How does our English look to native speakers? ( Archived) (99)

I follow that line. I'm a Swedish native, living in Brazil now and have lived in many different Countries before and when you have a certain degree of international experience you stop bothering about subtleties as a misspelled word or incorrect grammatical order for a sentence, becomes quite shallow.
But it's funny to observe how a few people react strongly to it, specially knowing that they are interacting in an international site.
Reminds me of a interesting experience that happened in a Danish forum about a year ago, a forum that was frequented by Scandinavian public mostly. The same old story, native Danish were very picky regarding the use of their language until a Master in Danish literature posted an open invitation to all the famous " correctors" to spend 24 hours posting at the forum of the Masters and Doctors of Danish literature and linguistics.
The results were astonishing: At least 70% of the people who used to be so picky and brag about their linguistic skills correcting other participants at the international forum, made several mistakes themselves, all highlighted back to them of course.
After this, people became less picky and more welcoming to the fact of accepting the standards of an international site.

So my answer is as long as we all can communicate and understand each other, all is good.

All the best!

Reading the comments here so far..
All I can say is.. Such a relieve!

We awe dae the best we kin and i hae nae problem wi oany folks english..

There are so many people here who are writing in a language that is not their native tongue and I am very impressed by each and every one. Some do far better than native English speakers, to be honest. And anyone who criticizes the spelling or the grammar of someone whose first language is NOT English ought to be ashamed of themselves. What a haughty and arrogant attitude this is (and I find it embarrassing as well). We have so many countries represented here, spanning the globe, and this is one of the things that attracts me to this site. I enjoy the global interaction. To all of you who are from countries where English is not your native language, I say BRAVO! My hat is off to you all.

I have been described as "picky" on a couple of occasions, and as
I´ve always said in my defence, it´s because I teach English. I do try to ignore errors though, otherwise 99% of my time here would be spent correcting them! Now that would be "picky" :)

I have never intentionally picked on non-native speakers though, or those members with dyslexia. As a teacher, and someone who has learnt other languages, I know how difficult it can be to write in a second or third language, frustrating too at times! In addition, as many have already said, non-native speakers are very brave and should not only be encouraged, but admired for joining in a forum where most of the members are native English speakers.

Non-native speakers of English often write much better than most of the native speakers incidentally. Although this is genuine praise indeed for the effort they have obviously put in to master English, it is a little worrying for me that the level of English on CS is not particularly high amongst the native speakers, regardless of the fact that we type quickly for example. I´m referring to very basic spelling and grammatical errors which crop up daily. However, as Morgan said, it doesn´t always inhibit understanding, and if you don´t teach English it obviously won´t make an iota of difference. That´s fine.

As for the OP, I would replace that word "most" in each option of your poll to perhaps less negative adverbs of frequency, and please carry on posting.

As a non-native speaker of the English language, I take a lot of pride in my skills...is not easy to learn a second, or a third language. And although most master the spoken language, it is very difficult to learn to write it...most of us understand when we read it, but like I just said, writing is a slice from a totally different loaf.

What surprises me so much is that a large number of native speakers do not take pride in their own language as I see (feel) that language is at the core of who we are and how we project ourselves. We are "sons and daughters" of our country, and language is as much part of a country's identity as the flag. Maybe that's why it's referred to as "mother language".

I was flabbergasted when I saw a thread started by a young lady asking: "Why is everybody on my case because of my spelling and grammar?" Or something of the sort... It was appalling...and I think it is very disrespectful to soil your language by purposedly altering it to make it almost not understandable. She actually asked "how many 20 y/o have you seen that have decent grammar?" I must admit, I'm not counting...but if you went to school at the regular age of 5/6 and started reading and writing according to the program, how come your grammar does not show the effort you made in school?

I get compliments for my English all the time, and it only pushes me to be better. I will never deny my roots and my "mother's tongue", but I'll always be very proud that I can speak, read and write these two beautiful languages with the same fluency.

I don't get that many compliments. I actually get a lot of: you come across as bitter and angry I usually blame it on my limited English Vocabulary

My native language is Spanish.

I can recommend you a few things to do: If you are a reader, buy lots of magazines, but not Hola! - get Reader's Digest in Spanish. And cook books. You'll learn how to order your beef cuts from the butcher! Try to get your hands in grade school books, you'll learn the same way they do...images paired with words.

Try, as much as you can, to go watch movies not subtitled but dubbed to Spanish. And watch local TV.

Don't hang out with other English speakers. Find a maid that does not speak English at all, from a far away village in the outskirts of town...

You'll be surprised...

That has nothing to do with your level of English, many of us have been accused of the same thing, usually by the same small group of people.

I have to agree though, your English is excellent, much better than the majority of native speakers here.

Have you ever taken any formal examinations? The Cambridge exams are internationally accepted, (you could sail through the Advanced level) and are a great addition to your cv, particularly if you intend to travel and work.