Mini-Rant

[willow_25]

Disclaimer: I know there are non-native english speakers on my flist, I seriously do not want to offend any of you because I think you are awesome possums.  Please do not think I am talking about you.  If you can read this, I am IN NO WAY referring to you.

Why the heck can't people speak proper English?  I mean, if you're going to do something, give it a good effort, right?  I have had so many e-mails, and seeen so many posts lately that were just jibberish, or had blatant errors; I don't know if this is due to lazy american syndrome or translation issues.  Most of them came from native english speakers or people I've never met, so I'm not sure what was up.  Hangovers?  Massive stupidity?

If you don't use the language correctly, especially if it's due to something like using a different word that sounds the same when you say it out loud, it causes a problem, bottom line.  You can't get bent out of shape if you make an error that changes the entire meaning of what you said, and then no one understands what you were saying.

Argh.

Okay, I feel better now, and I really hope I didn't offend anyone.

Comments

[sharoncs.livejournal.com]

I agree with you - to a certain extent. However, I think a lot of it has to do with laziness, and it's not necessarily limited to non-native speakers. Actually, someone else on my Buzz f-list posted a rant about this recently:

should of
would of
could of
might of

WTF PEOPLE?! Native english speakers are the WORST.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

In my experience non-English speakers, once they've had the time and experience speaking English, often speak it better than native English speakers! So you're probably right on the massive stupidity thing.

[draconin.livejournal.com]

I make a habit of always re-reading my emails carefully to ensure that there aren't any errors and that they say what I meant them to say. I think part of the problem is that a lot of people don't do this; they simply type away in a 'stream of consciousness' style and then hit the Send button.

All it does IMHO is reveal their ignorance and incompetence.