[yellowapple]

To disprove your last point: I'm curious as to how you achieved such a degree while using "till" as shorthand for "until". Are you sure your Bachelor's wasn't in agriculture? ;)

Joking aside, I think it's a consequence of English being a very complicated language with all sorts of borrowing from different language families. There's almost no such thing as "correct" English, and attempts to reason about it in a prescriptive rather than descriptive manner will almost certainly fail. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up for debate, but mistakes happen either way, and I reckon the average English speaker to be a bit more cognizant of that, recognizing that nobody - oneself included - really has a perfect understanding of the English language.

[ranko]

"Till", in fact, predates "until". http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6989/what-is-the-.... See, for example, the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer (1662): "Till death us do part".

[RandyRanderson]

My advice as a native English speaker here: In my entire life, I've only seen or heard "till" in the following contexts, given in order of frequency:

1 A cash register (noun)

2 In very poorly constructed resumes

3 In the farming sense (verb)

4 In internet forums alongside poorly written English

5 Shakespeare and other literature from several centuries ago.

So my advice: unless you're a time traveller, use "until".

[godmodus]

Oh god I remember reading so much about till and until. covers face in shame

I think I even forgot the difference between conjuncts and adjuncts, too. Grammar 1/2/3 were tough courses.

I'm leagues below the level of a native speaker, I'll admit that! But I did still do a ton of reading, which did improve my English, but won't protect against common pitfalls :P it could've been worse. At least I don't make those "your" "you're" mistakes, too often :D