just my two cents on some sort of situation

some sort of rant

English is not my first language.

   A common phrase that you see on the forward of many, MANY asian fanfic stories. No, seriously, I don't get the people who use this excuse to get away with grammar mistakes, spelling errors and half-assed stories where a mix of broken English and Korean is thrown into the stories. The English is not accurate, the Korean spellings and usage of the words are not correct and some really random Chinese pops out in the middle of the conversation. I'm not singling out or hating on any writer on asian fanfics or anywhere else, but I really, really cannot stand it when people mix up the languages in their stories. Sure, if you are writing say, a mixed-cultural-story sort of thing where the people of that place do actually use that sort of language (eg. Singapore, where local literature writers use Singlish in their stories to "bring out" the essence of our unique mixed English-Chinese-Malay-Hokkien sentences that somehow every Singaporean gets regardless of your race, language that you speak etcetc) , you could include a little of that sort of language in that story lah . Even so, you should try and include proper, accurate, standard English in the stories instead of "Sehun oppa, saranghae I like you. Im the nerd and you are kingka but I hope you like me, wo ai ni."

   Before any of you start hating on me stating that I'm another one of those readers on AFF that do not understand the pain of taking up another language, let me tell you this. I grew up speaking both Chinese and English. In fact, I am more proficient in speaking Chinese than I am in English. I grew up in a mainly Chinese speaking family, counting on the fact that my older brother grew up speaking English and absolutely cannot handle a sentence of Chinese beyond " Have you eaten?", which led to my parents thinking that I should grow up speaking more Chinese and be proficient in my mother tongue. I obtained a constant B for my English in Primary school, only trying harder for my English grade during the last 2 years of Primary school before I headed off to Secondary school. Currently, Im getting an A (or sometimes high B) in English and an A in Advanced Literature. I am also taking up classes for intermediate Korean and I speak enough basic Malay to order from the Malay store when I am craving for some Malay food.

Languages aren't hard when you put in effort to learn them. If you just put in 15 minutes a day reviewing things that you have learnt in your English/second language class, you will be able to pick up that language very quickly. "English is not my first language" is not an excuse for writing stories with lots of grammar and spelling mistakes. Sure, there might be some hiccups here and there but you should be constantly aiming to be better and/or try to get a beta reader to help you out and stuff. Writing good English is not tough, some stories that I have read that were written by non-native English speakers were so good that they were published within the year that they are uploaded onto Wattpad. Languages are not hard to pick up, it depends on your own will to learn and master the language.

side note: I finished my end of years for English today. 2 essays, 1 comprehension and 1 summary in 3.75 hours, kill me now. I really, really hope that I would do well.

Comments

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Korekrypta #1 Oct 1, 2015 12:52:00

Complicated grammar constructions and idiom are forgiveable (you'd only expect them of high-level non-native English speakers) and there are some constructs that are more difficult to understand if you don't have them in your native language, but if you can't form the third person present tense properly, or a question (which is one of the things you learn in ELEMENTARY EFL and is hammered home time and time again right the way up to native level and I know because I've taught it), especially on the common regular and irregular verbs, then you have absolutely no excuse. "He have a nice car" is an instant "exit this story" to me. "Did he smiled at me?" makes me want to scream. That's from the upper end of elementary, but it's a basic construct and it's taught incessantly from elementary to native and if you can't grasp simple question structure, it's going to muck you about for complicated question structure, and there are some tough ones out there.

The other really aggravating ones for me are "advices" - it's not "an advice" or "some advices", just ADVICE - and things like "that's a good news". To be fair "advices" I can just about understand (even though it's taught as a sort of collective noun) and I see lots of non-native speakers miscorrecting people who use it correctly, but "news" even LOOKS plural, so I don't know how that mistake's crept in.

I've been thoroughly impressed by the levels of English of some people on this site. Some of them have a better grasp of it than some native speakers. But even if your first language isn't English, it's often worth having a beta reader to look over your shoulder just to catch typos and slip ups.

I'd forgotten English wasn't your native language because your English is so good.

fefedove #2 Oct 1, 2015 09:45:20

it really really bothers me whenever i see a fic with bad grammar, but then i feel bad. the 1 time that i wrote a fic in chinese was so painful. but also, not knowing english well isn't an excuse for horrible plots with your typical kingkas and arranged marriages. and random korean words like "ne" and "arasso" annoy tf out of me.
anyway, i'm not really sure what i'm saying but i agree with this post so much

aillis #3 Oct 1, 2015 09:17:52

good job on finishing your end of years english first of all :^)

also. i agree with this blog. nodnod. usually these are my thoughts as well when reading some fics.

MissMinew #4 Oct 1, 2015 08:05:51

While I do not understand (and try to avoid reading as well) the stories that mix different languages because it ruins the flow, I think you're a little harsh on people who state they are not native English speakers. It isn't always an excuse. More often than not it's just informative like "hey, I know it may not be perfect but I'm in a learning process". I am not a native English speaker myself and when I use the sentence it's because I'm embarrassed about my language because even I can find the mistakes when I read through (and then I drag myself down). I have met English native speakers who are worse writers than non-natives. So while it could be used as an excuse to write a ty story I hardly believe it is. I don't think any author who writes fanfiction purposely write a ty story and excuse themselves with their nationality - people normally write fanfictions because they have creative ideas they want to share with the people in their fandoms.
Writing good English IS tough. Just because you're bilingual and has a flair for languages doesn't mean it's that easy for everybody else. Yes, learning a language takes effort but for some it takes more than 15 minutes a day. It also takes practice. And if one cannot even explain the learning process with a "I'm not an English speaker" because it's an "excuse" then how are they supposed to practice the language they're trying to learn?
Getting a beta-reader isn't always just as easy and most fanfiction authors do have a life on their own as well.

I mean, fair if you dislike reading those stories, I do too at some degree. But lashing about because people are trying to learn a new language and informs you of that - and doesn't find it as easy as you do - is sort of ...