,” said Wong, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. “She knows the rules, but she also keeps up with the times and trends. She's not the kind of person who says, "You have to do this or you have to do that." She wants to know, "What would you do?" She knows modern language. She doesn't look like your old school teacher."

However, one thing Jovin does is reminiscent of an old school teacher: diagramming sentences. Her Instagram includes posts from her travels, as well as a couple of quick outlines of pop song lyrics, including Pink Floyd's grammatically complex "Another Brick in the Wall" and Vampire Weekend's "Oxford Comma."

And if you think diagramming is a relic as old as the Catholic school nun with a ruler, think again.

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Ninth-grade students at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx learn to diagram sentences as part of the English language arts curriculum, according to principal Alessandro Weiss.

Jovin visited the school last year and will return again this year.

Diagramming not only helps students understand sentence structure and grammar rules, but also shows how important accuracy is. It is easier for students to see inappropriate constructions and random prepositions if they are displayed on a series of straight lines.

“We want our students to learn,” Weiss said. “But more importantly, we want them to be attentive to the accuracy of words, develop eloquence, and construct sentences correctly.”

“Words are what unites us”

A California native, Jovin says people everywhere have been receptive, polite and more than a little curious when she's hosted her table, even in New York, a place not always known for its friendliness.

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People confess their verbal insecurities to her. They admit to feeling less educated or not as smart, or feeling that their accent makes them perceived as provincial or backward.

“A lot of language stories are very personal,” Jovin said. “But people can be too hard on themselves. They're usually better communicators than they think."

“My favorite thing is when people come right up to the table and ask questions,” she said. People ask questions or try to resolve their own grammatical differences.

“But often I just ask: “Why are you doing this?” says Jovin.

The answer is in the shirt she often wears at the table: it says “Grammar Hedonism.”

“I feel happier after talking to a stranger,” she said. “Words are what connects us.”

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