Are There Any Exemptions?

Maybe reading in English will help you learn. Try something fun like a novel or a magazine (even a kids book). At least you are trying to learn and have a good reason. I don't speak a second language so I won't complain. I get more frustrated with native speakers who are lazy about learning good grammar.

I think you sound fine-but wouldn't you like to know what corrections you could easily make? For instance, instead of saying "Is there" say "Are there".

You know what I notice about your post? That you took the time to check your spelling and that you have a good working knowledge of the English language, including grammar and punctuation. You are totally exempt and totally Welcome.

That said, I know I make comments here and there about this topic, but it's usually in good fun. It's just as hard for me to take a person seriously, if they don't take the time or effort to make what they write readable, as it is for some people to take criticism, or even a playful 'jab', I guess.

Mamy,

You are doing great! I personally don't get hung up on anyone's language or typos etc. Unless they are abusive or offensive, it doesn't bother me. I welcome anyone here. I think most moms who get upset about the spelling etc is for other reasons--not for people who are learning english as their second language. I applaud you for learning and you are doing great!!!

M

Grammar & basic spelling errors are not an issue for me....with the exception of the mega baloney on this forum tonight.

Please don't let one bad apple spoil your confidence! You're doing great!

Mamy, your English is excellent! Not only that, but any mistakes that you could make are lost in your thoughtful, kind and intelligent answers.

Be very proud of yourself! You inspire me to work more on languages!

edit* DandyLion, you are still inflamatory. If you don't want to be bullied, stop being a bully yourself. Personal responsibility is a great tool, so remember that you have brought this upon yourself and stop picking at everyone. You will probably snark at me for being "mean" but you need to hear the truth.

I can't say for everyone. But for myself, I can tell when someone is struggling a bit with wording because they are new to English. It just comes through. When a person is just illiterate, it's also pretty obvious.

But what's really frustrating or causes me to cringe is when someone is just being a punk. Sometimes I am not sure about a person. But if you read the thoughts behind the words, it's usually pretty easy to tell if it's bad upbringing, poor education, punk like behavior, or English as a second language.

I work with a woman for whom English is a second language. She is fluent when speaking, but she still struggles with the written word. I think this is normal. Different parts of the brain processing the words, maybe?

A friend of mine also has English as a second language - French. I speak a little French, but understand more than I speak. So we used to have these crazy conversations where she spoke French and I answered in English and all of our kids would just laugh at us.

For me, the red spell check lines are a life saver. I am not a good typist so I rely on the spell check.

I think today's issue was more with the poster's actual content than with the spelling and grammar.

Thing is most people can tell the difference between broken English, which is what I was raised to refer to my grandma's English as, and pure stoopid.

So to answer your question most people are accepting of errors when it is caused by speaking a second language.

Hi mamy-

I am always just pleased to read your responses. They are some of the most compassionate on the board.

I think your english is great! CERTAINLY better than my spanish!!! lol

Keep posting away as far as I'm concerned.

Best Luck!
michele/cat

I have never had a problem reading any of your posts or responses and I think we all make mistakes now and then. I feel like when I type fast I make more mistakes or I do not proof read my response before posting.

I think there is a troll on the site starting trouble and probably making typos on purpose.

I had to chuckle about your Spanglish comment. My daughter (5) wants to learn to speak Spanish. They have a Spanish class once a week in her school. She told me she wants to learn real Spanish, I asked her if there was a fake Spanish and she laughed.

Try journaling in a word processing program. The program will tell you with a red line when you misspell and a green line when you use bad grammer. English is a hard language and backward to most other languages. In English we say the RED ROSE and in Spanish you would say the ROSE RED.

This is not a criticism:
'Is there any exemptions" Would be properly said "Is there an exception"
or "Are there any exemptions" "IS" denotes singular or one-- "ARE" denotes 2 or more.
I was fortunate I had a really good English instructor in 8th grade and since I do freelance writing I get a lot of practice.

Keep at it and yes read a lot in English.

For english as your second language I think you're doing great! There are times when I'm reading your posts that I'll mentally correct your wording as I'm reading but for the most part it's good. It's bad when people write one page of run on sentence without correct spelling and text writing. I can hear your accent in your writing too but that may be because I hear it from my hubby (he's from Mexico too). Anyway I enjoy reading your posts and I missed you when you were gone!

If you ask a question and make a mistake, I'll overlook it. We all make small errors. If your entire post is one big grammatical mess and nobody can make sense of it, I get annoyed and likely won't answer. If you're a jerk, I might pick on your mistakes to prove a point, but most of the time I just scroll on by. If you see the comment to just one person - there's a reason.

I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt, when they are using the wrong words, grammar isn't great, it would be that English is not their first language and I would never mention it. Then I see people whose English is great Except they use they're for their or there, or sight for site, or something like that -spell check will not help and I wonder if we should tell them so they learn it correctly. That is how we all learned, someone taught us. Sometimes people's posts are so hard to read we don't know how to respond to the problem. And if people throw out profanity in every sentence I do not want to read or respond, because this is a grown up forum

I really don't think you have anything (much) to worry about. This article you wrote was pretty easily understood. English is my first language, and when I write, especially on the internet; I will use a lot of typing shorthand, so my writing on the internet is not always grammatically correct.

To answer your question, I feel that you have both been very blessed to understand the English language as well as you do, and it is also in part to readers who are understanding of when others make grammatical mistakes when writing. There are those who will bemoan even the slightest grammatical error, and then, again, there are those who are forgiving of such things. As I stated in the first paragraph, if this is any indication of your writing ability, then you really have nothing to worry about!