Who Cares About Your English?
Bad English makes your writing look bad. Especially in official documents, announcements, reports, etc.. Memos, however, are usually intended for internal circulation so they can be simply written - in bad grammar and all - as long as everyone understands the message. Let’s talk about the official documents and reports and stuff. So what if they’re written in bad English (yet still intelligible)?
The truth is, nothing will happen. It’s business as usual. Your clients won’t care if your English is good or bad. All that matters to them is the quality of your products, and your services rendered. They won’t boycott you just because you write horrible English. How about signboards and announcements in public places? As long as the message is clear, the bad English is not going to affect anything.
And universities? The same thing. Nobody will feel embarrassed, and parents will continue to send their children to that university. In fact, most of my lecturers did not write in good English. But what the heck? They taught technical subjects anyway. The online bulletin board as well as the university’s official website do not have 100% correct English too. Yet, it’s business as usual.
In reality, perfect English is hard to come by. If you’re not good in English, it’s okay. Nobody will get punished, or suffer any losses. At most - if you’re lucky - your work gets highlighted in The Star’s Boob Watch column. And then, instead of feeling embarrassed, you even get excited because your writing gets featured in a national daily. But what if your English is good? Good then good lah. So?
24 Jul 2007 narrowband
My English also so-so only. See, what I mean? ;)
So, what’s this about, huh?
Well, for one, I do care about my English. Esp. my grammar. My English is not flawless but it’s not that bad either. I think.
So, again, what’s this about, huh? o.O
Totally agree with you, man..
I actually look down on lecturers whose command of English are worse than me. Hahaha! I’m so bad right?
I agree with you, but I think that a suitable level of accuracy in English is required no matter how. Lecturers that do not speak good English often irritate me, because they will be the ones we learn stuff from and if they don’t speak good English, it’ll influence us.
i think a person’s english level does affect others impression to you sometimes. For example, people who can speak good english will have better confidence to himself/herself when they go for interview or presentation , then they might present well to get the job. But for those who cant speak good english may not have confidence to speak in front of public , this will affect them when they are presenting themselves. As your fren, Jimm Ng said, a suitable level of accuracy in english is required.
i dont agree my friend. i think the english requirement depends wholly on the kinda industry you’re in.
if you’re in the consultancy industry like mine, where you need to give precise advice which involves a lot of money, the usage of words, the choice of certain terms and how a sentence is structured matters a lot. and i mean… a lot.
for example, we are very careful in using words like “should, would and could”…. i have talked about this with some friends. to them, they all mean the same thing… to me and ppl in my industry… they are absolutely independent of each other.
Hmm, most of the time, as long as it’s fluent then it should be doing okay. Is it so? Well bro, not sure of ur objective or just rambling it out, but wat happened tat made u have this post? :) Just very very curious.. who insulted ur language dignity? Come come there must be something behind this.. hehe..
Agree with Jimm Ng. Nothing to say…they have said it all. :P
I actually place a lot of importance on English in business. If friend friend then oklah, but like zewt says, even a change in word can make a whole lotta difference when you’re trying to convey something to your boss/client.
And in school/university, I used to terrorize my teachers/lecturers whose command of English was not as good as mine! *big wide grin*
Very nicely put, but i seriously think that people DO judge you by your written and spoken English to a certain extent.
Well…that’s my 2 cents worth of thought.
my english better than some but mandarin teruk kau kau. same same only. =)
I think university murdered my English! Sob! Think in Engineering especially, noone bothers about your English. In uni, in your workplace.Just get the job done!
After all English is not our mother tongue language. However, does any chinese care about speaking and writing good Chinese?
Bkworm - You’re widely read and you write well. That has gotta put you in the ‘pro’ category!
Angel - I try my best to minimize error too. Oh, it’s nothing. Just some observation… ;)
Deng - Good or bad English, life goes on right?
Day-dreamer - I couldn’t afford to look down on them because they were my teachers! ;p Thankfully they weren’t teaching English, that’s all.
Jimmy - Everybody knows that. That phrase is all too familiar “… no matter how”. But exactly how so? Zewt has probably illustrated it better. It affects different industries differently.
Hui - So it comes down to impression? Have you ever heard of someone being seen as snobbish because he spoke English fluently? Interviews… many positions only focused on academic results.
Zewt - You’re right. It largely depends on the industry we’re in. I’ve ended up in a technical field - haven’t seen much of the impact of English.
my sentiments exactly.. :)
Jian - Fluent or not, still okay la. Like my Mandarin, so lau-sai also okay what. It’s just the way things are. Good or bad - especially spoken language - it doesn’t really matter. Written, maybe need to pay more attention la.
Che-cheh - Haha. Actually this post is quite mindless. I didn’t expect to receive so much input. But having read all of them, turns out quite interesting :p
Rinnah - Like I mentioned to Zewt, in my (technical) field, nobody really cares about language, as long as the main points are clearly conveyed. ‘Deep’ and ‘flowery’ words are not needed, the simpler the better. In fact, they rely heavily on abbreviations!
Wah, how you terrorized your lecturers wor? Lepas their angin tayar?
Alicia - Judge? What results, then? That’s the thing about most of us - we tend to get quite judgmental. Like the case of the pond squat in Sarawak recently, everyone had something to say and jumped to own conclusions (based on their own judgment) without thorough understanding of the issue.
I must admit I’m guilty of that sometimes - judging a person too quickly.
Jasmyin - Yeah. It all adds up huh? I really salute those who are good in both languages. I wish I were like them. Seriously.
Charngyee - Like Zewt puts it, it depends on the industry we’re in. I couldn’t agree more - although I initially didn’t think of that.
We’re in a technical field - right from the first day of university, until we began working. We’re in engineering, remember? Haha. If we were in law, for example, then it’s different. Language proficiency and mastery would be important, then.
Yee Hui - That’s the ultimate point. It’s rare to see people excelling in both, so I guess that explains the imbalance. Hopefully, if we’re not good in English, at least can still be proud of our Chinese, and vice versa.
If both languages also half-past-six, then it’s really a waste, because the cultural diversity in Malaysia has so much to offer in terms of picking up more than one language.