I too am "anti-dumbing down" with regard to the RAF and agree with TF and allans' points. Nothing infuriates me more than misuse of your and you're, having been educated at a school where the Biology teacher would give you lines for grammatical errors as well subject specific ones. I have relatives residing in the 'Thames Basin' area and recall being horrified at the level of English employed by the staff of the local school in correspondence sent to the parents, my aforementioned dislike being in abundance.
I do have a question relating to this; I understand that regional accents are encouraged in the RAF (I am yet to meet a PTI who isn’t Scotch). With no offence intended whatsoever, how would an individual with a particularly broad accent, and all the colloquialisms which go with it, fare? I know a perfectly well educated Welshman who uses no end of “incorrect” phrases which ingress upon his writing style that apparently are commonplace in his home town.
Just a thought?
GF