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The personal log of Peter Payne, owner of JLIST.com, the home of "wacky things from Japan"

Friday, June 26, 2009

Do Native English Speakers Make Mistakes?

Last night my son needed a hand with an English essay he was writing about the different kinds of engineering careers that exist. As I was helping him, typing out some of his ideas since I'm a fast typist, I accidentally misspelled some words, which caused the word processor to underline the errors with squiggly lines. "Wow, Dad, you make spelling errors, too," my son said, wide-eyed. "I didn't know native speakers could make mistakes with English." This is a common believe among Japanese people: that every bit of English a native speaker produces in spoken or written form will be totally correct. When I was working as an ESL teacher, I made darned sure to prepare for my lessons, since not being able to answer a question about a certain type of grammar from a student is really hard on a teacher's ego. The Japanese also assume that I know every English word ever coined, and whenever I go see a doctor he'll usually explain in the most esoteric of medical terms what's wrong with me, then look a little sad when he sees my uncomprehending face.

Even monkeys fall from tree. Even gaijin mis-spell misspell words.

4 Comments:

Blogger Courtney said...

Very true. I even find myself forgetting to add in particles, or using speech patterns that sound strange to even myself.

7:52 AM

 
Blogger Talking to Myself Again said...

A quick trip through the internet will eliminate any doubt that native English speakers make mistakes!

9:43 AM

 
Blogger Peter in Japan said...

Yes, and when you live in Japan and teach ESL your students' English starts to affect you. It's embarrassing but when no native speakers are around you for 6-12 months your English can get pretty screwed up ^_^

11:15 AM

 
Blogger Edopenguin said...

Bah

You should see how I typo in German. It's not even remotely funny. I'm faster and more secure in English, which is somewhat weird.

6:34 PM

 

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