Am I a snob? | Imamother

ssspectacular

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:17 am

I am so bothered by the poor English Language Skills that have become so prevalent on this site. Does that make me a snob?

ssspectacular

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:25 am

I guess it's because writing well is important to me. It's hard to see that so many people don't care about it.

FranticFrummie

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:26 am

This is an international site. English is not everyone's first language. In some cases, it's their third or fourth language.

How many languages do you speak and write fluently?

jst x use txt spk, ok? Banging head

ssspectacular

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:29 am

I hear you. I think that I wouldn't post if I did not know the language well. But that's me. Obviously. not everyone feels the same way.

b.chadash

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:31 am

FranticFrummie wrote:

I have found that proper grammar is not valued as much in certain countries as much as in America. Meaning, in their own language, they won't care so much for proper language.

singleagain

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:32 am

ssspectacular wrote:

I guess it's because writing well is important to me. It's hard to see that so many people don't care about it.

I don't know if it's that it's not caring. Sometimes it's not knowing. As FF said.. it's not everyone's first language. Even if it is... Ppl can struggle with it.

Or .. it looks right, I know I have been guilty of writing defiantly instead of definitely. Bc I wasn't sure. And spell check went the first way and I was going quickly and it looked right. Bc my brain know it was a correct word and I both words started with a d and ended with a y..

Did you ever see this ... Sometimes people don't even realize what is misspelled.

singleagain

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:33 am

If seeing someone with bag grammar and spelling causes you to disregard what they are saying... Yes. I think that is snobbish behavior.

Alternative

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:35 am

b.chadash wrote:

I have found that proper grammar is not valued as much in certain countries as much as in America. Meaning, in their own language, they won't care so much for proper language.

I am pretty sure that most of the mistakes on this site are from American born posters.
There are people here with English as a second or third language, but they are a small minority, and certainly cannot account for the constant mistakes here.

It bothers me. I'm not perfect myself, but I like to read things that improve my language skills, not bring them down.

singleagain

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:38 am

Alternative wrote:

Most people come to the internet to turn off their brain. If you want to improve language skills. I suggest you reads novels and periodicals of subjects that interest you.

iyar

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:39 am

I don’t think you’re a snob ssspectacular. I know that fingernails scratching the blackboard feeling of reading a sentence that massacres the English language. What I do when that happens to me is think of how I sound to an Israeli when I say something in Hebrew (grammar - not bad; accent - somewhere between ludicrous and scandalous).
Maybe conjuring up an image of yourself trying out your high school Spanish or French on an unsuspecting native speaker will work for you.

moonstone

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:48 am

Alternative wrote:

I agree. If someone isn't from an English-speaking country, their mistakes don't bother me. It's the bad English used by so many Americans on this board that is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I think it's terrible that so many Jews' Yiddish is better than their English.

egam

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:50 am

ssspectacular wrote:

I hear you. I think that I wouldn't post if I did not know the language well. But that's me. Obviously. not everyone feels the same way.

BH, this site does not require passing of English writing test as a prerequisite for posting.

FranticFrummie

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 11:55 am

moonstone wrote:

I think it's terrible that so many Jews' Yiddish is better than their English.

Be VERY careful there. You are walking a fine line between literary critique and Chassidish bashing. Things could get ugly very quickly.

Yiddish is a perfectly acceptable language, and is part of our heritage. It would be sad to see it disappear. I feel the same way about Ladino, which in many places is completely forgotten even among native Spanish speakers.

You can argue that speaking Yiddish first has a negative affect on accessibility to higher education or employment, but that is for a Yiddish speaker to decide, not for someone else to declare "terrible".

dankbar

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 12:01 pm

When you are good at spelling & grammar, the mistakes bother.
I see by myself, I sometimes start with a sentence, relaying my thoughts, but then change it, for a better sentence structure, and not all words, from previous writing, gets deleted, so it becomes a mumble jumble. I usually go back to my posts to correct any errors.

egam

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 12:03 pm

moonstone wrote:

And you know the origins of every poster on this site, right?
And for the Americans, you know all background information of their learning abilities, correct?

You all are no different from my DS’s bullies who taunted him for his reading and writing skills. And teachers too, who refused to understand that he has auditory processing disorder and dyslexia. He still has PTSD from that school At wits end

Amalia

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 12:03 pm

singleagain wrote:

Hilarious. Thank you for posting.

dankbar

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 12:08 pm

The primary Yiddish speakers, where Yiddish is being taught, as babies start talking, have different priorities. It is, specifically, to hold on to the Yiddish language & to set one self apart from the secular world. This takes precedence over perfect English, & appear up to par, with the world.

trixx

Sun, Mar 01 2020, 12:22 pm

There's just one serial amother who bothers me. She has a distinct writing style and writes about the same few details (age, gender of kid etc). And it's clearly Yiddish English (I am a Yiddish speaker too btw). I'll open a thread, read a line and get out so fast because I cant decipher it. Idk who it is but im pretty positive it is all one person.