(no subject)

[shadowkat]

When writing I've noticed that I struggle with the following bits:

1. Comma placement. A lot of times it makes no logical sense to me. If something doesn't track logically, I don't remember it. I can't remember things that do not make sense to me logically.
It can't just be an arbitrary rule that someone came up with while sitting on the potty.

2. Affect/Effect. For some reason my mind flip them. I've no clue why.

3. It's and its. Also flips them.

4. Then and than -- screw this up all the time.

There's others I'm certain. My mind often is moving faster than my fingers can type, so my fingers often type the wrong things. Or there is a disconnect between my mind and my fingers. It's worse with oral communication -- I'll often say a word that is the opposite of what I'm thinking or not what I'm intending to state at all, and worse, not realize it. It's a sort of ephasia that I have no control over. Very irritating.

Example? I was talking to my mother about Sherlock. And said that the whole bit with Watson and the bus driver should have been told in real time. My mother said -- "you mean the bus rider, it wasn't the bus driver." Me - "Oh, I thought I said bus rider."

I worry about the details, because more often than not they trip me up. I can't count the number of times I've been blasted on the internet for screwing up on a detail. Or forgetting to fact-check a point.

It can make it difficult to write at times.

Comments

[rogin]

I think it's simply because it is my mother tongue. German is more automatic to me and in that part of the brain the rewiring errors occur.

I have to think more writing English, so it does not happen so easily, though the better I get, the worse it gets. In French, where I can barely string a sentence together, it does not happen at all.

[shadowkat]

I envy the fact that you can speak two languages fluently and write well in both. I can't tell that English is your second language. (I'm guessing that you learned English as a child? My co-worker who is from Cyprus, told me that she took English when she was 3 years of age, and was speaking both Greek and English fluently by the time she was six. The problem in the US, is, for the most part, we can't take a second language until the 7th grade or when we are 12 or 13. It's harder to learn at that stage. I took French in the 7th Grade and struggled with it. Took it up through high school and into college, but never quite mastered it. )

In French, where I can barely string a sentence together, it does not happen at all.

My French is similar. I can read it better than I can speak or write it.

[rogin]

I started to learn English when I was seven. And then at ten we had proper English lessons in school. French started when I was fourteen (aparently too late) and Italian when I was 16 (I can barely ask for directions).

I always envy the Scandinavians. My friend Anna from Finland speaks Finnish, Swedish, English and German, all of them on a level to write scientific papers. It's amazing what their educational system does.

[shadowkat]

I envy the Europeans. Here, the only people who get second languages early are either wealthy or immigrants. Ironic that. The public schools don't offer it until middle school. My niece, who has an affinity for languages, is learning Spainish and Latin in the 7th Grade.

My French may be worse than your Italian.

But, I was discussing this with my co-workers today, I've grown used to figuring out what people are saying through body language and context. Mainly, because I have lived in NYC for about 20 years now, and half the time, people aren't speaking English or speaking it poorly with a thick accent.

[rogin]

Damn, your style is sooo cute! Love the comment section!

[shadowkat]

Thanks. It is simple, but elegant. Can't remember what it was called. I went through about 60 some styles. There are a lot of horrible ones. And I really did not like my previous style.

I think I prefer this style to the one on LJ at the moment.