Correcting corrections

I participate in a site called lang-8. It is a community-based language learning site. You put in your native language and the language(s) you are learning, and then you write journal entries on whatever you want in your foreign language, which will then be corrected by native speakers of that language. You, of course, will able to correct entries written in your own language as well. It's not required but it's common courtesy.

Certainly, because it is community-based, the quality of your corrections will vary. This is okay, because many times you will get more than one person correcting, and in any case, the point is to connect with native speakers in a way that is much more difficult to do in real life. In fact, just writing your entries regularly is probably good practice.

What gets me frustrated, though, is when I see English sentences that are perfectly correct get marked wrong and "fixed" incorrectly, with an incorrect explanation. There is no ambiguity--it is just wrong.

When you are learning a language, the native speaker is like a king. The native speaker lives in the language, able to churn out sentences like breathing without ever once sparing a thought to particles or tense. He understands cultural context and modern usage and slang and can explain this to you better and more fluidly than a textbook can. This is the person you want to be, so when he tells your that your sentence is wrong--and this is why--you believe him. I mean, unless you have rock solid confidence, in which case--maybe you are native-like now.

Usually, this mistaken native speaker (who I will just call the "wrong person" now for brevity) is sincere and probably already knows what grammar is actually correct, but he was a little careless and just zipped through those sentences with that native speaker confidence.

Now, I am not perfect, nor am I an English expert. I like to think myself somewhat above average in my English skills because I love reading and writing, I always did well in my English classes, I lapped up both prescriptive and descriptive grammar and genuinely enjoy learning about it, and I took several linguistic classes which taught me to look at language structure more technically. I have been wrong on lang-8 before--on a word I thought I was familiar with but really wasn't ("instep")--and I corrected myself on it.

So, when I correct these mistaken corrections, I know that the wrong person might get defensive. I used to start off with things like "I don't mean to be a jerk, but..." and maybe end with a "Sorry!" and an emoticon like this: ( ；´Д｀)

I decided recently that I didn't need disclaimers and apologies like that. I'm not sorry about it; I don't want the learner to be confused. I want them to know that they are on the right track and they've been right all along. To head off an empty argument and to make sure I'm not doing the same thing, I do some research first--you know, making sure I know damn well what I'm talking about, collecting resource links and examples, using crystal clear language.

What I write is meant to be addressed to the wrong person. Most of the time he understands and agrees, because after all, we are all here to help each other learn in a friendly environment anyway. Then the learner will see this reply and understand, too.

Today, I did the same thing, and instead, the wrong person implied that I was trying to impress the learner, that I was confusing her with my grammatical terms, and that he was helping her take "baby steps." This made me so, so angry. Yes, okay, what I wrote was not easy for a non-advanced ESL speaker to understand; perhaps I should've have explicitly addressed it to him (the wrong person) from the start. However, your correction was not necessary and if you had just thought about it more in the first place and left it off no one would've been confused at all. Backwards steps are not baby steps.

I just get really worked up about it because I feel it's really unfair to the language learner. I know what it feels like to get conflicting information and it just really impairs the process. Perhaps, in the long run, it'll be but a drop in an ocean, but, I don't know, it still bothers me.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong--just do it with good proof and I will take it gracefully on the chin!

Just throwing this out there

I've noticed for a while now that my posts seem to be disproportionately unhappy ones. Maybe I feel like writing the most when I'm unhappy--I know this was definitely the case when I was younger, and a more proficient and prolific writer. (It's very sad.)

In any case, I'd like to announce that I am usually a happy person, that I enjoy life, and that little good things happen all the time. I'm know I'm a pretty lucky one, and I'm grateful for what I've got.

Teachers and grownups

About two years ago, I sat down with a couple of people in a Hiroshima hostel on Christmas night and we just hung out, talking about our lives and what we do, where we've been and where we are going. Most of them were Japanese, which was the only time that had happened during my many ad-hoc chats and hangouts on that trip--but I digress.

I was the youngest one, and they oohed and said, 若い. Young. I didn't feel like I was that young, but I did mull upon the idea when I wrote in my journal later. Two of the people there were teachers, and I did think that it felt a little bit special to be hanging out with teachers, and that it was unusual, like being in an exclusive club, maybe. I supposed that it was that kind of thought that would out me in the "young" category.

Now, I have a high school friend who I see regularly who is a genuine, full-time teacher at a public elementary school. Just like the kind I used to go to.

A small moment when I feel like an adult.

Firsts

Yesterday I bowled a strike for the first time!
Today I tried raw milk for the first time.

In lieu of a long post

I would rather be far away from home and miss my father than to be there and hate him.

K-pop and good things

(This is more for myself.)

So, roughly two years ago, Korean things (history, food, language, dramas, music, and the like) didn't mean much to me. It didn't register on my map. But meeting Korean friends in Hong Kong, eating delicious Korean food (much of which I had not tried before), and visiting Korea itself brought it much more intimately into my life. It was a nice, kind of refreshing alternative to the Japanese things that I had loved so much since middle school.

Not k-pop, though. I had a decent amount of friends who were fans, and I knew the names of some groups. I even had a couple songs on my computer, but I wasn't interested in finding out more. When Janice showed me the street in Seoul lined with idol products--the street to go for fans--I chuckled and admired the vendors' Japanese abilities.

Then, a year later I found out that one of my friends was in a k-pop cover band. I listened to their songs (so-so), listened to the originals (not too bad, SNSD!). It was nice.

Then, about two or three weeks ago, this huge slide happened. I was watching PSY's Gangnam Style like most people, and saw Big Bang's Blue on the sidebar. That was another song my friend's band had covered, so I gave it a listen. It was okay. On the sidebar of that video was Taeyang's Wedding Dress. I had remembered another time when one of my guzheng mates said that her brother resembled Taeyang, so I clicked it to get a good look at this guy. I skipped to the middle, his dancing caught me, and I watched the whole thing.

Then I found out he was in Big Bang so I went through their stuff to look for his dancing. And then, well... I got caught. Both my feet are now in the k-pop world, and what a world it is. It's very fun. The music wouldn't exactly be my normal style, and I don't like a lot of it, but Korean idol culture is really fun. It's almost a guilty pleasure, and I almost hate to admit it--the thing is, k-pop has brought me a lot of joy while I was stagnating at home.

Yesterday at a family celebration for Autumn Moon Festival I finally got into an extended conversation with one of my little cousins (I've tried quite a few times with no results), and it was all because I noticed she was playing Wedding Dress on the piano. That was great. She's pretty cool!

Thanks k-pop!

Summer blooms

Something wonderful just happened.

I was  feeling sort of down, what with my brother about to leave and all. We were talking my room when we heard these booming sounds like gunshots outside. I live in quite the small, peaceful suburban neighborhood, so I didn't really think they would be gunshots, but we were pretty confused. We actually ignored it for a while, but I eventually looked out the window to check it out.

There were these huge fireworks in the sky, just beyond our roofs.

In such a small town!

It was amazing!