I dislike reading grammar books or articles like this "Dangerous words" list about style when writing on the web. Because they keep telling me how I'm wrong. Don't do this, don't do that... Very distasteful to anybody with an ego. On the other hands this one has some good points.
On the third hand the writer could learn a bit from his own course: to use the title "dangerous words" is misleading at worst and imprecise at best: hardly any of them are "dangerous" in any way, merely poor style.
Say, you forgot to mention what you do with your fourth hand.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you do, sonny, DON'T leave it in your pocket, it gives the impression that you have nothing useful to do with it, and therefore that you're a lazy slacker!
And look at me when I'm lecturing you. Lower your gaze, you insolent youth! Look at me! Eyes down! I'm talkin' to you! Don't stare! Don't ignore! Don't look back! Listen up! Shame on you! Whippersnapper! Hypocrite! Fresh! Etc.!
Whaddayamean, "you're getting dizzy"?
(Heh... I myself make this "on the third hand" joke about once a month. As if I were some sort of quadrumanous chimpanzee.)
I glanced at "Dangerous Words," and much of it looks like good advice to me. It seems to me to boil down to: "Don't just type, think!"
ReplyDeleteThe path of wisdom is to listen to advice, consider it, and make your own decisions about which parts of the advice you will take.
It's not always easy to shrug off criticism. When it comes from a boss, a teacher, a policeman or a prison warden, you may have no choice but to comply with someone else's will. But when you read advice about web style, take what's good, leave what's bad, and don't worry.
Something I've always wanted to ask you: Eolake, how comes your English is soooo perfect??
ReplyDeleteIs it because you're in Britain all the time, is there a spouse helping you learn the language?
Thank you. Scandinavians learn it easier than other Europeans because in Scandinavia TV shows and movies are not dubbed, but subtitled.
ReplyDeleteI always had an affinity with English. And I've been reading English most of my life. And I just feel like it's the best option for global communication, which I am very interested in. (Hence also my affinity for the Internet.) I don't have a natural talent for languages compared to some people, but I've just used it a lot.
"Scandinavians learn it easier than other Europeans because in Scandinavia TV shows and movies are not dubbed, but subtitled."
ReplyDeleteSame in Lebanon. It really helped me perfect my English.
Or my American, to be precise. :-)
That was before local TV became so decadent, it is now practically unwatchable. During ad breaks, you forget what you were actually watching! ):-P
Subtitles are a mixed annoyance : at first you're bothered by having to focus on reading instead of the images, and later on you really appreciate being able to follow it in original version, and often grasp all the nuances.
The French dub all their foreign movies and TV shows. As a result, many people there almost take pride in not knowing other languages! Or they behave as if such were the case. :-P
Fortunately, today the youngest generation is more eager to learn. Thanks to Europe. :-)))
Marriages between young Europeans of different countries seem to be increasing exponentially. Bravo.
"And I just feel like it's the best option for global communication"
As much as I care for the preservation of cultural diversity, I fully agree here: we Earthlings should set a single global communication standard, and English has everything vouching for it in this particular case. It's hugely widespread, dominant in the computers field, and globally simple, unless you want to get litterary. Which you can, while it's not mandatory.
For comparison, Japanese is also uncomplicated in structure (contrary to Navajo!), but it's nightmarish to learn to write, with thousands and thousands of Kanji to memorize. Chinese is even "worse", so to speak, because added to the even more complex writing, it requires much oral skill to master. Undoubtedly poetic and pleasant-sounding, but not very practical for a world standard, especially one using a keyboard. Lazies and dyslexics, search elsewhere!
I thought arabic was rather complex, but somebody's recent experience suggests otherwise. A woman I know (I'll admit she's quite bright) learned it from scratch, in a matter of weeks/months, just by watching local TV on her own. She can now read the subtitles perfectly, while at first she had no notion about the alphabet!
Of course, even if everybody learned English (which will probably happen by itself before we know it), they absolutely shouldn't be content with only one language. I fluently speak three, and would love to learn more. I'm considering Spanish, Japanese, and Delphinese. ;-)
Knowing more languages increases not only your cultural capacities around the globe, but also your understanding of words, expressions, ideas and symbols. Basically, the more you can speak, the richer you can think.
"I don't have a natural talent for languages compared to some people"
Maybe so. But one can make up for moderate talent with enough work. While it's notorious that the opposite doesn't cut it. :-)
Usually, when I say that somebody has talent, it implies that their inspiration was quite probably made visible thanks to perspiration. (But hiding that part by deodorant use is permitted.)