English as a secondary language - Your thoughts on "disclaimers"

[Deleted]

Hi there,

I have had a few thoughts on english as a secondary language and asked myself how do you think of people putting disclaimers in their texts, blogs, videos or other.

When I started writing stuff, answering on forums, when writing up a larger text, I often included some form of "be indulgent, english isn't my primary language". Nowadays, I kind of feel that my mastery of the english word should be good enough for most people to understand, yet sometimes I write in a clunky manner. But I don't give those disclaimers anymore.

While this isn't much of a problem, I happen to "judge" poorly written stuff as something one did not put too much effort into. But when reading something along the lines where they excuse their use of suboptimal syntax/grammar, that judgement is gone instantly.

Yet on the other hand, being multilingual should be something to be kind of proud of, be it because you learned it in school or did courses. Also a shade of "broken english" always comes through, no matter how proper you write.

So what are your thoughts on that matter? Do you appreciate to be told that it isn't their mother tongue, do you consider it as an excuse to not put enough effort in their writing, or do you not care at all, as long as you are able to read it?

[Deleted]

If I can read it I don't care, it's a forum not a novel

[Freighter]

It's not something I care about, I wouldn't put it myself.

[Krawu]

Personally, I don't feel the need to mention it when I post somewhere, but I get people who do, especially if they are still commonly making mistakes.
I mean, there are a lot of people out there who speak English as their first language and just don't give enough of a shit to spellcheck their posts, or possibly don't even know any better. I wouldn't want to be confused with someone like that, because what and how I write is the only thing other people can go looking for subtext in.

Being German, I guess I can't help being a bit of a grammar nazi

[Khaza-R]

I think it doesn’t hurt. It’s obvious when you see someone learning English IRL. I think most people naturally try to focus harder on listening to compensate. In text it’s much harder to distinguish.

[Ravingmad]

I see people having english as their primary language and still write like if they were 6 years old...
IMO it doesnt matter as long as you are understood.

Usually I'll answer back that english is my 2nd language if I get quote on the grammar rather than the content. (Because it is my 2nd language).

You can add it to your signature if you feel like it.
But from your post and your gaming blog I just checked quickly, your english is fine.

[Deleted]

I mean, there are a lot of people out there who speak English as their first language and just don't give enough of a shit to spellcheck their posts, or possibly don't even know any better. I wouldn't want to be confused with someone like that, because what and how I write is the only thing other people can go looking for subtext in.

spellcheck is something I often do. I mean, typos happen and can be overseen. But things like writing a capital I for first person talking is something I often forget when writing fast. Most of my errors stem from "not having an english day" (which happens if you speak a lot of french as a secondary language that day...), whch results in weird sentences or expressions that don't belong in an english text :P

[Allybeboba]

You shouldn’t bother to put on an open forum. It is actually against etiquette to correct someone for their grammar in an open forum. It really only makes the person that does the correcting look childish and immature really, doubly-so in an international forum.

[Deleted]

Communication has two sides, one sending and one receiving. And both can be "trained" - it's quite hard to write something that doesn't at least make some sense to others. And imo the skill to understand others is far more valuable than to "express as clear as possible" whatever you want.

[Perryn]

Frequently the language skills presented by native english speakers is worse than that of non-natives, whether due to laziness, poor edumacation or DGAF.

I never pay attention to whether somebody makes such a disclaimer or not, usually it's pretty evident which mistakes are made due to lack of knowledge of the language vs simply being lazy/uneducated about your own language.

As long as I can read it without having to spend too much time interpreting, I'm all good. I'd rather read something articulate or well thought out with some spelling errors or syntax mistakes, than drivel written in perfect english.

[I Push Buttons]

The only time I ever see this is attention whores fishing for compliments on their language skills.

"Please be patient, my English isn't very good!"

*proceeds to make their point in perfectly fine English*

Every reply: "Wow your English is actually really good!"

[Deleted]

The only time I ever see this is attention whores fishing for compliments on their language skills.

"Please be patient, my English isn't very good!"

*proceeds to make their point in perfectly fine English*

Every reply: "Wow your English is actually really good!"

well everyone needs a compliment every once in a while :P

But yeah, I agree with you. It makes one look like an attention whore, while not actually being fishing for compliments.

[LiiLoSNK]

The disclaimers would save me a lot of time trying to argue with people who don't know the language well on these forums.

[Lochton]

I don't care when it comes to forums and videos. If it is stories I read though, it helps to have an announcement to make it more understandable about some errors - I do so myself. English isn't my primary.

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The only time I ever see this is attention whores fishing for compliments on their language skills.

"Please be patient, my English isn't very good!"

*proceeds to make their point in perfectly fine English*

Every reply: "Wow your English is actually really good!"

Heh, this is rather funny. I still get messages from my wife that I hold a better use of english than acquaintances of hers with english as primary.

[primalmatter]

It is rare for me to begrudge people putting in effort to better themselves but in terms of mediums such as forums or posts commonly done on phones simply being able to understand the message is enough.

[zlygork]

I think they are unnecessary, everyone with half a brain cell should be able to tell a native english speaker from a second language speaker that has yet to master the language apart. Furthermore, a monolingual that wants to feel better about himself by insulting someone else's second/third/fourth+ language skills will do it regardless of a disclaimer being there or not.

[Independent voter]

We have a lot of immigrants in the US so it's not uncommon to have people with varying accents around the office, Russian, British, Chinese, etc. We're very lenient here for the most part.

[Elba]

Apparently my English is indeed very good. People have accused me of actually being an American who only pretends to be German on here.

[Strawberry]

I myself don't care. English is my third language but also my favorite language. People rarely correct my grammar and I always smash English exams and mostly hit 95%+ correct so in my eyes disclaimers are apologies from beta males.
Unless your english is truly shit and people have no clue what you're writing, then a disclaimer is just an annoyance.

[Mormolyce]

It's entirely up to you, but to be honest I think there should be a disclaimer for a lot of people whose first language IS English.