Comment on When someone corrects your code
Doug@midwest.social 8 months agoAlso that person may have known what you meant, but another might not and may have any number of reasons for not asking.
Better communication skills are a worthwhile goal and there’s no good reason to not learn and grow.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
I mean, there’s a difference between something being phrased in an odd or confusing way, and a pedantic comment about whether you should us a Latin plural. 90% of the time you get more the latter.
Doug@midwest.social 8 months ago
90+% of the time you get common mistakes. Should ofs, they’re - there - their confusions, apostrophes for plurals.
The kind of thing that confuses ESL speakers. The decent thing would seem to be to try and stick to the way it’s taught rather than go with the “it doesn’t matter” route when it absolutely matters to some.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
If you’re speaking to someone ESL, don’t even use contractions. They’re perfectly valid but they’re confusing to those new to the language.
Doug@midwest.social 8 months ago
I think you and I have very different experiences. I rarely see that kind of correction if ever.
When you’re in a public space you never know when your words are being consumed by an ESL speaker. I think the best approach is natural yet accurate. They’re going to encounter contractions when dealing with native speakers, but the difference between it’s and its, for example, can be tricky so try to use them as taught.
Spelling mistakes can absolutely be an issue. It’s already hard enough to figure out English spelling without native speakers making it worse. Add on to that the difficulty in any added language of working out near homophones, let alone actual homophones.
I knew someone who was pretty decent with English as their third language but had trouble keeping Texas and taxes straight. I know another guy who is American and uses no in place of know. That one threw me for a while before I figured out what he was trying to say.
I will admit, I do like that “technically” the plural for octopus is “supposed to be” octopods (pronounced like oc-tip-o-dees) but that’s a fun “fact”, not a correction I’ve ever tried to make.