On Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:04:22 -0500, Warp wrote:

> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> It also helps tremendously if you have someone who *is* a native
>> speaker actively helping you out, pointing out your mispronunciations
>> and odd word choices and such, methinks. At least, that's my
>> experience.
> 
>   That's one HUGE problem, though. People are way too "polite" to
>   comment
> on your mistakes, even if it would benefit you a lot if the did.
> 
>   I have had more than one experience related to this just in writing.
> I have written something consistently in the wrong way for *years*
> before someone *finally* commented that it's wrong, after which I
> started writing it correctly. In each case it exasperated me why nobody
> had said it to me before. I can't know if I write something in the wrong
> way if nobody tells me.

I've got a friend in Luxembourg who is in a similar situation; his 
written English is really good; but spoken, he's got a very thick accent 
and has to search for words and sometimes he finds the wrong word.

A few years ago, he started asking people to help him if he was saying 
things incorrectly - of course, the group we hang out in includes a 
couple of English pedants (language and nationality, come to think of 
it), so they're all too happy to help. :-)

The thing is, a lot of times you write things in ways that are 
understandable (so not incorrect), but somewhat convoluted.  For example, 
your last sentence here:

"I can't know if I write something in the wrong way if nobody tells me."

I find that perfectly clear, but an odd way of expressing the thought 
you're having.  What you're saying is "I can't know if I've written 
something incorrectly unless someone tells me".  Same meaning as what you 
wrote.  "In the wrong way" isn't something that most English speakers/
writers would use (at least not in my experience).  "Incorrectly" would 
be the word used instead.

Jim

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