Important notice from the GRAMMAR POLICE. Plz read. This means you.

[lemmiwinks]

An example of an ESL that not only does not have to worry about the Grammar Cops, but has a better grasp of English than many of our regulars.

Normally I lurk a lot, read a lot, and try not to post a lot, as english is my secondary language, and I am scared of the grammar police. But, I have a question and I am hankering for an answer, so here goes:

Do anyone know what fertilization of the plants you can grow actually do? As I understand it, quality is based on what you plant, (The seed's quality +1 = the plant's quality) and thus fertilization with rare fish or plants, means nothing. So I am wondering if anyone have found a secret about it that I am missing.

*Runs for cover again.*

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

I know plenty of ESLs on other forums, and you wouldn't know they are foreign if they didn't say so.  I remember an Argentian friend talking about how difficult it is to decipher a post full of "ur, 4 shurs, and !!!!!111!!!" when English isn't his mother tongue.  Of course, those of us who were sick of the 12s with whom we were being bombarded on a daily basis (tl;dr:  this was because another friend ran a website that was dedicated to an animated show, but the forum was supposed to be strictly 18+) told him that we were sincerely grateful for the effort that he and the other foreign fans put into making their posts legible, and we wished that our own American youth could be bothered to do so.

It's sad, really.  I noticed that my son's teachers don't bother to correct his spelling or grammar on most of his assignments because it's "the substance that matters" to them.  Apparently, AOLspeak is changing the way papers are graded.  Why in the hell has it become commonplace?   

[Salomon]

What mostly surprises me is the amount of attention that people with bad grammar get, I figure that in the future, if I want to get attention, all I need to do is to use bad/worse grammar and presto, pages and pages dedicated to me. It sounds cheap.

[cyperangel]

An example of an ESL that not only does not have to worry about the Grammar Cops, but has a better grasp of English than many of our regulars.

Normally I lurk a lot, read a lot, and try not to post a lot, as english is my secondary language, and I am scared of the grammar police. But, I have a question and I am hankering for an answer, so here goes:

Do anyone know what fertilization of the plants you can grow actually do? As I understand it, quality is based on what you plant, (The seed's quality +1 = the plant's quality) and thus fertilization with rare fish or plants, means nothing. So I am wondering if anyone have found a secret about it that I am missing.

*Runs for cover again.*

*Delurks*

I am... Both flattered, and afraid that I will now be in the searchlight of the GP. At least I now know that someone bothered to read my post, although an answer to my question is still nowhere to be found. Thank you for the comment lemmiwinks, it means a lot to me.

[Ingesoc]

*Delurks*

I am... Both flattered, and afraid that I will now be in the searchlight of the GP. At least I now know that someone bothered to read my post, although an answer to my question is still nowhere to be found. Thank you for the comment lemmiwinks, it means a lot to me.

The Grammar Police have made it quite clear that they target abuse by people who should know better.
A person using ESL poorly, but making an effort to do so correctly, is not considered a target. In some cases I have seen them help struggling ESLs solve language problems.
Native speakers who use English stupidly are the ones who should be afraid.

[Marhis]

Don't worry; I'm the worst ESL around here - I envy Annan and kiki's grasp of the language, for example - but still I haven't been scolded once. And I know that my English syntax and phrase construction is far from correct; I have improved during the years here, but I'm sure that many native English speakers here shiver quite often when they read my posts.
I try to return their niceness by doing the best I can. Yes, surprise: MATYans are fair and nice when it comes to people who are civil, act like adults and are not arrogant.

[rohina]

The Grammar Police have made it quite clear that they target abuse by people who should know better.
A person using ESL poorly, but making an effort to do so correctly, is not considered a target. In some cases I have seen them help struggling ESLs solve language problems.
Native speakers who use English stupidly are the ones who should be afraid.

It is also possible to be so stubbornly ungrammatical that you get an exemption in the form of Teflon or lifetime Teflon. Examples:  morriganrant, Tigerlilley and Bangelnuts.

[rohina]

Double-posting with an important announcement.

I have PROOF that Pescado's Patented PM Method for Noob-Discouragement works. Look at this:

I hope it helps . I'm leaving here, though, the snotty private messages are more than I like it a forum.

[kiki]

Don't worry; I'm the worst ESL around here - I envy Annan and kiki's grasp of the language, for example - but still I haven't been scolded once. And I know that my English syntax and phrase construction is far from correct; I have improved during the years here, but I'm sure that many native English speakers here shiver quite often when they read my posts.
I try to return their niceness by doing the best I can. Yes, surprise: MATYans are fair and nice when it comes to people who are civil, act like adults and are not arrogant.

Give yourself a bit MOAR credit - I didn't realise at first that you were an ESL too, you very rarely slip up and if you do it generally just looks like a typo that anyone could make.

[MaryH]

Overcome with PM's? Hell, we all ought to try it. Might shorten the stay of the other lurkers with bad grammar skills.

Although I'll miss the flame-throwing. Have to have some excitement in my life.

