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Punctuation
Mar 05 2004 09:36am

(Jedi)Obi-JK
 - Student
(Jedi)Obi-JK
Sup,

I have just finished reading a bunch of posts. I understand there are many people who belong to the JA whose native language is not english. When they make posts people will politely repsond with:

"Please use punctuation, otherwise it's very hard to understand you."

and the next post will read this:

"Not everyone's native language is english, give them a break."

What the hell does that mean?

What does your native language have to do with punctuation?

Only us people in America use punctuation? Amazing.

If you want to make you post more readable, to multiple languages, here are some suggestions.

1.) Watch for spelling errors.
2.) Remove the use of ebonics / slang
3.) USE punctuation
4.) In english many words have multiple meanings, becareful of this.

I am sure there are more ways to make our posts better for everyone to read, and I would like to hear suggestions from others.

This is also a useful website, I use to help communicate with people who speak other languages.

http://babelfish.altavista.com

Extra info:

The Babel Fish is small, yellow, and simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another.

When inserted into the ear, its nutrition processes convert sound waves into brain waves, neatly crossing the language divide between any species you should happen to meet whilst travelling in space.

The babelfish is from the book "A Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy," by Douglas Adams.

_______________
Silent Bob (Kevin Smith): You know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you.

-Steve (Obi)

This post was edited by Buzz on Mar 06 2004 07:32pm.

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Comments
Mar 30 2004 05:36pm

Jacen Aratan
 - Student

Freetranslations.com is a waste of time. It's more accurate to make a multilingual parrot translate it for you.

Mar 30 2004 04:48pm

CuZzA
 - Student
 CuZzA

www.freetranslation.com
_______________
- Even if Carlsberg made "w*nkers", Christiano Ronaldo would still be the biggest "w*nker" in the world

Mar 30 2004 04:44pm

Battlin' Billy
 - Student
 Battlin' Billy

Actually, most of the people here that aren't from English-speaking countries can type it MUCH better than a lot of Americans that I've seen.

But as far as punctuation, as long as there's a period at the end of a sentence, I'm cool with it. And not too much of that 1337-5p34k....:(

Ugh! That gives me a headache!

_______________
Midbie Council Member #2 - Profile ID 2073 | Member of B@rtM@ulS@ar | Owner of Monty's 2000th comment & D@RtHM@UL's 8100th comment |
Former Padawan of SilkMonkey & Arcuss
JA Goaltender & NHL Fan | Fellow Rush fan to Axion|Plo Koon is my oldest JA friend
Post your RL pics HERE! | Post you JK2/JK3 screenies HERE!


Mar 30 2004 08:39am

Rosie
 - Student
 Rosie

Quote:
1) The word "english" is an adjective. If you mean "the english language", then you would say "English".

2) It's "your post" and not "you post".

3) "What the hell..." <-- If that's not a "facetious figure of speech", then I don't know what is.

4) You have made errors, and yet, I perfectly understand your message.

5) You can ask people to write clearer by using punctuation, but you can't ask them to write clearer by expanding their knowledge of English.

6) You cannot interchange grammar and spelling rules between languages. If a german speaker wrote something in English and capitalized all the nouns, what would you say?

7) If you tried communicating with a French (or any other supported language) speaker through Babelfish, that person would only understand about half of what you say. That is because "In english many words have multiple meanings, becareful of this."

8) What is "becareful" anyway?

9) This post is getting longer than I first intended it to be.

10) :P


:D:D:D Bubu roxx!!!!

