ESL–English as a Second Language.
(Confession time–English is my first language. I am functional but would not call myself quite fluent in Spanish. Those are the only two languages I know more than a few words in. I was also an English major in college.)
I follow some very fine blogs written in English, where English is not the first language of the blogger. In a few cases, I am not sure if the inaccuracies are more in the typo category than a misunderstanding of the idiosyncrasies of what is admittedly a difficult and irrational language to master. For example, “this is are blog” rather than “this is our blog”. (I’ve been known to make this type of mistake myself when I am in too big a hurry to send an email.) Other times it may be the wrong tense of a verb, to let my brothers having their turn on the swing or using a noun instead of an adjective or adverb), she was a beauty woman. (I have made up these examples because I don’t want to embarrass anyone by using a real example.)
I would never presume to change the topic, point of view, examples used, etc. However, there are times when the English major in me would like to offer alternatives to the version of the word being used. I don’t think there is a good way to do this without being hateful, overbearing, or just plain rude/obnoxious.
What do you think about this? I can certainly continue to enjoy the blog without worrying about the grammar (especially since my own could use a good editor.) What do you do in similar circumstances? Do you have suggestions on how to offer assistance if someone seeks it out? I’d appreciate hearing what you would do under these circumstance.
e-Quips 