Sunday, September 11, 2005

Correcting Another's English

English is not my mother tongue but I spent many years teaching ESL. I don't claim to speak and write the language perfectly but it is easy enough to spot common grammatical errors.

And so that was what I did. I participate in a forum where the main language used is Iban ( a language of an indigenous group in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo). One of the members there is a young lady who had just graduated in Materials Engineering. Now I salute anyone clever enough to have graduated in any engineering discipline!

So when I saw "I'm lost and dun want to be find" on this young lady's signature line, I decided that I would help her correct that poorly written sentence! :-) Since that line is going to appear in every post (until she decides to change it) that she makes in the forum, I thought she would appreciate my help. I sent her a private message but did not hear from her (for about a month) until today.

She had started a new thread in the forum and it was the private message I had sent her! :-) Boy, was she upset!! Upset enough to expose to everyone the private message I had sent her. So upset that she is accusing me of having nothing better to do than correcting her bad English!! You should see the responses she got from the other members regarding her post!

I don't have to respond to her because I believe the other members are doing a fine job of telling her off about her pride and about her inability to accept well-intentioned corrections sent to her in private.

Oh to be young and so full of yourself! :-)

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