stella40
Posts: 417
Joined: 1/11/2006
From: London, UK
Status: offline
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I'm probably the ultimate combination: writer, translator and TEFL qualified English (as a Second Language) teacher.
So people have problems reading 'colour' and not 'color'? I can only shake my head.
English is spoken by over 800 million people all over the planet, over half as a native language and the rest as a lingua franca. It's also the most popular second language to learn on this planet. There are well over a million words, thus English has more words than any other language. Of these million plus words, you're unlikely to ever get to know or understand any more than about 25,000 words, and in your everyday life you are unlikely to use any more than 400 or so words.
It is a language with grammatical rules common to both Germanic languages and the Romance languages (or Latin based such as French, Spanish, Italian, Latin), it has also absorbed words from many other different languages. However basic grammar is relatively simple, one gender, two cases and two tenses - past and present.
I wonder how the grammar police would react if we were all communicating here in Russian which has nine cases ('erm no, you should have used the Accusative Case to say that, not the Instrumental Case) or in Chinese where the same syllable, for example 'wun' can be expressed by as many as twenty five different characters, all of which are correct.
What English doesn't have which many other languages do have is a simple straghtforward pronunciation and spelling system. We have 'through', then we have 'cough', then we have 'bough', and also 'rough' - all spelt the same way but pronounced much differently. One word can have many different meanings. Believe me, unless you are Dutch or perhaps Danish learning English is not as straightforward as we may think.
We ourselves can also be caught out. How many of us have to stop and really think or use a spellchecker and dictionary when we write 'parallel', 'embarrassment', 'aggression' or 'the Caribbean'?
Not everyone here can be a Bob Dylan, or a Sylvia Plath or Ernest Hemingway, and the truth is WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES. I can write, it is my job, my career, my passion, but ask me to divide 8,345 by 24 and if you haven't got a calculator nearby all you'll get from me is a blank stare. I cannot make a simple set of shelves from wood. Each time I cook rice quite often I burn it. Even making a simple pancake is something way beyond my capabilities. I can cook, but I have to watch the rice and pancakes are not on my menu.
So does not being able to make a simple pancake make me a retard? Well does it? Not everybody can write, not everybody can spell, and though many people can use grammar when they speak they can run into problems when they write. But these very same people can maybe work out abstract equations off the top of their heads, they can paint beautiful pictures, make beautiful music, make wonderful furniture or even build a house with their own bare hands.
We write just for the same reason we speak - to communicate. Therefore as long as I can understand what someone is writing I don't see mistakes in grammar or spelling as a big issue, I see the mistakes but I can work out the correct word from the context of the sentence. This is why so many people in this world want to learn English. You don't need to have to say 'I am going to the shop' - 'I go shop' says exactly the same.
But our language is also personal, something close to us. I am British, my Dominant is American, she uses English completely differently to me, and while there are sometimes misunderstandings due to regionality and culture, we communicate fine and understand each other perfectly.
This is a forum on a BDSM website.We're not writing business reports, we're not writing dissertations. We're writing postings, for our own amusement and enjoyment, to learn and for our own self-development. It's supposed to be fun, interesting. It's interesting not because people are writing Pulitzer prize nomination material, but because they are sharing their thoughts, opinions, feelings and experiences about a subject we are all interested in - BDSM.
Most people have difficulties taking criticism. Justified criticism is painful because it is brutal, it is honest, and it takes away the pleasure of our illusions. But petty criticism hurts just that little bit more, because it takes away much of that sense of achievement and self-appreciation we all feel when we achieve something.
Our language is personal, very personal, and even well-meaning criticism can strike deep into someone's self-confidence. Writing is more difficult than speaking because you have to think, it requires mental effort. A forum provides mental stimulation. And that 300 word posting might have taken someone an entire evening to come up with.
So anytime you want to play schoolteacher just stop and think. Ask yourself the following:
1. Have the errors affected my understanding of the context of the posting?
2. Can't I write this person a short message asking for clarification?
3. Do I really need to make someone feel bad over such a small and insignificant error?
_____________________________
I try to take one day at a time, but several days come and attack me at once. (Jennifer Unlimited)
If you can't be a good example then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
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RE: correct grammer - 
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