[timelycorruption]

It's sad, really.  I noticed that my son's teachers don't bother to correct his spelling or grammar on most of his assignments because it's "the substance that matters" to them.  Apparently, AOLspeak is changing the way papers are graded.  Why in the hell has it become commonplace?   

This probably also has something to do with overly PC public school teachers nowadays that are afraid to correct kids, fearing the wrath of child-centered parents.

[redwards]

Just for fun:

Grammar and language rules that go above and beyond your everyday policing: http://www.economist.com/research/styleGuide/index.cfm?page=673903

Some of the stuff in there is pretty obvious, but some of it is amusing and fun. A lot of their rules won't necessarily be agreed upon by your modern dictionary. Of course, your 2009 dictionary probably has words like 'webinar,' 'woot,' and 'fanboy' in it.

Examples:

Epicentre means that point on the earth's surface above the centre of an earthquake. To say that Mr Putin was at the epicentre of the dispute suggests that the argument took place underground.

Testament is a will, testimony evidence. It is testimony to the poor teaching of English that journalists habitually write testament instead.

Circumstances stand around a thing, so it is in, not under, them.

Effectively means with effect; if you mean in effect, say it.The matter was effectively dealt with on Friday means it was done well on Friday. The matter was, in effect, dealt with on Friday means it was more or less attended to on Friday. Effectively leaderless would do as a description of the demonstrators in East Germany in 1989 but not those in Tiananmen Square. The devaluation of the Slovak currency in 1993, described by some as an effective 8%, turned out to be a rather ineffective 8%.

[rohina]

These are not grammar rules, they are explanations about vocabulary and usage, and some of them are contentious at best.

[lemmiwinks]

After spell checking your post, prior to hitting the Post button, may I suggest running it through the Stupid Filter?

[rohina]

I was a mod on Stupid Filter for a while, but I quit when I realized most of the modding was aimed at a much lower bar of stupid than I was looking for.

[iHateyou]

It's sad, really.  I noticed that my son's teachers don't bother to correct his spelling or grammar on most of his assignments because it's "the substance that matters" to them.  Apparently, AOLspeak is changing the way papers are graded.  Why in the hell has it become commonplace?   

This probably also has something to do with overly PC public school teachers nowadays that are afraid to correct kids, fearing the wrath of child-centered parents.

Actually it probably has more to do with the fact that your kid's classes probably have 38+ students in each class. When you teach at least 200 students a day you cannot correct everything on each assignment. Next year in our district the classes are going up to 42. We save that kind of grading for the big important writing assignments and give everything else a few "pity points" for effort.

[rohina]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

[MuertoElBarto]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

Not an educator here, but that was my interpretation.

[GelatinousSubstance]

It's sad, really.  I noticed that my son's teachers don't bother to correct his spelling or grammar on most of his assignments because it's "the substance that matters" to them.  Apparently, AOLspeak is changing the way papers are graded.  Why in the hell has it become commonplace?   

This probably also has something to do with overly PC public school teachers nowadays that are afraid to correct kids, fearing the wrath of child-centered parents.

Actually it probably has more to do with the fact that your kid's classes probably have 38+ students in each class. When you teach at least 200 students a day you cannot correct everything on each assignment. Next year in our district the classes are going up to 42. We save that kind of grading for the big important writing assignments and give everything else a few "pity points" for effort.

Yeah. There is much to be said for a teacher's ineptness - I mean... lack of ability... er... fuck it.

[iHateyou]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

Sure I could do my job, if I devoted more time to it than there is hours in the day. So no, I cannot do my job. If you think you can, be my guest.

*by the way, that might not be relevant since I am not actually a teacher!

[Jack Rudd]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

Sure I could do my job, if I devoted more time to it than there is hours in the day.

[timelycorruption]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

Sure I could do my job, if I devoted more time to it than there is hours in the day. So no, I cannot do my job. If you think you can, be my guest.

*by the way, that might not be relevant since I am not actually a teacher!

Sucks to be your ass-mar.

[Giggy]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

So no, I cannot do my job. If you think you can, be my guest.

I'm surprised that they haven't fired you. I mean, if you can't do your job then you must be a useless tool.

[rohina]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

Sure I could do my job, if I devoted more time to it than there is hours in the day. So no, I cannot do my job. If you think you can, be my guest.

*by the way, that might not be relevant since I am not actually a teacher!

I was going to say, my job is cleaning up after the edumacational messes that teachers make, but then you said you aren't a teacher. So why are you bitching, again?

[kiki]

So you are essentially admitting you can't do your job?

Sure I could do my job, if I devoted more time to it than there is hours in the day. So no, I cannot do my job. If you think you can, be my guest.

*by the way, that might not be relevant since I am not actually a teacher!

I was going to say, my job is cleaning up after the edumacational messes that teachers make, but then you said you aren't a teacher. So why are you bitching, again?

As long as I live, there will *ALWAYS* be people that have no fucking clue what working in the education system is like that will decide they have an edumacated two cents to contribute on how teachers or lecturers operate. If they'd give us an actual two cents for each of these morons, we'd be damn wealthy and wouldn't have to teach their spawns.