Saturday, February 18, 2006

Is there such thing as THE PERFECT ENGLISH?

Last night, Martin messaged me. "You should fix the sidebar on your site." He claimed that I was using incorrect english. Well, let's look at this statement:

I never really believed in blogging but I guess this is a good mean to pen down my daily travels, especially one that is quite exciting.

"This sounds 1000% asian. Change it to 'I guess it is a good way..' (Hey Martin, what is asian english? BIASED....).

"Everytime I go to your site, LEARN ENGLISH PLEASE. Haha."

Okay, I made amendments to appease Martin (to make his life better) and not cause an eyesore to his delicate AUSSIE eyes. I have to emphasize: I can be a garbler when it comes to writing. Most of the time, I write with much haste. In my opinion, I think English is like art. It's hard to satisfy the tastebuds of everyone. As long as the written prose is lucid and expository, I think it's fine (I'm not referring to the obvious grammatical errors here).

Let's take for instance, the opening paragraph of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit: "Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day. A blazing sun upon a fierce August day was no greater rarity in southern France then, than at any other time, before or since."

To me, I think this opening paragraph is odd because it lacks cadence. But I guess many would beg to differ. You see what I mean? English is beauty to the eye of the beholder (Shit...I'm garbling again).

5 comments:

Durrow Gal! said...

Yeah Turtur...

Garble(according to webster)=
1)alter or distort as to create a wrong impression or change the meaning
2) to introduce textual error into (a message) by inaccurate encipherment, transmission or decipherment.

Ahhh...monday tomorrow. TONS OF WORK!

The Queen of Suds said...

i doubt pigeons have large enough brains to decipher and hence vocalise the fine art of garbling turtur... I think they go "kroooooo"

Durrow Gal! said...

You see....I guess turtur likes to garble! Turtur goes "kroo krrooo"...

BunnyButt said...

Hey grace, I hope none of my students ever read this post then - I fear that one day, they might give me a rebuttal like this.

Actually, the paragraph you quoted from Little Dorrit sounds perfectly fine, I wouldn't say that it lacks cadence...cadence is a strange word to use when decribing written work.Did you mean meter?

I hated that book, by the way.

Durrow Gal! said...

This entry of mine has sparked a fury of comments. Great!

Well, I thought the sentences lacked a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds in language..that's why I used the word 'cadence'.

=)

TGIF!!!