Did you ever feel this way?....

[[ Echoing ][ Palaver ]]

I'm really quite the same...

Especially with directions. I can go from one place to another easily, but fail in giving directions.

 

[Shiyiya]

I am exactly the same way. I know how it works, in practice, it's just explaining the theory I sometimes have trouble with.... However, I'm a fantastic tutor in math. Who knows... *shrug*  

[Fuku Taichou]

As far as being a good writer, that seems to be something that either does or doesn't come naturally to some people. However, with things like tearing apart sentences and whatnot, that's something that's a bit more on the "educational" side. Of course, I'm not calling anyone uneducated here. I'm merely pointing out that often, in order to know the intricacies of sentence structure, it requires more than just knowing words and how to put them together logically to form a sentence. As for me, I only learned sentence structure in fifth grade, and seeing as to how that was about thirteen years ago, I have long since forgotten all that. The good thing is that in the real world, you don't need to know that kind of stuff to get by, unless you're an English teacher.

Regarding what you said about the whole "Latin" thing, that's difficult for me as well. I'm willing to say that my entire life, I've been pretty good at English, without having any extra classes in it, and without majoring in it in college. However, my sister majored in English, and she can kind of sort out what Latin words mean, based on what she knows certain parts of the word mean. I admit, this is also probably because her vocabulary is FAR more extensive than mine, and because those four years as an English major probably had some sort of affect on her. wink

This topic kind of reminds me of when I studied Shakespeare in high school. We didn't have a whole big section on him or anything, but, like all high schools, we did cover some of his works in class. There were times when I knew the gist of what he was writing, but somehow, I just couldn't really describe it in modern day vernacular. redface  

[Venat the Undying]

ZeoViolet

I'm about to ask something that is difficult for me to put into words, but...

Is there anyone else here besides me who is instinctively super-good at spelling, grammar, and punctuation and yet, if called upon to describe words and their properties, would stand there tongue-tied?

This is difficult for me to describe. I can smell most inaccuracies fifty miles away. I know how to use the English language very well. I have a decent spelling ability and one of my best skills happens to be punctuation.

Yet, if someone were to ask me, for example, to diagram a compound sentence, I am unable to do so. I wonder why that is? I mean, I know what a noun is, same as everybody else past second grade. I know how to use words. It is deeply ingrained. But if asked how they work, how I know it, to physically write out the properties of each sentence....I don't understand why I fail to do so.

I was always in the advanced classes in school when it came to Language Arts, but this one area and this area alone, I flopped each and every time. I puzzled my teachers repeatedly because they saw what I could do and understood I had a grasp of what they were teaching better than most, but when trying to pin labels to it....

Does anyone else know the sort of problem I am talking about? I've noticed this same problem permeating into other areas of my life, as well, to an extent. For example, giving directions, when I know the route but cannot pin labels to it to tell others, or names....I seldom forget a face, but I can never pin a name to said face. Isn't that sad?

Yeah, I also do sometimes.  

[Error Access Denied]

I suppose thats how I am at times. Although, I still say that you have me beat. mrgreen