I came across a question today that was posed to me by my mind homunculus, in the form of a black, armed man with an afro.
*Not true to scale
The obvious answer is: yes, I do! But I have to admit that the english I speak is not as good as I should be, could be and would like to be. This is largely because it's not my mother's tongue, you see, but also due to the fact that school (and formal english language education) ends sometime, and internet starts.
Not that internet per se is something bad, but it did have an impact on my english skills. Most people on the internet speak English as their second and even third language. Mistakes and a merely basic use of the language is the result. But even people who grew up in English-speaking countries don't seem to care much about their language.
Since I spend a big portion of my internet time on English-speaking sites, I encounter a lot of English that was written by people of the former and the latter group. There's, of course, also native-speakers who like English and treat their language accordingly, but I feel these people are anything but an overwhelming majority.
This reading of very basic and wrong English, with grammatical and spelling errors, has an effect on the reader's language ability. It certainly did have an effect on mine. I make errors that I didn't make earlier, stupid mistakes that were simply "learnt" online. I don't like this. I want to correct this. I ask for your help.
I grant everyone the
License to Correct and Nag Me when I make mistakes. Notice me using a word wrong? Bad spelling? Grammatical errors? Please tell me. I will be thankful if you try not to sound too triumphant. This special and incredibly rare License does extend to IRC.
After this personal bit is over: I actually think people should tell others about language errors more often. I think - while language lives and needs to adjust and change - there needs to be a certain authority. I find it important to care about language and its correct use. It's currently seen as very impolite and pedantic to point out mistakes (
Reasons for this are manifold, of course.). This does not lead to anything productive, though, but only to overall poverty of language and general acceptance of that situation.
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