Learning english with the internet.

[Pepper_potato]

My first language it's not english, it's spanish. It pisses me off that some people here gaia, don't speak properly, because sometimes I get confused, or I don't understand what they're saying.  

[[Mammon]]

My first language is English and I still get upset that some people on Gaia don't use proper English for the very same reasons: I get confused and I don't understand what they are saying.

Then again, I thought I had a pretty good grasp of this here language and even still people tell me they often get confused and don't understand what I'm saying.

Oh well, guess I'll still have to keep practicing.  

[Caleb Hellforge]

I'm Spanish as well. But thanks to my wonderful American influences, i've learned a lot of English.

It's true, though. More than half of the people online don't know English in an English speaking community for one reason or another. It's more than enough to piss someone off. If I took the time to learn English, I believe they can too.  

[Jewlz2007]

I am trying to learn Spanish....
I know that isn't really too relevant to your point.

People are too lazy to take the time to type out their thoughts or what they are trying to say. It would help though if some of us understood our "English" classes a little better, it has never been my strong point in school, but I can write at least halfway decent.  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

People tend to forget that the Internet is an international medium. When people use bad English online, it reflects poorly on all English speakers. After all, if we don't care for the integrity of our own language, why should those who don't speak it natively bother?

Also, use of poor English can lead to misunderstandings. Something that's meant as an innocent joke in English could be mistaken by someone who doesn't know the language as an insult. That's why it's very important to tread carefully on an international medium like the Internet. I'm not supporting political correctness, just grammatical correctness, mind you.




This is a properly formatted sentence. The first letter of a sentence is ALWAYS capitalized. A sentence always ends in a punctuation mark, usually a period, but sometimes a question mark or exclamation point. Punctuation such as the comma, the colon and the semicolon are used as sentence pausers. Never should a sentence end with one of these.  

[Madryan]

Where did chatspeak come from? I find that its degenerating our youth these days. And its the main reason they don't believe in speaking proper english. And it may be 'gangstah' influence on TV. Whatever it is, I find that if we make a message about being literate as being 'cool' we might have an edge in this playing field.  

[splashseal]

Jewlz2007

I am trying to learn Spanish....
I know that isn't really too relevant to your point.

People are too lazy to take the time to type out their thoughts or what they are trying to say. It would help though if some of us understood our "English" classes a little better, it has never been my strong point in school, but I can write at least halfway decent.

Very true, although save for the basics (e.g. how to show that your sentence is finished by using proper punctuation), I never really learned about English grammar until I started French and subsequent languages, as well as a grammar class in college, and history classes and free writing helped me to become a better writer, not my English classes.

The internet isn't a bad place to help yourself learn a foreign language, especially if you lack access to people who speak it (which is true for almost any language in the States), and it's true: it is annoying to go to some site only to find some jumbled mess dubbed text talk and chatspeak. It certainly doesn't give people a very good impression of others.  

[Rogue_Bandit]

It pisses me off how people slaughter the english language, they make their stupidity known to everyone.  

[Arianna La Moire]

It's true how bad it can be. If it gets to the point that native speakers can't understand it, it's bad. I understand if they are trying to learn it. But, when it comes down to it, most people speak better English, than most native English speakers.  

[Rogue_Bandit]

dark.hazel

It's true how bad it can be. If it gets to the point that native speakers can't understand it, it's bad. I understand if they are trying to learn it. But, when it comes down to it, most people speak better English, than most native English speakers.

Agree with you there. one of my friends on here just types in text messaging lingo, and i constantly have to ask her "what the hell did you just say?"  

[splashseal]

Rogue_Bandit

dark.hazel

It's true how bad it can be. If it gets to the point that native speakers can't understand it, it's bad. I understand if they are trying to learn it. But, when it comes down to it, most people speak better English, than most native English speakers.

Agree with you there. one of my friends on here just types in text messaging lingo, and i constantly have to ask her "what the hell did you just say?"

That is bad. My friend recently showed me someone's writing (I forget where it was at now) and my eyes just spun. There was no way I was even going to even try to figure it out. How do they expect to communicate with anyone? Wait, I guess they don't.  

[MyOwnBestCritic]

Have any of you ever seen Spanish chatspeak? Although not quite as bad, it still is bad to anyone trying to learn. Yes, I guess it would go for any language.

Sorry about the txt-tlkers. We can't control them (or can we...)  

[Exidus3]

If we could control the txt-tlkers, that would be a blessing. However, that's just not going to happen. People have become masters at that way of speech. It's so bad, half the time I'm wondering what somebody is saying...  

[Arianna La Moire]

And it seems like there is NOTHING we can do on the matter. The 'txt-talkers' couldn't care less about we think. I can be understanding about people who at least are TRY to spell out the damn word, and you can tell. I have a friend who just is a bad speller, and to help her improve she mimics spellings she's seen before of the word, so 'txt-talkers' can really hurt her progress.