Mar 28 2004 08:15am

Rahn del Sol
 - Student
 Rahn del Sol

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-10-11&res=l />
:D
_______________
http://steamcommunity.com/id/citizen059

Mar 28 2004 08:12am

Rainer
 - Student

www.dictionary.com Has a translater as well. I prefer it over babelfish.
_______________
The Jedi formally known as Ranja.
----------------------
"I can list among my experience and skills: leadership, extensive travel, logistical organization, intimate understanding of firearms, and a knowledge of security measures at numerous banks." - Jesse James


Mar 26 2004 02:17pm

Vaughn
 - Student
 Vaughn

/me almost failed grammer in grade 7

:(
_______________
When you become an actor, you become the person, and you dont act anymore. You just are.
- Tyler HP, Taught by Mr G Simpson


Mar 17 2004 04:13am

tarpman
 - The Tarped Avenger
 tarpman

Quote:
Only us people in America use punctuation? Amazing.

You know, there's people in Canada (:D) and Britain who are completely capable of correct spelling and punctuation too... :)

/me is l33t gr4mm4rz :D
_______________
Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time.

Mar 08 2004 04:28pm

Mookie
 - Ex-Student
 Mookie

Owned. :D

And yeah, "Sup", isn't that slang? ;) Like the others, I agree that punctuation makes it easier on people, but I think you're being too harsh on other points.

Bubu made a great point of nitpicking to that extreme, and it IS a bit silly. I love that guy.

~Ken

This comment was edited by Mookie on Mar 08 2004 04:47pm.

Mar 08 2004 12:29pm

Bubu
 - Hubbub
 Bubu

1) The word "english" is an adjective. If you mean "the english language", then you would say "English".

2) It's "your post" and not "you post".

3) "What the hell..." <-- If that's not a "facetious figure of speech", then I don't know what is.

4) You have made errors, and yet, I perfectly understand your message.

5) You can ask people to write clearer by using punctuation, but you can't ask them to write clearer by expanding their knowledge of English.

6) You cannot interchange grammar and spelling rules between languages. If a german speaker wrote something in English and capitalized all the nouns, what would you say?

7) If you tried communicating with a French (or any other supported language) speaker through Babelfish, that person would only understand about half of what you say. That is because "In english many words have multiple meanings, becareful of this."

8) What is "becareful" anyway?

9) This post is getting longer than I first intended it to be.

10) :P
_______________
make install -not war

Mar 08 2004 10:27am

Odan-Wei Belouve
 - Student
 Odan-Wei Belouve

you know what? I agree on the punctuation part although I don't really care.
I always use punctutation because it helps me in organizing my own thoughts but that's just me :D
Now concerning the spelling, the mutlisense words and slang, we're not at school to watch for every mistake we make when we speak/type.
I also believe a bad spelling ask for more attention from the reader. So it makes you read with more focus and you'll try to understand what's behind the words. OR you'll just give it up and read the next comment :P
Now I totally disagree on the spelling part as most of the non-native speak an English that's almost cleaner than natives. And for those who don't just GIVE THEM A BREAK :P They're learning right ?
Don't expect people to spend hours to correct themselves with a translator that doesn't even work for god sake. If I type a french sentence in web translator to translate it into English I obtain something that has no sense.

Example:

"Si je tape une phrase dans babelfish pour la traduire en Anglais, j'obtiens quelque chose qui n'a pas de sens."

***Babelfish translation***
"If I type a sentence in babelfish to translate it into English, I obtain something which does not have a direction."
Ok Babelfish does almost work properly although direction and sense don't have the same meaning in my sentence right ? (please correct me if I'm wrong)

:D
Just drop that idea of self-correction, people are usually nice and respectful, it's something you don't find everywhere man.
:D

:alliance:
Odan-Wei
_______________
Padawan and brother to SmilyKrazy :D - Adopted in the Belouve Family by Fizz and Bubu, BELOUVE ON! :D - Vladarion, you'll always be in my heart and memories - Spam-Padawan of Jacen Aratan ;) - [DJ is my beloved wife! :P - JA Family: Brothers:
Virtue, Furi0us, Vladarion, Hardwired, Janus, Axion, D@RtHM@UL, Motrec, Mike , xAnAtOs , Luke Skywalker; Little bro to SilkMonkey ; Special kind of brother to Kenyon ; Sisters in-law: Rosered, Ain-Soph Aur]
Photoshop works: click here


This comment was edited by Odan-Wei Belouve on Mar 08 2004 10:28am.

