Re: IRC and English

As a monolingual North American, I am also very uncomfortable with this thread. A rant about abbreviations/IRC jargon is an appropriate discussion for list, but criticizing how non-native English speakers write English is not. This thread began with a mention of the "attitude" that non-native English speakers have, as if non-native English speakers are a unified group that are are more likely to have a bad attitude than native English speakers. Of course such a generalization could make people uncomfortable. -jessi tedd wrote:

At 11:16 AM -0300 9/1/09, Martin Scotta wrote:

As a non-english speaker I feel very uncomfortable with this thread.

You shouldn't feel uncomfortable because no one is talking about you. Cheers, tedd

Daniel Brown wrote:

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 21:06, Paul M Foster<paulf@quillandmouse.com> wrote:

I'm sorry, but is anyone else annoyed by people who attempt to use IRC jargon on mailing lists? For example, substituting "u" for "you". Oddly enough, I'm seeing this primarily in foreign language posters, not in native English speakers. It's often accompanied by English so broken I don't even bother trying to decypher it, and sometimes an *attitude* (after which, I blacklist the poster). Am I the only one? It's okay if I am. Just wondering.

    Same here, Paul.  You're correct in associating it primarily with

non-native-English speakers, as well. Worse still: they use that same language in professional job proposals. Worse beyond that: they are selected for said jobs. I've dropped clients because they have put me onto a team with folks like that. Sort of cutting out the bottom of the barrel, really.