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Jan. 12th, 2010 09:56 pmi just had a moment of blinking bewilderment.
I just encountered an online conversation where someone related an anecdote about a friend who is so bad at writing english, her *first* language, that she lies online and says that she's from an eastern european country.
someone popped up with something less restrained than "what the actual fuck?" and asked what was wrong with someone from eastern europe speaking english.
to which we get the reply, i guess because they wouldn't have amazing spelling if it's not their native language (OH GOD DID YOU JUST--)
and the person who questioned points out that the people from that eastern european country -- which happens to be the speaker's country of origin -- anyway, that people from that country with internet access are generally priveleged enough to have very good educations. and also points out that it's a little bit insulting to assume that people from that country would be unskilled at writing english.
freaked out defensiveness ensues, and i'm left to wonder, perhaps wrongheadedly, why it's better to make up a bad lie about where you come from in order to excuse your personal incompetence at writing in english than it is to actually strive to become more skilled at writing english.
Because really. What the actual fuck.
I just encountered an online conversation where someone related an anecdote about a friend who is so bad at writing english, her *first* language, that she lies online and says that she's from an eastern european country.
someone popped up with something less restrained than "what the actual fuck?" and asked what was wrong with someone from eastern europe speaking english.
to which we get the reply, i guess because they wouldn't have amazing spelling if it's not their native language (OH GOD DID YOU JUST--)
and the person who questioned points out that the people from that eastern european country -- which happens to be the speaker's country of origin -- anyway, that people from that country with internet access are generally priveleged enough to have very good educations. and also points out that it's a little bit insulting to assume that people from that country would be unskilled at writing english.
freaked out defensiveness ensues, and i'm left to wonder, perhaps wrongheadedly, why it's better to make up a bad lie about where you come from in order to excuse your personal incompetence at writing in english than it is to actually strive to become more skilled at writing english.
Because really. What the actual fuck.