DVAted
Posts : 5995
Join date : 2014-02-23
Age : 36
Location : in the forests of the night
Character sheet
Name: DeViAted
Faction: GUNners
Level: 55
 |  Subject: Native / Non-native English Speakers Thu Apr 03, 2014 5:08 pm | |
| I've noticed this trend lately and it REALLY bothers me now!
Let me be particularly clear:
Nobody gives a flying 747 fuck how great your english is!
As long as you can convey a simple statement or use a translator, we're gonna get along just fine!
This is an English-speaking community, yes, and all of your posts are expected to be in English. You may also write in whatever language you want as long as there's an accurate English translation included in the same post. This is how things are. But let me explain:
English has been chosen because it's the unofficial internet/international language!
It has an extraordinary international range due to the media exposure to English material.
All over the globe English-speaking music, video-games and movies are highly successful and expose children and young adults to the English language well enough for them to reach conversational level pretty quickly and effortlessly. Operating systems and software come preset with English as default language, although with possible translations in other languages as well. A major video game release may have voice files for other languages sometimes, but most of them only include other optional languages as subtitles and menu interface, while the dialogue and references are still in English. It's not the best language, it's not the easiest, but it's there, it has huge media exposure and a great deal of legacy and accessibility.
However,
I'd like to clearly reiterate that nobody gives the littlest of craps if you make "some" mistakes in your posts. I'm sure I half made some of my own in this post right here! 
EVEN IF you make SO many mistakes that your post can't be understood at all, don't friggin apologize for it in advance. Just don't do it. Someone will eventually come up and ask you to rephrase or explain, but don't friggin apologize!
Don't introduce yourself by apologizing you're not from another side of the planet than you really are. What's wrong with being Russian, German, Asian or Arab? NOTHING! So don't apologize for it! We're not sympathetic that you're not British or American, and it pisses me off you're making it an issue when it shouldn't even be one. It's not an issue! Don't bring it up! You're perfect just the way you are and we wouldn't have you any other way!
I'm not a native speaker either! I'm from a latin post-communist country with a population of just around 22 million, but you will never see me apologize about it. I don't have an exact statistic on this site but I'm sure that about 90% of our forum's population are not native English-speaking members either. What in the world makes you think it's SO important to state that you're non-native?
Come on, now, we're not the Third Reich of grammar nazis waiting for you to mess up so we can bring the ban-hammer down on you if you misspell "you're", for goodness sake.
We ARE people from ALL over the world and we don't discriminate between each other. We don't draw lines to separate ourselves between ourselves. We don't label and we sure as shit don't judge based on nationality or ethnicity, or language skills of any kind  That's what politicians do 
Also, don't take it as a personal insult if someone corrects your spelling or grammar. Just take it as it was intended - a suggestion to improve the form of your expression. To improve your English skills you complain that you don't have  Don't make a big deal if you posted "maked" and someone says "made*", okay? It's a simple mistake that I've done myself and it does not make you any less of a human being to admit you were wrong and that the correction is well-received and learned. It makes you a better person for learning and it makes them a helpful person for offering that free advice 
Anyway, don't take this as a personal attack. Take it as a plea of encouragement to stop apologizing for being born outside of USA or UK or Australia We all know they make a ton of spelling and grammar mistakes in English too  and there's a place for each of us in this world.
/rant
My best regards,
DVAted of the VGU Staff |
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