Mar 08 2004 09:05am

Garos
 - Student
 Garos

gewd eyedeer:)

Mar 08 2004 04:31am

 
 - Student

Pointless thread. :P

Mar 08 2004 04:13am

Vaughn
 - Student
 Vaughn

well, I find, even the native speakers dont use punctuation... I just did it. Did you catch it? I almost didnt. Well, you get the point, dont you? hahahayha!!!! um... back to my post. Im saying, not everyone uses punctuation properly. Take me for example, Ive made atleast 6 mistakes so far, and I assume you can understand what im saying. Look, 'im' two mistakes right there. Not a capital 'I', and no apostrophy bewteen the 'i' and the 'm' (contraction for I am). But, you knew what I was trying to say, right?

Edit:
Slang/Ebonics = street talk. Ok, you want an example of Slang...
Sup? instead of "Whats up"... sorta. Ebonics... well, theres a whole LANGUAGE LESSON (by Chris Rock) on that. *shifty eyes*
I love the fact that my explanation does absolutely nothing
_______________
When you become an actor, you become the person, and you dont act anymore. You just are.
- Tyler HP, Taught by Mr G Simpson


This comment was edited by Vaughn on Mar 08 2004 04:16am.

Mar 06 2004 08:46pm

Halendor
 - Ex-Student
 Halendor

I agree with you that it's fair to expect from everyone to use punctuation in their posts. It is not fair however to expect of writers whose native language is not english to watch for spelling errors, remove slang and be careful of multiple meanings. If they get their message across, it's fine with me. Besides, you made a few spelling errors yourself and isn't 'sup' considered slang? :P

And what posts exactly didn't you understand because of bad punctuation? I never ran into one.

Mar 06 2004 08:01pm

D@RtHM@UL
 - Student
 D@RtHM@UL

OLL!

Mar 06 2004 05:50pm

JamesF1
 - Student
 JamesF1

ShI cane spoke Onglish priperly! :D
_______________
Website

Mar 06 2004 10:26am

D@RtHM@UL
 - Student
 D@RtHM@UL

LMAO Obi !
I sooo didn't get like any of those words :P

Mar 06 2004 06:31am

_cmad_
 - Ex-Student
 _cmad_

I can't disagree with you DarkSider/Ashyr :P :D
_______________
Your friends of today, are your enemies of tomorrow.

Mar 06 2004 12:21am

Ashyr
 - Student
 Ashyr

LOL Most native speakers can't even speak English right.
_______________
Top ten reasons to get a better computer...|My fan

Mar 05 2004 08:23pm

_cmad_
 - Ex-Student
 _cmad_

you can't talk about vocabulary. Some people don't have time to sit and learn english vocabulary... But I agree with the punctuation
_______________
Your friends of today, are your enemies of tomorrow.

Mar 05 2004 02:18pm

Jippie Phoenix
 - Student
 Jippie Phoenix

me Enl!5h me have bad ggrmmer and punctu@\tion,and spellinfg:D
_______________



Mar 05 2004 12:14pm

Jacen Aratan
 - Student

Quote:
Sup,

Slang - An informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech.


Yeah, that's much more simple than saying 'street talk'. :P

I agree on the punctuation, though.

Mar 05 2004 12:10pm

(Jedi)Obi-JK
 - Student
 (Jedi)Obi-JK

Sup,

Slang - An informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech.
_______________
Silent Bob (Kevin Smith): You know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you.

-Steve (Obi)


Mar 05 2004 12:06pm

CuZzA
 - Student
 CuZzA

slang is words used in place of others but used in different parts of the world

eg: Hi is basically slang for Hello, but proper slang would be

'sup BRO. Instead of whats up mate or something like that, the americans use bro and man

thats basically what slang is
_______________
- Even if Carlsberg made "w*nkers", Christiano Ronaldo would still be the biggest "w*nker" in the world

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