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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 40 20 December 2012 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||
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The other day I received the following PM
-------------------------------------------------- Dear Cristin, your profile says you can speak eight languages so hats off to you! I also realise that you're a key figure of the language learning community. However, there's one thing that's on my mind. You wrote this post: Solfrid Cristin wrote: I just have to stop a moment here and give my complements for the job being done here organizing the TAC 2013. Brun Ugle: You are doing an absolutely amazing job, and how you manage to keep track of all of us is beyond me. If I could I would give you a standing ovation I would :-) Now this is good, because Brun Ugle really seems to be a great organiser. However, you made some mistakes. I asked the native English speakers and they said what you wrote is well written, you just made a clerical error and a typo. I always ask the natives when I have a doubt browsing HTLAL or posting a message to the board. I'm asking them a few times while writing this message, too. So my question is: What's more important? Posting quickly so you have more time for learning Russian, gardening, etc. or writing tidily so that not only the people with advanced/native English capabilities, but even people with not so advanced English can read your messages and understand them? (Using a dictionary if necessary.) Writing well makes understanding easier but it's a bit time-consuming. For example, "If I could I would give you a standing ovation I would" was a bit confusing for me and I don't know, but to me, "give my complements" seems like it might confuse people with intermediate English. (It didn't confuse me but I think it's a potential confuser. When I'm learning Chinese, I just try to memorise the written phrases/structures even if they don't seem to be logical. If I remember correctly, Chinese has many idioms from Classical Chinese.) I usually edit my post a few times after posting it, because I find an error after re-reading it. I want to make sure I'm clearly understood, as is written in the rules. (http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TID=16197&PN=1) I don't want to lecture you or anything: I've seen native English speakers with bad spelling (much worse than yours) and maybe it's just that they really can't spell some words, and you're not even a native speaker of English. I just want to have your opinion on this topic. ------------------------- Now every single time I write a post on this forum, I cringe, because of the "If you can't spell it don't write it rule". I am painfully aware of my spelling errors. I have been aware of them ever since I was 8 years old and sobbing in despair because my father, who was otherwise a very gentle man, was scolding me for being so stupid that I could not even spell correctly when I was just copying a text and had the correct spelling right in front of my eyes. I have been called lazy, stupid and careless so many times that it was actually a big relief to me when they discovered that I had dyslexia. And I have been very frank about that fact here on the forum, but I am truly sorry for it. Being a perfectionist and a former language teacher I would of course much have preferred not to make any mistakes. I usually look through what I have written three times, and yet I always find some mistakes later. With the help of a very kind native speaker here on the forum, I answered the person who sent me this PM, but I could not help thinking that this was about something more than my spelling errors. I am not the only one that make them. And I realized that I have lately been extremely active with the TAC, visiting threads here, giving advice there, and although I only intended to give encouragement and help I have probably caused offense. The thing is that where I felt TAC 2011 was an uphill battle, 2012 has felt like a success, and I wanted to spread my enthusiasm, and help other teams have the good feeling that we have had in 2012. Any advice given are in any event just advice, and everyone is obviously free to ignore them. But I am sorry for my spelling errors, and I am very sorry if I am seen as being too pushy. Please belive me when I say that I only wanted to help. Cristina 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 2 of 40 20 December 2012 at 11:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't read the TAC threads, so I can't comment on your behaviour there, but I would just like to say that I'd never
guessed you had dyslexia if you hadn't told us. We all make spelling mistakes. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 40 20 December 2012 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read some TAC threads as well as a lot of other threads, and while some posts are full of typos (for whatever reasons), I seldom spot any in posts by major contributors (yours included, Sol). In the rare occasions I do, I'm sure it's just a typo (I've made a couple of them myself...). If even books are published with typos (I read one yesterday), I think it's somewhat "OK" for us mere mortals to make a mistake now and then.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 40 20 December 2012 at 12:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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We have a rule that says "If you can't spell it, don't write it". There are cases where almost half the words in a message are spelled wrongly, there are cases where SMS spelling has been used instead of regular English spelling (British or American) and there are cases where it seems that a message has been through Google Translate. In such cases a moderator may intervene, but Solfrid has never been even close to getting into trouble for her few and insignificant spelling errors.
Besides those members who aren't native Anglophones can't be expected always to submit our writings to scrutiny by a native speaker. I don't have such a person sitting next to me right now, and even if I had one I wouldn't trust everything he/she might say - especially not concerning spelling, which is a problem for many born Anglophones. We do our best, and if the result is as good as the writings by Solfrid then there is no reason to complain. Edited by Iversen on 20 December 2012 at 12:48pm 15 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 5 of 40 20 December 2012 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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We all make spelling errors all the time. Blame the English orthography, not yourself. In
any case, if you want to see spelling errors, you should come to my multilingual log. There you can witness and behold spelling errors in 7 languages all at once. :) I've never had a problem understanding you. Neither has anyone else, so you should not apologise. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 6 of 40 20 December 2012 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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My advice: Delete the message and move on as if you'd never received it.
There is no issue here. At all. Edited by Arekkusu on 20 December 2012 at 1:19pm 25 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sans-serif Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4559 days ago 298 posts - 470 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, German, Swedish Studies: Danish | Message 7 of 40 20 December 2012 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
Amen. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4369 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 8 of 40 20 December 2012 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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If it makes you feel any better, the only reason I even know there was a spelling error is because I had an English teacher drill the spelling of that particular word (or words, to be more accurate) into my class. Many native speakers would make the same mistake. Actually, had you been a native speaker, I think most would just assume it was a quick typo and not even really think about it. That mistake is much less annoying than to see native English speakers misspell your/you're/yore.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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