Re: Help removing old superglue

Between saving the world and having a spot of tea Berto said

Fair enough. That is why a number of people don't reply to most of
the things I say.

I wouldn't say that. I have a bit of trouble with your idiom
sometimes but you don't often post anything stupid or idiotic.

Strange how I won last year Teacher of the Year at the University and
have won several awards. I guess my speaking abilities are a bit
better than my writing. Or as i write I translate in Spanish and
sometimes I place verbs and nouns backassward and sound odd. My bad.
Will try to correct. However, it is kind what you are stating,
probably in addition to my odd idiom, there are people that do not
feel I give much to the NG. That is fine. I just try to add when I
can.

I have a Phillipino working for me whose mother tounge I think is
Spanish. Amusingly or maybe not before I started everyone thought he
was Mexican. Often when he wants to talk to management about something
he starts at the end and works backwards. Because he's translated the
whole thing in his head, and people being people he starts with the last
thing he was thinking about. We keep having to say stop and start at
the begining.

Other times he says something and I say that he must be wrong until I go
and check what he's talking about. Then I work out that what he said is
grammatically correct but not idiomatically correct for New Zealand. It
maybe idiomatically correct in American English or Phillipino English, I
don't really know.

Interestingly I was just reading a post in alt.usage.english about how
English is being more and more used as Linga Franca by non-native
English speakers and as such the importance of following the same rules
as native speakers is declining, and the though is the use of native
speakers as teachers will decrease and there will be more reliance on
non-native speaker teaching each other.



--
Rob Singers
RGMW FAQ Maintainer. See it @ http://www.rgmw.org
Foemina Erit Ruina Tua
.

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