"Can I ax you a question?"

I just do not get it! I work in the research unit in one of the big hospitals in Boston, so the my coworkers are mostly highly educated people, you know the ones with 2 degrees and lots of letters after their names. None the less some of them would approach you with "can I ax you a question?"! Every single time when I hear that, I have this vivid imagine of a low budget 80's horror movie in which lots of heads and limbs get chopped up! It makes me cringe and my poor brain hurts!

By no means I would say that I am an expert in the English language. After all it is my second language, but if you know anything about Eastern Europe, you would know that we learn English in school. And yes, it is not the most "current, hip" version of English, but at least it's proper! I can only imagine how I would have been smacked upside my head if I would have said something like that to my English teacher. Not to mention that she would have made me write all the forms of the verb "to ask" 100 times until the next lesson!

I read this article the other day, that it's considered bad manners to correct somebody's grammar! But is it really? I would rather have someone pull me aside and point out my mistakes (in a respectful manner, of course) than to continue to sound like a street smachk!

So what do you think?