Is it normal to be intensely irritated by bad grammar?
I was raised in an upper-middle class neighborhood surrounded by academics. Everyone I knew had a college degree. My step-father had two doctorates - one from Harvard. My family rubbed elbows with the most elite of society. We ate the best foods, took exotic vacations, and bought the best products from the most expensive stores.
Now I am dating a man that I really like, but his grammar and lack of good manners drives me crazy. He comes from a very low-class home. In fact, his father never even graduated from high school. He drinks so loudly that I can't stand to be next to him when he's drinking something. He scarfs down food so fast that it seems like he hasn't eaten in a week. He makes so many disgusting mouth noises that I literally want to slap him. Sometimes I think he was raised in a barn!
If that's not bad enough - he couldn't spell a word correctly if his life depended on it. The other day he actually had to ask me how to spell 'cancel' and my mouth fell open. Every time he speaks I want to stuff a sock in his mouth because of the bad grammar he uses. I can't stand it when he says things like "I seen" instead of "I saw" or "ain't" instead of "isn't."
He says I am a snob, which is probably true, but, bad grammar has always bothered me and I tend to look down on people who use it, passing them off as stupid and uneducated.
Is it normal to be so bothered by this?