English is downright confusing

Learning to make English words can be so difficult. As someone who grew up speaking English, I just took everything in my stride. After learning a few Asian languages, I can honestly say that English words can be downright confusing. Explaining the words to a learner of English is even worse.

"It's an exception."

I suppose we can use that as a convenient excuse for any English words or rules that cannot be explained.

Have fun with English!

God blesses you

I wished a friend "Happy Birthday", to which he replied, "Thank you ... God blesses you".

This set me thinking about how we generally end a conversation or give a parting greeting other than "goodbye".

While the standard phrase used across the world is "God bless you", what my friend said (God blesses you) is not wrong, just not used.

When I say "God bless you" to someone, I am wishing him blessings from God above. I want him to enjoy life and all that God has for him. Of course, the complete and correct form of the greeting should be "May God bless you". People, being the lazy or efficient people that we are, have conveniently dropped the "may", but the intention and the good wishes remain intact.

"God blesses you", on the other hand, is in a different tense altogether. What my friend is trying to tell me is that God does bless me. (He does too!) His intention is to ask God to bless me, but what has emerged is a fact: that God blesses me. Either way, I receive the blessing.

Non-native speakers of English sometimes have funny ways of expressing themselves. What they say can be hilarious, yet sometimes so poetic. In this case, what my friend has said is true, and I would wish that on anyone I meet, simply because God does bless and wants to bless people!

So, may God bless you and God blesses you today!

Have fun with languages!

English grammar Russian style

Toxic grammar, need an anti-oxidant

What is this sentence trying to say? I have no idea.

This is a delivery van for a company that sells fresh fruit. Should the sentence be a question or a statement? Grammatically, it is so wrong. Contextually, it makes no sense. How should it read?

My suggestion:

Have you had fruits yet?

Many kinds of fresh fruit are known as anti-oxidants. We eat them to get rid of the toxins accumulated in our bodies from all the other kinds of foods that we eat. I think this company's copywriter needs some anti-oxidants for his English skills, to get rid of all the toxins in his English grammar.

Please do not butcher the English language. Use it correctly.

Happy writing!

Only interesting people need apply

I hope to gathering this group of people soon and it will be open for whom are interesting!

What is wrong with this sentence? A lot. So, for those whose English is less than perfect, I will first dissect the sentence and correct the mistakes.

Original: "I hope to gathering this group of people soon"
Correct: "I hope to gather this group of people soon"
The correct form of the verb is "to gather". "Gathering" is the continuous tense of the verb (in this context) or could be a noun meaning a get-together e.g. "a gathering of this group of people".

Original: "and it will be open for whom are interesting!
Correct: "and it will be open to those who are interested!"
"Interesting" describes a person (in this context) who is fun to be around or is unusual in some way or another. "Interested" describes the person who is connected to the group's purpose or topic of discussion in some way or another.

"Open for" is generally used in a shop or business e.g. "we are open for business". When talking about a person or a specific proposal in the future, we use "open to".

"Whom" and "who" can be very confusing for the non-English user. I will not try to explain. Suffice it to say that this sentence will be correct with "those who" rather than "for whom".

What made me laugh about this sentence was the entire meaning at face value. This group is only open to those people who are fun to be around and/or are unique or unusual in some way! In other words, if you are a boring person, we do not want you. Knowing the writer of the sentence, this is far from the truth! The group is open to any woman who is interested in learning from other women and making new friends.

So, if you are not proficient in writing English, be careful what you write. It may backfire on you, while leaving you bewildered as to why. Consult a grammar book or a friend before you unleash your creativity in words.

Happy writing!

I "copas", so it must be right

If you are Indonesian, you will probably know what "copas" means. It is not at all an Indonesian word. In fact, it is more likely to be labelled as Bahasa Jakarta or "Jakarta language". Jakarta language is not a proper language. There are many words that are acronyms of a phrase that takes too long to sound out. Hence, the truncation.

"Copas" is one such truncation. "CO(py) (and) PAS(te) = Copas" Get it? Quite clever, I must say.

Actually, the point of this blog post is not about truncation or Jakarta language. It is about "copy and paste" of texts that we want to quote in our writing. Since someone else has already typed it out, why should I waste my time and type it out again? Just copy and paste. It will be accurate that way. No typo errors.

You sure about that?

My friend posted a video on one of the SNS sites, quoting on the side the lyrics of the song being sung. Since I do enjoy that group's music and was curious about the rendition of the song, I clicked on the video to watch it, while keeping an eye on the lyrics at the side. Beautiful rendition of the song. I love acapella singing. It is a real test of pitch and hearing.

