I find it interesting and kinda sad about people that live in the US! I received several comments (Before they got removed to help save the site!) and e-mails about our new writer from China. Everyone had nothing good to say except one English teacher. Now I find it interesting that the English teacher was tolerant but many others had intolerance…
E-mail: “I Like the addition of Paul Wen. I see we have some advanced thinkers and putting togetherers over there in the Asian Motherland. 谢谢你”
(I like how my mind worked after almost 6 years in Russia. I realized that the Chinese above was спасибо (thank you in English) in Russia and I thought that was nice. Then I realized that even though she said thank you to Paul, I translated it mentally to Russian before I considered the English word…)
I am not sure that Paul will write again, now that he was insulted by rude Americans but I will ask him kindly to come back. Yes he used a translator. Yes he struggled to present the post. Yes it was from a bigger article in China. I checked it for copy content and he rewrote it sufficiently. But most of all he believes in what it says and that is what counts to me…
I can promise that people who write for me will not be insulted. Something that Americans have little knowledge of is that the rest of the world does not run around and talk higher than mighty to everyone else. Unless they are provoked and have to defend themselves. Americans are always attacking people over their shortcomings as if that is how life is suppose to be…
I myself write how I want to and I could give a damn how you see my English and in the same token, I really care about people like Paul to have a right to express themselves in any language without harassment from the peanut gallery…
I see thousands of comments all over the Western news where people try to hurt and belittle other people over there grammar and spelling. I am amazed at the verbal attacks that are presented to degrade people and half the time the attackers are worse at grammar than the attacked…
I myself have been ruthlessly attacked because I use different words or initials than what some people think should be used. I have a good example of how people/media can be cruel and hateful: I was bidding on a contract for the food service of a private school in Georgia. This school was being started by some ladies who were teachers for black children. The school was teaching Ebonics and to say that all hell broke loose is an understatement. I got involved in the middle of a language war and all I wanted to do was feed the kids a good meal. The national media took of the bandwagon and beat on Ebonics until it was a word of disgust in everyone’s eyes in America. I myself could care less what they spoke because I taught myself to communicate with others, no matter what language they use , speak or twist the dialect. I figure that it is my responsibility to accommodate people, not the people to accommodate me. But I am sure that many people will disagree with me and say that if you speak English then you must speak English properly…
That is another interesting point: The English in Britain or the UK will look an American in the eye and tell the American that they need to lean to speak proper English. I know because I have had many tell me that I do not speak English or at least proper Queens English… 🙂
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!