Since the song was only one stanza, I thought my friend had transcribed the lyrics after listening to the song. I spotted something strange in one of the lines:

He it is who binds us together
And He it is who sends us apart
To be God's people, be God's people

If God binds us together, why would He "send us apart"? Should it not read "And He it is who 'sets' us apart"?

So, me being this nitpicky proofreader of anything and everything written or printed (besides being somewhat too much of a busybody most times), I decided to make the comment in the paragraph above. I did add that since this was the choral group's final performance, "sends us apart" would also be appropriate.

The return jab was (paraphrased to be grammatically correct): "All I did was copy and paste the lyrics from a song lyric site!"

I decided not to fire another salvo. Friendship should never be sacrificed over a sentence.

Depending on the context of a typo, we can either choose to press our point or let it go. Before you decide what to do, take a step back and look at the big picture. Good relations should always take precedence over accuracy.

Here's to lasting friendship and accuracy in writing!

Knowing English is still important

After so many years of pushing aside English as the main medium of instruction in schools, Malaysia is trying to reverse the tide of poor English. The first step is to re-train the teachers who are not proficient in English.

This is an uphill task. English is not an easy language to master. My friend is trying for a certificate to teach English as a second language. She is despairing now because she has completely forgotten all the grammar rules. Yes, her English is good. Yes, she uses English daily. But to explain what the rules are and how they work is another story altogether.

While much of world today speaks Chinese, English is still widely used anywhere in the world. In fact, most Chinese from China want to learn English. Many of them speak very well, with little trace of a Chinese accent. Much of the information over the internet today is in English. Being able to speak, read and write English is a very useful skill to have. We cannot run away from this fact.

I wish the Malaysian Education Ministry all the best in their endeavours to bring the standard of English in the schools back to where it used to be and maybe even better.

If you can read and understand this blog post, then you do have a good grasp of English. Why not add Chinese to your stable of working languages?

Happy learning!

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Miss Communication, Miss Understanding

The English is not perfect, but the message conveyed more than makes up for the less than perfect spelling and grammar. In any language, let's be careful what we say!

Have fun learning another language!

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Imitations cannot compare with the real deal

What do fine jewelry and English grammar and spelling have in common? Nothing at all, unless you consider the jewelry craftsman and the writer. Both the craftsman and the writer take pride in their respective pieces of work. They both spend hours labouring over a small piece of jewelry or writing to make it the very best it can be. Hours of practice have paid off to hone their skills. The result is a piece of jewelry or writing that they can be proud of and the world admires.

As far as language goes, communication may be the first step. Once you can communicate decently in a language, you will need to work on your vocabulary and grammar. If you are just starting to learn a language, native speakers of that language will be pleased and excited at your efforts. Bad grammar and poor pronunciation will be excused because you are doing your level best. Encouragement and gentle correction abounds. You may even pat yourself on the back for doing so well for a beginner. As time goes on, if you do not improve very much or decide to rest on your minor achievements, native speakers may still be polite, but they may not be so kind behind your back.

I know many friends who have learned languages to varying levels of proficiency. Some were satisfied at being able to simply communicate and get around in daily life. For them, speaking slowly and being able to read fairly well was good enough. I had one friend who was satisfied at his level of proficiency when he could deliver a simple message from the Bible in that language, albeit at a slow pace that made the locals bored or sleepy. He was rather proud of being able to speak so many languages. In reality, the locals' initial admiration had long turned to a "couldn't care less" attitude towards his shallow achievement.

Other friends put a lot of effort into language learning so that they could communicate just like a local, colloquialisms, proverbs, idioms and all. I salute them. I admire them. They have chosen to hone their skills constantly, not satisfied with where they are now. I did the same myself with Khmer. There is still so much I have yet to learn and understand. Lack of reading and speaking practice has slowed me down considerably. I need to keep up my efforts or risk losing my language ability completely, as I did with Japanese.

Facebook, Twitter and text messaging are no excuse for poor spelling and grammar. If you can code switch (use the correct forms in formal writing and use short forms for text messages), fine. If you can't, get working on mastering correct spelling and grammar. Learning a language is more than just being able to communicate at a basic level, bad grammar, poor pronunciation and all. Learn a language with a goal of communicating in correct pronunciation and grammar. Your efforts will not go to waste. The real deal is always far more beautiful than the imitation.

Let's get cracking on learning a language!

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